Influence vs Publer in 2026: supervised AI publishing or high-volume social operations
Influence keeps AI drafting behind a final human review and prices its post and IQ-credit allowances annually. Publer offers a permanent free plan, paid bulk scheduling, client approvals, unlimited workspaces, and Business-tier analytics, competitor tracking, and REST API access.
Influence
Publer- Publer Free includes one user, one workspace, three non-X accounts, 10 scheduled posts per account, and 25 drafts.
- Influence requires a fresh final review before an assistant-originated post can publish or schedule.
- Publer paid plans can import and schedule up to 500 posts from CSV and upload up to 500 media assets.
- Publer Professional starts from €3 per social account monthly when billed yearly; Business starts from €5.25.
- Influence lists unlimited connections across 20+ platforms on each public plan.
- Publer Business and Enterprise include a REST API with a published limit of 100 requests per two minutes per user.
- Publer Professional and Business include internal or client approval workflows, while Business adds analytics and competitor analysis.
Publer is the better default for an agency that needs a working social operations toolkit, not just an AI-assisted publisher. Its paid plans support bulk imports, approvals, unlimited workspaces, recycling, RSS automations, and network-specific content, while Business adds analytics, competitor analysis, unlimited AI prompts, and a documented REST API. Influence is narrower by design. It is the better pick when the team wants AI to draft from saved brand context but refuses to let the assistant push a post live without an explicit new review. Publer Free is also a genuine way to test a solo workflow, though it is limited to one user, one workspace, three non-X accounts, 10 scheduled posts per account, and 25 drafts. Choose Influence for supervised creation. Choose Publer for volume, multi-brand organisation, and a paid path to client approvals and programmatic operations.
The tools at a glance
Influence
AI social scheduler for brand-guided drafts, account-specific versions, and a deliberate human release step
Influence is for a social operator who wants the assistant to prepare work, not independently finish it. A Single Post or Campaign can use Brand Guidelines, user notes, and selected media, then create a separate text and media version for every chosen connected account. The calendar shows drafts and scheduled work, while Upcoming gives the user a place to change or cancel future work before delivery. That workflow suits a campaign that must be adapted rather than copied verbatim from network to network.
Its final review is the product decision that matters most in this comparison. Publishing now opens a check of the account, copy, media, settings, time, and time zone. Scheduling uses the same pattern, and a key change asks for review again. Activity reports Published for confirmed delivery and Needs review when the outcome needs inspection. Influence IQ can draft and revise content from saved context, but ChatGPT, Claude, Codex, and other assistant connections still require an explicit user approval for publishing or scheduling.
Starter costs €170 annually for 50 posts and 1,500 IQ credits each month; Growth has 150 posts and 3,750 credits; Pro has unlimited posts and 7,500 credits. All public plans include unlimited connections across 20+ platforms and a seven-day trial. Influence has an HTTP API, SDK, CLI, and MCP integration. Its profile does not publish Publer-style workspace, member, bulk-import, approval-chain, competitor-analysis, or REST request limits.
| Feature | Starter €170/year | Growth €170 first year, then €340/year | Pro €610/year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Posts per month | 50 | 150 | Unlimited |
| IQ credits per month | 1,500 | 3,750 | 7,500 |
| Connected accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Assistant or IQ scheduling allowance, rolling 24 hours | 20 destinations | 50 destinations | 100 destinations |
| Trial | 7 days | 7 days | 7 days |
Publer
Social scheduling, workspaces, approvals, analytics, automation, AI assistance, and REST API access
Publer is a broader social publishing system for teams managing recurring volume across brands. Its calendar, queues, and network-specific composer cover Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, Threads, Pinterest, YouTube, Google Business, Telegram, Mastodon, Bluesky, and WordPress. Paid plans unlock CSV imports of up to 500 posts and bulk media uploads of up to 500 assets. Professional also includes unlimited scheduling, drafts, media storage, RSS automations, recycling, scheduled comments, and thread scheduling across X, Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon.
Workspaces separate client or brand operations, with member roles, account-level access, internal notes, notifications, and two-tier approvals for internal teams or external clients. Professional and Business have unlimited workspaces, although social accounts and extra members are configurable paid items. Business is the real reporting and operations tier: it adds analytics insights and reports, best-time recommendations, hashtag analysis, competitor analysis, unlimited AI prompts, and REST API access. Publer AI Assist can produce captions, post ideas, hashtags, alt text, replies, and images, while Brand Voices store separate guidance for different brands.
