If you are at all serious about operating your Instagram account, you need to keep a close eye on your analytics. Unfortunately, Instagram doesn't make things easy if you have a personal profile – they obviously don't believe you're serious! However, once you change to a Business Profile, you can begin to access much more useful information.
We have previously written about the benefits of having an Instagram Business Profile and how to switch over. One of the best benefits is that you gain access to Instagram Insights, providing you with a range of analytics and performance statistics for the average Instagram user. There are also quite a few Instagram analytics tools available (for those with Business Profiles), and some of these are even free.
Notably, 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business, underscoring the platform's potential for brand engagement. This article explores the best free Instagram analytics tools that can help you maximize your social media strategy without breaking the bank.
1. Sprout Social
Sprout Social has a suite of tools dedicated to Instagram management. These tools allow businesses to streamline content calendars, comment management, hashtag monitoring, report generation, and other tasks.
As part of its comprehensive solution for Instagram success, Sprout Social also enables multi-profile management, a full social CRM toolset, tracking and monitoring, post-level performance insights, and presentation-ready reports.
While its free social media tools are limited to an image resizer, a posting tool, and pre-formatted templates, you can try out its basic features for 30 days for free.
Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management platform designed for businesses, marketing professionals, and brands. It offers solutions for brands, agencies, and enterprises looking to grow their presence on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, and other social media platforms.
- Founded in 2010
- More than 1,000 employees
- 30,000+ brands and organizations served
Ratings:
4.4 out of 5 stars
Features & Pricing
- Content Calendar and Scheduling
- Collaboration Toolkit
- Smart Inbox
- Customer Relationships Management
- Analytics and Reporting
Price starts at: $249
Packages
- Standard ($249 per month)
- Professional ($399 per month)
- Advanced ($499 per month)
- Enterprise (Custom pricing)
Key Analytics Features
- Intelligent Instagram Monitoring
- Post-Level Performance Insights
- Follower Growth and Engagement Metrics
- Competitor Campaign Insight
2. Brand24
Brand24 makes social media monitoring reachable and valuable for everyone. As part of this, you can use it to expand on Instagram’s native insights.
Brand24 collects insights on what Instagram users say about your brand. For example, it can analyze the tone of conversations, monitor multiple hashtags, and provide a list of trending hashtags to help you increase your Instagram reach. Most importantly, it offers qualitative data to go with Instagram Insights’ quantitative data.
You begin by setting up a project for each branded hashtag you want to monitor. You can then use Brand24 to provide information on how your followers feel about your product or service. Its sentiment analysis for Instagram includes reputation management, customer feedback, and crisis prevention. You can use sentiment analysis to discover how your content resonates with your audience and adjust it if necessary if they indicate that your content is not exactly what they’ve been looking for.
Brand24 generates a list of 100 trending hashtags based on your predefined keywords. You can use the hashtags to boost your brand awareness and increase reach. You can also measure your hashtag efficiency to determine whether your campaign was successful and how the hashtag spread across social media.
You can also use Brand24’s hashtag analytics to compare your performance across different social media channels and choose the most suitable for your brand. As well as Instagram, you can use Brand24 to analyze hashtag performance on Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok.
While Brand24 is not a free Instagram analytics tool, you can carry out a 14-day free trial before having to decide on a paid plan. Paid plans start at $79/month.
Brand24 is a brand monitoring and social listening tool powered by AI. It helps measure the buzz around your brand or products through advanced analytics.
