40 Best Free Apps For Instagram In 2019

If you want to know what the best apps to use with Instagram are, then you’ll love this guide.

I personally downloaded and tested 40 of the best, most popular FREE apps for iPhone and Android that are sure to make your Instagram feed stand out.

And they’re divided into categories so you can go straight to the best tools for you to get better pictures and videos that are sure to improve your follower engagement.

Whether you want the best editing or filter apps, want to unlock advanced phone camera settings, or just need help with scheduling posts or finding hashtags, these apps have all that and more.

If you want to grow your Instagram account, use these apps to start adding followers like never before.

Here are the best apps to use with Instagram in 2018:

Best Apps for Editing Photos
Best Apps for Filters
Best Apps for Adding Color
Best Camera Apps
Best Apps for Creating Special Effects
Best Apps for Adding Text and Creating Graphics
Best Apps for Creating Collages
Best Apps for Video Editing
Best Apps for GIFs, etc
Best Apps for Finding Hashtags and Scheduling Posts
Best Apps for Instagram Analytics and Unfollowers

Best Apps for Editing Photos

Snapseed

Snapseed is one of the best free photo editing apps for both iPhones and Androids, which is the reason it’s one of the most popular apps to use before uploading to Instagram. If you need an app that has many of the same advanced features as a professional editing program, Snapseed is it.

Snapseed is highly popular due to its simplicity with most functions requiring just a swipe up and down or left and right to edit the photo.

It has everything from simple editing tools like “Brightness” and “Saturation”, to more advanced tools like “Healing” that can get rid of unwanted items in your photo, “Brush” that can edit individual parts of the photo and “Perspective” that can duplicate and add extra background in your photo along with other very useful tools.

For a full Snapseed tutorial see our previous post on how to use Snapseed to edit your Instagram photos like a pro.

Photo Editor by Aviary

One of the most frustrating parts about learning a new photo editing app is that often the app creators add many buttons in the app without explaining what they are.

Not with Photo Editor.

Every button and item has a description under it which makes Photo Editor one of the easiest and most user-friendly apps. It also has many unique features that other apps don’t offer. “Focus” will recreate bokeh shots with a blurry background, “Blemish” will help users get rid of unwanted spots in the photos and “Whiten” can help whiten teeth with one easy swipe.

Tadaa

Tadaa is a photo editing app that comes with preset filters and various editing tools like brightness, clarity, perspective, sharpen and others.

The blur function can add a bokeh-like blurred background while the HDR function will turn the photo into a high definition-like picture.

Some of the most unique tools of Tadaa are “Colorshift” which can add red, blue and green color layovers in the photo and “Distort” that can add a fisheye effect.

Adobe Photoshop Express

Most professional photographers use Adobe products to edit their photos before posting on any social media platform. Adobe also offers easy-to-use editing apps for phones such as the Photoshop Express for quick edits.

In this app, users can edit photos from their phone library, Creative Cloud or Lightroom CC Library. With functions like the magic wand, the app will edit your photos with one touch.

Photoshop Express also comes with preset filters and other manual functions like “Sharpen”, “Defog”, “Vibrance” and more. Other advanced tools include red-eye removal (even for pets) and spot removal.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

If there is one application that is a must-have for Instagram photographers, that is Adobe Lightroom.

Most big Instagrammers use Adobe Lightroom to edit their photos on their computers, but the same application is available on the phone. Adobe Lightroom is an all-inclusive application that allows users to edit anything from basic edits such as “Exposure” and “Contrast” to advanced editing like “Tone Curve”, “Split Toning”, “Dehaze” and “Lens Correction”.

This application is more advanced than most, but it also gives users the freedom to modify pretty much everything on their photos without having to use another application ever again. The only problem is you need to have a paid monthly subscription to Adobe’s Lightroom, Photography plan, or Creative Cloud plan to access it.

Best Editing Apps for Filters

VSCO

If there is one app that most Instagram influencers rave about, it’s VSCO.

Yes, you can use this app to edit your photos manually, but most people go to it because it has the best filters for Instagram, including some of the best filters for nature and the outdoors.

Although the free filters are pretty limited, many people dish out the extra cash to buy their additional presets individually or as a bundle. Unlike the Instagram filters that most people are tired of seeing, VSCO filters are fresh, hip, cool and can enhance your photos without making them look too “edited” or “fake”.

To learn more about how to edit photos using VSCO app, check out our detailed tutorial here.

Rookie Cam

Rookie Cam is a great editing app for beginner photographers.

Along with basic editing tools, this app has a very big library of preset filters and textures. Some collections like the “Ordinary Moment” and “Natural Beauty” are very natural and can give the popular editing app VSCO a run for its money.

One of the coolest features of this app that most other applications don’t offer is it’s “Light Leak” section that allows users to apply various artificial light leaks to the photos.

