The 26 best Instagram tools for your daily social media life

Have you ever counted the grains of sand by the sea? No? That's understandable. There are an incredible number of them. It could take (almost) as long to count all the Instagram tools that exist on this planet. They make your life as a creator easier in many ways: they beautify your pictures and videos, support you in analyzing your insights or tell you which hashtags are best to use today. At this point, it helps to know which Instagram tools are the best to save you hours of research.

Everyone uses Instagram a little differently, which is why everyone asks for different tools. Are you an excessive content creator who optimizes every detail to get ahead or a casual poster who occasionally shares their adventurous life? No matter which species you belong to, you're sure to find a tool or two that you can use in our list of the world's 26 best Instagram tools. So now you can find out which sub-areas there are tools for on Instagram, what they can do and what costs they entail. We have left out tools that have been competently implemented by Instagram itself, such as for Instagram Branded Content.

Image and video editing

If you don't just want to post a photo, but want to give your feed a graphic polish, Canva Pro is irreplaceable. You can choose from a huge selection of templates, insert your own media files and customize the whole thing - according to your taste or your corporate design. You're also on the safe side when it comes to copyrights. There is a free version of Canva, but it is very limited. Canva Pro starts at €11.99 per month for an annual subscription.

With HypeType, you can animate text over videos and photos and create intros. This gives your Instagram presence more professionalism. You can choose from over 500 text animations. The app is available for iOS and Android. It is free, but offers in-app purchases for special functions and templates.

Snapseed App is the go-to app among image editing tools. It is available for iOS and Android and improves your self-made photos with a large number of features. Among other things, you can adjust color, exposure and contrast as well as make more elaborate face optimizations. The Google app also has a number of filters on board. Snapseed is completely free.

Of course, Adobe is also involved in the Instagram world. With Adobe Photoshop you can embellish your shots and transform them into creative works that will inspire your followers. In addition to standardized image editing functions, the app for iOS and Android also offers a collage maker. Adobe Lightroom offers you an extended photo edition.

VSCO is a well-known tool in the creator scene. You can edit your photos, apply filters and let off steam creatively. VSCO also offers you the standard range of editing options such as contrast, saturation, color and grain. For additional features - such as video editing - you can take out a membership for €29.99 per year.

In addition to editing photos and creating graphics, Instagram also offers a platform for many other formats. We have summarized what these are and what you need to consider in our Guide of 2023.

Intuitive video editing is what you get with InShot. With the app for iOS and Android, you can improve your edgy video recordings, add lettering, stickers and other graphic elements and add music. A few filters are free. If you want the unlimited selection, you have to subscribe to InShot Pro for €10 per year or buy it once for €30.

Adobe offers Premiere Rush, a compact version of its desktop version Adobe Premiere Pro. Designed for mobile editing, you can create high-quality video content in no time at all. There are tutorials for rookies on the Adobe site, otherwise Premiere Rush is easy to use, unlike its big brother Premiere Pro.

You can use the popular IG Story format creatively with GoDaddy Studio via iOS or Android. Videos and photos can be enhanced with animations, personalized stickers, filters, effects and other gimmicks. There are more than 500 fonts to choose from. Nice to know: GoDaddy Studio can also be used to design logos. Many of the application's functions can be used free of charge. With the paid version, however, you choose a package that also includes a website, which is what GoDaddy is best known for.

Unfold is also one of the Instagram story tools. You can download the app from the Apple Store or the Google Play Store. Over 400 templates let you create beautiful stories for Instagram in no time at all. Animations and collages are just some of the functions that the Squarespace app has to offer. However, it's better to spend a little money, as Unfold only gets really exciting with the Plus features.

If you're a beginner when it comes to Instagram stories, our smart article will help you. We promise!

Feed planning

Once the content has been created, it still needs to be published. Later helps you plan ahead so you don't have to post manually every day. The software describes itself as an all-in-one social marketing platform. This means that you can use Later to plan, publish and analyze your content afterwards. The Instagram software interface is easy to use and shows you at a glance what your Instagram schedule looks like for the week or month. You can also schedule IG stories. Later offers a free version. If you are planning a larger social media strategy, the costs start at €15 per month. By the way: You can also use Later for other social networks.

This name is familiar to anyone who calls themselves a social media manager. Hootsuite has been one of the most popular Instagram professional tools for years. But it can also be a great help for amateur influencers and other Instagram fans. You can manage all your Instagram accounts and those of other social networks via a shared dashboard. The focus is on planning and publishing your Instagram posts. Tools for monitoring hashtag trends, creating ads or analyzing performance complete the package. You can test the Instagram tool free of charge for 30 days. After that, the rates start at €99 per month. Incidentally, we are also enthusiastic users of Hootsuite, which is why it is an integral part of the OMR tech stack.

