Do you want to get more out of your Instagram effort?

 

More than 1 billion people use Instagram and 500 million of those users check the app every day.

 

Instagram is one of the top social media platforms for small businesses to grow your audience, engage and increase revenue.

 

With such a large audience, there’s no doubt your business needs to be on Instagram!

 

Study found that accounts published seven or more times a week (or at least once a day) get the most engagement, likes and followers.

At first glance, publishing one or more posts a day may seem to be a rather simple task. But it’s a lot harder than it looks.

 

Don’t forget that you want to publish these posts at the best time, share beautiful pictures, use quality hashtags, write a perfect caption with effective call-to-action etc. Plus, you have to repeat this process every single day for a long period of time.

 

Consistency is the key

 

That’s the reason why only 5% of the accounts publish more than 7 times a week.

 

Fortunately, Instagram has changed its API and allows businesses to auto-publish to Instagram with approved partners. You don’t have to manually post to your Instagram business account. All you need is the RIGHT tool.

 

In this article, I’ll show you the best Instagram scheduling tools that support direct publishing to Instagram, including a “Scheduler” that I nicknamed Prototype X which turns IG Growth into Automation. Check out what it does below…

 

It will save you loads of time. You can plan your content ahead of time and publish it automatically on Instagram.

 

Without further ado, let’s take a look at this 7+ best time-saving Instagram scheduling tools. (List is in no particular order)

 

1. Sked Social

Sked Social (formerly known as Schedugram) is an all-in-one time-saving tool with powerful features that you need to make the most of your Instagram marketing. From scheduling to auto-posting, tracking post-performance and measuring ROI.

 

Bulk upload your Instagram content. Use the in-app photo editor to add text, filter, stickers, overlays on your pictures. Set the optimal times and schedule your posts with Sked: they will post everything automatically – Instagram posts, stories, carousels, videos, Facebook posts and Tweets.

 

Here’s the great news: Sked Social is now the first and only platform where you can schedule IGTV and Reels content alongside all your other social media channels.

 

Let’s see how you can easily schedule Reels or IGTV posts in Sked Social:

To upload to Reels or IGTV, just pick the appropriate ‘Story type’ when you are uploading or editing:

That’s it. You’ll see your Reels and IGTV posts in your dashboard, including (importantly) in your planner, so you can visually plan your grid with perfect accuracy. You’ll get a notification when it’s time to post.

 

Here are a complete list of its main features:

• Drag and drop visual grid planner
• Auto-post videos, images, carousels, Stories and feed-posts
• Product tagging
• Location tagging
• Hashtags in first comment
• Link in bio customization and tracking
• Hashtag manager
• Easy-to-read analytics report
• Powerful photo editor with magic cropping
• Story planning and scheduling
• Instagram Regram App

 

One thing Sked’s Instagram scheduler has over other competing apps is their free link in bio tool. As you know, Instagram only gives you one link in your bio.

 

With help of Sked Social’s link in bio tool, you can easily and quickly add as many links as you want in your Instagram bio. When someone clicks the link in your IG bio, they’ll see a beautiful landing page with rich links to your best content. Use it to link to your popular blog posts, product pages, free downloadable content, website, podcasts, videos and any link you want.

 

Although there’s no free version of Sked Social, you can take advantage of their 7-day free trial (no credit card required) to check out what Sked can do.

 

2. Apphi (It’s back!)

 

The Day I Became A Better Instagram Scheduler!

I went from being a spammy marketer to a professional Instagram scheduler after taking a one-day crash course with Apphi. I couldn’t believe how simple the tool was.

 

Brands like Sheraton, St. Regis Hotels, Yelp, MAC Cosmetics, Levi’s, and many influencer agencies use Apphi including many large themed Instagram accounts with more than 5 million followers like @pubity and @memezar.

 

I’ll tell you the main tricks here so you don’t have to waste a day shifting through services that can ban you.

 

Instagram marketing is about creativity and consistency. The main technique is keeping things consistent. Consistency is persuasive. It will sway more people than any intelligent artificial bot. Don’t fight it.

 

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(Posting 5 posts a day when you have contents and having nothing posted for a week is not a consistent way of Instagram marketing. You want to make sure your audience consistently see you in their feed but not aggressively. That’s why I use a powerful Instagram scheduler, such as Apphi, to manage my account and make sure I have a steady flow of content for my audience.)