Priime

Have you ever wondered how your favorite photographers edit their photos?

With Priime you can get access to personalized filters created by top photographers from Instagram. Not only does each filter have a description about the artist, the app also tells you what occasions each filter is good for.

Some of the filters are free, but most of them cost extra. If you can’t find what you like, you can also use this app to edit the photos manually with basic functions like “Brightness”, “Contrast”, “Warmth” etc.

Best Editing Apps for Adding Color

Foodie

We all have that friend who has to take a photo of every meal they eat. And why not? With apps like Foodie, now you too can create amazing food photos with one click.

Packed with 31 different food-specific filters like “Yum”, “Tropical”, and  “Sweet”, Foodie has the best filters for food and can help Instagrammers and Yelpers take amazing pictures without doing a whole lot of work.

If you are not sure which filter to use, the app has even added a photo of suggested filter food like a steak, fruit or ice cream. It doesn’t get much simpler than this.

The downside is that many people report that this app has a habit of occasionally crashing while taking the photos which might leave your dinner partner waiting even longer.

A Color Story

A Color Story is a great app that can help you edit your Instagram photos like a pro.

A Color Story allows users to add very colorful filters and effects like light leak or flares to their photos. Some options are not free and require an additional purchase, but overall this app offers some of the best color filters and light flares available for phones.

Under the “Tools” section, this app offers more advanced editing options like “Curves”, “Highlights Color”, “Midtones Color”, “Shadow Color”, and other color related adjustments that most editing apps don’t offer.

Color Pop

If you want an app that will easily single out a subject or color, Color Pop is it. All pictures you upload into this app are converted to black and white and it’s up to you to select what colors to add back in.

Unlike other editing apps that can take a few days to get a hang of, Color Pop is very easy to use and has only one function- to add a pop of color in your black and white photo.

Black

Who knew there were so many variations of black and white photos?

One of the best Instagram apps for black and white pictures is Black. This app will turn any of your photos from color to black and white, similar to Instagram’s black and white filters but with many more custom adjustments.

This app is very easy to use and has some of the best black and white filters that you can apply with a simple swipe as well as more advanced features like “Fade”, “Vignette” and “Curves” available at an extra cost.

Best Camera Apps

Camera + (iPhone)

Camera + is an app to help improve your iPhone’s built-in camera to resemble those of a professional camera.

This app comes equipped with functions like touch focus, exposure, macro, selfie flash, horizon stabilizer, and more. Editing tools like clarity and auto adjust will enhance your finished photos with one click. You can also use this app to change your ISO and shutter speed on your iPhone like a professional camera would, but it’s an extra paid feature.

If you have been wanting to learn how to take silky smooth waterfall pictures with your iPhone without buying a professional camera, all it takes is this app and a couple of bucks.

Camera FV-5 Lite (Android)

If you want to practice advanced photography skills on your Android phone without spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a DSLR camera, try app Camera FV-5 Lite.

This app will allow users to change all the features like an advanced camera would. Some of the built-in FREE features include ISO, focus mode, white balance, shutter speed, and exposure.

The white balance function will help you control your indoor lighting settings so your indoor photos don’t come out looking orange or yellow. By increasing or decreasing ISO users can control how bright or dark photos look. Macro focus mode will add that blurred background that everyone loves to use these days and changing shutter speed can capture anything from quick action sports photos to flowy waterfall photos.

Best Apps for Creating Special Effects

Picsart

Picsart Photo Editor (Picsart Photo Studio for Androids) is the number #1 free photo editing app for creating awesome special effects on a phone.

Picsart has tons of artistic filters, awesome tools like Dispersion and millions of free stickers that can be added on photos.

This app comes with advanced layers, brushes and other editing tools that allow users to create cool effects from scratch and gives its users full creative editing freedom.

For a step by step guide on how to create amazing looks with Picsart, check out our full editing guide here.

Blend Editor

If you want to blend a couple photos together on your iPhone in an easy way, Blend Editor is the perfect app for that.

The app is simple to use and even offers preset backgrounds that the users can purchase for an extra charge. You’ll have to deal with the occasional pop-up ads in order to access certain free features, like the skyscraper background or the classic layout which brings in photos from your photo library to combine together.

Perfect365

Perfect365 is one of the best photo editing apps for selfies and makeup.

In this app, you can take a selfie and then apply various makeup applications such as lipstick, blush, darken your eyebrows or add a smooth foundation just like in real life. The app comes with various preset makeup filters, some of which are natural and look pretty real and some that are a bit more extreme.

This app is perfect for touch-ups or if you are not in the mood for a complete makeup makeover and want the app to do most of the work.

Photolab

With its funky filters, Photolab is one of the best Instagram apps with filters for selfies. With a few clicks, you can add a half tiger face to your selfie, place yourself on a Glamour magazine or be held by Justin Bieber.