You can also use Buffer to plan your Instagram feed. However, Buffer places a special focus on community building. In attractive reports, you also receive all the important information you need to measure the progress of engagement on your Instagram account. The full package is available from €15 per month. If you only need a planning tool for Instagram, simply use the free version of Buffer.

If you want to show your followers more than one link in your Insta bio, you can use Linktr.ee. The Instagram tool allows you to create a list of links that you can personalize. However, this has its limits. However, if you want premium themes and analytics tools, Linktr.ee costs $8 per month in the Pro edition.

Statistics and analytics

LikeOMeter is a search engine for influencers, but also offers lots of social media statistics. The hashtag explorer tool helps you to pair another 29 hashtags with a hashtag in order to use them directly under your next Instagram post. The tool is absolutely free to use.

The Instagram Hashtag Generator from SISTRIX finds your dream combination based on more than 36 billion hashtag combinations. Simply enter one or more hashtags that you already have in the search field and you will receive more matching hashtags. You can make up to 25 queries per day free of charge. After that, registration is required.

Sprout Social is an entire social media management tool that is packed with useful features. However, the data and analysis solution stands out in particular. The tool gives you a detailed overview of insights, your industry and your competition so that your Instagram account is always growing in the right direction. Sprout Social pays well for this: The standard plan is available from $89 per month when paid annually.

Iconosquare can also help you optimize your social media strategy. As one of many Instagram analysis tools, it is ideal for analyzing your insights. Iconosquare uses simple graphics to tell you everything about your followers, their engagement rate, your reach and lets you create entire campaign reports. The Pro version of the tool starts at €49 per month. However, you can test it for 14 days free of charge.

Find influencers and create campaigns

UserGems is less concerned with analyzing your Instagram account than its two predecessors. It is much more of a plugin for your online store. Based on various data, it finds suitable Instagram influencers for you within your customer base. For a demo, you register with UserGems via the website using your email address. You then discuss everything else with your contact person.

Cameo Social Gallery is one of the Instagram tools aimed at operators of websites with online stores. More than 2,000 brands already trust the app. It allows you to integrate your feed into your website and make it "shoppable". This means that users can become customers by clicking on one of your Instagram images. Cameo also includes an analysis feature that checks the performance of your shoppable Instagram feed. The plugin can be installed via the Shopify App Store and costs $9.99 per month after a 14-day trial period.

The Instagram marketing tool Storyclash gives you an overview of influencer content on Instagram. This allows you to find the right brand ambassadors for your company. Detailed analyses are created and text recognition for Instagram stories makes it possible to crawl even more precise information that is crucial for you and your choice of influencers.

Since 2015, the IROIN Influencer Marketing Suite has been helping social media managers and companies to find the right influencers and manage campaigns. You have a large influencer database at your disposal, you can build up your portfolio and evaluate your campaigns. The costs depend on what you need. To find out, arrange a meeting with IROIN.

LikeOMeter also needs to be mentioned here. Since we've already introduced it as a hashtag research tool, we won't duplicate it.

Contests are always a good idea to draw attention to yourself on Instagram - especially when you're just starting out. Wishpond helps you create professional promotions with its platform. Various types of competitions are available to you. You can also connect Wishpond with tools such as MailChimp and Slack. The price is agreed individually with the partners.

WooBox can also be used to create and manage competitions - but much more simply. However, the functions are not as extensive. Winners can be found via comments or hashtags. You can benefit from the free WooBox version on a small scale. If more than 1,000 users are expected to participate, it starts at $ 37 per month.

SocialHub has been specially developed for companies, agencies and authorities. You can use it to manage Instagram messages from multiple accounts, plan content and carry out monitoring. Based on real data, SocialHub also allows you to constantly optimize your Instagram strategy. In short: you have everything clearly organized in one place together with all your brand's other social media channels. Prices start at € 199 per month.

All WordPress users should now sit up and take notice: The Blog2Social plugin offers you the opportunity to automate your social media marketing. You can post your posts with individual images directly on Instagram and other social channels without having to go through time-consuming detours. You can also customize your posts with the help of an HTML editor. Reports are of course also included. You can use a basic version of Blog2Social for free. If you want more, you have to pay at least €6 per month on an annual basis. The rate depends on how many users fall under one license.

The best way to identify, organize and manage your Instagram audience is to use SocialRank. The Instagram tool tells you everything about your followers. It tells you when and how someone interacts with you. You can filter by keyword, location or numerous other values. You can also compare your followers with those of others. It is then easy for you to set up a customized Instagram campaign. You can use a free version of SocialRank. After that, prices start at $49 per month.

If you need more tools for Instagram or want to look for alternatives, take a look at the Social Media Software section on OMR Reviews. There you will find reviews and testimonials from real users!