Best Instagram Apps for 2024: Manage Reels, Stories, and More

Instagram is one of the most powerful tools for your business to connect with your audience, drive engagement, and increase your brand’s visibility.

With over a billion active users, Instagram marketing is one of the most efficient ways to build a customer base. But to succeed on the social media platform you need a solid Instagram strategy.

And part of any good strategy is management. However, managing your Instagram accounts can be time-consuming and require a lot of effort. 

The good news is that there are many useful Instagram apps designed to help you save time and grow faster on the platform.

So, how do you know which ones are good?

To give you a better idea, we put together a list of the best Instagram apps that will make managing your Instagram account easier. 

This tool stack covers: 

• Instagram posting and scheduling tools so you can manage content efficiently
• Photo apps for streamlining your photo editing & design process 
• Instagram apps for Reels for creating and editing scroll-stopping Instagram videos
• Instagram layout tools so you can keep up your feed aesthetic and create visually appealing content
• Instagram Stories apps to create beautiful, perfectly formatted stories that convert
• Instagram hashtag tools to discover high-search volume hashtags 
• Instagram analytics tools to determine how well your content is doing
• Free Instagram apps to optimize your performance

Instagram posting and scheduling apps 

Manually creating, formatting, and posting your content can feel like a full-time job. This is where Instagram posting and scheduling tools come into play.

These apps for planning Instagram posts allow Instagram users to automate your posting process and schedule content in advance. As a result, you’ll save yourself time and headaches, so you can focus on the thing that matters most: creating great content.

1. Kontentino

Kontentino is one of the best Instagram tools for teams to collaborate intuitively with co-workers and clients. With its powerful coworking feature, no formatting or editing errors will fall through the cracks.

Use it to plan posts ahead and create social content in advance and stress-free. Kontentino supports the direct scheduling of posts, reels, and stories.

With Kontentino, you always have a clear overview of what your team is working on. It also helps you keep track of all changes in the communication history next to each post.

One of Kontentino’s benefits is that it helps you stay on top of your posting cadence. This ensures your content is visible when your audience is most active on Instagram.

Learn more about how often to post on Instagram.

2. Tailwind  

If you ever wished you had a smart assistant to automatically schedule Instagram posts, Tailwind is for you.

Tailwind is an app that helps you plan, create, optimize and publish your social media posts.

One cool feature Tailwind has is SmartSchedule, which automatically picks posting times when your audience is the most engaged. Also, there’s a free version to test it out.

However, there are two separate apps for iOS from Tailwind: one for scheduling and the other for planning your Instagram feed.

3. Hootsuite 

Hootsuite is perfect for social media managers looking for extensive integrations and a suite of native apps.

As a social media management platform, Hootsuite allows you to run your Instagram profile from one dashboard and schedule posts ahead.

You can use it for post scheduling, tracking engagement, and analyzing social media performance.

Best Instagram photo apps 

Designing and editing Instagram photos can be a bit of a toughie if you’re not a designer.

Thankfully, there are several editing tools that will help you create beautiful visuals within seconds.

4. Canva 

Canva is one of the most popular editing tools out there. You can use it to create eye-catching graphics for your posts, stories, and even reels using Canva Video. 

Choose from a wide range of templates or start with a blank canvas. Then add text, images, shapes, and other elements to create a unique design that matches your brand and aesthetic.

As a bonus, Canva has every Instagram media format you need.

5. Luminar AI

Luminar AI is a one of the best photo editing tools designed to help users enhance and retouch their photos with the help of Artificial Intelligence. 

You can use Luminar for color correction, sky replacement, object removal, portrait retouching, and more. Easily improve the composition, brightness, contrast, and overall look of your photos.

6. Snapseed 

With Snapseed by Google, you can edit photos with ease. It lets you edit and enhance photos right on your phone. The app also offers selective adjustments, allowing you to apply edits to specific parts of the image.

Snapseed is a great option for putting the final touches on your pictures before sharing them on Instagram. It’s a pretty popular tool with over 18 million posts bearing the #Snapseed hashtag.

7. Adobe Lightroom  

Adobe Lightroom is arguably the most robust photo editing software on this list. Lightroom includes tools for adjusting exposure, color, tone, sharpness, and more. It also has a variety of presets and filters to give your photos a unique look and feel.

8. Moodboard

If you want to share moodboards with your Instagram followers, or you’re looking for a creative way to merge multiple photos in a single post (and you’re bored with the basic Instagram options for editing photos) Moodboard might be your go-to tool.

