Guide · UK · food and drink

Best social media scheduling tools for drinks brands

A drinks brand needs more from a scheduler than a calendar: a sign-off before anything posts, and posts that reach adults only. Here's which tools do that, what they cost, and the UK rules every post has to follow.

By Pasi Sipilä, founder of Ziild · Prices and features checked 6 October 2026

Short answer

Cheapest: Buffer, from $5 a channel a month. Best for alcohol age targeting: Agorapulse, which can set a minimum age on Facebook Page posts on every plan. Best sign-off: Planable, where Pro can require approval before anything publishes.

No scheduler has a real alcohol-compliance feature. Set the age limits in Facebook and Instagram themselves, and pick a tool with required approval. If you want the posts made, not just scheduled, that's Ziild CMO (we make it).

Disclosure: We make Ziild CMO, and it's on this list. It isn't a scheduler: it makes and publishes the posts and waits for your yes. If you only need a calendar, one of the seven schedulers is the better and cheaper choice, and we say which. All prices come from each vendor's own website.

The UK rules a drinks brand's social posts must follow

Brand social posts for drinks over 0.5% ABV count as advertising under the CAP Code, section 18, enforced by the ASA. The essentials:

No medium where more than 25% of the audience is under 18 (CAP 18.15). The ASA expects you to use every age-gating tool available, and upheld a complaint against a vodka brand's TikTok post in September 2025 because it couldn't show its under-18 share.
Nobody drinking or playing a significant role may be, or look, under 25 (CAP 18.16).
No link between alcohol and social, sexual or sporting success, no emphasis on strength, no health claims.
Set the age limits on the platforms themselves: Facebook Page age restriction, and the minimum age on an Instagram professional account. Meta requires branded content for alcohol to be age-gated to 18+ in the UK.
TikTok: alcohol branded content needs TikTok's explicit permission and is restricted to 18+ in the UK. Ads need a responsible-drinking message and no one under 25.
This is a summary, not legal advice. The ASA's own guidance is linked in the sources.

At a glance

Tool	Best for	Required sign-off	Age targeting in the tool	From
Ziild CMO	Posts made and published	Every post waits for a yes	Uses the platforms' own settings	£1,250/mo
Agorapulse	Alcohol age targeting	From Professional	Yes, Facebook posts, all plans	$79/user/mo
Planable	Sign-off before posting	Required from Pro	No	$33/workspace/mo
Buffer	Cheapest scheduling	Team plan only	No	$5/channel/mo
Metricool	Planning plus analytics	Advanced plan only	No	€16/mo
Later	Instagram and TikTok on a budget	Not verified	No	$18.75/mo
Hootsuite	Teams with many accounts	Not verified	Enterprise only, unverified	$99/user/mo
Sprout Social	Engagement and reporting	Not verified	News feed only, Professional+	$79/seat/mo

Cheapest paid plan as shown on vendor sites on 6 October 2026, billed yearly where stated. Currency as displayed; prices exclude VAT. Age targeting means a setting inside the scheduler; the platforms' own age settings work with any of them.

01Ziild CMOOURS

An AI marketing department. For social it makes the posts (short videos, carousels, stories), checks price and stock before each one goes out, and publishes on every account after your yes.

Pick it if: Nobody has time to make the posts in the first place. You want a steady stream of video and posts, each one approved, each one checked against what's in stock.
Skip it if: You already have the content and only need a calendar. Buffer or Planable is cheaper.
AI features: Built on Claude. House rules in code: alcohol copy product-first, no share-or-tag prompts on wine posts, no real-person likeness, text inside each platform's safe zones.
Price: Content engine £1,250 a month (one site, 20 answer pages a month, videos and posts on 3 channels). Campaigns + £750 a month. Content network of up to 5 sites £5,000 a month, all-in. Full CMO scoped per company. Ex VAT.
Website: ziild.co.uk

02Agorapulse

A full social suite: publishing, inbox, listening and reporting.

Pick it if: You want to set a minimum age on Facebook Page posts from inside the tool. Agorapulse offers this on every plan; only people who meet the criteria see the post.
Skip it if: You're watching costs: it's priced per user, and sign-off workflows start on Professional ($119 a user a month billed yearly).
AI features: AI writing assistant, AI alt text, organisation context AI.
Price: Standard $79 per user a month billed yearly, $99 monthly, 10 social profiles. No free plan; 30-day trial.
Website: www.agorapulse.com/pricing

03Planable

A content planner built around collaboration and approvals, priced per workspace with unlimited users.

