The best time to post on Instagram is, in many ways, the most important thing that you can do to ensure that your posts get seen. But there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to figuring out when you should post on Instagram.
Luckily, there are a bunch of apps out there that will help you find the best time to post on Instagram with minimal effort. Here are some of our favorites:
Table of Contents
Best Apps For When To Post On Instagram
The more time and energy you spend on executing your Instagram marketing strategy, the more shortcuts you’ll need to save time. From reporting, to increasing how much content you share, to responding to users ASAP, all marketers should consider having a tool to manage their presence all from one platform.
1. Sprout Social
The ability to queue up posts in advance is a game-changer for serial Instagram users. Instagram scheduling allows you to plan out your content calendar without having to worry about crafting posts in real-time.
Additionally, Sprout aggregates your Instagram notifications so you never miss any shout-outs from your followers.
Also, Instagram analytics from Sprout clue you in on your top-performing posts. This allows you to keep creating the content your followers are hungry for, time and time again.
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Instagram Photo Apps
The era of smartphones has made us all amateur photographers, but that doesn’t mean we snap flawless photos.
Thankfully, there are plenty of editing apps to help us deal with anything from touch-ups to adding visual flair with effects and text overlays.
2. BeFunky
BeFunky is a robust web-based photo editing tool, perfect for cleaning up pictures and designing graphics alike. The full suite of editing tools includes the ability to crop, resize, tilt, soften, sharpen 2nd much more.
As an added bonus, you don’t even have to create an account to use the free version.
3. PicMonkey
Sometimes an otherwise perfect photo needs a bit of touching up. PicMonkey is great for fixing selfies, allowing users to remove wrinkles and reduce shine. Given that images on Instagram that feature a face get 38% more likes, PicMonkey can help you get the picture perfect photo every time.
PicMonkey isn’t just for pictures of people, though. For example, the “Adjustments” feature is awesome for creating epic, landscape-style photos.
4. Adobe Aviary
If you’re using an editor by Adobe, you know your photos are in good hands.
Aviary is a straightforward yet powerful Instagram app with a ton of one-touch tools on deck. Creative touches like softening, sharpening and playing with the saturation of photos may seem subtle but can be the difference to make your photos pop.
Another awesome feature of Aviary is the ability for the app to actually suggest edits on your behalf.
5. Canva
If you’re looking to create social graphics from scratch, look no further. Canva boasts several templates for inspirational images, text-based photos, announcements and everything in-between.
6. Piktochart
Infographics get plenty of love on Twitter and Facebook, so why not Instagram? Piktochart providers you with attractive templates for those times when you want to hit your followers with a data-driven post.
7. Framatic
With over 20 million downloads, Framatic is another raved-about Instagram app for sprucing up your images. The app sports 36 adjustable Instagram layouts, 32 vintage borders and 92 effects to apply to photos in an instant.
8. Landscape by Sprout Social
Landscape is Sprout’s very own social media image resizing tool.
How does it work? Upload any photo that you’d like to share on Instagram, choose which post size you’d like to create, then guide the cropping and presto. Now you have a freshly optimized image to download.
After you’ve cropped your images to your exact specifications, start sharing them with your Instagram followers!
9. Square Sized
One of the most-downloaded resizing apps, Square Sized allows users to import photos from personal albums or Facebook to be optimized for Instagram. The app gives you the option to edit your newly sized photos too.
10. No Crop and Square
This app does exactly what it’s advertised to do: post full-sized pictures on Instagram without cropping. Extras such as stickers and filters are also available to give your resized photos even more creative flair.
best free apps for instagram posts
Insta App for Photo Editing: SnapSeed
I want to kick off our countdown with an app I consider one of the most important.
SnapSeed is a Google developed, high-quality, professional photo editor. This app has more than 29 tools and filters, with an impressive array of image styling options.
There are loads of similar photo editing apps, but SnapSeed’s easy to use interface gives it the edge.
snapseed instagram interface
Included in their list of tools and filters, you’ll find ‘Healing’, ‘HDR scape’, ‘Text’, ‘Head pose’, ‘Frames’ and much more.