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Creativity means personal. Don’t waste energy in taking short cuts, add your own personal touch. Don’t be in a hurry to grow your Instagram followers. It doesn’t take a huge following to engage.

 

I always tell people not to use the same caption and hashtag for every post. You are taking a short cut and saving a lot of effort, but that can get your account banned by Instagram. Instead, I use Apphi’s saved caption and first comment. Just save my most used captions and hashtags, Apphi can auto apply captions and make sure I won’t have the same caption used in a row.

 

Bulk Schedule anything on your phone or computer. Sit back, relax, observe your analytics, appreciate the awesome rich features of Apphi.

 

Schedule to Instagram, Facebook Page and Twitter in a few clicks.

 

Manage unlimited Instagram accounts simultaneously like an agency.

 

When you see results from your own brand, businesses approach you and that’s how you grow your IG star power!

 

The drag & drop preview design adds a nice touch to your profile. It’s simple. You can visually plan your grid and give it a creative design. This differentiates you from the amateurs.

 

Each post you publish earns you a little more time. Your captions and hashtags are conveniently saved so you can access them without repeating yourself over and over again.

 

Don’t want to enter your tags in the description? Press “Add First Comment” and voila!

 

Schedule your stories, videos and IGTVs. Your punctuality sets your content apart. This gives your brand a kind of immersive experience people often take for granted.

 

Learn how your followers consume. You can rewire them to be more attentive whenever you push out content. All brains work that way.

 

That’s it. You just learned 80% of the rules of good Instagramming. You’re welcome.

 

Sharpen your IG arsenal. Take Apphi for a Test Drive. It’s free and you can add unlimited Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to manage. All the free users can get 10 free autopost plus 7 days of free usage on some advanced features.

If you want to have advanced features, it starts at $9/month. (Get 10% OFF here on your First Payment)

 

 

3. Vista Social

Vista Social is a complete all-in-one social media management tool that makes it easy to maintain a 24/7 presence on Instagram.

 

You can easily schedule posts, analyze post performance and manage all your social media accounts in one single place.

 

With Vista Social, you can publish images, gifs and videos to Instagram. You can also tag Instagram users in your posts.

 

The auto-publishing also allows you to automate posting to other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit and YouTube.

 

Simply upload spreadsheets or even pulling content directly from an existing rss feeds to bulk schedule your content.

 

And Vista Social will automatically publish your content at the best engagement time.

 

 

One cool feature that you should take advantage is First Comment and Like. It allows you to create, schedule and automatically post the first comment or like on your Instagram post so you can kickstart audience engagement right away.

 

With your hashtags scheduled into your first comment and a first like to your posts, you’re guaranteed to improve your reach as your hashtags get to work as soon as your post is live.

 

Not only that, you can use it to monitor your branded hashtags and competitors. You’ll be able to analyze and measure the performance of your posts and account right on your dashboard too.

 

Main Features:

• Bulk uploading and scheduling your social media posts and messages
• Automatically scheduling posts to each social network.
• Collaborate with your team in real-time to schedule, approve and publish posts.
• See your content in a single glance with a beautiful publishing calendar.
• Schedule First comment and like
• Reporting and analytics tools
• Vista Social Listening tools

 

There’s a free account option that allows you to plan, schedule and auto-post to Instagram.

 

4. Combin 

How Can You Become A Better Instagram Planner?

Here are Tips You can Use Today!

‘Prototype X’ – Instagram is like Facebook on steroids. It’s a platform for mass comparison. Hard to keep up if you don’t have a weapon of productivity of your own.

 

Don’t get hung up on passive ‘day-to-day’ publishing. Plan ahead. Never lose sight of the bigger picture. Schedule your Instagram posts to be effective. 

 

If sharing visuals on Instagram plays an important role in your life or business, Combin’s new Scheduler gives you the edge. It’s an IG scheduling tool created to help combat your crushing inconsistency.

 

At first glance, it looks simple. But the apparent simplicity is supported by a remarkable complexity at various different levels. That complexity of simplicity is often the hardest of all things to design in software. 

 

Combin’s Scheduler is the kind of Instagram Scheduling Tool that doesn’t put any artificial restrictions on who could use them. You can be an IG noob and yet master this trivially easy.

 

This is a game-changing tool that creates the illusion that you’re on Instagram 24/7.

 

Ever wonder how some Instagrammers operate like a high-precision clock?

This is their secret.

