We might like to all pretend our Instagram feeds are simple and spontaneous, but we know most feeds are highly curated collections of photos that we spend hours editing, writing captions for and planning the layout of our feed. The app VSCO cam used to be the go to program for previewing and planning your Instagram feed and editing and publishing your photos. With its new update VSCO cam has lost all the features that made it so popular and I’ve seen so many posts and tweets by people wondering how can they plan their Instagram feed now. Well do not fear, there are several brilliant apps that will replace and in some cases improve on your beloved VSCO Cam from the Instagram planning point of view. So here are 4 of the best Instagram Planning Apps
PLANOLY
PRICE – FREE FOR TRIAL THEN £6.99+ PER MONTH AFTER
PULLS FROM FEED – YES
SCHEDULE/REMINDER – YES
EDIT – NO
REARRANGE – YES
POST TO INSTAGRAM – YES
EXTRAS – ANALYTICS AND COMMENTS
Planoly is a beautiful app. I found out about it through Emma who is a huge fan. It can pull photos from your live Instagram feed and the layout grid to preview Instagram is just lovely to look at, easily showing you which pictures are published. You can rearrange pictures by dragging and dropping, calendar and schedule options are easy to use as well as instant posting to Instagram itself. Pictures can be uploaded from all albums on your phone including the all important favourites folder. The design is clean and smart and so user friendly. It has an incredible amount of features including analytics and an easy to view comments section, however all these features do come at a price. The app requires a monthly subscription fee after the free trial. Plans start at £6.99 per month for a SOLO account. Plans for multiple Instagram accounts start at £13.99. I currently am using the SOLO Plan.
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UNUM
PRICE – FREE
PULLS FROM FEED – YES
SCHEDULE/REMINDER – YES
EDIT – YES
REARRANGE – YES
POST TO INSTAGRAM – YES
EXTRAS – SAVE CAPTIONS
UNUM is a simple to use Instagram preview app. Its free to download and has the ability to pull your photos from your live Instagram feed, rearrange pictures by dragging and dropping, schedule options gives you reminders to post as well as posting to Instagram itself. It has a clean layout and has options for light or dark background.
Unfortunately when adding photos the app doesn’t seem to be able to find the favourites folder which is where I keep most of my Instagram specific photos, but I have been told the update this week has solved this problem. I also don’t personally like the grid layout in the app which has white borders and isn’t what my feed looks like on Instagram, but again this weeks update will remove this border so that will be a big improvement for me . I do like the save captions option which allows you to click on several images and caption all with regularly used hashtags or captions. It also has options for editing like VSCO Cam did with the ability to crop, whiten and and add filers. Find this by clicking the diamond shape on the bottom toolbar.
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MOSAICO
PRICE – £4.29
PULLS FROM FEED – YES
SCHEDULE/REMINDER – YES
EDIT – NO
REARRANGE – YES
POST TO INSTAGRAM – YES
EXTRAS – GHOST MODE AND TAG OPTIONS
I really like Mosaico. Although its a buy app, once bought that’s it. It has a lovely simple interface and the grid layout is gorgeous. It pulls from Instagram and has the usual drag and drop options but it also has a nice layout for adding captions in a list format. I also really like the Ghost mode,which is activated by pulling the feed down. This allows you to delete a picture from your feed and see what it might look like without affecting your live feed. You can also preset publish times (up to four) and the app will remind you at these times. Plus it has a tag cloud option that keeps bundles of your most used tags under a category name of your choice. I think this will be the Preview Instagram App I use the most.
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SNUG
PRICE – £0.99
PULLS FROM FEED – YES
SCHEDULE/REMINDER – NO
EDIT – YES CAN CROP
REARRANGE – YES
POST TO INSTAGRAM – YES
EXTRAS – SHOWS INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS ETC AT TOP
Snug is a good app for anyone looking for a simple Instagram planning tool. It pulls from your feed, has rearrange options and publish to Instagram too. The app doesn’t have any scheduling or reminder tools and I have to admit I personally don’t like the green layout of the grid compared to some of the other cleaner layouts. Simple to use though and does access all the photo albums on your phone. A good little buy.
