Instagram’s heavily visual nature is obvious from the moment you open the app. You’ll instantly see a Reel or an image post from an account you follow. So success on the platform is all about creating visual content that stands out and gets people to pay attention.

Fortunately, that’s now as easy as a few simple taps with the right Instagram apps. There are plenty of Instagram marketing tools to help you create eye-popping content for your Feed.

Not exactly a master photographer or don’t consider yourself a creative type? No worries. We’ve rounded up some of the best apps for Instagram to help you get started.

What are the best Instagram apps?

The answer to that question will, of course, vary. It largely depends on numerous factors such as your needs as an Instagram content creator and what you’re looking to accomplish on the platform.

To simplify things, we’ve broken down our list of the 22 best Instagram apps (free and premium) by category. So review our tips to ensure that your visual content doesn’t go unnoticed.

Types of apps for Instagram

If you’re seeking information about a certain type of Instagram app, click the links below to jump to a category:

Instagram engagement apps

The more time and energy you spend on executing your Instagram marketing strategy, the more shortcuts you’ll need to save time. From finding your most engaging posts to speeding up your responses, you need a tool to manage their presence all from one platform.

1. Sprout Social

As a social media management tool, Sprout Social can do plenty to support your Instagram marketing.

The ability to queue up posts in advance is a game-changer for serial Instagram users. Instagram scheduling lets you plan out your content calendar without having to craft posts in real-time.

Sprout Social publishing calendar window showing the Instagram content plan for an entire week and another window of a new post being written

Sprout even aggregates your Instagram notifications in a unified Smart Inbox. So you never miss any shout-outs from your followers.

Also, Instagram analytics from Sprout clue you in on your top-performing posts. This allows you to keep creating the content your followers are hungry for, time and time again.

Overview section of the Sprout Social Instagram Business Profiles report showing the top three posts with the number of engagements they received

Manage your Instagram media with Sprout Social

Don’t let your efforts creating Insta-perfect images go to waste—use Sprout’s Asset Library to manage images, video and text assets.

Keep curated and approved campaign images on hand for any team member to access. And repurpose images across networks to get the most out of your content.

Start your free trial today and tag media into groups by type, campaign or more to track what has the biggest impact.

Instagram video apps

With short-form video having its moment, there’s no doubt you’ll want to create more Instagram Reels. But if you find the in-app tools to be too limited, unleash your creativity with Instagram video editing apps.

2. InShot

InShot is a user-friendly video editing app with powerful features to create stunning Instagram Reels. Add effects, stickers, text and other elements to enhance your videos. Create seamless transitions and adjust playback speed for the perfect cinematic effect. It even lets you remove backgrounds and shift the focus to the main subject.

Inshot webpage showing a woman holding an umbrella and smiling as her outfit transitions from purple to pink and text on the side that reads "made with inshot"and describing the features

Source: InShot

3. CapCut

CapCut is one of the most popular apps for video edits on Instagram. This TikTok-owned video editing app is perfect for multi-device editing. Besides basic video editing, it offers advanced tools for effects and transitions. It also comes with background removal and text-to-speech features to streamline your editing.

four panels showing different CapCut features - the first panel shows a transitioning image of a mountain with text that reads "super transitions", the second panel shows a photo of a woman with half of the background being cut out and text that reads "professional cutout", the third panel shows a woman sitting in front of a mic and text that reads "auto captions and lyrics", the fourth panel shows a woman with pink skin and lightning shooting out of her eyes with text that reads "effects & filters"

Source: CapCut

4. KineMaster

KineMaster offers thousands of video templates that you can easily customize to create Reels. Enhance your footage with the right color filters and adjustments. Adjust playback speed for a greater cinematic effect or remove background as needed. It also lets you composite your green screen video with footage from other videos.

four different panels showing video templates on KineMaster - the first panel shows a cherry blossom tree, the second panel shows three cutouts of the same woman, the third panel shows a man wearing a VR mask and a trail of his movement, the fourth panel shows a man skateboarding and a "ghost path" effect leaving a trail behind him

