Postiz alternatives in 2026: hosted, self-hosted and MCP
The best Postiz alternative depends on why you are looking. If self-hosting turned out to mean a developer app and a review on every network, a hosted API removes that work: PlanVortex, Zernio and Upload-Post start free, Ayrshare at $149/month. If you want to stay self-hosted, Mixpost. If the accounts are your own, PlanVortex's panel (which also writes the week for you), Buffer or Metricool.
Every price on this page was read on the vendor's own site or documentation on 1 October 2026.
What does Postiz do well?
Plenty, and it is worth saying before anything else.
- It is open source. AGPL-3.0, 36.6k stars on GitHub, code you can read and fork.
- The longest list of networks here, including a long tail (Mastodon, Nostr, Lemmy, Dev.to, Hashnode, WordPress) that nobody else on this page covers.
- A cheap cloud at volume. Standard is $29/month for 5 channels, Team $39 for 10 with unlimited members, Pro $49 for 30 and Ultimate $99 for 100. API and MCP on all four, and AI images from Team up.
If you have people who run infrastructure and the channels are your own, it is a good tool. Most people searching for an alternative have hit one of the two walls below.
What does self-hosting Postiz really cost?
The licence is free; the platforms' permission is not. Postiz's own provider documentation splits the list in two: ten providers (Bluesky, Lemmy, Nostr, Medium, Dev.to, Hashnode, WordPress, Listmonk, Moltbook and Skool) work with credentials each user pastes in. For everything else you register a developer app on the platform's portal and put the keys in environment variables. And the app is only the start:
| Network | Before it publishes for anyone but you |
|---|---|
| TikTok | An audit. Until then every post is private, at most 5 users can post in 24 hours, and their accounts must be private (Postiz docs) |
| Facebook and Instagram | Live mode, and Meta's App Review for the permissions to publish on pages that are not yours (Postiz docs) |
| YouTube | A compliance audit: videos uploaded from unverified API projects created after 28 July 2020 are restricted to private (Google) |
| Verifying the app with LinkedIn before it can post | |
| X | A paid API, billed per call: $0.015 a post, $0.200 with a link |
Then there is the stack: PostgreSQL, Redis and Temporal, per the README, for a system whose whole job is to fire at a scheduled minute. None of it is a weekend. The review queues run on the platforms' calendar, not yours, and they come back every time a platform changes its permission model.
Can I embed Postiz in my own product?
Partly. Its public API is real and covers posts, integrations and analytics, but three things decide whether it fits a SaaS:
- It cannot connect a social account. The API only posts to channels already connected inside the Postiz interface.
- Its OAuth2 is for Postiz users. Your customer authorizes your app against their own Postiz account, not against their Instagram.
- The create-post endpoint is capped at 100 requests an hour on the cloud and 90 self-hosted, as one global value for the instance.
There is also the licence. AGPL-3.0 extends copyleft over the network: if you modify Postiz and offer it to your users as a service, you owe them the source of your version. That is a question for your lawyer, and one a hosted API does not raise.
Postiz alternatives, compared
| Hosting | Free tier | Entry paid | Your customers connect their accounts via API | MCP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Postiz | cloud or self-hosted | self-hosted only | $29/mo | No, needs a Postiz account | Yes |
| PlanVortex | hosted | 3 accounts + API | €15/mo | Yes, create_connect_link |
28 tools, free plan included |
| Zernio | hosted | 2 accounts + API | $6/account | Yes | Yes, hosted |
| Upload-Post | hosted | 2 profiles, 10 uploads/mo | $24/mo | Yes | Yes |
| Ayrshare | hosted | No | $149/mo | Yes, user profiles | Yes |
| Mixpost | self-hosted | Lite (3 networks) | $299 once | Multi-tenant from Pro | Yes, Pro |
| Metricool | hosted | 1 brand | from €20/mo | No | Yes, your own brands |
| Buffer | hosted | 3 channels | $5/channel | No | Yes, your own channels |
The hosted alternatives
PlanVortex: free plan with 3 connected accounts, unlimited publications, unlimited users and the API and an app included, no card. Paid plans are €15 (6 accounts), €30 (10) and a custom plan from €45 with 15, then graduated tiers of €3, €2 and €0.90 per account. create_connect_link returns a link your customer opens to authorize their own Instagram on your screens, under your brand, through PlanVortex's own apps, so there is nothing for you to register and no review queue on your side. Its TikTok app has already passed the audit, so your customers' videos go out with the visibility they choose, not private. The AI planner writes a week of posts and generates the images; an MCP server with 28 tools, Node and Python libraries, and data in Spain.
Upload-Post: free plan with 2 profiles and 10 uploads a month (TikTok excluded), then $24/month for 5 profiles with unlimited uploads, $50 for 25 with white-label, $147 for 75. Its MCP server is open source and works on the free tier.
