WordPress site owners use WP to Buffer Pro to send posts to social accounts through Buffer, a social media scheduling service. The plugin lets you set rules for what to share, where to send it, and when it should go out. WP Zinc sells and maintains the Pro plugin. It also has a free WP to Buffer plugin on WordPress.org with fewer options. This guide is about the Pro version.
PressQueue is a free, open source WordPress plugin that also sends posts to Buffer. WP to Buffer Pro offers more publishing and reposting controls. PressQueue focuses on sharing posts with configurable rules and includes a test mode.
What WP to Buffer Pro does
WP to Buffer Pro connects WordPress posts, pages, and custom post types to Buffer. A custom post type is a kind of WordPress content created for a specific purpose, such as events or products. The plugin can send updates to social accounts including Facebook Pages, X, Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Mastodon, Bluesky, TikTok, and Google Business. Its product page specifies Instagram Business Profiles for posts and Stories.
You can set separate sharing options for each content type and social account. For example, a site owner could send new event listings to LinkedIn, automatically repost older blog posts to Facebook, and leave page updates out of the queue. WP to Buffer Pro also supports multiple Buffer accounts.
The plugin builds social messages from templates. Template tags are placeholders in a message template. They add details such as a post’s title, excerpt, URL, date, author, or category. You can create multiple message templates for a content type and account, and use custom-field data from tools such as Advanced Custom Fields. The WP to Buffer Pro feature list also describes rules that share posts based on their authors, dates, categories, or custom fields.
How scheduling and reposting work
For each message, WP to Buffer Pro can add the post to the start or end of Buffer’s queue, publish it immediately, or schedule it for a set time after the post’s publication date or a date stored in a custom field. Buffer’s queue is its schedule of available posting times.
The plugin also supports bulk publishing and automatic reposting. Bulk publishing selects older posts from a date range or through WordPress’s bulk-action menu and adds them to Buffer. Reposting lets you set how often to reshare posts, the minimum age of a post, and the daily maximum number of reposts.
The plugin can include multiple images in a status and send native video to supported networks, according to WP Zinc. These features still depend on what Buffer and the selected social network support. Buffer’s own plan limits also apply: its pricing page lists a Free plan with up to three channels and 10 scheduled posts per channel. Check Buffer’s current terms before choosing a plan, especially if you manage more channels or need more scheduled posts.
One technical issue can affect posts created by front-end submission or autoblogging plugins. Those tools sometimes publish a post before saving its featured image, categories, or custom fields, so the social message may lack that information. For certain named plugins, WP Zinc recommends its WP-Cron option. WP-Cron is WordPress’s task scheduler; this option delays sending by at least 30 seconds. The WP Zinc troubleshooting notes explain the limitation and the suggested delay.
PressQueue: a free Buffer-connected option
PressQueue suits WordPress owners who want rules for sharing posts through Buffer without paying for a WordPress publishing plugin. It is a free, open source WordPress plugin for Buffer.
Through Buffer, PressQueue supports LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads and Facebook. It does not support Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube or Google Business Profile. To use PressQueue, your WordPress site must allow plugin uploads and run WordPress 6.8 or newer and PHP 8.1 or newer. You also need a Buffer account with your social channels connected.
To install it, download pressqueue.zip from the PressQueue download page. In WordPress, go to Plugins > Add Plugin > Upload Plugin and upload the ZIP.
To connect Buffer, paste a personal API key from your Buffer settings into PressQueue. An API key is a credential that lets PressQueue communicate with your Buffer account. PressQueue stores the key encrypted; there is no Buffer login button. Connected channels appear with on and off switches, and new channels start switched off. The PressQueue documentation covers setup and settings.
PressQueue rules let you choose which posts to share and when. A rule can respond when you publish a post, when a scheduled post goes live, when you make a real content change, or when you select older posts to share. You can choose posts by their type, category, tag, author, custom-field value, or taxonomy. A taxonomy is a WordPress system for grouping content. Each rule also sets the channels, message, timing, and image. One-click setup creates a rule for sharing every new post to all channels, but the rule starts switched off. Test it against recent posts before turning it on.
Messages can include placeholders such as {{ title }}, {{ excerpt }}, and {{ terms:category }}. PressQueue adds the post link automatically. You can write different messages for each network, check a live preview and character count, and start from a saved template. For timing, choose the end of Buffer’s queue, the top of the queue ahead of posts already waiting, immediate posting, a Buffer draft for review, or a date and time for one post.
PressQueue starts in Test mode. It records what it would share without sending anything. After checking the results, switch to Live to send posts or Paused to stop sharing. A “Never share” rule for a category, tag, or author overrides sharing rules. Each post also has a “Share this post” switch and “Customize for this post” controls in the editor. “Share now” sends a published post that has never been shared; “Share old posts” reshares published posts in batches. Backdated posts are not shared automatically.
For images, PressQueue can use no image, the featured image, an image selected in the post, or a social image it creates. That social image displays the post title and site name in a wide layout suited to link previews. You choose its style under Settings > Social images. PressQueue creates the image when a post first needs it, redraws it when the title or style changes, and keeps it out of the WordPress Media Library. Creating the image requires PHP GD, a PHP graphics library, with FreeType support for drawing text. Without it, the post goes out with text and a link.
PressQueue can also use its social image as the post’s link-preview image, the picture shown when someone shares the post URL. It supports Yoast SEO and Rank Math. The SEO Framework and Jetpack are supported too. If an image is set for an individual post in an SEO plugin, that image takes priority. You can enable this for every post, limit it to posts without their own image, or turn it off.
Choose PressQueue for automatic WordPress-to-Buffer sharing with test controls and configurable rules, provided its supported networks cover your needs. Choose WP to Buffer Pro if you need features such as Instagram or Pinterest support, automatic reposting, bulk publishing, or its broader conditional rules. You can review its code on GitHub or visit PressQueue’s site before installing it.