Buffer vs. Timely.is: What’s the Real Difference?

Keeping up with Twitter can be difficult; it’s as simple as that. You’re supposed to promote your work more than once per day, you have to worry about the most optimal times to tweet, and many people have to worry about a personal accounts as well as one or two business accounts. It’s no secret that Twitter is a great platform to share and promote your content, but let’s face it—sometimes it’s a little bit annoying. In response to this feeling of frustration, many different Twitter scheduling tools have surfaced to help make Twitter a little bit easier and less stressful. Two of the most popular tools are Buffer and Timely.is. Being that these tools are here to make things easier, most people want to worry about one tool and one tool only. After all, when you have five or ten different social media accounts to deal with, you usually don’t want five or ten different tools to manage. Buffer and Timely.is Compared These two tools have been around for a few years, so many different comparisons and analysis has been done on these particular tools. However, the buzz quickly died away and I have found that many people are forgetting that scheduling tools other than social media dashboards (TweetDeck and HootSuite) exist. Buffer has since been integrated with Twitter, but many are either still ignoring that little button or just accepting that Buffer is the best tool out there. In some cases, Buffer is probably your best choice. However, Timely.is offers many of the same benefits. Buffer and Timely.is Similarities • Dashboards – Both will give you a nice list where you can see the tweets that you have lined up to go live throughout the day. • Extensions – Many people are aware that Buffer is easy because it is now a part of Twitter, but Timely.is has a nice browser extension, just like Buffer, that you can download in less than 30 seconds. This makes it easy to line up and schedule tweets. • Analytics – You can see how many clicks and retweets your message got with both of these tools right from your dashboard. By and large, these similarities are some of the most important features that you can have in a Twitter scheduling tool. However, there are a few crucial differences that matter a great deal to some individuals and companies. Buffer and Timely.is Differences • Number of Accounts – Buffer allows you to use their service with one Twitter account for free, but if you have other accounts that you want on the same dashboard you will have to pay a minimum of $10 per month. Timely.is will give you an unlimited number of accounts for free. • Scheduling Strategy – This is hands-down the biggest and most important difference between the two tools. Timely.is looks at your past tweeting habits and then schedules your tweets based on the times that you have tweeted in the past. This works well if you have really focused on what times you tweet in the past. Buffer, on the other hand, lets you pick exactly which times you want to tweet by setting up your times in the settings portion of your account. • Mobile Capabilities – Timely.is does not have a mobile application, but Buffer does, so this can sometimes make the choice clear for certain users. Which tool you should use depends upon how often you tweet and on how many different accounts you tweet. You will also want to consider whether or not you are comfortable with the times you usually tweet and if this is how you would like to continue. Some companies and individuals like to use a combination of both Buffer and Timely.is, and I can assure you that it is not difficult to manage the two. Once you become familiarized with one or both you can determine what works best for you. Do you use Buffer or Timely.is to help ease your Twitter efforts? Which tool do you find more useful? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!