Most Reliable Instagram Scheduling Tools to Schedule Instagram Posts in 2024

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Regular posting is one of the key aspects of marketing on Instagram. Nano accounts (up to 10K followers) publish about 2 feed posts every week. Micro accounts with more than 10K but less than 100K followers post 3, while macro accounts with 100-500K or more followers post 5 content every week, thus 1 each day. Without scheduling each post in advance, it can get quite tough to manage your Instagram marketing campaign.

Whether you are running a fully-fledged business or wish to market your brand, you need to keep posting to improve visibility and stay on the radar of your target audience. However, given the amount of stuff your social media team handles at once, Instagram scheduling for your business profile becomes essential.

It wasn’t before the end of 2022 that the social media platform allowed in-app scheduling for business accounts. According to this new feature, Instagram allows users to schedule up to 25 posts every day for a period of 75 days.

Amazing, right? Now, you can skip worrying about missing out on details while posting in a hurry or missing out on posting altogether. Apart from an in-built Insta scheduler, you can now get a bunch of third-party apps to help you schedule your posts on Instagram.

Let us give you a comprehensive idea about scheduling Instagram posts using such tools to make your work hassle-free.

Why Instagram scheduling is important

The biggest benefit of Instagram scheduling is freeing up time to do other essential stuff, like developing content strategies, content creation, community building, and brand promotion, etc. If you know how to schedule Instagram posts, you can create a calendar of sorts for upcoming important events, sit back, and relax. Your chosen Instagram scheduling tool will take care of all posting duties.

Besides saving time, scheduling your posts on Instagram offers the following benefits:

Helps maintain consistency

Posting consistently on Instagram will help keep your brand on the radar of your potential customers. It has been observed that the brands posting irregularly lose followers and engagement over some time. You cannot afford that, right? However, manual posting can be strenuous at times when there are other things that demand immediate attention. By scheduling Instagram posts, you can maintain consistency to the satisfaction of your followers and potential customers.

Improves marketing strategy

Impromptu posting gives rise to inconsistency and also reduces the chances of engagement. While marketing your brand on Instagram, you need to conduct a thorough analysis of post engagement, like active hours, audience interests, and degree of engagement (through likes, comments, shares, etc.). Using an efficient Instagram scheduling app can help you plan and schedule your content in advance, considering all the key engagement factors. It also aids you in managing post deadlines. Such schedulers can help you create a posting pattern that can be monitored and analyzed to make changes later, if necessary. Scheduling your posts using a third-party app thus helps better your Instagram marketing strategy. 

Allows multiple posting

With an IG scheduler app, multiple posting becomes a cakewalk. You can schedule multiple posts at the same time on the same date, thus upping the chances of engagement. Multiple posting helps you cover more than one theme or event for your branding endeavor. Some Instagram scheduling apps also help you edit scheduled posts on your desktop, so there is no need to keep tapping on your mobile screen in a hurry.

Increases business potential

Overall, scheduling Instagram posts gives an edge to your business and increases its potential on the platform. You can analyze your posting pattern and improve it from time to time, according to the received data. You can also take your time to consider key branding factors, like themes, colors, fonts, captions, watermarks, etc. on every post. Creating compelling posts doesn’t happen in a minute. By scheduling every post, you can give it the time and effort it deserves without missing out on the apt hour for posting.

Even the audience loves a well-arranged, aesthetically pleasing business profile. Random, impromptu posts cannot achieve that effect, even if you are posting regularly. So keep your users happy by leveraging some efficient apps that post to Instagram for you. 

Before we get down to the ultimate list of such third-party apps, you must know that you can schedule your posts on Instagram itself.

How to schedule Instagram posts effectively? 

Instagram launched its post-scheduling feature in 2022, enabling business accounts to schedule posts and reels (but not stories) on the app itself. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Create your content (post or reel) on the app as usual by clicking on the “+” sign at the top right corner of your profile.

Step 2: After adding a caption to your content, scroll down to the “Advanced Settings” option at the bottom of the page.

Step 3: Turn on the “Schedule” switch and select the date and time you want the content to be posted.

Step 4: Click on “Done”, go back, and tap on the “Share” button. Your post will be scheduled for the specified date and time.