You can choose from plenty of fonts, use a custom background, and opt for the ready-made templates. It definitely steps up from the basic Instagram photo editing capabilities.

Best Instagram apps for Reels   

You’ve probably heard it a million times by now: “If you want to get more Instagram followers in 2024, you have to post Reels.”

Instagram Reels are Meta’s linchpin in the battle against TikTok. And so far, it’s working. In fact, some attribute Meta’s recent unexpected revenue growth to the meteoric adoption of Reels.

Below are some advanced editing tools and Instagram video apps that will help you create and share scroll-stopping, highly engaging Instagram Reels. 

9. Adobe Podcast Audio Enhance

If you’ve ever sat down to edit a new Instagram Reel only to realize it’s filled with background noise, this tool is for you.

Adobe’s newly released AI-powered tool makes your otherwise garbled audio sound crisp and clear. 

This tool is perfect for recording on the go in noisy environments. It’s also great for the budget podcaster.

9. Captions

Captions is another AI-powered app that’s perfect for Instagram Reels. As the name suggests, Captions gives you word-by-word on-screen text synchronized with your voice. You can add images and GIFs, remove filler words, and create jump cuts. It’s great for editing videos.

10. CapCut

CapCut is one of the fastest-growing video editing tools. It’s designed for creating and editing short-form video content.

The tool lets you trim and reverse videos, add music and audio effects, and use a wide range of pre-set and cool filters, as well as other video editing options, including time lapse videos. No video editing skills needed.

This app has become the default for creating visually captivating videos and edits.

Even with the free version, CapCut is one of the best apps for editing Reels, often considered better than Adobe Spark Post or even Canva. It’s available in both Apple App Store and Google Play, and you can enjoy its user-friendly interface.

12. VN Video Editor

Definitely not a basic and banal app for editing reels and Instagram videos. VN Video Editor comes with robust capabilities and may appeal to those who seek an advanced tool. It allows for quick edits as well.

VN offers a multitude of templates. Just upload your videos, add music, adjust a bit, and your reels are ready to go. For a more professional look, there are no watermarks. The tool’s superpower is an intuitive interface.

Instagram layout apps 

Maintaining a cohesive Instagram grid for your brand is important. And not just for aesthetic reasons. A well-maintained Instagram feed conveys to your audience that your brand is serious and trustworthy.

Here are some tools to help you maintain a beautiful, on-brand Instagram grid. 

13. Kontentino grid preview 

If you’re struggling to keep up with your Instagram feed’s aesthetic, Kontentino’s live grid preview is a game changer. This feature lets you see a live preview of your scheduled Instagram posts next to each other before you share them with your audience.

It includes a desktop and mobile preview of your Instagram posts, which allows you to curate the perfect Instagram grid. And the cherry on top? You can easily rearrange the posts by using its drag-and-drop feature.

14. Planoly 

Planoly is a social media management app built for solopreneurs and one-man teams. The tool lets you plan your content visually, add captions or relevant hashtags, and save audio for TikTok and Instagram.

Planoly gives you a visual editor of your feed (and stories) so you can map out your content and stay on-brand.

Instagram story apps 

When creating a story for your brand, you want them to include catchy and engaging visuals. The next couple of photo editing apps will help you elevate your brand’s stories instantly.

15. Unfold 

Unfold, a Squarespace company is on a mission to help you stand out on social media through beautiful templates and minimalist design.

With two Best of the Year app awards under their belt, the team at Unfold gives you an aesthetic foundation for your Instagram stories.

You can then edit your Instagram stories directly within the app. You can also plan your feed, upload custom fonts, and sync your stickers and logos in the app. It’s free, so individual creators may find it handy. The fancy and advanced features come with a paid (but quite affordable) plan, though.

16. Story Art 

The Story Art app also gives you a plethora of filters, text effects, GIFs, animations, and text styles so you can take your stories to the next level. It’s also useful for Reels.

Easily create photo collages and try out their templates to get started.

Add music and transitions to your stories and create narratives that keep people listening.

17. Vivisticker

Tired of the same old fonts on Instagram? Vivisticker offers a fresh selection. Just copy what you like from Vivisticker and paste it directly into your story. Choose from over 1400 unique fonts and fun stickers.

It’s super easy to use. Make your Instastories engaging, enjoyable, and entertaining.

