You've decided software is the path. Good. Now every pricing page shows you a number with no yardstick next to it, so a $300 tool and a $30 tool look like the same thing minus a zero. They aren't, and reading the sticker in a vacuum is how operators overpay and under-buy at the same time.
$1,000 to $3,000/mo: US social media agencies price restaurant and hospitality management at $1,000 to $3,000 a month for 8 to 15 posts.
~20 hours: A $2,000 monthly agency retainer buys roughly 20 hours of work; entry-level agencies start at $1,000 to $3,000 a month.
$5 to $10 per channel: Buffer is free for 3 channels, then $5 per channel a month on Essentials and $10 per channel on Team.
Read the price against the retainer, not against zero
Software looks expensive until you set it beside the thing it replaces. A US restaurant agency retainer runs about $1,000 to $3,000 a month for 8 to 15 posts according to SocialRails, and ClicksGeek starts entry-level agencies at the same $1,000 to $3,000, noting a $2,000 retainer buys roughly 20 hours of work. In Dubai it's AED 5,000 to 15,000 a month.
That's your baseline. Any software priced below it is only a saving if it actually produces the posts. A cheap tool that still leaves you doing the shoot, the design and the writing hasn't replaced the retainer. It has replaced a clean invoice with your own unpaid hours, which is usually the worse deal.
The four price bands in the category
| Tier | What it produces | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Free / DIY | Nothing, you make it all | $0 to start |
| Schedulers | Queues posts, no assets | $5 to $10 per channel |
| AI generators | Rough captions and graphics | Mid-band |
| Done-for-you | Finished on-brand campaigns | Highest sticker |
The category sorts into four tiers, and the sticker rises as the work moves off your plate.
- Free / DIY (Canva, CapCut): $0 to start, you do absolutely everything.
- Schedulers (Buffer, Later, Hootsuite): cheap, they queue and publish what you've already made but produce nothing themselves. Buffer's own pricing is a free tier for 3 channels, then $5 per channel a month on Essentials and $10 on Team.
- AI generators: spin up captions or generic graphics from a prompt, still a blank canvas that needs your assets and your judgment.
- Done-for-you engines: highest sticker, lowest total effort, because the output arrives finished and on-brand.
Price tracks effort removed, not features added.
What 'free' actually costs
Free tools aren't free. They're paid in hours. Take a South Beach cafe posting three times a week. On Canva and CapCut that means shooting the dish, cutting the reel, writing three captions, resizing for each feed and scheduling: comfortably an afternoon a week once you count reshoots.
Multiply by four weeks and the owner, or a paid staffer, has spent something like 15 to 20 hours a month on it. That's the same roughly 20 hours a $2,000 agency retainer buys, per ClicksGeek's own labor math. Free software with your time priced in at what that hour is actually worth is often the most expensive option in the building. Nobody puts that line on the pricing page.