Social Media Management Tools · reliability comparison
Buffer vs Sprout Social: which is more reliable? (2026)
Sprout Social is more reliable than Buffer, scoring 71.1 vs 58.8 out of 100. Over the last 90 days Buffer reported 21 incidents and Sprout Social reported 7, with effective uptime of 99.23% and 99.68% respectively. Buffer resolves incidents faster on average (3h 36m).
Data updated Nov 1, 2026 · How we score
| Metric | Buffer | Sprout Social |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability score | 58.8 | 71.1 |
| Rank (social media management tools) | #7 | #5 |
| Uptime (90 days) | 99.23% | 99.68% |
| Incidents (90 days) | 21 | 7 |
| Partial / major outages | 8 | 0 |
| Avg time to resolve | 3h 36m | 11h 20m |
| Outages we detected | 0 | 0 |
| Transparency score | 100/100 | 100/100 |
Where Buffer and Sprout Social differ
- Buffer reported 3× as many incidents as Sprout Social over the last 90 days (21 vs 7).
- Buffer had 8 partial or major outages, compared with 0 for Sprout Social.
- Buffer fixes problems faster: 3h 36m on average, against 11h 20m for Sprout Social (3.2× quicker).
- Buffer's longest outage on record lasted 3d (Jul 13, 2026); Sprout Social's lasted 3d (Apr 24, 2026).
90-day uptime
Buffer
Sprout Social
- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
Recent Buffer incidents
- Partial outageOct 22, 2026 · resolved in 12m
Affected: Publishing
- InformationalOct 9, 2026 · resolved in 3h 24m
- Degraded performanceOct 8, 2026 · resolved in 1d 3h
Issue Connecting & Refreshing YouTube
Affected: Youtube, Channel connections
- InformationalOct 5, 2026 · resolved in 2m
- Partial outageOct 1, 2026 · resolved in 2h 26m
Issue with publishing to Mastodon accounts hosted on mastodon.social and mastodon.onlineofficial update ↗
Affected: Publishing, Channel connections, Mastodon
- Partial outageSep 25, 2026 · resolved in 1h 20m
Issues with Buffer fully loading
Affected: Settings, Community, Analytics, Channel connections
Recent Sprout Social incidents
- InformationalOct 19, 2026 · resolved in 3d 13h
Affected: Sprout Social Web Application
- Degraded performanceOct 9, 2026 · resolved in 35m
Sprout Social Performance Issues
Affected: Sprout Social Web Application
- InformationalSep 23, 2026 · resolved in 2d 1h
Affected: Sprout Social Web Application, Sprout Social API
- Degraded performanceSep 16, 2026 · resolved in 1d 10h
Affected: Sprout Social Web Application, Sprout Social API
- Degraded performanceSep 9, 2026 · resolved in 22m
Affected: Sprout Social Web Application
- Degraded performanceAug 24, 2026 · resolved in 9h 50m
Affected: Sprout Social Web Application, Sprout Social API
Other social media management tools to consider
- Planable · #1 · 99.98% uptime
- Later · #2 · 99.89% uptime
- SocialBee · #3 · 100% uptime
- Vista Social · #4 · 99.86% uptime
See the full most reliable social media management tools ranking →