Zernio: the first 2 accounts free, then $6 per account from 3 to 10, $3 to 100 and $1 beyond, with everything included and messages metered past 10,000 a month. Billing in USD, English-only, and no AI to write or illustrate the posts.
Ayrshare: Premium is $149/month for 1 profile, Launch $299 for 10 profiles (the only plan with a trial, 28 days), Business from $599 for 30. The API is good; the floor is the reason people look elsewhere, as Ayrshare alternatives covers in detail.
If you want to stay self-hosted: Mixpost
Mixpost sells a licence instead of a subscription. Lite is free and publishes to Facebook Pages, Mastodon and X only; Pro is $299 once for one domain and a year of updates, with every platform, multi-tenancy, API, MCP and webhooks; Enterprise is $1,199 once and adds billing and a customer dashboard to resell it. It is a cleaner deal than a subscription if self-hosting is the requirement, but it does not escape the wall above: its documentation says the developer apps and keys come ready only on Mixpost Cloud. Self-hosted, they are yours to create and get approved.
If the accounts are your own: PlanVortex, Buffer and Metricool
PlanVortex: the same free plan (3 accounts, unlimited publications) opens the panel, with the calendar and the comment inbox, and there is nothing to install. From €15 a month the AI writes the week and generates the images, or writes it from your own photos. Six channels cost €15 and ten cost €30; Postiz's cloud asks $39 for either.
Buffer: free plan with 3 channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel, then $5 per channel on Essentials and $10 on Team. Its API and its MCP server reach your own channels only: third-party access has been closed since 2019, so it cannot publish on behalf of your users at any price.
Metricool: free with 1 brand, Starter from €20/month for up to 10 brands, Advanced from €54 for up to 50. The API starts on Advanced; its MCP works on any plan. Deep analytics and ads management, for your own brands.
Where PlanVortex fits
It is designed above all for a software company publishing on behalf of its customers, from inside its own product, which is exactly where Postiz's API stops. Your customer connects their accounts through your onboarding, the publications go out through PlanVortex's apps (so the developer portals and their review queues are not your problem), and the API, an app and the MCP server are on the free plan.
When it is not the right fit:
- Self-hosting is a hard requirement, not a way to save money. Then Postiz or Mixpost.
- Your audience lives on the long tail (Mastodon, Nostr, Dev.to). Postiz covers it.
The short version
- Self-hosting to save money? Count the reviews first: TikTok publishes privately until it audits your app, and Meta wants App Review before you publish for anyone else.
- Building a product? You need customers connecting their own accounts over the API: PlanVortex, Zernio and Upload-Post start free; Ayrshare at $149/month.
- Want to stay self-hosted? Mixpost Pro, $299 once, with the same developer-app work.
- The channels are yours? With six or ten, PlanVortex costs less than Postiz's cloud and writes the week for you; Buffer and Metricool work too.
PlanVortex's API is documented at /en/developers, the MCP server at /en/agents, and the head-to-head is PlanVortex vs Postiz.
Is Postiz free?
The licence is: Postiz is AGPL-3.0 and self-hosts at no cost. The cloud has no free plan; it starts at $29/month for 5 channels after a 7-day trial. And self-hosting is free only in licence: apart from ten providers where users paste their own credentials, you register a developer app on every network and go through its review. Until TikTok audits that app, everything it publishes is private. Verified October 1, 2026.
What is the best Postiz alternative for a SaaS product?
One where your customers connect their own social accounts on your screens, over the API. Postiz cannot do that: its public API only posts to channels already connected inside Postiz, and its OAuth2 flow asks your user for a Postiz account. PlanVortex does it on every plan including the free one, Zernio and Upload-Post do it from free tiers, and Ayrshare does it from $149/month.
Is there a self-hosted alternative to Postiz?
Mixpost. Lite is free but publishes only to Facebook Pages, Mastodon and X. Pro is $299 once (one domain, a year of updates, every platform, API and MCP) and Enterprise $1,199 once. It has the same catch as Postiz: self-hosted, you create the developer app on each network yourself. Prices read on October 1, 2026.
Does Postiz have an API and an MCP server?
Both, on every cloud plan. The API takes an organization key or an OAuth2 token, and its create-post endpoint is limited to 100 requests an hour on the cloud and 90 self-hosted, as one global value for the whole instance. What it cannot do is connect a new social account: that happens in the Postiz interface.
Which Postiz alternatives have a free plan with API access?
PlanVortex (3 connected accounts, unlimited publications, the API and an app, no card), Zernio (2 accounts) and Upload-Post (2 profiles and 10 uploads a month, TikTok excluded). Buffer's free plan has an API key too, but it only reaches your own channels: it cannot publish on behalf of your users.