In case you want to make some changes to your scheduled post,

• Go to your profile and tap on the hamburger (Menu) icon at the top-right corner.
• Choose the “Scheduled Content” option and tap on the 3 dots beside the content you want to edit. You can also reschedule the post, delete it, or share it right away.

The social media platform allows you to schedule a maximum of 25 posts every day for a 75-day period. If your scheduling needs are basic, you can leverage this feature to create a content calendar for your business account.

Note: This feature is not available for personal accounts. Only brands and businesses are allowed to schedule their posts on Instagram. 

List of Instagram schedulers

If you scour the web, you will find ample Instagram scheduling tools to help in your content planning strategy. From free IG post scheduler apps to premium apps, these tools are meant to streamline your Instagram marketing endeavor and ensure that you keep your audience engaged 24X7. Creating compelling content is not everything. You need to understand when and how to publish content on the platform. That’s exactly what an Insta scheduler will do for you.

Our exclusive list of Instagram scheduling apps aims to meet your Instagram posting requirements with added features.  

Iconosquare

Primarily a social media analytics software, Iconosquare goes the extra mile to be your #1 social media management tool. It can handle scheduling posts and publishing content to monitor performance and communicate with your followers on Instagram. It also features generative AI to create compelling captions for your posts.

For scheduling Instagram posts, the tool has a definite system that also enables cross-posting on other platforms. However, you need to pick a platform that has the exact same posting type. For example, if you want to post a textual status on Facebook, you cannot post the same on Instagram, which requires an image or a video.

The scheduler’s calendar is an impressive feature that helps you check all the scheduled posts for each platform. However, you have to pick the platforms individually to check each schedule.

Key Features:

• Help create a data-driven social media content strategy
• Detailed analytics to understand audience preferences for Instagram business growth
• Generate PDF reports easily for better tracking and analysis
• Scheduling posts on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms
• Cross-platform posting under certain conditions
• Competitor tracking and analysis for a better content strategy
• Manage communications through comments and mentions tracking

Popularity Score:

As of May 2024, Iconosquare had 160.5K total visitors, of which 122.7K was unique. A little more than 63% of its visitors were desktop users, while 36.61% were mobile users. The tool is popular in India (23.87%), the US (10.63%), followed by France and Germany. 

Pricing:

The tool charges €49 for individuals, and €79 for a team of social media marketers.

Ideal for:

Iconosquare is ideal for businesses that want to promote their brand on Instagram and do not have a large team for the same. If scheduling is your primary need, you can find this tool quite helpful with its real-time data and analytics. It is also good for big brands that cannot afford the time to post manually.

What People Say:

Reviews have been gathered from G2 and TrustRadius

Later

A marketing automation platform that optimizes your social media performance, Later is just too good! This social media content planning tool has everything – effective Instagram scheduling, detailed performance analytics, Cross-platform posting, and you name it! If you’re facing troubles scheduling posts on different social media accounts, Later is just for you!

It offers a user-friendly interface to manage, schedule, and analyze Instagram posts, as well as other social media platforms. All you have to do is set up your account and use the tool’s visual content calendar to manage and schedule posts. You can also track the performance of each post using the tool’s exceptional analytics feature.

Later has a visual planner that sets it apart from its competitors. The appealing aesthetics of the tool’s content planner make it easier to schedule, view, and edit posts without much hassle. It also has a “Best Time to Post” option that enhances the performance of your content strategy.

Key Features:

• Clean and clutter-free interface that makes navigation a breeze
• Data-driven analytics that help you make well-informed decisions regarding content
• Auto-posting on multiple platforms with an effective post timer
• Content creation (caption writing and hashtag suggestions) on par with the brand’s style and audience preferences
• Managing more than one social media account on a single dashboard
• Fully-featured mobile app to create, schedule, and edit posts on the move

Popularity Score:

With an authority score of 76 (quite high according to SEMrush), Later enjoys about 5.4 million organic search traffic from countries, like the US (32.57%), India (12.46%), the UK (6.13%), Canada, and Australia. 67.48% of the tool’s traffic comprises desktop users, while 32.52% of its traffic is mobile.