- Launched in 2012
- 10+ years in the industry
- 80+ specialists serving 154 countries
- 25B+ mentions delivered
- 25M+ active domains monitored
Ratings:
4.6 out of 5 stars
Features & Pricing
- Audience Segmentation
- Competitive Analysis
- Configurable Alerts
- Customer Engagement
- Dashboard
Price starts at: $119 (annual billing)
Packages
- Individual ($149 per month): 1 user, 3 keywords, 2K mentions monthly, updates every 12H, basic AI features
- Team ($199 per month): Unlimited users, 7 keywords, 10K mentions monthly, hourly updates, basic AI features
- Pro ($299 per month): Unlimited users, 12 keywords, 40K mentions monthly, real-time updates, advanced AI features
- Enterprise ($499 per month): Unlimited users, 25 keywords, 100K mentions monthly, real-time updates, advanced AI features
Key Analytics Features
- Influence Score
- Sentiment Analysis
- Alerts
- Data Exporting
- Filtering
- Mentions Feed
- Discussion Volume Chart
- Marketing Analytics
3. Planable
Planable is a robust social media management tool designed to streamline the planning, collaboration, and analysis of your social media content. For Instagram, Planable provides an array of powerful analytics features that help you understand your performance, refine your strategy, and enhance engagement with your audience.
Notable Features
Planable provides a clear and intuitive dashboard that consolidates all your Instagram metrics in one place. This dashboard displays essential data such as likes, comments, shares, and follower growth, making it easy to track your performance over time. The user-friendly interface ensures that even those new to analytics can navigate and interpret their data effectively.
Planable analytics
One of Planable’s standout features is its ability to offer in-depth metrics for each piece of Instagram content. You can see how your audience engages with every post, from impressions and reach to more granular details like engagement rates and sentiment analysis. This level of insight helps you understand what content resonates most with your followers, allowing you to refine your strategy accordingly.
Instagram analytics
Planable’s audience insights feature provides detailed demographic information about your Instagram followers, including geographical spread, age, gender, and professional info. This detailed data allows you to tailor your content to better meet the interests and needs of your audience, enhancing engagement and fostering a stronger community.
For teams, Planable offers seamless collaboration capabilities. It allows multiple team members to work together on Instagram content creation and planning, with all feedback and approvals managed within the platform. This ensures a smooth workflow and reduces the chances of errors or missed posts, making it easier to coordinate efforts and maintain a consistent brand voice across all posts.
Speaking of this functionality, one of Untapped’s team members said
Instagram content creation
Creating reports for stakeholders or clients can be time-consuming, but Planable simplifies this process. The platform allows you to generate comprehensive reports quickly, compiling all relevant Instagram metrics and insights into a professional format. This feature is particularly useful for agencies and businesses that need to demonstrate their social media performance and ROI.
Planable report
Pricing Information
Planable offers a free plan with 50 total posts, perfect for basic Instagram management. Planable’s paid plans include:
- Basic plan: $39/workspace/month with 60 posts/workspace
- Pro plan: $59/workspace/month with 150 posts/workspace
- Enterprise plan: Custom pricing with unlimited posts, multi-level approvals, and dedicated support
All paid plans include approval workflows and analytics add-ons.
4. HypeAuditor
HypeAuditor is a vast database powered by artificial intelligence that’s indexed nearly 3 million Instagram profiles. Aside from holding a wealth of information, it can clearly distinguish real influencers from those who pretend to have the status, but really only have fake followers.
HypeAuditor was purpose-built for fraud detection. It analyzes influencer profiles, digs deep into each audience, and is generally on the lookout for the kinds of data that can expose fraud. It includes 28 different metrics and scores, giving users a thorough understanding of who they’re dealing with.
It all starts with the Audience Quality Score (AQS) that judges an influencer’s actual value from 1 to 100. You can feel comfortable with influencers who score >70. It gives you a good indication of how many of an influencer’s followers are quality, too.
HypeAuditor doesn’t just provide the stats; it indicates the quality of many metrics, e.g., engagement rate, authentic engagement, followers reachability, and much more.
HypeAuditor doesn’t have a free plan, but being pay-as-you-go, it doesn’t cost much if you have minimal usage needs. Moreover, the platform offers several free tools you can use for your Instagram analytics. These free tools include AI-powered Instagram Post Advisor, Instagram Engagement Calculator, Instagram Lookalike Finder, Instagram Post Engagement Rate, and Trending Instagram Hashtags by Country Tool.
From a follower authenticity tool, HypeAuditor has grown and transformed into a comprehensive influencer marketing platform. Powered by AI and other advanced technologies, it empowers brands to track and analyze hundreds of metrics on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, and X (Twitter).
