5 Free Must-Have Apps for Instagram

Instagram has always been my favorite social media platform. The moment I joined Instagram I forgot about Facebook. That's because it allows me, an amateur photographer, to post the photos I take daily in my 24-hour stories without having to clog up my and my followers' feeds... 

As Instagram got more and more famous worldwide, it became more and more difficult for business accounts to get noticed even among their hard-earned followers and receive engagement...

In short, I'm in a love-hate relationship with Instagram but I keep working hard until I get that Swipe up feature only available to users with over 10K followers:)

If you are new to Instagram and are looking for easy and useful apps to make your work more professional and aesthetic, I want to present you 5 Free Must-Have Instagram Apps I love using on a daily basis.

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1. Canva

Canva is a Graphic Design, Video, Invite & Logo Maker.

All my Instagram posts are edited in Canva before being posted. Canva will make you feel like a pro graphic designer. You can design almost everything in Canva, from Instagram highlights to logos, birthday invitations, and school posters, collages, videos, the list is endless.

Now that I'm taking a Photoshop course, I keep saying to myself: "Why would I want to waste my efforts and time when I can do that with Canva in a few minutes".

I love Canva so much that I paid for its Pro version for a few months to create my Instagram logo (the only app I have ever invested money on).

2. Pixaloop

Pixaloop is a Photo Animator & Editor.

It lets you bring your photos to life in just a few steps: floating clouds, cascading waterfalls, animated flickers of flames, coffee steams, and lots of video effects and GIF-like flows for your Instagram stories especially.

You can also add fun overlays to bring mood, emotion, and movement to your still photos.

Pixaloop is super easy to use,  I've been using the free version and I find it very fun to use.

3. Story Maker

Story Maker is an Instagram Story Editor.

It has lots of templates and features for beautiful Instagram stories. I love that I can make Instagram Story collages with colorful borders and that I have a big variety of fonts to customize my photos or videos with texts.

This app is very user friendly with minimal ads however I wish it kept on adding and updating its templates as the themes are rather limited.

4. Repost

Regram Posts is an Instragram Repost app.

I use the Repost app most of all for my Teaching Instagram Account where I participate in different teaching loops. It's very easy to use, you just need to copy the link of the post you're planning to repost by clicking on the 3 dots in the upper right corner, open the app and past the link. Then the app automatically saves the post and the caption, you go back to Instagram and past it. That's it.

I do advise you to repost photos and video with watermarks thus giving credit to the original creators and respecting their rights.

5. Insights

Insights for Instagram is an app that lets you see your Mutual Followers: those who follow you back

Fans: those who you don't follow

Unrequited Followers: those who don't follow you back

Recent Unfollowers: those who have unfollowed you after following for some time

I must confess that it took me quite a long time to understand this Instagram follow-unfollow game. 

Why would people follow and unfollow you when you follow them back, I still don't get. Hence this app helps me to find my recent unfollowers and the bots. When you get rid of bots (people with 0 posts or no profile pictures, or with fake photos) you let Instagram show more of your content to your genuine followers. For it's not about the numbers, not about a bunch of uninterested and unengaging followers but a good community of engaging followers many of whom I  check on daily and can call friends.

I hope you found this post helpful and these apps will help you uplevel your game especially if you are new on Instagram and are still learning its algorithm. 

Find me on Instagram at My blog, coffee and camera! if you are really interested in my content. I am always interested in mutual support and engagement.

Read also 7 Instagram Post Ideas