CoSchedule Review: The Ultimate Cure for Content Chaos?
The Verdict
CoSchedule is a definitive Buy for content marketers and bloggers who need a unified visual workflow that bridges the gap between content creation and social promotion. However, it is a Pass for casual social media users or teams who strictly need deep social listening analytics rather than editorial planning.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Visual Drag-and-Drop Calendar: The interface provides an unmatched bird’s-eye view of your entire marketing strategy, making rescheduling as easy as moving a tile.
- ReQueue Automation: This standout feature automatically fills gaps in your social schedule with your best evergreen content, maximizing ROI on older posts.
- WordPress Integration: Seamlessly syncs with WordPress, allowing you to publish posts and associated social campaigns simultaneously.
- Headline Studio: Built-in access to their famous headline analyzer helps optimize click-through rates before you even hit publish.
Cons
- Pricing Tiers: The leap from the basic Marketing Calendar to the "Marketing Suite" (enterprise) is steep, leaving some mid-sized teams in a feature limbo.
- Social Analytics: While functional, the reporting is not as granular or customizable as dedicated tools like Sprout Social or Hootsuite.
- Mobile Experience: The mobile app is useful for checking status, but the heavy lifting really needs to be done on the desktop version.
Deep Dive: Features, Usability, and Value
Features & Functionality CoSchedule differentiates itself by being a "Marketing Calendar" first and a social scheduler second. Unlike standard project management tools, CoSchedule understands the lifecycle of a blog post. The "Project" cards are the core feature; they allow you to house your Google Doc draft, your social media snippets, your tasks, and your team discussions all in one container. The integration with WordPress is best-in-class; changing a publish date on the calendar automatically updates it in WordPress, and vice versa. The ReQueue feature is arguably the strongest selling point—it intelligently recycles your top-performing evergreen content so your feeds never go silent.
Ease of Use If you know how to use a standard paper calendar or Trello board, you can use CoSchedule. The onboarding is swift, and the UI is clean, colorful, and intuitive. The drag-and-drop mechanism is smooth, allowing you to shift entire campaigns (blog posts + 10 social messages) to a different week in a single motion. For teams, the "Task Templates" are a massive time-saver, allowing you to automatically generate a checklist (e.g., "Draft," "Edit," "Create Graphic," "SEO Check") every time a new blog post is created. It significantly reduces the friction of project management.
Pricing & Value CoSchedule offers a "Free Forever" version which is essentially a basic calendar—good for visibility but lacks the automation power. The "Pro" Marketing Calendar (approx. $29/user/month) is where the value lies. While it may seem pricier than a basic scheduler like Buffer, you are paying for the consolidation of tools. By combining a project management tool (like Asana) with a social scheduler (like Hootsuite), CoSchedule justifies the cost. For solopreneurs and small marketing teams, the time saved by having creation and distribution in one tab is worth the monthly subscription.
The Competition
CoSchedule vs. Asana Asana is a superior general project management tool for complex workflows and non-marketing tasks. However, Asana does not publish to social media. If you use Asana for content, you still need a separate tool to schedule the posts. CoSchedule is a better choice if your primary output is content marketing, as it handles the actual publishing.
CoSchedule vs. Buffer Buffer is strictly for social media scheduling and offers a lower barrier to entry regarding price. However, Buffer is "content agnostic"—it doesn't care if you are launching a blog post or just sharing a meme. CoSchedule is better if you are a blogger or publisher, as it ties your social posts directly to the specific WordPress article you are promoting.
Conclusion: Who is this EXACTLY for?
CoSchedule is built specifically for Content Managers, Professional Bloggers, and Small Marketing Teams who are tired of switching tabs between Google Docs, Trello, and a social scheduler. If your marketing strategy relies heavily on content marketing (blogs, newsletters, whitepapers) and you need to ensure that every piece of content gets maximum distribution with minimal manual effort, CoSchedule is the tool for you.