Source: KineMaster

5. Quik by GoPro

Quik makes it easy to edit your high-definition videos on your phone or tablet without ruining the quality on another editing app. While this Instagram video editing app is ideal for GoPro users, you can also use it to edit videos from other devices. With filters, trimming and cropping tools, it lets you adjust your videos with precision. You can even change video speed and auto-sync your edits to the music of your choice.

three panels with the first one showing a person holding a horse's face and a bunch of music track options below the video, the second panel showing a picture of a man jumping off a boat and speed controls below, the third panel showing a man surfing and a bunch of filters below the image

Source: GoPro

6. Splice

Splice promises pro-level editing tools in a mobile app. It boasts an intuitive user experience, making it suitable even for beginners. Adjust video speed, change colors and “splice” a different background in just a few taps. It even comes with automatic subtitles and an expansive music library for editing perfection.

a mobile phone screen showing a frame of a man surfing with a speed control panel beneath the footage

Source: Splice

7. VN Video Editor

VN Video Editor offers professional editing tools to create high-quality videos. It allows easy material selection and reordering to precisely arrange scenes and footage. Bring your cinematic vision to life with transitions, effects and rich filters. For seasoned editors, freeze frame and keyframe animation features allow for pro-level editing.

A sample Macbook screen showing the VN Video Editor control panel with footage of a mother elephant and its calf, with a sample phone screen positioned in front of the laptop and a footage of a man standing against a purple background

Source: VN Video Editor

8. VSCO

Want to make your videos look more “aesthetic” in just a few taps? Then VSCO’s your answer. The app’s expansive library of pre-built presets makes it easy to get the look you want for your videos without a lengthy editing process. It also lets you trim your videos, splice them together or adjust playback speed exactly as you need.

sample footage of a man wearing a salmon pink jacket over a while shirt and spreading his arms and a side panel showing the filter name

Source: VSCO

9. Lapse It

Lapse It is another app to create Instagram posts with a focus on timelapse. It provides a variety of editing options to make your timelapse content gorgeous. From backward looping to adding visual effects, eye-popping video is only a few taps away.

four panels showing different landscapes being filmed in timelapse and the Lapse It control panels displayed along with each landscape

Source: Lapse It

Instagram photo apps

Video may be huge on Instagram right now, but image posts are just as impactful. The latest Instagram stats show that photo posts from influencers see an average engagement of 1.17%. Meanwhile, carousel posts perform even better with an engagement rate of 1.7%.

With the right Instagram photo editing apps, you can take your image posts to the next level and get more likes.

10. Landscape by Sprout Social

Landscape is Sprout’s very own social media image resizing tool.

How does it work? Upload any photo that you’d like to share on Instagram, choose which post size you’d like to create, then guide the cropping and presto. This instantly aligns your posts with Instagram’s image size guide. No more weirdly cropped photos cutting out the most important elements.

photo of a city with a cropping tool highlighting the center of the image

11. BeFunky

BeFunky is a robust web-based photo editing tool, perfect for cleaning up pictures and designing graphics alike. The full suite of editing tools includes the ability to crop, resize, tilt, soften, sharpen and much more.

a black and yellow van parked in front of the beach with a surfboard on top and a left-hand panel showing the various editing tools on BeFunky

Source: BeFunky

12. PicMonkey

Sometimes an otherwise perfect photo needs a bit of touching up. PicMonkey is great for fixing selfies, allowing users to remove wrinkles and reduce shine. Meanwhile, a vast library of pre-made templates makes it easy to design stunning visuals to fill up your Feed.

the PicMonkey Instagram template window showing five sample templates and a blank template alongside a panel showing different template categories

Source: PicMonkey

13. Canva

If you’re looking to create social graphics from scratch, look no further. Canva boasts several templates for inspirational images, text-based photos, announcements and everything in between. With a Pro account, it even lets you create brand kits to easily reuse in your designs for consistent Instagram branding.

canva editing dashboard showing a sample template of a woman standing against a blue background and various text written in white within the photo and a side panel showing other template options

Source: Canva

14. Piktochart

Infographics get plenty of love on Twitter and Facebook, so why not Instagram? Piktochart offers attractive templates for those times when you want to hit your followers with a data-driven post.