The options of filters and edits are fun, unique and endless. On the downside, this app has lots of ads and can be pretty slow in applying the various filters.

Best Apps for Adding Text and Creating Graphics

Canva

Canva is the go-to design website for creating custom graphics. While it’s built to be accessed from a computer, it is also available for download in an app version.

Canva allows users to create anything from Pinterest posts, Facebook covers, blog graphics, presentations, invitations and much, much more.

To start off, select the project to work on (ex. flyer) and select one of the designed templates. Just about anything can be adjusted on the template from the text, photo, color, size etc.

Canva offers tons of modern, clean, and professional templates to choose from which makes designing easy and fun.

Over

If you are into creating personalized quote pictures, Over is for you. With Over you can upload photos from your library, add text to your photos, change the opacity, and select from many cool designs.

The downside is that many of the features in this app are locked for purchase and you might get a few popups asking to upgrade to the Pro version. If you have the patience to bypass the pop-ups, the free version is well worth it.

Quick

The idea behind the app Quick is to add text to social media and Instagram photos quickly.

All you need to do is select the desired photo from your photo library, crop if you wish and text will be added on the next screen. From there, you can change the color of the text by swiping on a color bar from left to right to choose different colors or change the text font.

The app comes with 16 free fonts and has many more fonts that can be purchased. While it’s great for anyone who would like to quickly add text to their photos in just a few seconds, the selection of fonts and styles is a bit limited.

Font Candy

Font Candy is another fun app to add overlay text to your photos.

Once the user selects the desired photo, the app offers different crop options like iPhone, iPad, square, etc. Then text or various artwork and stickers can be added on the photo and it even comes with preset sayings for themes like Love, Inspiration, Travel and others.

Best Apps for Creating Collages

Pic Stitch

If you have ever wondered how to make a collage for Facebook or Instagram on your phone, try out Pic Stitch.

It is very easy to use and offers over 70 free collage templates (and many more paid ones). Once you select your desired template, you can upload photos from your phone and move them around on the collage, zoom in or apply funky frames.

Each individual photo within the collage can be adjusted for items like brightness, saturation, vibrance and more.

Pic Collage

Another great app for combining photos and creating collages on phones is Pic Collage. The template section has many themed templates for holidays and special occasions such as Valentine’s Day, Birthdays, New Years etc.

Many of these templates are fun, look very professional and can be used to create invites or email cards. The app is easy to use and has a great, modern design.

Layout

Layout is an app that makes creating pic collages easy and simple.

The main screen automatically brings up photos from the camera roll and your selected photos will instantly be placed in various templates for you to preview. From there, you can choose which template to go with and continue with edits like flipping each photo upside down, mirror it, or add borders.

Best Apps for Video Editing

Quik

Quik was created by GoPro and is one of the easiest and best video editing apps for your iPhone or Android.

You simply select existing short videos or photos from your phone and the app will create a video for you. It will also add fun video effects like zoom in certain parts, different transitions, blurry background and great songs (disabled in the example video).

Quik has 25 themes to choose from and each theme has different transition effects and songs. It’s the perfect video editing app to create short videos highlighting special occasions or trips.

Splice

Another great video editing app by GoPro is the Splice Video Editor. This app has no preset themes like it’s sister app Quik, but it gives you more freedom to change and modify more items in the videos.

To start off, you simply select all the pictures or videos to upload into Splice and then clip each video, add text and music from the Splice library or your iTunes library on your phone.

This app is great for those users that like to control more of the settings than letting the app do most of the work like in Quik.

Flipagram

Flipagram is an editing app that can help users create slideshows of photos and short videos to post on social media for various occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, weddings etc.

To create a slideshow, you can select photos or videos from your phone’s library or Instagram library and add music to create a final slideshow. The final product can be posted within the app itself or on other social medias such as Facebook, Instagram, and others.

Within the app itself, users can participate in various Flipagram challenges. The winners of best slideshows from these challenges get featured on the main feed which can lead to millions of views.

Best Apps for GIFs and Moving Pictures

Boomerang

Boomerang is one of the biggest and best Instagram video apps right now. The idea behind this app is very simple – you hold the record button for a few seconds and Boomerang creates a clip that continually plays back and forth.

Usually, these videos look best if the subjects are performing an action like moving, jumping, cartwheels etc.

While some of these features have been integrated into Instagram stories already, using the app allows you to download the video and publish it in your feed or anywhere else you’d like.

Phhhoto

Another application similar to Boomerang is Phhhoto. This app will take a few pictures with your phone and then compiles them into one video that plays itself over and over again.

The main difference is it adds a little bit of movement, pixelated filter and faster speed at the end so it gives it a unique effect. From there, various other filters or effects can be added which makes this app the artsier version of Boomerang, but these effects cost extra.