 

Publishing manually on Instagram holds you back! Don’t let the menial routine of publishing keep you from creating a beautiful Instagram feed. 

 

Never mistake motion for action. Create dozens of Stories in just ‘One Click‘. Drag and drop a handful of images and turn them into numerous scheduled Stories at once.

 

With your publishing fully automated, you can keep your eyes on the bigger prize. Don’t get drowned in Instagram envy…

 

• Schedule ahead and Instantly post.
• Fully automate your publishing! 
• Edit the size of your Images from the convenience of your computer
• Tag a location to geo-target followers from a specific area
• Use hashtags to drive more conversations
• Bulk Stories Uploading

 

Take the first step. Combin’s Scheduler is completely FREE to download and use,you can use it to schedule unlimited stories and posts.

 

Read my review on Combin’s Scheduler here.

 

5. Tailwind

If you’re actively using Pinterest for your small business, then you should know that Tailwind is the most popular social management tool for Pinterest out there. Till recently, Tailwind released a scheduler for Instagram.

 

It’s very easy to use and navigate. Just like Later app, you can bulk upload and schedule your Instagram post using the drag and drop tool.

 

What make Tailwind special are their Smart schedule features and analytics. This Smart scheduling tool will automatically suggest the best time to schedule your posts. By posting at the optimal time when most of your audience is active, this will maximize your reach and increase post engagement.

 

Plus, your account is safe with Tailwind. It’s an official Instagram Developer partner and allows automatic posting of your Instagram update.

 

Tailwind for Instagram costs $15 per month, $9.99 per month if paid annually. You can get access to Pinterest and Instagram for one price.

 

Sign up for a Tailwind Free Forever account, you can test out this tool and schedule for free up to 20 Instagram posts every month. It’s available for both existing users of Tailwind for Pinterest and non-Tailwind members.

 

6. PLANOLY

PLANOLY is one of the selected few official partners of Instagram that’s 100% safe to use. Planoly helps you plan, curate, schedule, and post automatically to Instagram (no notifications required).

 

As an official Instagram partner, it offers advanced Instagram features and integrations to simplify your Instagram marketing for maximum growth in the safest and easiest way possible.

 

With Planoly, you can be sure that your account is optimized for Instagram as well as following the current Instagram’s best practices.

 

Key features of Planoly:

• Drag & drop your content until you’re satisfied with the look
• Schedule posts in advance
• Auto-post image and video
• Auto post first comment
• Product tagging
• Location tagging
• Best time to post
• Comment inbox
• Manage multiple Instagram accounts
• Discover relevant content by usernames or hashtags
• Repost user generated content in 1-click
• Analyze your audience, post and story engagement
• Linkit: use it to create a beautiful micro-landing page with multiple links 

 

Compared to other Instagram scheduling tools, there’s much more to do on Planoly.

 

The Comment Inbox feature allows you to manage and reply comment directly from Planoly, without the need of logging into your Instagram account.

 

The Linkit feature lets you share multiple links in your Instagram bio.

 

If you sell products (physical or digital), Sellit allows you to create a social storefront, sell anything to anyone with a single link, without a typical website!

When it comes to auto-posting to Instagram, Planoly will automatically publish your content to Instagram at the scheduled time:

• Single Images
• Single Videos 
• Instagram Business Accounts ONLY
• Posting Features
  • User Tagging
  • Location Tagging
  • First Comment

 

As you can see Planoly doesn’t support auto-post for Stories, Carousel Posts at the moment, mainly because they’re following the Instagram guidelines. But you still can upload your media and they will just send you a notification that reminds you to post.

 

On top of that, you can also use Planoly to manage, plan and schedule content for Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

 

Planoly offers a free, forever plan, allowing you to manage 2 social profiles and schedule up to 30 photos. If you enjoy using Planoly, consider upgrading to one of their paid plans, starting at $7/month.

 

Sign up for a free Planoly account, take a look around and test out each feature.

 

7. Hopper HQ

Hopper HQ is the most easy and efficient tool in scheduling my Instagram posts.

 

I didn’t get to over 8,000 followers today on Instagram without any help.

 

Automation is key. You can never regain the time you’ve lost. Instagram can suck up all your time if you let it.

 

Planning your feed, creating and bulk editing your posts, collaborating with your team, tracking your analytics, scheduling and auto-publishing directly to Instagram without your mobile phone takes on average 2 – 3 hours/day.

