One shows you what your feed will look like before you publish. The other builds the carousel, the Reels script and the caption that do not exist yet. What each one solves, what each plan leaves out and what it costs per month, with prices read on each company's own pricing page.
Both show up in the same search for an Instagram tool, and what separates them is when they come in: Preview comes in once the images are already on your phone and you want to see the grid before posting, ZapPost comes in before that, when there is nothing yet to drag into the grid.
Go with ZapPost if
Stay with Preview if
The lines are split between what only one of them does and what both deliver, each in its own way.
Preview's four lines are visual planner work, and it does that work well. None of them writes the carousel that goes into the grid.
| Feature | ZapPost | PPreview |
|---|---|---|
| Only ZapPost does | ||
| Builds the carousel slide by slide, with the text already split up | ||
| Writes the Reels script and the caption with a CTA from the topic you pick | ||
| Matches the tone of your niche without you explaining the business every time | ||
| One fixed monthly price, with no per-device counting | ||
| Only Preview does | ||
| Shows the feed grid laid out, with posts in the order they will appear | ||
| Auto-posts to Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, from Premium up | ||
| Story, Reels and TikTok planners inside the same app | ||
| A library of over three thousand caption ideas, in the Premium Caption Finder | ||
| Both do | ||
| Help with the caption, each in its own way | ||
| Work with carousels and with Reels | ||
| Run from the phone, with nothing to install on a computer | ||
Seeing the grid laid out before you publish is free on Preview's bottom plan, and costs US$12.50/mo, billed yearly on Premium. That is cheap for what it does, and it is what keeps people who care about how the profile looks. Nothing in ZapPost fills that role.
Preview charges in dollars and has three steps, with the bottom one free. What changes between them is auto-posting, opening it on a computer and how many devices you get. ZapPost charges one price.
What exists is a 7-day guarantee. The card goes in right at the start.
The post ready on the spot, in your niche's tone, no commitment. Billed monthly; cancel anytime.
The same Studio, with premium personalization and priority support. You pay the 6 months at once.
One user, one device and no cap on how many posts you plan, with the Reels and TikTok planners, two filter packs, basic analytics, a video editor and fonts. It does not expire and it does not ask for a card.
Everything in Free plus all filter packs, repost, every caption font and the image splitter. Auto-posting is still out, so the post still leaves your hands at the set time.
Auto-posting to Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, the story planner, full analytics, competitor insights, the caption idea library, the desktop planner, unlimited devices and unlimited team members on a single subscription.
Before comparing the number, read the fine print under the table. The official page says the prices are in US dollars and billed yearly, and that monthly plans are available too, without saying what they cost. So US$12.50/mo, billed yearly is the per month figure for someone paying twelve months up front, and the month to month price only shows up inside the app. On our side, ZapPost costs US$19.00 a month on the single plan, or US$11.50/mo, billed every 6 months.
Preview does have a free plan, and it is one of the loosest around: it never expires, it asks for no card and it puts no ceiling on what you plan. ZapPost has no free version, only a 7 day guarantee, with the card going in at the start. Lining the two numbers up settles little, because they are not charging for the same job: one charges to organise what you already have, the other charges for the content to exist at all.
Preview's side comes first on purpose, because a comparison that only praises its own side helps nobody decide.
In the Studio you pick the format, say what it is about, and get the carousel, the Reels script or the caption ready to use. In Preview the grid stays empty until you have something to drag into it.
Premium's caption idea library solves the first sentence. The carousel slides are still your work in there, and that is the part ZapPost hands over finished.
Carousel, Reels script and caption with a CTA in one place, on the same day, in the tone of your niche.
US$19.00 a month on the single plan, with no per device counting and no extra line for a second screen.
You drag posts around until the order looks right and see the profile the way a visitor will. ZapPost hands you the file and shows no grid at all.
You plan as much as you want, for as long as you want, without paying. With ZapPost the card goes in at the start, with a 7 day guarantee.
The official page says one Premium subscription covers the whole team, and that you can invite people without handing over your Instagram password. ZapPost has no team feature.
Premium plans stories and lifts the cap on Reels and TikToks. ZapPost does not run a calendar of anything.
ZapPost solves the part where more people get stuck, and Preview solves the part that comes after. One takes care of the post existing; the other takes care of it landing in the right spot in the feed. Whoever gets to Tuesday morning with an empty grid has the first kind of problem.
The difference between the two shows up in which part of the week is still yours.
There is no blank screen and no assembling. In exchange, the feed gets organised somewhere else: ZapPost shows no grid and does not schedule.
Before step 1, you create the post. Preview picks up from the moment there is an image to upload.
You can use both. ZapPost builds the carousel of the day and Preview shows how it sits in the feed before it goes out: one covers exactly the other's gap.
No. ZapPost generates the content in the Studio and you download it ready to post; the visual planning stays with Preview or with whatever tool you already use. If you want to see the grid laid out before publishing, you need a planner, and Preview is one of the good ones, with a free plan that does not expire.
Partly. The Premium Caption Finder brings over three thousand caption ideas, with templates, opening hooks and calls to action for you to adapt. What the Tuesday post is about, the text on each carousel slide and the images are still yours to make. ZapPost hands that part over finished, with the Reels script and the caption alongside it.
Only on Premium. Auto-posting to Instagram, Facebook and TikTok sits in that column of the pricing table, at US$12.50/mo, billed yearly. On Free and Pro you get the reminder at the set time, open the app and post it by hand. ZapPost does not publish for you on any plan either.
Only with Premium. The desktop planner and unlimited devices sit in that column of the table. On the lower plans Preview lives on the phone, which is where it started.
Preview, by a wide margin: it has a free plan that does not expire, and Premium costs US$12.50/mo, billed yearly a month when you pay for the year. ZapPost sits at US$19.00 a month. The number only helps once you know which problem is yours: organising a feed that already exists, or writing the post that does not exist yet.
From Preview's official pricing page, opened on 22 September 2026, and from the ZapPost plans page. Preview's table shows only the figure for paying a year up front; its fine print says a monthly plan exists, without revealing the price.
The alternatives page for Preview lists four tools with each one's price and limits, and there the price does not help you choose: Planoly, Plann, Later and Pallyy all cost more than Preview Premium. What actually separates them is auto-posting without moving up a plan, opening the planner on a computer, or handling more than one profile. And the comparisons hub puts ZapPost next to each of them.
By Pedro, ZapPost. The Preview prices were read on the official pricing page on 22 September 2026, and the ZapPost one on the plans page. Prices change without notice: if the date above looks old, check the source before deciding.
Picking the tool is the easy part. The hard part is having content ready on Tuesday morning, when the day already started tight.
Cancel anytime. Results vary by niche and consistency.