I spent a grand total of 30 seconds messing around with our cow photo on SnapSeed and came out with something a little more interesting than the original…
…but if you’re willing to put in 5 minutes work on this app, you can turn an ordinary (ungrammable) photo into something amazing.
snapseed instagram free app
Insta App for Getting Attention: Giphy Cam
If SnapSeed was the safest app in our list, Giphy Cam is definitely the most out-there.
This app has a host of crazy-looking photo and video editing options that will really make your images stand out in the Instagram Newsfeed.
As the name suggests, Giphy Cam allows you to create GIF’s from photos or videos, and can bring life to even the most mundane image (lucky I chose that cow then!).
The app is easy to use and the effects instantly apply themselves to your photos.
giphycam instagram
The editing features include Filters, GIF stickers, Faces, Moving Backgrounds, (see the dolphin above) Overlays, Frames and Text…
…and each one guarantees to surprise viewers more than the last!
This GIF of my cow photo took all of 10 seconds to find, apply and save and it would create much more engagement than the original:
giphy cam instagram gif
Insta App for Brand Templates: Over
Over is one of the most complete apps for brands on Instagram.
It functions as an image editor, but that’s not the reason it makes this list (because it can’t complete with SnapSeed on that playing field).
Over has one of the most comprehensive libraries of post templates anywhere. It is a FREEMIUM app, so be prepared to only have a select number of templates available…
…but even so, there are more than enough options, especially if you’ve only just started using it.
The templates section has a search option, as well as a host of different categories with stunning options for brands in any industry.
over instagram app templates
It’s an easy to use app that can transform standard images into brand messages in the touch of a few buttons.
If you’re looking to step up your branded content game, I predict that Over could become a big part of your Insta strategy in 2019.
This is what I achieved with the cow photo in no time at all (btw: if I had a different photo, I would’ve used a much more interesting template!):
over instagram app templates
Insta App for Stylish Story Editing and Planning: Unfold
If you want to separate your Instagram stories from the average, Unfold might be the app to do it.
This app is an Instagram story designer and builder, with a range of customisable templates. This allows you to create and check your story before uploading it to your profile.
If you have a message that you’d like to share with your followers through several story posts, you can format them on Unfold and then optimise your story for engagement.
unfold instagram stories app
Over 500 million Instagram stories are posted everyday and a third of the most viewed (of these) are created by businesses.
If you aren’t already, make sure you’re posting regular Instagram stories to entertain and engage with your audience.
Instagram stories are a great way of providing insights into your business and increasing brand visibility.
CLICK TO TWEET
Here’s what I was able to create with our cow photo on Unfold (in moments):
unfold instagram stories app
Insta App for Selfies and Touch-Ups: Facetune 2
If you’re an aspiring Insta influencer or you use lots of personalisation in your posts, Facetune 2 might be the app for you.
Like a few of the others in this list, Facetune 2 is a FREEMIUM product, but it comes with more than enough free tools.
To understand the true power of this app, you really need to install it, take a selfie and play around with their facial editing tools.
Facetune 2 can transform even the ugliest selfie into something beautiful.
The selfie editing tools include sliding scales that can adjust the size of your nose, mouth and eyes, smoothness adjustment (which removes blemishes) and teeth whitening.
Unfortunately, these editing tools don’t look that great on our cow.
facetune 2 instagram app
As well as being the ultimate selfie editing app, Facetune 2 also comes with some powerful tools that can transform regular photos. These include defocus, vignette, light FX, enhance, crop, neon, paint and many more (on the free version)…
…I spent a couple of minutes testing a few of these features on our cow photo, here’s how it came out:
facetune 2 instagram app
Insta App for Collages: Pic Stitch
The final app in our list is (what I consider to be) the best Instagram collage builder.
Pic Stitch comes with tons of different formats that can be used for almost any purpose. These are separated into two categories, Classic or Fancy:
pic stitch instagram collage builder
As you can see, there are a few locked templates (this is another FREEMIUM app), but there are more than enough collages to get started with.
The best thing about this app (and the reason it makes this list above other Insta collage apps) is the built-in editing software.
Pic Stich comes with a host of tools that can transform your pics before inserting them into the collage, and as you’d imagine, it’s really easy to use.
Conclusion
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