Are you looking for the best Instagram scheduling tools to save you time and grow your profile faster?
According to Facebook, Instagram has over 500 million active users each day which makes it a great platform to build an audience on.
But you’re going to need to ensure you’ve got regular content being published at the right times.
In this post, we’re breaking down the best Instagram schedulers to consider. These tools can save you a huge amount of time and effort. And some of them can help with other aspects of your social media strategy.
Ready? Let’s get started:
The best Instagram scheduler tools compared
Here’s a quick summary of each tool:
- Iconosquare – Best Instagram scheduling tool overall. Their scheduler is designed around Instagram and includes hashtag/caption lists.
- Pallyy – Best Instagram scheduling tool for affordability. Also includes Instagram analytics, comment management, and more.
- Agorapulse – Best all-in-one social media with Instagram scheduling. Includes limited free plan.
- SocialBee – Best overall social scheduling tool.
- PromoRepublic – Powerful visual sharing tool. Includes a library of templates you can use to create & schedule Instagram posts fast.
- ContentCal – Best Instagram scheduler for content teams.
- Missinglettr – Turn your blog posts into social media campaigns on autopilot. Then schedule to Instagram and other social networks.
- Sendible – Another powerful all-in-one social media tool that’s affordable for individuals. Includes great scheduling functionality.
- Sprout Social – Feature-rich social media tool that includes Instagram scheduling. Best for enterprise customers and large businesses.
- Crowdfire – Another solid all-in-one social media tool that includes an Instagram scheduler. Quite affordable.
- Buffer Publish – Solid Instagram scheduler with a free plan.
- Hootsuite – Popular social media tool that includes Instagram scheduling and has a limited free plan.
Now, let’s explore each tool in more detail:
#1 – Iconosquare
Iconosquare is a fantastic all-in-one social media management tool that offers publishing, inbox features, social listening and analytics. You can use it to publish to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. LinkedIn is included in the analytics dashboard, but you can’t post to it.
Iconosquare has built its app around visual content, so it’s mostly optimized for Instagram. When you use it to publish to the platform, you can schedule regular Instagram posts alongside carousels and stories and view your upcoming schedule in an image-based visual calendar.
When you schedule a post, you can schedule a first comment and hashtags with it. Iconosquare will even suggest your most recently used hashtags to you as you add them to your caption.
Speaking of captions, Iconosquare has a separate library you can use to store captions in advance and choose them when you create new posts. You can also upload images in bulk with Dropbox or OneDrive and categorize them so you can find them later.
When you schedule multiple posts in advance, you can preview what it’ll look like on Instagram’s grid-based profile pages. This enables you to plan out grid layouts in advance.
A lot of Iconosquare’s free tools are also Instagram based. These include an Instagram bio link tool, a random comment picker to help you run Instagram contests, a free audit of your Instagram account and Twinsta, a nifty tool that generates Instagram posts using tweets you’ve posted.
Pricing: Plans start at $59/month or $588/year (advertised as $49/month).
#2 – Pallyy
Pallyy is a more affordable Instagram scheduling tool. You only pay for the number of social profiles you need. You will not pay extra for additional users, making it a great option for small blogging teams.
It supports Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google My Business. While it doesn’t have the same level of social listening and monitoring features as Iconosquare, it does offer quite a bit as an Instagram scheduler tool.
For example, while you can’t reply to Facebook and Twitter comments, you can keep up with your Instagram inbox through Pallyy.
You can also manage your schedule with a social media calendar and design Instagram posts with a Canva integration.
You’ll even have access to a media library and a preview of your Instagram feed.
Iconosquare also has a content curation tool built exclusively for Instagram that enables you to find content to repost and credit the original creator.
It even has its own bio link tool and a section within its analytics you can use to track up to 10 competitors.
Pricing: Pricing starts at $15/month per client for one to five clients. A “client” is one set of five social profiles, one for each of the platforms Pallyy supports.
#3 – Agorapulse
Agorapulse is one of the best all-in-one social media management tools on the market. It’s especially a suitable option for teams and social media marketing agencies.
The inbox tool enables you to respond to comments on multiple platforms, including Facebook and Instagram ad comments. You can even label conversations and assign them to different team members.
