Buffer has not shut down its API — that claim shows up in some "Buffer API alternative" marketing and it's not accurate as of this writing. What is true, and confirmed directly on buffer.com and support.buffer.com: Buffer is mid-migration between two different API surfaces, on a hard deadline, and the replacement is still in public beta with real, documented gaps. If you're evaluating whether to build a new integration on Buffer right now, that migration status is the thing worth understanding before you pick a vendor — not a rumor that the API is dead.
Sourced directly from buffer.com/resources/legacy-rest-api-retired/ and support.buffer.com/article/859-does-buffer-have-an-api. Verify current status on those pages before deciding — beta APIs and retirement timelines can change.
Buffer's original REST API stopped accepting registrations for new developer apps in October 2019 — so a brand-new integration was never able to get a client ID for it. Buffer has now set a full retirement date of February 1, 2027, with two planned service "brownouts" on November 11 and December 9, 2026 to warn remaining integrators before requests to legacy endpoints stop returning data.
A new GraphQL Public API launched on May 27, 2026, on every Buffer plan including the free tier, with an MCP server, a CLI, and what Buffer calls "fully managed" OAuth. Buffer's own docs describe it as being in public beta with real gaps: production analytics access is explicitly called experimental and "not recommended for production use," media has to be uploaded via a public URL rather than a direct file upload, and there's no documented API for reading or replying to comments/DMs or for creating Start Page posts. One detail we could not pin down from Buffer's own launch materials: whether the OAuth flow actually works the way a multi-tenant SaaS product needs — letting your app connect and post on behalf of many different customers' Buffer accounts, not just a developer's own account with a personal key. Buffer's launch post illustrates single-account, personal-automation use cases; independent developer write-ups from the same period describe third-party OAuth as documented but not yet confirmed enabled. We're flagging that as unresolved rather than picking a side — check Buffer's current docs directly if that's the exact thing you need.
| Dimension | PostGate | Buffer |
|---|---|---|
| API maturity for a new integration | One stable, documented API contract — no migration deadline, no beta caveats on the endpoints you'd build against. | The path for new developers is the GraphQL API, launched May 2026 and still in public beta; the older REST API has been closed to new apps since 2019 and is being retired Feb 1, 2027. |
| Media handling | Direct media upload supported as part of the publishing flow. See /docs. | Per Buffer's own docs, the current API requires a publicly reachable URL for media — no direct file upload. |
| Delivery status & webhooks | Signed webhooks (HMAC-SHA256) for post.published, post.partial, and post.failed, plus a test-delivery endpoint. See /docs/webhooks. | Not part of the documented API gaps we found; not independently verified here — check Buffer's current docs. |
| Analytics via API | Documented as part of the stable API contract. See /docs. | Buffer's own support docs currently describe analytics access as experimental and not recommended for production use. |
| Starting price & free tier | Free sandbox plan, no card required. Paid plans start at $4.00/mo. See /pricing. | Buffer's API access is included across its own pricing tiers; check buffer.com/pricing for current plan details, which are outside the scope of this API comparison. |
Already integrated against the legacy REST API and mapping a cutover? See the request-by-request migration guide for how Buffer's channel/post model maps onto PostGate's API.
If you never had a legacy Buffer client ID, the GraphQL API — launched a few months ago and still in beta — is your only option on Buffer. That's a reasonable moment to also evaluate a posting API built and documented as production-ready from day one.
Direct file media upload, production-grade analytics, or comment/DM handling via API are all things Buffer's own docs currently flag as unavailable or experimental on the new API. If your product needs any of those today, that's a concrete blocker worth weighing now.
Two brownouts land in November and December 2026, and full retirement is February 1, 2027. If migrating anyway, that's the moment to compare the destination, not just move to Buffer's own replacement by default.
Pass a stable Idempotency-Key when creating a post and PostGate makes the logical request safe to retry for 72 hours — no accidental duplicate publishes from a retried request. Explore the docs.
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