18. Liro

Liro is a caption maker for both Instastories and Reels.

Liro uses AI to make your work as smooth as possible. Just upload your video and let the tool do the rest – it recognizes the voice in your video immediately, turns it into captions, and adds the subtitles by timestamps so the captions perfectly match the voice.

In-app purchases are available for some more advanced features.

Instagram bio apps

Writing a perfect bio is just as hard as describing yourself using only three words. Challenging, but possible. The same is true with the bio. With only 150 characters, every word must count. Make it concise, actionable, and captivating.

There’s a trick: use links to save space, but keep them short with the tools below.

19. Linktr.ee

Create a single clickable link that leads to a customizable page with multiple other links. Linktr.ee guides followers to online destinations like your personal blog, merchandise store, other social media profiles, and any promotional or event pages.

20. Bitly

Bitly turns long URLs into short, manageable ones, create QR codes, and track how your links perform.

Simple and efficient, Bitly makes your Instagram interactions way smoother. It’s great for optimizing your bio link, so it’s organized and easy to click.

Instagram hashtag apps 

Hashtags = search visibility.

If you’re not showing up for the keywords (hashtags) that your audience is searching for, you’ll have a tough time growing on the platform.

Let’s review some hashtag apps that handle the discovery and management of high-performing, trending hashtags for your content calendar.

21. Kontentino Hashtag Presets 

Kontentino’s Hashtag Presets feature saves you time by automatically uploading your most-used hashtags. You can also import common @tags.

Hashtag Presets can be found in the bottom right corner of the Post Text box.

You can also assign the preset to other profiles.

22. Influencer Marketing Hub’s Instagram Hashtag Generator 

Instagram Hashtag Generator is a tool that helps you find new hashtags for your Instagram content. Simply enter a keyword related to your content and choose a preferred hashtag category.

You can have categories for growth, engagement, or a specific location.

23. Answer The Public

Answer The Public is not a standard app for posting content on Instagram, but each content creator will appreciate its features for suggesting keywords and hashtags.

Sometimes, finding the right set of Instagram captions is not the easiest task in the world. With Answer the Public, you can look for more variations of your main keyword and use it in the form of Instagram captions for your Instagram photos.

Best Instagram analytics apps 

Measuring how your Instagram organic marketing impacts your business growth is crucial. If you can’t see how well your content is moving you closer toward your goals, you won’t know what to optimize.

These next few Instagram apps help with tracking Instagram page performance, content performance, and business generated. A must, if you take creating engaging content seriously.

24. Instagram Insights 

Instagram Insights is a feature within the Instagram app that provides you with data about your account and audience.

If you already have an Instagram business or creator profile, you can also see how many impressions you received from hashtags.

Just select the post you want to measure and tap View Insights. From there you can see which hashtags are performing best and use that for creating content that converts.

25. Kontentino analytics dashboard 

If you want to see custom analytics that native social dashboards simply don’t offer, Kontentino’s got your back.

With Kontentino Analytics, you can measure your KPIs on the account and individual post level.

You can sort your Instagram posts from best to worst performing, based on your chosen metric. And everything is crystal clear – you see all the numbers in one place, so you can analyze how you doing across ceratin periods on time, a make some strategic fixes if needed.

Kontentino also shows you how well your paid or boosted posts performed compared to their organic counterparts.

26. Meta Business Suite

The Meta Business Suite is great if you have an Instagram business account and like to operate within Meta’s ecosystem. It hosts a suite of tools for social media marketing and analytics.

The tool can help you measure your organic Instagram performance by providing insights and data on key metrics, such as:

• Engagement 
• Reach
• Impressions 
• Followers

27. Google Analytics 

Google Analytics is the most widely-used web analytics and conversion tracking software in the world. It can also track general traffic that’s coming from your Instagram.

So, you learn how many visitors find your website after viewing your Instagram profile or posts. You see which Instagram activities and what kind of content work best for attracting more followers.

If you’re using Zapier, you can set up a Google Analytics Zap to trigger an event when you share a new post.

Choosing the best Instagram apps for your strategy 

Our list of the best apps for Instagram in 2024 provides a range of solutions that can help you grow your Instagram presence effectively.

From scheduling posts, and analyzing your performance, to automating tasks, the tools mentioned in this article have it all.

Using the right apps for Instagram allows you to streamline your workflow, save time, and focus on creating high-quality content that your followers will love. And they’ll make your life easier.