You can publish to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube with Agorapulse. Certain plans allow you to manage everything with a unified social media calendar.
You can crop images, save commonly used hashtags and preview your posts before you schedule them. For Instagram, you can schedule posts, carousels and stories.
Agorapulse even allows you to reschedule content as many times as you want so your queue is always filled with evergreen content well into the future.
The analytics tool allows you to view detailed reports on your performance, keep track of trends in your industry and monitor your team’s response times.
Pricing: A limited free forever plan is available. Premium plans start at $99/month or $948/year (advertised as $79/month).
#4 – SocialBee
SocialBee thrives at social media scheduling. It supports Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google My Business.
The tool is based on category-based scheduling in which you organize the types of posts you publish into different categories.
Two of its most useful features allow you to add automation to your social media marketing strategy. By connecting your RSS feed to your account, you can promote your latest blog posts to social media automatically. Content curation is also possible through integrations with Quuu Promote and Pocket.
You can even label individual posts as evergreen and re-add them to your queue to repost at a later date. If you choose to repost, you can set up variations so your followers aren’t shown the exact same posts word for word.
SocialBee’s Instagram scheduler allows you to publish posts, carousels and stories. You can even schedule a first comment and start a hashtag collection.
The app also has integrations with Canva and Xara as well as its own image editor so you can create images without leaving the dashboard.
SocialBee also has collaboration and performance reports.
Pricing: Plans start at $19/month.
#5 – PromoRepublic
PromoRepublic is an Instagram scheduling tool that focuses on multiple social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google My Business. For Instagram, it supports posts and stories but not carousels. It also has analytics and plenty of collaborative features.
You can’t respond to Instagram comments through the tool’s dashboard, but you can manage your Instagram schedule with a well-designed, image-based social media calendar.
PromoRepublic has a content library you can use to store your brand’s own personal assets. However, it also has a few unique features perfect for Instagram users. This includes a graphics editor and 100,000+ premade assets you can use to quickly create graphics on the fly without integrating third-party services.
The app also allows you to repost evergreen content within a 99-day timeframe.
Pricing: A limited plan for small solo bloggers is available for $108/year (advertised as $9/month). Pricing for regular plans starts at $49/month or $468/year (advertised as $39/month).
#6 – ContentCal
ContentCal is a powerful social media management tool built around a calendar-centric dashboard. It allows you to monitor mentions of your brand and engage with your audience across multiple platforms.
ContentCal supports publishing posts, carousels and stories to Instagram. A preview of your profile’s grid is also available, allowing you to plan ahead for more elaborate marketing campaigns.
You can even build a collection of your most-used hashtags.
The app has a feature called Content Hub you and your team can use to build a content library and reuse your account’s top-performing posts. There’s even sections within the dashboard you and your team can use to build a list and pinboard of ideas.
ContentCal also has analytics that make it easy to keep an eye on your performance across multiple platforms.
Pricing: Plans start at $37/month or $360/year (advertised as $30/month).
#7 – Missinglettr
Missinglettr is a social media management tool designed around automation. Its primary function is to scan your blog posts and YouTube videos to come up with a year’s worth of content by extracting text, images and short clips.
For quote posts, you can use one of the app’s bubble quote templates or design your own without leaving the dashboard.
The app also has a Curate tool you and other Missinglettr users can use to share and promote each other’s content. This means you’ll always have something related to your niche to share with your audience.
There’s even stock libraries integrated into the dashboard, giving you access to images and GIFs from Unsplash and Giphy.
You’ll manage your entire social media schedule with a well-designed calendar and can even schedule posts manually. Analytics are also available.
Pricing: A limited free forever plan is available. Premium plans start at $19/month or $190/year (advertised as $15/month).
Learn more in our Missinglettr review.
#8 – Sendible
Sendible is a complete social media management app that allows you to publish to multiple platforms, manage your social media inbox and track your performance. Collaboration is also a core feature.
A social media calendar makes up the majority of the UI for the dashboard of the Publish tool. It allows you to post to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google My Business. You can also publish content to platforms like WordPress, Medium, Tumblr and Blogger.