Pricing:

For starters, Later charges $16.67/month, and for small teams, $30/month. Teams that are growing need to pay $53.33/month and agencies, $133.33/month.

Ideal for:

Later is said to be an effective Instagram scheduling tool for freelancers, influencers or content creators with a large following on social media, and solopreneurs. If you do not have a dedicated team to handle your social media marketing strategies, Later can do that job for you.

What People Say:

Reviews have been gathered from G2 and GetApp

Hootsuite

What type of content can bring home the best ROI? What does your audience prefer to see the most? Hootsuite has the answer! Besides an IG scheduler, it is one of the best social media content planning tools available right now. With all your business profiles carefully organized, managed, and monitored, you can breathe a sigh of relief.

Hootsuite also has automatic responders and integrates bots to respond to mentions, tags, and messages on your social media accounts. With its omnipotent social listening tools, Hootsuite enables you to track trending hashtags, keywords, and all those elements that can help strengthen your content strategy.

There are 100+ integration options on Hootsuite to lead your Instagram marketing strategy toward massive success. You can leverage its advanced analytics, social listening, review management, and influencer management features for next-level social media marketing.

Key Features:

• IG scheduler – Schedules your Instagram posts on multiple accounts
• AI content creation tool (OwlyWriter AI) – Generating captions, finding hashtags, creating new ideas for content, suggesting Canva templates for aesthetics, etc.
• Team collaboration tools to balance social media management and customer support
• Brand monitoring and social listening features to give your audience what they seek
• Data-driven analytics feature – Suggesting “Best Time to Post”, tracking post performance, and comparing the same to your competitors for better results
• Hootsuite Boost – Turn your best-performing posts into paid ads to maximize engagement and conversions

Popularity Score:

According to SEMrush data, Hootsuite received 8.5 million visitors in the last month, of which 5 million were unique. Most of these visitors came from the US (2.5 million), India (974.1K), the UK (546.5K), the Philippines (336.8K), and Canada (301.2K).

Pricing:

An individual professional can pay $22.95/month to enjoy Hootsuite Instagram scheduling and other features. A team of three people needs to pay $90.38/month, while agencies and enterprises can ask for customized plans as per their budget and brand requirements.

Ideal for:

From large enterprises to solopreneurs, everyone can use this efficient social media management platform to grow their brands. Most agencies with a small or no dedicated social media management team opt for Hootsuite to improve their branding efforts on social media.

What People Say:

Reviews have been taken from G2 and Forbes

Buffer

It is essentially a social media automation tool that also offers some of its features for free. According to some users, the time slot feature on Buffer is even more effective than Hootsuite. Because of its efficient post timer, Buffer is preferred by many Hootsuite users, who use the latter for other tasks, like monitoring and content creation.

Buffer was initially a scheduling tool for Twitter (now X) that evolved to integrate scheduling and posting on other social media platforms. Besides post-scheduling, it features data-driven analytics for tracking performance, content planning, image creation, and first comment.

Key Features:

• Post scheduler allowing you to schedule social media posts on different channels, like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter (X)
• Post timer enables users to add time slots to individual posts
• Content calendar to give you an overview of your published and scheduled posts
• Library of more than 6 million images to help improve branding aesthetics
• The “First Comment on Instagram” feature boosts your posts on Instagram by adding the first comment
• The team management feature allows for seamless collaboration between social media managers and marketers
• Data-driven analytics and easy reporting for better analysis of strategy performance

Popularity Score:

According to SEMrush data, Buffer enjoys a high authority score of 69 and 1.7 million organic traffic, right now. Most of its traffic comes from the US (27%), and India (26%). The tool is also popular in the UK with about 124.4K traffic.

Pricing:

Buffer is one of those few free IG post schedulers that offer its basic plan completely free of charge. Individuals using the tool for scheduling, publishing, and analytics can pay $5 per month for a single social media channel. Teams seeking high engagement, effective collaboration, analytics, and reporting need to pay $10/month for one channel. If you need multichannel services, Buffer’s “Agency” plan for $100/month will be apt for you. With this plan, you can post on up to 10 social media platforms.

Ideal for:

According to reviewers, Buffer is good for small businesses just starting on social media, influencers, and solopreneurs. However, companies looking for more advanced social media content planning tools can try out the “Agency” plan.