- Launched in 2017
- 140 employees serving clients from 24 countries
- 750,000+ influencers and business users
- 1,000+ clients
Ratings:
4.7 out of 5 stars
Features & Pricing
- Search/Discovery
- Campaign Reporting
- Influencer Analysis
- Audience Analysis
- White Label Reporting
- Fake Follower/Fraud Detection
Price: On request
Packages
*HypeAuditor does not publish its pricing and packages. Interested clients can contact them and get customized plans according to their specific needs.
Key Analytics Features
- Reports & Dashboards
- Report Customizability
- Report Exporting
- Social Analytics
- Competitor Analysis
- Follower Analysis
- Post Performance
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, White Label Reporting, Fake Follower/Fraud Detection,
Channels: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter
5. Instagram Insights
All business profiles automatically gain access to Instagram Insights – Instagram’s free “in-house” analytics tool. It gives data on your follower demographics and actions, along with analytics about your content.
Once you convert a personal account to a business account, you will see Insights relating to the content you post after you make the switch. You can access your Instagram Insights in multiple ways – from your profile, individual posts, and your stories.
You will find a summary of data for the content you’ve posted in the last seven days. It also shows you how many followers you have and how many you’ve gained in the past seven days. Likewise, it shows you the total posts you’ve made, and how many you’ve added in the last week.
Further down, you will find data such as total impressions, reach, and profile views for the past seven days. You can swipe to view website clicks and call-to-action button clicks – Call, Email, Directions.
Instagram Insights includes considerably more statistics, including:
- a summary of your follower demographics
- data for individual posts
- insights from your Instagram Stories
- paid promotions data (if you have it)
Instagram Insights is a built-in tool available on the Instagram mobile app. It can be used to monitor content performance and check out trends on the platform.
Ratings:
no ratings
Features & Pricing
- Recent Highlights
- Insights Overview
- Content Performance
Price: Free
Packages
*Instagram Insights is free to use on the mobile app.
Key Analytics Features
- Account Reach and Engagement
- Content Interaction
- Followers Insight
- Number of Plays
6. SocialBook
SocialBook provides AI-powered data analytics for any Instagram, YouTube, or Twitch influencer. It provides you with detailed data analytics for any influencer. Although you will need a membership for serious analysis, you can view some data for a limited range of influencers using the SocialBook Checker plugin on Instagram and YouTube. You do need a paid plan to do an advanced search, however.
You will find a wide variety of stats for your influencers. Obviously, the data for Instagrammers varies from what SocialBook provides for influencers on YouTube or Twitch.
Each Instagram influencer profile begins with basic stats, like total followers, likes, and posts. This is followed by a cost in “BoostCoins” to see more details about the influencer, and the channel’s primary language. BoostCoins are a virtual currency on SocialBook. More importantly, SocialBook also gives each influencer a Boost Score, a score from 0 to 100 based on how powerful they believe an influencer to be.
They follow this with the Top Ten Tags the influencer uses in his or her posts. The next section includes a range of recent posts made by the influencer, showing the number of likes and comments for each post.
SocialBook then provides an estimated price range based on an influencer’s historical performance and subscriber behavior, as well as an estimated cost per 1000 Likes.
The rest of each influencer’s page includes much more detailed analytics. These include multiple impression and engagement stats, split up in almost every way imaginable. It also analyzes audience demographics and interests.
SocialBook is an influencer marketing intelligence platform that gives users access to real-time and in-depth information from a massive database of millions of influencers and users.
- Founded in 2014
- 20+ support team members
- 8M+ influencers on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch
Ratings:
4.2 out of 5 stars
Features & Pricing
- Influencer Database
- Influencer Payout Management
- Competitor Monitoring
- SocialBook Checker
- Dripping Email and Social Mailer
Price starts at: $499
Packages
- Platinum ($499 per month)
- Enterprise (custom pricing)
Key Analytics Features
- Performance Prediction
- Unlimited Search
- KPI Tracking
- Competitor Tracking and Monitoring
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, Payment Processing,
Channels: Instagram, YouTube, Twitch
7. Pixlee TurnTo
Pixlee TurnTo offers a free tool where you can create shareable weekly reports with analysis and metrics that help you drive more engagement and attract new followers.
