7 of the Best Instagram Planners for Automating Your Instagram Marketing
Raelene Morey Instagram planners take the hassle out of managing and scheduling your Instagram feed. Unlike generic social media schedulers where Instagram feels like an afterthought, Instagram-specific planners offer easy-to-use interfaces and tools built specifically for the unique features and needs of Instagram.
Facebook and Twitter have allowed users to schedule posts for years, however, Instagram has famously held out. The result was clunky workarounds, such as tools that sent push notification reminders.
However, many of the most popular social media scheduling tools either aren’t compatible with Instagram or are awkward to use.
Buffer and Hootsuite, for example, only support direct posting for single images. Videos and multi-image posts require using their mobile notification process. Who wants to go back to clunky workarounds?
Fortunately, there are several Instagram planners that were developed specifically for Instagram. Below, we break down the features, pricing, benefits, and potential drawbacks of the best Instagram planners on the market so you can choose the right one for your needs.
1. Preview
Preview is a surprisingly robust solution as far as Instagram planners go, allowing you to schedule, design, edit, and analyze your Instagram business account all in one place. This is one of the more simple planners, but it offers everything you need at a reasonable price point.
When Instagram is an integral part of your business, you need to know what is working and what isn’t. Preview delivers with a full suite of analytics tools.
Features
Preview is feature-rich, offering the ability to drag and drop your posts to create a perfect feed and the ability to upload videos and albums, which tools like Buffer and Hootsuite don’t.
Here is a full list of features:
- Drag and drop feed design tool for curating the perfect feed
- Analytics to track performance, find the best times to post, and the most effective hashtags (full analytics only on the top-tier plan)
- Library of themed filters
- Free stock photo library of 500,000+ photos
- Ability to edit photos, including adding borders
- Repost option for photos and videos
- Hashtag search, grouping, and analytics
- Ability to schedule posts, albums, and videos
- Ability to add team members to your account (top paid plan only)
Plus, Preview’s blog is a great place to learn about Instagram best practices.
Pricing: Preview has three price plans from free up to $12.50 per month, each with varying levels of features. The free plan comes with unlimited posts, two filter packages, and basic analytics. The higher packages offer unlimited users, the ability to re-post, additional analytics, more filter packages, hashtag analytics, and more. You can also add features a la carte, which means you only pay for the features you need.
Drawbacks: Preview is only available in app form unless you upgrade to the Premium plan, which may be a drawback if you like to work on your desktop.
Great for: Power users, particularly those in the creative field, who need the ability to do all the things on Instagram. But, the free plan makes it great for those just getting started who might want to scale later.
2. PlannThat
Because many popular social media planning apps were not built specifically with the unique features of Instagram in mind, they don’t offer important features like the ability to edit, upload, and schedule Instagram stories. PlannThat does! There are also plenty of other features to love.
Features
Seriously, so many features. Here is a quick rundown of what you can expect (Note: the features vary by plan):
- Drag and drop tool to create the perfect Instagram feed
- Ability to mass upload hundreds of photos at once
- Organize, edit, and schedule Instagram stories
- Robust analytics so you can tell what is working
- Snazzy photo editing and image overlay tools (no more using multiple apps!)
- Instagram strategy tool to help you set and plan long-term goals
- Ability to store hashtag groups so you can schedule posts faster
- Easily find and share user-generated content about your brand
- Auto-post Instagram stories
Pricing: PlannThat offers four different plans, from free to $75 a month. Features vary by plan, but the free version offers up to 30 uploads a month, the ability to upload videos, editing tools, and repost tools. Compared to other tools, it is seriously affordable.
Drawbacks: Plann’s pricing plan can be pricey for users managing multiple brands because it essentially charges per brand. In terms of features, Plann lacks certain features like the ability to repost or re-gram content, which is offered by some other Instagram planners (such as Preview for example).
Great for: Medium-sized or fast-growing teams that need a lot of features but don’t want to pay an arm and a leg. At $15 a month, their unlimited package (with unlimited media uploads and scheduled posts) is a steal.
3. Buffer
With Buffer for Instagram, you can effectively plan and organize your Instagram content by visually creating and scheduling posts, carousels, Stories, and Reels. It also advises you with personalized suggestions to enhance your reach and attract new followers so you can turn your Instagram profile into a successful online presence.
When you sign up to Buffer, you can choose your goal: grow your audience, start a page, or analyze your content. Based on that, Buffer will create a personalized setup for your needs.