What People Say:

Reviews have been gathered from G2 and TechRadar

Adobe Express

While some of you might be surprised, Adobe Express is an effective Instagram scheduling tool besides being the eminent photo editor app that it is. Over time, it has gained immense popularity because of its amazing photo editing features, a plethora of design templates, and animated graphics. However, not many know that it can help plan your content strategy on Instagram in a hassle-free manner.

The Insta Scheduler is a feature of Adobe Express that helps plan your content strategy seamlessly on Instagram. You can create, plan, schedule, and preview all your posts before publishing FREE of charge. Yes! The Instagram scheduling feature of Adobe Express does not charge a penny. You only need to create an account with your email ID, and you’ll be good to go. However, there are certain features (resize, erase, templates, design elements, etc.) that are only available with the premium version.

Key Features:

• Scheduling posts, stories, and reels for your Instagram account
• Saving content ideas as drafts for scheduling later
• Preview scheduled posts to get an idea of how they will look when live
• Edit posts as many times as you want
• Publish content across multiple social media channels

Popularity Score:

The Instagram scheduling feature of Adobe Express received about 5.1K visitors last month (SEMrush data). 53% of its traffic came from the US, while 13% from the UK. It also has some good traffic from India (12%).

Pricing:

The basic plan is free. If you need to access advanced features, you can try the premium version by paying $9.54 per month.

Ideal for:

The Adobe Express content scheduler is inherently simple and ideal for owners of small businesses, solopreneurs, and influencers. Large agencies and enterprises may not find the software compatible with their extensive needs.

What People Say:

Although the Adobe Express Instagram content scheduler alone does not enjoy much spotlight, the entire Adobe Creative Cloud Express is held in high esteem by several users across the world.

Sendible

Instagram scheduling has never been better! With Sendible, you can create diverse content and schedule them at your convenience. It flaunts a clean and easy-to-use interface; enabling people from various industries to use it without any hassle. Besides creating and publishing posts on Instagram, you can also use the tool’s priority inbox to check tags, mentions, and comments regularly. It also features several content creation templates that cater to different industries, making branding easier than ever before.

Key Features:

• Content composer to create, schedule, and publish posts on Instagram and other social media platforms
• Social media calendar to get an overview of your scheduled posts, edit or delete according to your convenience and preferences
• Comment and reply to tags, mentions, and other types of communication on multiple accounts seamlessly
• Curate content creators for better engagement with your target audience
• Effective collaboration feature to create an easy way to interact with your social media teams
• Tracking post performance and reporting the same

Popularity Score:

The tool is quite popular in the US with 37% of its traffic coming from it. It is also popular in India (14%) and the UK (9%). According to SEMrush data, the site received 51.6K visitors last month.

Pricing:

Social media management on Sendible will cost you $29/month for basic users, and up to $750/month for big brands and enterprises. In the White Label plan, you’ll get access to all the exclusive social media management features of Sendible.

Ideal for:

Sendible Insta scheduler is ideal for everyone, to be honest. Whether you are an influencer, a small business owner, or a big brand, you’ll find this tool extremely effective in managing your social media marketing strategies.

What People Say:

Reviews have been gathered from G2 and Trustpilot  

Social Bee

As the name suggests, Social Bee is a highly efficient social media scheduling tool. Its mobile IG post scheduler app has a whopping 10K+ downloads from the Google Play Store. However, the web app is more popular with 160.4K organic traffic (SEMrush) in the last month.

The tool helps all types of businesses manage their social media content across multiple platforms with ease. From planning and scheduling content to marketing and tracking published posts, you can get it all under one roof. However, it is a basic scheduling tool that doesn’t offer other services, like inbox management or competitor analysis. With Social Bee, you can manage up to 25 accounts on different platforms. Isn’t that wonderful?

Key Features:

• Content scheduling and publishing on multiple platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter (X), LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.
• Separate schedules for different content categories to ensure easy and hassle-free management
• AI-powered tools for diverse content creation and caption generation
• Audience analytics and real-time data generator
• Several integration options from Canva, GIPHY, Pabbly, Make, and URL shorteners

Popularity Score:

Social Bee received 163.5K visitors last month, a 2.7% increase from the previous month. 44% of its traffic comes from the US, making it a popular content planning tool in the country. 14% of its traffic comes from India, while 7.1% from the UK.