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I have downloaded all the apps and used them and my personal favourite is PLANOLY. Its incredibly beautiful has some seriously kick ass features. However this app has a subscription charge which is a commitment financially so won’t be for everyone. For a cheaper option there’s Mosaico to plan your Instagram feed instead. I like the ease of use and the layout of this one.
After this weeks updates I think UNUM will be a contender for the best app too, I’ll be interested to see how this and future updates improve the app.
So that’s my pick of the best Instagram Planning Apps. Let me know if you have tried any of these apps and which your favourite is?
Debs
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20 Comments
I’ve only had Instagram about 2 months – I’ve never heard of any of these…I’m so slow on the uptake! I’ll def start investigating although I’ll doubt I’ll ever get the hang of having a theme!!!
Thanks for the reviews!
Hello Emma!
I advise you nice tool http://www.push.photo It helps you with posting from you PC without any problems and also you can schedule it. And without downloading any app (really hate having millions of apps). I use it for more than a year and everything is fine!
Thanks so much for featuring Snug in your list, Debs! We really appreciate it. We have some updates planned for the rest of the year, including toggling the colour scheme for the app!
Just got UNUM. Pretty impressed at all you get for free. Also analytics are a nice bonus :)
Yes its such a neat little app!! Glad you found the post helpful
Debs
Do you also know which APP I can use after UN UM. Because the app said, my grid are full and now I have to buy it. Such a pity!
try smth else.For example .push.photo. It helps you with posting and even with scheduling. It is without downloading any app and easy to use
Hi Debs!
Really appreciate this post as I’m looking for an alternative to UNUM because I don’t have enough grids there and don’t really feel like paying a monthy subscription for more grids.
Was wondering how many grids do Mosaico and Snug offer? UNUM allows 18 grids in their free version.
Thank you!
Regards,
Jeradyne
Hi Jeradyne, this is very interesting. Can you please tell us how many pics appear on the app, so that I can decide if it´s worth purchase or not. Can you also confirm if I can use it on my mac? I was checking the store and apparently is just iphone and ipad, but just checking, in case you know. TIA
Thanks !
Hi! Thanks for this great Tipps. I wanted to ask if the you could confirm that all of the apps mentioned above are safe with IG rules? I recently had issues with being shadow- banned and was using one of the apps mentioned. It could have been something totally different though. But I opened a new account and want to make sure I can use it. Thanks!!
Hi! thanks for this comparison and the details you provide. I wanted to ask if all of those apps are safe with instagram? They should be,just wanted to make sure. Thanks! Christina
Hi Debs! Thank you so much for this post. Really useful. Nevertheless, I have a doubt. Does any of the apps referred above let you manage your account from your mac? Or is it only iphone and ipad? That would be a very interesting feature. TIA
Thank you for this post, I’ve been using UNUM for a while but wanted to try something new and Planoly sounds very expensive. I liked Mosaico and will probably try it out.
What I don’t like about UNUM is that they have only 18 feed spots and after that you have to pay for more. Also analytics there is nnot that good and I don’t trust it. And my analytics often crashes or not being displayed at all.
I don’t know if anyone else had same issues with UNUM.
But thank you, it’s a very helpful post!
Hello Kate! Try Preview app. They give unlimited free feed spots to plan your feed. And you can do so much more within the app too. You’ll love it!
I just got Plann and it’s simply the best. Everything is in there. Best Instagram scheduling app for me! :) :) :)
Same. Not sure why it hasn’t made this list?
This is super useful! Thanks so much!
I have Mosaico and love it, but it doesn’t work to upload video content. Do any of these?
Laina
You should try Plann, best app out there for plannng your feed. You can import video from dropbox and google drive too.