You can schedule regular posts for Instagram directly and even set up a first comment. You’ll need to set up reminders within the app for carousels and stories, then use mobile push notifications to post them to Instagram’s own app.
Sendible has a basic image editor, but you can also integrate Canva to create graphics from within the dashboard. The app has an asset library for these features.
Automation is also possible. The app will suggest popular content to you and even set up an RSS feed to promote your own blog’s content automatically. Recycling evergreen content is also possible.
Pricing: Plans start at $29/month or $300/year (advertised as $25/month).
Learn more in our Sendible review.
#9 – Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a complete social media management tool. Along with publishing, it allows you to monitor mentions of your brand, respond to comments and direct messages, and keep an eye on your performance.
The app allows you to use a social media calendar to publish to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn. It has a content library you can use to store images and videos. You can even use the analytics dashboard to monitor hashtag performance.
Sprout Social also has numerous collaborative features, even if it is an expensive app to use for more than one user.
Pricing: Plans start at $99/month per user or $1,068/year per user (advertised as $89/month).
#10 – Crowdfire
Crowdfire is an all-in-one social media management tool you can use to handle publishing, customer service and other conversations, and performance tracking.
The Publish tool supports Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn. However, only the higher tiers support the social media calendar, scheduling posts in bulk and accessing your social inbox.
You can schedule regular Instagram posts and stories with Crowdfire.
Crowdfire also has a curation tool you can use to find popular content to share on the fly.
Pricing: A limited free forever plan is available. Premium plans start at $9.99/month or $89.76/year (advertised as $7.48/year).
#11 – Buffer
Buffer is an all-in-one social media management app with tools for publishing, engagement and analytics. It allows you to publish to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
The tool uses an image-based social media calendar for publishing. For Instagram, it schedules posts and stories. You can even schedule a first comment and include commonly-used hashtags with your very own hashtag collection.
Buffer also has its own bio link tool you can use to create a shop grid connected directly to your Instagram account.
Pricing: Buffer has a free forever plan, but many of the Instagram features are in the premium plan. Pricing for this plan starts at $6/month per social channel or $60/year per social channel (advertised as $5/month).
#12 – Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a complete social media management app with tools for publishing, engagement and monitoring, analytics, and advertising. It allows you to publish to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
It uses a visual-based social media calendar, and allows you to publish regular posts, carousels and stories. You can even design images, carousels and stories from within the app.
The analytics even allow you to keep track of competitors and your favorite hashtags alongside your own performance on the platform.
Hootsuite even has its own Instagram apps that make monitoring your ads, performance and analytics even easier.
Pricing: A limited free plan is available. Premium plans start at $588/year (advertised as $49/month).
Finding the best Instagram scheduler tool for your business
That’s the end of our list of the best Instagram scheduler tools for your social media marketing strategy. If you need help deciding, here’s a quick round up of the options we most recommend:
- Iconosquare – Iconosquare is the best option if you want to publish to multiple social media platforms but truly focus on your Instagram marketing strategy. You can publish posts, carousels and stories and even schedule a first comment. The app also includes hashtag suggestions, a preview of your feed and its own Instagram-centric tools.
- Pallyy – Pallyy is a cheaper alternative to Iconosquare with a similar set of features and even a few more (excluding scheduling Instagram Stories & Carousels). Useful features include: responding to comments, setting up a bio link, utilizing hashtag suggestions and viewing analytics. A unique feature Pallyy offers is a Canva integration that enables you to create images while using the scheduling tool. Pallyy serves as a dedicated Instagram scheduling tool for businesses that have an extensive interest on the platform.
- Agorapulse – Agorapulse is one of the best all-round social media management tools out there, even if it is more expensive than the previous two options (after you outgrow the limited free forever plan). You can use the tool to schedule Instagram posts, carousels and stories. It even has a reposting tool that keeps your social media queue filled with evergreen content.
And, all three of these Instagram scheduling tools offer analytics that will tell you the best times to post on Instagram so you can make the most of everything you publish.
So if you’re looking for the best Instagram scheduling tools, you won’t get wrong with any one of these three.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. This means we may make a small commission if you make a purchase.