Features
- Direct scheduling, to auto publish content to Instagram
- Ability to include a first comment in your scheduled Instagram posts
- Recommendations on the best time to post to improve your reach
- Hashtag manager to create and save all your hashtags
- Visual content calendar with drag and drop functionality to check your upcoming posts, reschedule, and fill the content gaps
- Auto-schedule hashtags as first comments on your posts
- Built-in tool to create landing pages where you can share links, products, and content
- AI assistant that helps you write posts, revise content, and repurpose content across channels
- Integrations with Google, Dropbox, Canva, Bitly, and more third-party tools
Pricing: Buffer for Instagram comes with a free version which lets you connect up to three channels. Also, you get access to planning/publishing tools, landing page builder, and AI Assistant.
For additional features like engagement tools, analytics reports, unlimited team members/clients, and draft collaboration tools, you can upgrade to premium plans for $6 per month and $12 per month, respectively. These prices are charged per channel.
Buffer also has an Agency plan that charges a monthly $120 for ten channels and custom accesss and permissions.
Drawbacks: While the premium plans are actually affordable, you don’t get analytic reports and you cannot schedule more than ten posts at a time per channel in the free version. Also, you cannot post multi-image stories in any pricing plan.
Great for: Buffer is great for individuals, professionals, small businesses, teams, and agencies alike. Its various offers cover the full range of audiences looking to grow and monetize their Instagram presence.
4. Sked Social
Sked Social is an app that brings to the table an AI assistant for your Instagram content planning and scheduling. Although it works with most of the popular social media networks, you can optimize it excusively for Instagram because it provides many Instagram-oriented features (Instagram is the social network the app actually focuses on). The app was primarily built for businesses rather than individual users.
Features
- Use the Sked social inbox to answer and assign direct messages, comments, and tagged posts to other team members
- White-labeled custom bio link for Instagram to match your brand
- Buil-in analytics and Instagram Reel insights (interactions, saves, shares, reach, likes, and plays)
- You can invite multiple users (team members, clients, partners) to comment, approve, and reject content
- Plan, create, and curate Instagram content via calendars, feedback, reporting, and approvals from the team
- AI tools to create captions, post ideas, and personalized replies
- Design a beautiful Instagram feed and schedule posts via visual, drag-and-drop calendars
- Auto-post/repurpose Instagram images, videos, stories, or carousels (with captions, links, hashtags, comments)
Pricing: Sked Social plans start at $30/month for one user, one Instagram account, and four other accounts. For unlimited users and more Instagram (or various social) accounts, you can choose between $89/month and $159/month. With each pricing plan, you get more advanced features as you upgrade.
Drawbacks: It’s not the most convenient app for individual Instagram users who need it for personal profiles. If you’re the only person managing your Instagram account, then you probably don’t need Sked Social.
Great for: Sked Social is focusing on businesses, agencies, and ecommerce brands that use Instagram for professional goals. Apart from planning and scheduling content, the app lets you track competitors, create shoppable posts, manage all the social engagement from one single inbox, build branded custom links for the bio, and more.
5. Later
Some Instagram planners offer tons of features, but their interface makes those features hard to use. Later offers plenty of features and makes them super simple to use. If you are looking to drive sales from your Instagram account, Later is a fantastic choice.
Features
Need a planner that will speed up your planning without sacrificing features? You won’t be disappointed. One area that really stands out is their Shoppable post tools, which makes it easier for you to actually sell products. (Who says Instagram is only good for brand building?)
Here are some of the best features Later has to offer:
- Import photos and videos from your phone, desktop, Google Drive, or Dropbox
- Manage multiple accounts per platform (paid plans only)
- Drag and drop feed planner
- Easily find and repost content from other users and automatically credit the original poster
- Find the best time to post
- Track engagement, followers, and clicks
- Make it easy for followers to make purchases with a Shoppable feed
- Add multiple links to posts
- Use on desktop or mobile
- Tag locations and users
- Hashtag suggestions (paid plans only)
- Schedule videos and multi-image posts (paid plans only)
- Post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest
Pricing: For 30 posts per profile, visual Instagram planner, content creation tools, link in bio, and limited analytics, you need to upgrade to a paid account, starting at $18 per month. Later also offers pricing plans for brands (like marketing firms) who manage multiple accounts per platform. For additional profiles, you will pay either $40/month or $80/month.
Drawbacks: Their top-tier plan is pricey, but it is aimed at large brands or marketing firms.