Pick it if: Every post must be signed off before it goes out. On Pro, approval can be set to Required; Enterprise adds multi-level approval (team lead, client, legal).
Skip it if: You post a lot: Basic caps you at 60 posts a month and can't force sign-off. Analytics is an add-on.
AI features: AI post generation and rewriting, MCP connector, AI replies with the inbox add-on.
Price: Basic $33 per workspace a month billed yearly; Pro, with required approval, $49 billed yearly. Free trial of 50 posts.
Website: www.planable.io/pricing

04Buffer

A simple scheduler priced per channel.

Pick it if: You want the cheapest reliable scheduling across Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook and more.
Skip it if: You need sign-off: approvals are only on the Team plan, at double the price. No age targeting in the tool.
AI features: AI Assistant, AI reply suggestions, performance takeaways.
Price: Free for 3 channels. Essentials $5 per channel a month billed yearly ($6 monthly); Team, with approvals, $10 billed yearly.
Website: buffer.com/pricing

05Metricool

A planner with strong analytics, priced by number of brands.

Pick it if: You run several brands and want planning and analytics in one place cheaply.
Skip it if: You need approvals or X: approvals are on Advanced only, and X is a paid add-on on every plan.
AI features: AI social media assistant, Metricool MCP.
Price: Free for 1 brand. Starter from €16 a month billed yearly (€20 monthly), up to 5 brands.
Website: metricool.com/pricing

06Later

Visual-first social scheduling with a link-in-bio page.

Pick it if: You post mainly to Instagram and TikTok and want simple, cheap scheduling.
Skip it if: You need age targeting or much AI: we found no age feature, and Starter has 5 AI credits a month.
AI features: Caption Writer, Ideas.
Price: Starter $18.75 a month billed yearly, $25 monthly. No free plan; 14-day trial.
Website: later.com/pricing

07Hootsuite

Social media management for teams: publishing, inbox, listening and analytics.

Pick it if: Several people run many accounts and need one calendar and one inbox.
Skip it if: You're small: it starts at $99 a user a month. Its Facebook age targeting appears to be Enterprise-only (we couldn't confirm it on a current page).
AI features: Wisdom AI assistant, AI post and image generation.
Price: Standard $99 per user a month billed yearly. No free plan; 14-day trial.
Website: www.hootsuite.com/en-gb/plans

How we chose

We looked at what a UK drinks brand needs from a scheduler: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, a sign-off before posting, and a way to keep posts in front of adults.
We checked each tool's approval workflow and on which plan it starts, and searched each one for age-targeting features.
We read the platforms' own alcohol policies and the ASA's guidance, so the rules section is sourced, not remembered.
Every price comes from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on the date at the top. We re-check monthly.

Questions people ask

Can alcohol brands post on Instagram and TikTok in the UK?

Yes, with limits. Set a minimum age of 18 on your Instagram professional account. On TikTok, alcohol branded content needs TikTok's explicit permission and is restricted to 18+ in the UK; ads must carry a responsible-drinking message and show no one under 25.

Which social media scheduler is best for an alcohol brand?

Agorapulse if you want minimum-age targeting on Facebook posts from inside the tool, on any plan. Planable Pro if you need every post signed off before it goes out. Buffer if price matters most.

Does the 25% rule apply to organic posts?

Yes. The ASA treats brand social posts as advertising: no medium where more than 25% of the audience is under 18, and it expects brands to use every age-gating tool available.

Do social media schedulers check alcohol advertising rules?

No scheduler we checked has an alcohol-compliance feature. The protection comes from the platforms' own age settings and a required sign-off before posting. Ziild CMO applies house rules in code and waits for a yes before anything goes out.

What is the cheapest social media scheduler?

Buffer: free for 3 channels, then $5 per channel a month billed yearly. Metricool has a free plan for 1 brand but no LinkedIn or X on it.

Sources

Prices change. We re-check this page every month; last check 6 October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us: pasi@ziild.co.uk