The open-source Publer alternative
GrowSocialelion is an open-source alternative to Publer: AGPL-3.0, free to self-host, no per-account or per-member billing, and X publishing included through your own credentials. Publer is closed SaaS priced per account plus per member, keeps X off its free plan, and reserves its API for Business customers. Publer's approval flows and bulk tools remain its strong cards.
GrowSocialelion
AGPL-3.0 · open source
An AI agent that drafts, schedules and engages across 8 networks today, every action behind an approval gate you set. The whole app is free to self-host, and 500+ free tools live now: character counters with sourced limits, generators, and more
Publer
closed source
Publer is a paid SaaS social media manager that schedules and bulk-publishes to 13 networks, priced per social account plus per team member, with an API reserved for its Business tier.
What each side charges
GrowSocialelion
Self-hosted
$0
The full app under AGPL-3.0. Networks, the agent, approvals and the inbox are not billing units.
Hosted
Launching
No hosted pricing exists yet, so none is claimed here.
Publer
Free
Free
forever. 3 accounts, X excluded, 10 pending posts each, 24-hour history
Professional
$5/mo
from, per month. Extra account $4, extra member $2
Business
$10/mo
from, per month. Extra account $7, extra member $3; unlocks AI, analytics, API
Read on Publer's pricing page on 2026-08-27.
Where each one publishes
GrowSocialelion
Publishing today
- X
- Threads
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Mastodon
- Pixelfed
- Bluesky
- Discord
- Slack
- Telegram
- Nostr
- Dribbble
- Lemmy
- Tumblr
- Misskey
- Twitch
- Kick
- LINE
- Wykop
- Plurk
- Dailymotion
- PeerTube
- Dev.to
- Qiita
- TabNews
- Hatena Blog
- Hashnode
- Ghost
- WordPress
In the catalog
- Farcaster
- VK
- Snapchat
- Naver Cafe
- Zalo Official Account
- Odnoklassniki
- RedNote
- Behance
- Product Hunt
- daily.dev
- Medium
- Substack
- Quora
Publer
13 of 31 in the comparison set
- Bluesky
- Facebook Pages
- Google My Business
- Mastodon
- Telegram
- Threads
- TikTok
- WordPress
- X
- YouTube
- Dev.to
- Discord
- Dribbble
- Farcaster
- Hashnode
- Kick
- Lemmy
- Listmonk
- Medium
- MeWe
- Moltbook
- Nostr
- Skool
- Slack
- Twitch
- VK
- Whop
Their own count: 13 networks per their own list, read 2026-08-27.
Publer vs GrowSocialelion, on the record
| Publer | GrowSocialelion | |
|---|---|---|
| AI content | AI Assist; unlimited prompts only on Business | The agent drafts per network, in your voice, from live research |
| Approvals | Admin and client approval levels on team plans | Every agent action is approval-gated: human, semi-auto or autopilot, per action type |
| Inbox / engagement | Comments on published posts, 8 networks; full inbox announced as a separate future product | Inbox for replies and mentions on connected networks |
| Agent access | API on Business and Enterprise only | MCP from day 0, in the free app |
| Publishing to X | Paid plans only | Free, through your own X app credentials |
We build GrowSocialelion, so read the table knowing that. Every Publer fact on this page comes from Publer's own pages, checked 2026-08-27. If a price changed since, their page wins.
Both sides of the ledger
What Publer does well
Real approval workflows: admin and client approval levels, decline with notes, resubmission. Documented in depth in their help center. (source, 2026-08-27)
Bulk scheduling, RSS automations and post recycling are first-class features, and WordPress and Telegram are on the network list alongside the majors. (source, 2026-08-27)
Comment management on published posts works across 8 networks from inside the product. (source, 2026-08-27)
Where Publer stops
X is not available on the free plan at all. Their own help center says Twitter accounts are supported on a paid subscription basis only, citing X's API cost. (source, 2026-08-27)
The API is exclusive to Business and Enterprise customers, rate-limited at 100 requests per 2 minutes. (source, 2026-08-27)
The bill compounds: per account, plus per member. A team of 3 with 10 accounts on Business is a spreadsheet exercise, not a price tag. (source, 2026-08-27)
Closed source, SaaS only, and the free plan keeps only 24 hours of post history. (source, 2026-08-27)
Who should stay with Publer
If bulk scheduling and RSS automation are the center of your workflow, Publer does both today and we do neither yet.
If you manage clients who approve posts, Publer's client-approval levels are shipped and documented; our approval gate governs the agent, not external client reviewers.
If your networks are Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or WordPress, Publer publishes to them now; those sit in our planned catalog.
Publer's pricing model is the reason this page exists. The product is capable, but the bill is a formula: base plan, plus $4 to $7 for each additional account, plus $2 to $3 for each team member, and the network most creators care about first, X, is excluded from the free plan entirely because of X's API costs. Their own help center says so plainly, which we respect.
GrowSocialelion removes the formula. The app is AGPL and free to run, accounts and members are not billing units, and X publishing works through your own X app credentials, so their API bill does not become your subscription. The agent, the approval gates, the inbox and the MCP interface are all in the same free codebase.
Asked before switching
How is Publer priced?
As of 2026-08-27: free for 3 accounts without X, then Professional from $5 a month and Business from $10, plus $4 to $7 per extra account and $2 to $3 per extra member. GrowSocialelion has no per-account or per-member billing; the app is free to self-host.
Why doesn't Publer's free plan include X?
Their help center states X accounts are paid-only because of X's Enterprise API cost. GrowSocialelion connects X through your own developer app credentials instead, so X is available on the free self-hosted app.
Is Publer open source?
No. Publer is closed-source SaaS with no self-host option. GrowSocialelion's whole app is AGPL-3.0 on GitHub.
Does Publer have an API for automation?
Yes, but only for Business and Enterprise customers, limited to 100 requests per 2 minutes. GrowSocialelion ships MCP in the free app, and the agent's publish tool is the same one the UI uses, behind the same approval gate.
Other alternatives
Try the part that is already free
The hosted app is still pre-launch, so we will not pretend there is a signup. What runs today: the open-source app on your own server, and 500+ free tools that need no account, including character counters whose every limit carries a source, something Publer's tools do not offer.