Giphy Cam

If you are a GIF lover and ever wondered how to easily make your own GIF, this app is for you.

With Giphy Cam, you can upload an existing photo from your library or record a brand new one. Then, cool effects can be added to your GIF like a pixelated background, stickers, or text.

When you’ve created that perfect GIF for any occasion, you can text, tweet, post to Instagram, or share your GIF with friends.

DSCO

DSCO is an app created by the popular VSCO photo editing app. The purpose of DSCO is to record short GIF-like videos, apply filters and share with other users within VSCO.

The app is super simple to use, but has a few downfalls: there are limited filters, you can’t access existing photos or videos, and the GIF’s aren’t automatically saved if you don’t have reception so use with caution.

Hyperlapse

Hyperlapse is a simple and fun app that creates time-lapse videos. This app is great if you want to record something and make it a bit faster pace, like traffic and people in a city, clouds going over a mountain, or a beautiful beach sunset.

Once the video is recorded, it can be uploaded to Instagram, Facebook or even to Instagram Stories.

Hyperlapse is also great if you pair it up with a video editing app to make great montages or cool intros and take your videos to the next level.

Best Apps for Finding Hashtags and Scheduling Posts

Focalmark

Tired of using hashtags like #cutie and #love on your pictures? Searching for great Instagram hashtags can be tedious and time-consuming even if you follow our guide, but the app Focalmark is designed to help you find amazing hashtags beyond the generic ones everyone is using these days.

Focalmark is a great new app that serves as an Instagram hashtag generator that will help you find best 30 hashtags for your category within a few seconds. All you need to do is select a few items that describe your posts like “Wilderness”, “Landscape”, “Pacific Northwest” and the app will generate 30 hashtags that users can copy/paste into their captions or comments.

This app is great because not only it looks for hashtags within your category, but area/city/country specific as well. By using area-specific hashtags users will be able to connect with other like-minded people from their areas.

Planoly

If you like to plan ahead and want to schedule your posts, Planoly can help you do just that.

Scheduling is done through the Planoly website, which has a very modern, chic interface and offers free tutorials for new users. The app allows users to schedule 30 Instagram posts per month for free before having to upgrade to a paid version.

The best part about this app is the preview grid that shows all future posts in a 3 column layout just like they would look in your Instagram feed. To switch the photos around, you simply drag and drop the scheduled posts where you want them until you have created the best look for your Instagram feed.

Later

Whether you are a blogger, foodie, traveler, or manage a feature account, Later can help organize and pre-schedule your photos for Instagram from a computer. You can upload all of your photos into the media section, add captions, schedule photos and when the time comes, a notification will be sent to the phone to post.

This app is great for those who travel for extended periods of time and don’t always have the time to organize photos and add captions on the go.

Later has a clean layout and is user friendly; like Planoly, the only small downside is that Later’s free version only allows you to schedule 30 Instagram photos per month (basically 1 per day) which really shouldn’t limit most people.

TagsDock

If you need help finding relevant hashtags for Instagram or just want a place to store your favorite ones, TagsDock is designed to help with just that.

This app can be installed as a keyboard onto iPhones that holds a library of the most popular hashtags by different categories.

Whenever you post a new photo, you can access the TagsDock library, select the category that describes your photo, and quickly insert either your own or the suggested hashtags.

Best Apps for Instagram Analytics

Follower Insight for Instagram (Followers Insight)

Followers Insight is one of the best Instagram apps for followers. This app can provide details about your followers like how many followers you have gained, how many followers you have lost, who has blocked you and more.

Another great feature of this app is the Insight section that for an extra cost will tell you analytical information like who are your best followers that are always liking and commenting on your photos. By finding and interacting with your true fans you can get more consistent likes and engagement on Instagram.

UnFollowers on Instagram (Follow Free)

The main purpose of this app (as its name already indicates) is to help you find out who has unfollowed your account on Instagram.

Since Instagram doesn’t provide any notifications when somebody unfollows your account, many people use third party apps like Unfollowers on Instagram to figure out that information.

All you need to do is connect your Instagram account in this app and it will analyze that information for you as well as who are your new followers, who are people that you don’t follow back, who are people that don’t follow you back, and more.

Followers – Unfollowers (Android)

For those who get carried away with the Follow button on Instagram, apps like Followers -Unfollowers can help clean up Instagram accounts for Android users.

This app will ask users to connect to their Instagram account to import a list of people that they follow. From there the app will list out all the accounts you follow under “I follow” tab with a button option “Unfollow 20 from top” or “Unfollow 20 from bottom”. With a few simple clicks, users can unfollow many accounts.

What are your favorite apps?

Did we miss any on our list? Let us know!

Related Articles:

How To Choose The Best Beginner Camera

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VSCO Editing Tutorial For Instagram