An open-source social media management tool published by BrightBean. It lets you schedule and publish to more than ten platforms — Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Google Business Profile and others — from a single dashboard. Licensed under AGPL-3.0, it can be self-hosted on your own server or used through the free hosted version the project provides. It is built as an alternative to commercial services such as Buffer and Sendible for teams that want to keep their data in their own hands.
Key Features
- Publishing to 10+ social networks: Publishes directly through each platform’s API to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Google Business Profile and DEV.to. A composer lets you write one draft and then adjust the text and images per platform
- Calendar and scheduling: A drag-and-drop content calendar, plus recurring slots such as “every Tuesday morning,” so the whole publishing schedule is visible along a timeline
- Approval workflows and client portal: Configurable review steps before a post goes live. Clients can review and approve from a dedicated portal without creating an account, which turns agency handoffs into part of the tool itself
- Unified social inbox: Comments and direct messages from connected networks arrive in a single inbox, so you can respond without moving between platforms
- AI agent-assisted posting: AI agents can draft posts and schedule them, which shifts routine announcements and reposts toward the agent side
- Multiple workspaces and role-based access: Create separate workspaces and assign role-based permissions per member, keeping several brands or clients isolated inside one installation
- A stack that is easy to self-host: Django 5.x with HTMX, Alpine.js and Tailwind CSS 4, PostgreSQL for storage, and django-background-tasks for jobs — no Redis or similar extra middleware required. Deploy with Docker Compose, or one-click to Heroku, Render or Railway
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted (open source) | $0 | AGPL-3.0. All features available. You pay only for your own server |
| Hosted version (official) | $0 | Free hosted version, no credit card required. No account, seat or feature limits are publicly documented |
Pricing is as of August 2026. The project does not state whether paid plans will be introduced later, so check the official site for the latest information.
Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- The source is public, so post data and the credentials for connected social accounts stay under your own control
- No per-channel or per-seat billing, so costs do not climb as the number of accounts or team members grows
- Approval workflows and a client portal come as standard, which maps well onto agency-style social media management
- No Redis or comparable extra components are needed, so it runs on a modest server
- Besides Docker, it supports one-click deployment to Heroku, Render and Railway, lowering the bar for people less used to server operations
⚠️ Cons
- Self-hosting means obtaining developer accounts and API keys for each network and maintaining the server yourself
- The limits of the hosted version and any future pricing policy are not published, which makes long-term planning harder
- Under AGPL-3.0, modifying it and offering it as a service to others triggers a source disclosure obligation
- It is a relatively young project, so analytics depth and operational track record still lag behind established commercial services
- Keeping up with API changes on each social network depends on how actively the project is maintained
Comparison with Similar Services
| Criteria | BrightBean Studio | Postiz | Mixpost | Buffer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery model | Open source + official hosted version | Open source + cloud version | Self-hosted (license purchase) | Commercial SaaS |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 | Commercial license (free edition available) | Closed source |
| Stack | Django + HTMX + PostgreSQL | Node.js (NestJS/Next.js) | Laravel | Not disclosed |
| Approval workflow | Built in, with client portal | Yes | Higher editions | Higher plans |
| Cost model | Free (server costs only) | Free self-hosted / paid cloud | License fee | Monthly, scaled by channels |
Who Is It For
- Agencies and freelancers running social media for several clients who want scheduling and approvals in one place
- Operators managing many social accounts, for whom per-channel SaaS pricing has stopped making sense
- Organizations that want post data and credentials to stay inside their own infrastructure rather than a third-party service
- Engineers comfortable deploying to Docker or a PaaS who want to run and modify the tool themselves
- Anyone who wants to try letting an AI agent handle drafting and scheduling
Summary
BrightBean Studio steps away from the per-channel, per-seat billing common to social media SaaS and packages the practical parts — scheduling, calendar, approval workflows, unified inbox — as open source. Released under AGPL-3.0, self-hosting gives you full control over where the data lives. The trade-off is that API setup for each network and server maintenance become your job, and whether that is acceptable is the deciding factor. A practical path is to try the official hosted version first, then move to self-hosting if it fits your workflow.