 

That’s 800 hours per year not focusing on making more money for your business. (around $1,500 annually at min. hourly wage)

 

Hopper HQ’s premium features are second to none when compared to other Free scheduling tools. 

 

Free is a cost you have to pay with your time, that’s why celebrities, CEO’s, & athletes use Hopper HQ to manage their Instagram, Facebook and even Twitter accounts. Hopper HQ was even mentioned on the BBC for their Instagram Rich List.

 

If I were to describe Hopper HQ in One Word, it’s: Simplicity. 

 

Here are the other things that you can easily do with Hopper HQ:

• Bulk upload and syncs with Dropbox, GoogleDrive, Google Photos, desktop and more.
• Bulk edit posts with the built-in image editor. *it’s an incredible time saver
• Add #hashtags, @mentions, captions and first comment on your posts.
• 100% Fully automated posting. No push notification or reminder.
• Plan in calendar view. Simple drag and drop to reorder.
• Preview posts on mobile. See how your feed look to your follower before you publish.
• Manage multiple Instagram accounts
• Collaborate with your teams
• Track analytics and post engagement
• Unique feature: automatically post videos as well as carousels at your scheduled time to Instagram!

 

Nothing beats Free Premium tools. So If you’re looking to get the most off your Instagram marketing, I’d suggest taking a test drive with their 14-day trial.

Other post that may help you: How to Schedule Instagram Posts Like a Boss

 

8. HootSuite

If you want to manage multiple social media networks, as well as automate your Instagram posting, then you should consider using HootSuite.

 

With HootSuite, you can schedule posts to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube all in one place!

 

Moreover, you can use it to monitor your branded hashtags and competitors. You’ll be able to analyze and measure the performance of your posts and account right on your dashboard too.

 

HootSuite offers a free account option for 3 social media profiles that allows you to schedule up to 30 posts every month. If you want to schedule more posts or if you want to manage more social profiles, you’ll need to upgrade to the Professional plan for $19/month for unlimited scheduling and 10 social profiles.

 

If you want to test out all of HootSuite’s features, you can sign-up for a free 30-day trial.

 

Click here to learn how to post directly to Instagram Using HootSuite 

 

9. Later

Later is my favorite free scheduling tool for Instagram.

 

It’s an official Instagram partner and widely used by over 1,000,000 of the world’s top brands, agencies and influencers.

 

Here are some of the main features of Later:

• Plan in calendar view
• Preview posts with visual Instagram Planner

 

This preview feature allows you to see the big picture and plan out the aesthetics of your feed before posting them to Instagram. Simply drag and drop your post onto the specific time that you’d like it to be posted.

• Bulk upload multiple posts to save time

 

You can sync photos from Dropbox, Drive or desktop

• Search for content by likes, users or hashtags and repost them
• Track and measure Instagram analytics
• Sell your products with Linkin.bio integration
• Schedule posts for other social media networks like Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook

 

Later offers a $0, Free Forever plan, which allows you to schedule up to 30 posts (no video, no carousel post) for one Instagram account per month.

 

But if you want to manage more than one social profiles or schedule more than 30 posts every month, you’ll want to upgrade to their paid options that start at $9 per month.

 

 

Conclusion – The Best Instagram Scheduling Tools

There you’ve it, 7+ best scheduling tools for Instagram to save you time and boost your social media presence.

 

Each tool offers different benefits and interfaces.

 

Spend some time to test the platform that you’re most comfortable with. And stick with the one best fits the needs of your social marketing strategy.

 

You’ll be well on your way to executing a successful Instagram strategy.

 

Want to learn more on how YOU can achieve Instagram greatness? Watch this 100% free webinar to learn some insiders tips and secrets!

 

What do you think?

Which apps do you use for scheduling Instagram posts?

Did I miss out your favorite Instagram scheduling tool?

Feel free to leave your comment below.

 

Related reading:

• 10 Best Instagram Tools to Help You Get More Followers
• 7 Best Instagram Link In Bio Tools
• How to Automate Instagram Scheduling Posts And Stories
• How to create Instagram Stories Images for your business
• How to Create Custom Instagram Highlight Covers in less than 5 minutes
• How to Post GIFs on Instagram
• How I grow my Instagram from 0 to 5000 Followers in 5 months
• 13+ Best Free Online Tools to Create 3D Mockups in Seconds (No Photoshop Needed)

 

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