You can use Pixlee’s data to identify social media influencers, find brand advocates posting about your brand, and connect with social influencers and brand advocates. You can also monitor conversations and identify top-performing content
It includes hashtag statistics and tracking, growth in Instagram followers, and the data needed to identify your most engaging posts.
Pixlee TurnTo is an influencer platform that allows for UGC management and content creation and provides Instagram follower tracking tools and review management in one place. It integrates your influencer content with other marketing channels.
- Launched in 2012
- Trusted by 1,000+ global brands
Ratings:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Features & Pricing
- Content Amplification
- Search/Discovery
- Influencer Relationship Management
- Influencer Marketplace
- Team Collaboration Tools
- Content Review
- Content Library
- Campaign Management
- Campaign Reporting
Price: On request
Packages
*Pixlee TurnTo does not publish its pricing and packages. Request a demo to discover how they can tailor solutions that fit your needs and budget.
Key Analytics Features
- Influencer Link Tracking
- KPI Tracking
- Social Engagement Metrics
- eCommerce Conversions
Key Features: Content Amplification, Search/Discovery, Influencer Relationship Management, Influencer Marketplace, Team Collaboration Tools, Content Review, Content Library, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting,
Channels: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter
8. Emplifi.io
Emplifi.io provides a free Instagram analytics tool for both Personal and Business Profiles. It gives you statistics on your most popular Instagram posts, so you can track your success, and learn what gets your audience double-tapping.
If you have more advanced Instagram needs, then you will find more advanced capabilities in the Emplifi.io unified marketing platform – an AI-powered social media marketing suite. You can manage your social media accounts smarter by using AI to discover what posts to promote, when to publish them, and which audience segments to target. Emplifi.io allows you to take their suite for a test run in a quick-to-learn personalized trial.
Emplifi is a customer engagement platform dedicated to connecting brands and consumers on social media channels and beyond.
- 20+ years in CX
- 20,000+ brands served
- 20M+ social profiles monitored
- 4B+ customer interactions each month
Ratings:
4.4 out of 5 stars
Features & Pricing
- Content Hub and Creators Suite
- UGC Management
- Unified Analytics
- Multi-channel Engagement
- Product Feed Integration
Price: On Request
Packages
*Emplifi does not have set pricing or packages. Sign up for a free trial to discover the ideal setup for your specific needs and budget.
Key Analytics Features
- Customer Intelligence
- Competitive Benchmarking
- Content Velocity and Visibility
- Dashboards and Reporting
9. Brandwatch Consumer Intelligence
Brandwatch’s tool Listen provides a range of analytics to build an effective social strategy and inform day-to-day execution on social media. This includes:
- Profile analysis
- Keyword listening
- Campaign reporting
- Competitive analysis
- Research
You can analyze engagement with your posts, discover fans, and identify your top content. It monitors engagement with your Instagram accounts continuously, giving you the latest insights as they happen.
Although plans range from $49 to $199 per month, you can take a free Instagram account checkup. The free Instagram analytics checkup connects with Instagram to analyze the last 30 days of activity on your account, including your posts and engagement from your fans, to give you critical insights into how to improve. These include:
- the best times to post new photos and videos to receive the most significant response from your audience
- which posts resonate with your followers and which posts fall flat, so you can do more of what works.
- the kind of posts you share and what else you can add to your feed for more engagement
- what hashtags result in the most engagement for your posts to get in front of new audiences
Brandwatch has a social media management platform you can use to manage Instagram along with your other social media channels. This gives you access to a social listening tool, centralized social CRM, custom dashboards, and other advanced tools.