Great for: Brands who want to manage all of their social media in one place without sacrificing Instagram-specific features. Also a great choice for marketing firms who manage multiple clients.
6. Postcron
A major drawback of most Instagram planners is they only allow you to schedule for Instagram, which is fine if that’s your focus. But with Postcron, you don’t have to trade all the Instagram-specific features for the ability to manage all your social media accounts.
Postcron keeps Instagram at the forefront while also allowing you to manage Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and TikTok – all in one place.
Features
So, what can you expect? Postcron has plenty to offer as far as Instagram planners go, including:
- Upload and schedule up to 1000 (not a typo!) posts at a time from Google Sheets or Excel
- Easily add watermarks to all your images
- Use their Artstudio tool to edit and alter images
- ImageSplitter, which allows you to split one image into multiple posts for a unique Instagram feed
- Schedule posts and Instagram stories
- Easily search for and add relevant hashtags
- Use their “content gallery” to find relevant content and images to share with your audience
- Collaborate with other team members
- Schedule posts from desktop or mobile to Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, TikTok, and Twitter in addition to Instagram
Overall, you can expect to trade some Instagram functionality for the ability to manage all your social media posts in one place. However, Postcron doesn’t make you sacrifice the most critical features, so it is a good balance.
Pricing: Postcron does not offer a free plan, as many other Instagram planners do, but it does offer two months free so you can try it out before dropping a boatload of money. It offers four tiers, starting at $9.99 a month for the Personal plan and going all the way up to a whopping $199 per month for their Enterprise plan.
The Personal plan allows you to schedule 100 posts over 11 total accounts (though you are limited to 2 Instagram accounts), access to their content gallery, and ability to upload in bulk. A major drawback is you don’t get access to analytics on the lowest plan.
Drawbacks: Postcron doesn’t offer some of the more niche Instagram-specific tools, such as the ability to repost USG (User-generated Content) content, the ability to tag users and locations, or tools for Instagram Shoppable posts. For access to analytics and their team tools, you will have to sign up for at minimum their second-tier plan, which starts at $29 a month.
Great for: Medium-level Instagram users who want to drive engagement on Instagram but don’t need access to every last Instagram feature. It is a fantastic choice for big brands that have large social media presence across multiple platforms but still want access to Instagram-specific tools.
7. HopperHQ
If you are looking for Instagram planners that also let you post to Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Twitter, HopperHQ is worth a look. It offers plenty of features in an easy to navigate dashboard.
It also does a great job of balancing the specific needs of Instagram with the ability to post to other platforms.
The editing tool is quite robust, with the standard features like the ability to add text and apply filters, but you can also add frames, adjust colors, enhance, and more.
Features
If you are looking for Instagram planners that are feature-rich, Hopper is where it’s at. It offers many of the same features as other planners and much more.
Here is a quick outline of their most impressive features:
- Upload up to 50 photos at a time from most major storage platforms including Flickr, Google Drive, and Dropbox
- Use calendar view to see all the posts you have scheduled by week or month
- Use the drag and drop tool to reorder posts easily from the calendar view
- Schedule and post from mobile or desktop
- Use the editor to add filters, crop, add text, adjust the orientation, and more
- Add @mentions and captions
- Add the first comment, either to start a conversation or include more hashtags
- Manage multiple accounts
- Collaborate with multiple team members (each person gets their own login)
- Post to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter from one place
Pricing: HopperHQ plans start at $19 for a bundle that includes one Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter account. There is also a free two-week trial available.
Drawbacks: With HopperHq, you cannot add more than one user per account.
Great for: Brands with multiple accounts, or small to medium-sized marketing teams who want to be able to post to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, and Twitter from one easy-to-use dashboard.
Bonus: Revive Old Posts
Our very own Revive Old Posts plugin is now compatible with Instagram! This means you can use Revive Old Posts to automatically share images from your WordPress Media Library on a schedule specified by you, select what types of images you want to share or not share, and customize the hashtags used in your shared posts.
Revive Old Posts is also compatible with a variety of other social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Instagram planners are your key to Instagram growth
The platform also continues to add new features, such as the new IGTV and shoppable posts. It’s clear that Instagram is more relevant now than ever for your social media marketing strategy.
A full-featured Instagram planner will let you focus on your followers while still driving engagement and sales on one of the fastest growing social media platforms. I’d encourage you to check out each of the solutions above, test their features so you can find the right planner for you, and don’t forget to dig into your analytics afterwards.
