Alex Chen

I was copying each post manually into 4 browser tabs every morning. Open X, paste, tweak the hashtags. Open LinkedIn, paste, rewrite the tone. Open Bluesky... wait, Buffer doesn't even support Bluesky. So I'd open the Bluesky app, type it again from scratch.

By the time I was done, 45 minutes had passed and I hadn't written a single line of code. For a solo founder shipping a product, that's brutal.

The worst part? I was paying Buffer $24/mo for 4 channels. And two of my most important platforms, Bluesky and Mastodon, weren't even supported. I was paying for a tool that covered half my workflow.

I saw someone on Bluesky mention Shaflex. Honestly, I almost didn't try it. I'd been burned by "Buffer alternatives" before that turned out to be half-baked clones.

But two things caught my attention: it supported Bluesky and Mastodon natively, and it had a free plan. No credit card required. I figured I'd give it 10 minutes.

I connected all 5 accounts in about 3 minutes. Wrote my first post, hit publish, and watched it go live on X, Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, and Threads, all at once. That was the moment I cancelled Buffer.

Every morning I open Shaflex, write one post, and publish to all 5 platforms. If I want to schedule something for later, I pick a time and it handles the rest.

The draft-to-publish flow is what sold me. There's no queue management, no buffer slots, no "optimal time" wizard. I write, I post. That's it.

I went from 45 minutes of copy-pasting to about 5 minutes of actual writing. The rest of that time goes back into building my product.

On the Creator plan at $15/mo, I'm paying less than I was paying Buffer, and I'm actually reaching all my platforms. The math isn't even close.