- Founded in 2007
- Over 1,000 employees
- Serving more than 5,000 established brands worldwide
Ratings:
4.8 out of 5 stars
Features & Pricing
- Content Calendar
- Ad Campaign Automation
- Performance Tracking and Benchmarking
- Audience Data
- Social Listening
Price: On Request
Packages
*Brandwatch does not have standard pricing or packages. Its products and services are fully customized according to each client’s needs. Book a meeting with them to know what packages they can offer your business.
Key Analytics Features
- Sentiment analysis
- Historical data
- Over 100 million data points online
- Mentions monitoring
Top Features to Look for in Analytics Tools
Analytics tools empower you to make data-driven decisions that pave the way for business growth. While there are a lot of free tools available online, you may want to consider investing in premium tools that provide more comprehensive data and in-depth insights. Here are some of the top features to look for when choosing analytics tools.
1. Comprehensive Analytics
To gain a holistic view of your Instagram performance, look for analytics tools that offer both basic and in-depth metrics. Make sure it covers the basics, including audience demographics, hashtag tracking, competitor analysis, and engagement monitoring. Then check for its capabilities for in-depth metrics that provide more comprehensive insights into aspects such as sentiment analysis and campaign performance.
2. Real-Time Insights
Real-time analytics and insights allow marketers to stay in the loop with ongoing conversations and trends. This feature provides a snapshot of online discussions that help you understand your customers better. It's an invaluable asset for evaluating your social media channel performance and adjusting your marketing campaigns to align with customer preferences.
3. Usability and Customization
An ideal analytics tool should be user-friendly. Aside from an interface that is easy to navigate, it must also create reports that can be easily interpreted. Customizable reporting options enable you to tailor data presentation to your unique needs. This not only helps you glean insights faster but also simplifies collaboration within your team and communication with clients.
4. Attribution Models
Effective analytics tools offer a combination of attribution models. Media mix models provide aggregated campaign-focused data over an extended period, while multi-touch attribution offers person-level data. Instead of choosing between these two, look for tools that integrate various attribution methods. Having a mix of models gives you a more accurate understanding of your marketing efforts' impact.
5. Reliable Data Sources
The quality and quantity of data depend on the sources accessible to the analytics tool. Third-party tools are often chosen when structured, reliable data, and data science expertise are unavailable in-house. So the tool you select should have access to diverse and dependable data sources to ensure the data you rely on is both comprehensive and trustworthy.
6. Contextualized Insights
Beyond raw data, the best analytics tools provide contextualized insights. Along with delivering accurate numbers, the tool must also give you insights into why these numbers matter to your marketing strategy. This would enable you to fine-tune and optimize your campaigns more effectively.
7. Affordability
Your choice of an Instagram analytics tool should fit within your budget and provide value for your investment. Assess the capabilities of the tools and how they can help you achieve your goals. Then consider your financial constraints and determine how much budget you can allocate. Choose the tool that can potentially deliver the highest returns.
These are just the main features you should consider when choosing analytics tools. Keep in mind that your business has unique needs that require unique solutions. The tools you use for analytics must be aligned with these needs for you to achieve your marketing and business goals.
What metrics should you track to measure Instagram performance?
To truly understand how your Instagram account is performing, you need to track a range of metrics that offer insights into how well your content is resonating with your audience and how effectively you're reaching new users. Here's a breakdown of the key metrics to focus on:
1. Follower Growth Rate
This shows how quickly your follower base is increasing. Instead of just looking at the total number of followers, Sprout Social suggests examining the growth rate over time to assess the success of your campaigns and strategies.
2. Engagement Rate
This metric includes likes, comments, shares, and saves relative to your follower count. A high engagement rate, as highlighted by Brand24, indicates that your content is hitting the mark with your audience.
3. Reach
Reach measures how many unique users have seen your posts. It’s a vital metric that helps you gauge how far your content is spreading across Instagram. Tools like Iconosquare provide detailed analytics to track and enhance your content's reach.
4. Impressions
This tracks the total number of times your posts have been viewed, even if viewed multiple times by the same user. Using Planable's intuitive dashboard, you can easily track your content's visibility.