Free is permanent but intentionally small: one user, one workspace, three social accounts excluding X, 10 scheduled posts per account, 25 drafts, and 24 hours of history. Professional starts from €3 monthly per social account on annual billing; Business starts from €5.25. The Business and Enterprise REST JSON API covers posts, media, analytics, competitor data, workspaces, and members, with 100 requests per two minutes per user. Publer is not positioned as a deep social-care or web-wide listening platform.
| Feature | Free Free forever | Professional From €3/month per social account, billed yearly | Business From €5.25/month per social account, billed yearly | Enterprise Contact for pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Users and workspaces | 1 user, 1 workspace | Plan owner plus paid members, unlimited workspaces | Plan owner plus paid members, unlimited workspaces | Contact for configuration |
| Social accounts | 3, excluding X | Configurable paid accounts | Configurable paid accounts | Contact for configuration |
| Scheduled posts and drafts | 10 per account, 25 drafts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Approval workflows | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Analytics and competitor analysis | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| REST API | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Influence | Publer |
|---|---|---|
| Starting published price | €170/year | Free; paid from €3/account/month yearly |
| Free plan | 7-day trial | Yes |
| Connected-account model | Unlimited connections across 20+ platforms | 3 Free, excluding X; paid accounts configurable |
| Workspaces and members | Not verified in reviewed profile | 1 Free; unlimited workspaces paid, additional members configurable |
| AI drafting | IQ credits by plan using brand context | AI Assist; unlimited prompts on Business |
| Approval model | Fresh final review before assistant publishing | Internal or client approvals on paid plans |
| Bulk CSV scheduling | Not verified in reviewed profile | Up to 500 posts on paid plans |
| Analytics and competitor analysis | Channel insights where available | Business and Enterprise |
| API access | HTTP API, SDK, CLI, and MCP documented | Business and Enterprise REST API |
| Automation | Not verified in reviewed profile | RSS, recycling, comments, and threads on Professional |
Which should you choose?
InfluencePublerPublerPublerPublerInfluenceInfluence and Publer overlap on AI drafting and multi-network publishing, but their centre of gravity is different. Influence makes the human release decision explicit and repeatable. Publer makes the operating system around publishing deeper: bulk loading, workspaces, client approvals, automation, reports, competitors, and a REST API. A buyer should not confuse Publer Professional with the Business analytics and API offer, and should not expect Influence to publish the collaborative operating limits that Publer exposes.
Bottom line
Choose Influence for an AI-assisted publishing practice where a human must actively approve every release and where saved brand context should guide the draft. Choose Publer Professional for high-volume planning, bulk imports, automation, and approvals. Choose Publer Business if reports, competitor analysis, unlimited AI prompts, or the REST API are required. Publer Free is useful for learning its publishing workflow, but its one-user, one-workspace, three-account, 10-post limits make it a test bed rather than an agency plan.
Frequently asked questions
Is Influence or Publer better for an agency that needs client social media approvals?
Publer is the better documented choice for agency client approvals because Professional and Business include approval workflows for internal teams or external clients, plus unlimited workspaces. Influence has a strong individual final review for assistant-originated publishing, but its reviewed profile does not publish equivalent workspace, client, member, or approval-chain allowances.
Can Publer and Influence publish a month of posts from a CSV file?
Publer paid plans can import and schedule up to 500 posts from a CSV file with descriptions, links, and media URLs, and can bulk upload up to 500 media assets. Influence’s reviewed profile focuses on individual posts, campaigns, brand-guided drafts, and account-specific versions rather than a published CSV import workflow.
Which tool has a free plan for a solo social media manager, Influence or Publer?
Publer has a permanent Free plan with one user, one workspace, three social accounts excluding X, 10 scheduled posts per account, and 25 drafts. Influence has a seven-day trial but no permanent free plan, beginning at €170 per year for 50 monthly posts and 1,500 Influence IQ credits.
Do I need Publer Business for social analytics and API access?
Publer Business is required for the reviewed profile’s analytics insights, reports, best-time recommendations, competitor analysis, unlimited AI prompts, and REST API access. Professional is the lower-cost publishing, collaboration, and approval plan, so an agency should not purchase it expecting the full reporting and developer toolset.
Can an AI assistant publish directly through Influence or Publer?
Influence requires a fresh exact review before an assistant-originated post can publish or schedule, including after meaningful changes. Publer documents AI Assist and approval workflows, but the reviewed profile does not state an equivalent assistant-specific final publishing gate, so teams with that control requirement should validate the workflow directly.
Reviewed by Filipe Lins DuarteCo-Founder & CEOVast experience talking to customers and users to understand what good software looks like. Background spans commercial and product roles.
Checked by John RiceCo-Founder & CTO15+ years building tech products and web applications. Conducted hundreds of user interviews to know what a good product looks like.
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