Pricing:

The standard pricing of Social Bee for small business owners and solopreneurs is $24/month. If you are an agency, looking forward to using all of the tool’s features multi-handedly, you can opt for the Pro plan that comes at $82/month.

Ideal for:

Social Bee is ideal for every kind of business that wants to schedule its content on social media. For small business owners and individual influencers to large agencies, the tool can be of great help to manage multiple social media accounts.

What People Say:

 Reviews have been gathered from G2 and GetApp

Kontentino

Kontentino is essentially a social media management tool (cloud-based) that offers collaboration between managing teams, post scheduling and analysis, as well as assists in ad creation. It is used widely as an Instagram scheduling tool that also helps in easy brand management on social media. Businesses that are starting up generally don’t have much idea about content optimization on social media. With Kontentino, it gets easier for them to manage their content on different social media channels.

Post creation and scheduling to increase engagement through data-driven analysis, Kontentino gives it all. You can also leverage its ad creation feature to develop compelling ads for Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms. It also offers features to handle social media collaboration for brands.

Key Features:

• Create compelling posts for social media using labels, logos, and many other elements
• Organize all content under a definite workflow to handle scheduling and publishing with ease
• Collaborate and approve feature helps get easy approvals from your clients before posting content on business accounts
• Drag and drop calendar for seamless planning and content scheduling
• Insightful reports based on real-time data analysis of post-performance
• Engaging your social media community through notes, messages, etc. under the same roof

Popularity Score:

The popularity of Kontentino is fairly distributed across many countries, of which the US comprises of 23% of its traffic. 13% of traffic comes from India and 9.9% from the UK. Czechia, on the other hand, accounts for about 59.03% of its traffic. 5.04% of Kontentino’s traffic also comes from the Netherlands.

Pricing:

For basic scheduling and content planning requirements (say 100 posts per month), you can opt for the Starter plan that costs €49/ month. If your agency’s requirements are higher, you can get the Pro plan at €199/month. However, Kontentino also offers tailored plans to enterprises with unique requirements.

Ideal for:

It’s ideal for everyone looking forward to managing their social media accounts seamlessly. The less complicated features of Kontentino make it all the more hassle-free for new business owners. Enterprises, however, may not find it enough to meet their diverse requirements.

What People Say:

Reviews have been gathered from G2 and Capterra 

Content Scheduling – Smart and Effective Way to Handle Social Media Business

Scheduling Instagram posts or any other social media content is essential to build a seamless workflow. It prevents last-minute scrambling through events and compelling content to create an impact on your followers and potential audience. Managing time for other business aspects, like campaigning, designing, and engaging with followers and influencers, gets easier.

Scheduling content on social media also gives you the space to execute your personal responsibilities without missing out on anything. For example, if you are on vacation, you may not be available online to check each post that your team mails to you for approval. By scheduling all such posts in advance, you can steer clear of such responsibilities and enjoy your time.

Then again, network connectivity can become a roadblock in your social media ventures. If your team is handling your Instagram or other accounts, they can schedule every post so such issues never arise. Scheduling also helps maintain and enhance brand consistency, as you will have enough time to consider each post before publishing.

No wonder scheduling Instagram posts is such a smart way to handle a business on social media!

Over to You

As discussed above, there are numerous apps that can post on Instagram for you. Using all of them may not be feasible. But you can always pick one or two that meet your scheduling, tracking, community-building, and other requirements. The type of business that you have, its target demographics, content load, and other factors may influence your decision to choose a scheduling tool. Carefully analyze the features that each tool offers and decide on a budget to check if the pricing plans fall within the same.

Using Instagram scheduling tools may seem to be a luxury at the moment, but trust us, it’s a necessity. You already know the benefits of post-scheduling on social media, so we need not go over and over it repeatedly. The only thing left for you to do now is choose the right tool to help assist you in your social media endeavors.

So what green signal are you waiting for? Pick, plan, and start scheduling today!  

FAQs regarding Instagram Scheduling