5. Website Clicks
This metric shows how many users clicked on links in your bio or posts, indicating how effectively your Instagram presence is driving traffic to your website. SocialBook’s performance prediction tools can provide insights into boosting this metric.
6. Profile Visits
Monitoring the number of users visiting your profile offers insights into your brand's attractiveness and content appeal. Pixlee TurnTo can help you identify social media influencers who are bringing new visitors to your profile.
7. Story Engagement
For Instagram Stories, metrics like views, replies, and exits show how engaging your content is. Emplifi.io offers insights on story engagement to refine your strategy further.
8. Content Saves
The number of times users save your posts reflects the value they find in your content. Instagram Insights can help you track these saves to understand what types of content are most valued by your audience.
9. Video Views
If you post videos, tracking the number of views can help you understand their effectiveness and audience interest. Brandwatch provides detailed analytics to optimize your video content strategy.
Wield Analytics Tools for Instagram Success
Social media trends shift in the blink of an eye. To keep up with the changes and adapt fast, you need the latest and most advanced analytics tools in your marketing arsenal. With the right tools, you can transform mere social posts into strategic business maneuvers.
Our list of top analytics tools for Instagram can keep you agile with data-driven insights that enable you to fine-tune your social media marketing strategies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparing Instagram Analytics Tools
Instagram analytics tools are designed to track various metrics, providing insights into your social media performance. These tools monitor key indicators such as follower growth, engagement rates, reach, impressions, and audience demographics. Explore the section below for an overview of even more Instagram tools for marketers and creators:
- Top 26 Instagram Marketing Tools for 2024
- 19 Instagram Tools to Help You Build Your Following
- 6 Tools to Track Your Instagram Followers
- Top 11 Instagram Scheduler Apps & Tools To Automate your Instagram Posts
- Top 21 Influencer Marketing Tools for Instagram to Try in 2024
- Top 18 Instagram Influencer Search Tools to Find Influencers in 2024
- 12 Tools to Run an Instagram Audit in 2024
- Top 16 Instagram Scheduling Apps and Tools to Automate Your Posts in 2024
What is the best Instagram analytics tool?
The best Instagram analytics tool varies depending on your specific needs and budget. Some popular options include Brand24, Sprout Social, and Brandwatch. To determine the best tool for you, consider the features, pricing, and integrations that align with your goals.
Is there an official Instagram analytics app?
While Instagram provides its own analytics tool, Instagram Insights, there isn't a standalone official Instagram analytics app. You can access Instagram Insights within the Instagram mobile app or through the web interface.
How much does Instagram analytics cost?
The cost of Instagram analytics tools varies widely and may reach hundreds of dollars per month for enterprise users. Some tools offer free versions but may have limited features available. Most platforms have monthly subscription plans that are tiered according to features. Expect to shell out at least $50 per month for basic analytics. If you require a higher level of sophistication and features, allocate around $200 or more per month.
How do I change my Instagram account to a business account?
To access Instagram Insights, you first need to change your personal account to a business one. To do that, follow these steps:
- Go to your profile and tap the menu icon in the upper right corner
- Tap Settings
- Tap Account
- Tap Switch to Professional Account.
- Tap Business
- Optionally, follow the steps to attach your account to a Facebook page
- Add details about your business, e.g., business category and contact information
- Tap Done
Is Pixlee free?
Although Pixlee’s main product (a UGC and influencer marketing platform) isn’t free, the company offers a free Instagram analytics tool. They believe their Instagram Analytics Tool is an effective way to capture the data that matters most and deliver it right to your inbox. Their Instagram Analytics Tool is free and does not require a Pixlee account. They believe in making it easy to collect social analytics to inform your business decisions.
Are there any free Instagram analytics?
Yes, there are Instagram analytics tools you can use online. HypeAuditor’s Trending Instagram Hashtags, and Analisa.io’s AI Instagram Analytics are some of the free tools available. They provide basic insights into your account's performance, engagement metrics, hashtags, and audience demographics. However, for more advanced features and in-depth analysis, you may need to invest in paid analytics tools.
