The entry plan is built for one person
Starter costs US$14.00 and comes with one user and one social set. Neither of them grows inside it: to hand access to somebody else, or to look after a second business, you move up to Growth.
Four tools for anyone who plans a feed in Planoly and ran into the entry plan, which covers one person and one social set and takes neither an extra seat nor an extra set. Three of them keep a free plan that never expires, one covers eight profiles on the same plan, and three cost more than Planoly.
ZapPost is number 1 on the list: it delivers the post ready to publish, instead of a tool for you to build it. Then come the four alternatives, in recommendation order. Click any one of them to drop straight to its block, with where it wins and where it loses.
| Tool | Best for | Free | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1ZapPostOurs | Getting the post finished, with nothing to build | – | US$19.00/mo |
| 2Later | Planning how the feed will look | – | US$25.00/mo |
| 3PPreview | Seeing the grid laid out, for free | US$12.50/mo, billed yearly | |
| 4PPlann | Feed grid with a free plan | US$15.00/mo | |
| 5PPallyy | Full Instagram toolkit for little | US$15.00/mo |
Planoly is where a lot of people lay out the Instagram grid before publishing, and the ones who leave tend to leave when the work stops fitting into one person and one profile.
Starter costs US$14.00 and comes with one user and one social set. Neither of them grows inside it: to hand access to somebody else, or to look after a second business, you move up to Growth.
One set covers one account on each network, one Instagram, one Facebook, one TikTok and so on. Anyone looking after two Instagram profiles, their own and a client's, needs the second set even when both post very little.
On Growth and on Pro you add people and sets on the side, and each addition is charged every month on top of the plan. The figure on the pricing table is the plan with nothing added to it.
Auto-posting runs when the network allows it. When it does not, Planoly sends a push notification at the scheduled time and you open the network's own app to publish. If you schedule precisely so you do not have to show up at that hour, that changes the plan for the week.
Visual planning is what it does best, and it is the tool that made seeing the grid before publishing a normal thing to do. Link in bio turns into a storefront for digital products with no transaction fee, automated replies to messages come on every plan, the calendar flags holidays and trending formats every week, and the trial runs for fourteen days. It only means there is a moment to look at the rest.
ZapPost is number 1 here too, and the alternatives come after it. Every block has both halves: where the tool wins and where it loses. The price is the month-to-month one, with no commitment, read on the official page on August 6, 2026. Where paying for the full year comes out cheaper, that shows up inside the block.
Generates finished Instagram content the moment the customer asks, tuned to their niche: a carousel, a Reels script and a caption with a CTA.
Where it wins
Where it loses
Best for: People who get stuck deciding what to post and would rather receive the content finished than build each piece.
Instagram-focused scheduler, known for showing the grid laid out before the posts go live.
Where it wins
Where it loses
Best for: People who want to see the feed laid out before publishing, and who already have something to post.
Mobile app that shows the grid laid out before you post, with a Reels and TikTok planner, free for one person.
Where it wins
Where it loses
Best for: People who plan everything on the phone and do not want to pay to see the grid.
Instagram planner with strategy built in: besides the grid, it suggests what to post each day and has a free plan for one brand.
Where it wins
Where it loses
Best for: Solo posters who want the grid laid out and a suggestion for each day.
Cheap scheduler built for Instagram: feed grid, first comment, product tags and AI captions, with a free plan of 15 posts.
Where it wins
Where it loses
Best for: People posting to one Instagram account who want a complete scheduler for little money.
It opens the table above, but it is not up for the same job. It handles the step before scheduling, and it has no free plan.
ZapPost does not publish at a set time, does not lay out the feed grid and does not answer messages. If what you need is to plan the grid and leave the post queued to go out on its own, stay with one of the four, or with Planoly itself.
What it solves comes earlier: deciding the subject and writing it. In the Studio you pick the format (carousel, Reels script or caption with a CTA), say what it is about, and get the post back in the tone of your niche. Planoly already suggests ideas and captions with AI on every plan; what no scheduler hands you is the carousel slide by slide, with the text split up and the slides ready to download.
It costs US$19.00 a month on the monthly plan. On the six-month plan it drops to US$11.50/mo, billed every 6 months. There is no free tier, only a 7-day guarantee, and the output is built for Instagram.
See ZapPost and Planoly side by sideThe list above is indexed by tool. This one is indexed by what stops you, which is how the decision usually arrives.
Where you get stuck is creating the post
No scheduler solves this different problem
That is where ZapPost comes in: you name the subject in the Studio and walk away with the carousel built, the Reels script or the caption ready to paste. Remember that it does not schedule: you download and post by hand, or drop it into the tool that already publishes for you.
You need more profiles on the same plan
Later US$25.00/mo
One Starter set covers eight profiles, from Instagram to TikTok, while Planoly's covers one account on each network. It also shows the grid before you publish and suggests a posting time for each profile. It costs US$25.00, the highest figure on this page, has no free plan, and Starter stops at thirty posts per profile each month.
You want to see the grid without paying anything
Preview US$12.50/mo, billed yearly
Its free tier is the loosest here: one person, one device and no cap on posts, with a Reels and TikTok planner alongside the feed. Publishing on its own at the scheduled time needs Premium, which runs US$12.50/mo, billed yearly. It grew up on the phone, and the desktop view is part of Premium too.
You want a suggestion of what to post each day
Plann US$15.00/mo
On top of the grid it builds a strategy and names the type of post for each day, which is more than Planoly hands you in planning. The free tier does not expire and covers one brand with thirty posts a month, Instagram only. The plan that unlocks the other networks costs US$15.00, above Planoly's Starter, and the suggestion stops at the post type: the writing still comes from you.
You run one Instagram profile and want to pay little
Pallyy US$15.00/mo
It is the most Instagram-focused of the four: feed grid, first comment, product tagging and trending audio, with a free plan of fifteen posts a month. Starter costs US$15.00 and stops at twenty posts a month, so posting daily means the tier above. One set of networks per subscription, same as Planoly.
It does, and it lives in the mobile app, with ten uploads a month. The paid plans open with a fourteen-day trial, and billing starts from there. If what you want is a free tier that runs on the desktop and never expires, Preview, Plann and Pallyy each have one; Later opens with a trial only.
Preview, at US$12.50/mo, billed yearly. Plann and Pallyy tie at US$15.00, and Later is the priciest at US$25.00. Worth saying plainly: Planoly's Starter costs less than three of the four, so price is rarely the reason to move.
Preview does, on its free tier, and so does Planoly, which puts no cap on uploads in Starter. Later stops at thirty posts per profile each month, Pallyy stops at twenty on Starter, and Plann's free tier stops at thirty. If you publish daily, check that number before the price.
No. ZapPost does not schedule, does not lay out the feed grid and does not answer messages: it generates the content on the spot, in the Studio, and publishing stays with you or with the scheduler you already pay for.
Each figure was read on the tool's own pricing page, on the date shown in the footer of this page. Planoly's is what its plan table shows for Starter, and paying month to month instead of a full year costs a little more.
Three of the four cost more than Planoly's Starter, and the only cheaper one charges for the whole year upfront. What actually changes is elsewhere: Preview, Plann and Pallyy keep a free plan on the desktop, while Planoly's free tier sits in the phone app. None of them decides what this week's post is about, and that is the part ZapPost hands over finished.
Results vary by niche and consistency.