sample templates on PiktoChart shown alongside a list of categories and the "social media" highlighted with a cursor in the front

Source: Piktochart

15. Snapseed

As one of the best photo apps for Instagram, Snapseed comes with powerful tools to create stunning Instagram visuals. Get pro-level editing with healing tools, brushes and HDRscape. Tune your images and add filters and effects to tell impactful visual stories.

four panels showing different Snapseed features with text that reads - "save and share your favorite looks," "perfect any photo fast using tools and filters," "tune any effect with precision," "pro-level editing tools e.g. Curves, white balance and RAW editing"

Source: Snapseed

Instagram Story apps

Instagram Stories give you the space to share real-time updates and time-sensitive offers. But if you’re looking to engage your audience, your Stories need to be just as visually impactful as your regular posts. The good news is you’ll find plenty of Instagram apps for business that let you create eye-catching Stories.

16. Hype-Type

Hype-Type‘s motion typography is enough to make anyone scrolling stop and stare. With the ability to emphasize and animate multiple phrases in a photo, this app is awesome for visually striking Stories.

three panels showing different hype-type features with text that reads - "animated text over image and video," "tons of animated video filters" and "edit photos and create beautiful design"

Source: Hype-Type

17. Storyluxe

Storyluxe lets you tap into 700+ photo and video templates to easily create Instagram Stories. Customize them with backdrop textures and colors to align with your brand aesthetics. Add custom text in your choice of designer font to share your message.

three different panels showing Storyluxe's various templates

Source: Storyluxe

18. Mojo

Mojo offers hundreds of animated templates to bring your Stories to life. Swap out colors and add eye-catching effects to make it your own. Animate text and graphics to grab attention and drive more actions.

sample Story featuring two women standing on grass with text overlay promoting 10% off on a new collection and a side panel with the option to swap colors

Source: Mojo

AI and automation apps for Instagram

Presets and effects make it easy to edit photos and videos for Instagram. But if you’re looking to scale your content efforts even further, you need to do much more than that. That’s where apps with AI and automation capabilities come in, saving you hours in creating scroll-stopping content.

19. Filmora

Filmora is one of the leading apps for video edits on Instagram, especially with its new AI-powered tools. The app comes with auto-enhancement, auto-reframe and AI object removal capabilities. It even lets you convert images or audio to video and easily turn them into Reels.

The Smart Short Clips feature extracts highlights from long-form videos and turns them into shorter clips. This makes it great for creating teaser videos to share on Instagram.

three panels showing different variations of a clip for YouTube Shorts, Instagram and TikTok

Source: Filmora

20. Descript

Descript is an AI video editor that streamlines content creation for Instagram. It lets you turn long-form videos or podcasts into short clips to share on your Reels and Stories. Its AI editing tools help you improve clarity, remove filler words and cut out unnecessary chatter. This makes it easy to create videos that always sound good.

footage of a woman wearing headphones and smiling at the camera with a side panel showing the video transcript and another panel showing various editing tools

Source: Descript

21. PicsArt

With powerful AI design tools, PicsArt is one of the best apps to create Instagram posts. Use these tools to extend your images, un-pixelate them or add a new background. You can even use the app to apply AI filters to your videos to get the perfect look.

one panel showing a square image of a woman's hand with two arrows pointing vertically toward the opposite end on each side against an empty background and a second panel showing an extended version of the same photo

Source: PicsArt

22. Vizard

Vizard positions itself as an app that lets you create social-ready videos using AI. Its AI editing capabilities include speaker cut and auto-reframe. It even lets you generate dynamic captions in 36 languages. AI B-rolls and animated emojis further let you create videos that grab attention.

one panel showing a person wearing headphones and talking in front of a microphone with another panel showing timestamps from the video and a zoomed in image of a hand holding burning dollars used as a thumbnail for one of the clips

Source: Vizard

Powering your Instagram strategy with Sprout’s AI tools

From engaging your audience to timing your posts, you need to be strategic with your Instagram marketing. Sprout’s AI and automation tools empower you to do just this in half the time.

Use automated routing and chatbots to manage customer messages. Let AI analyze sentiment, so you know which messages to prioritize. Then use AI-powered replies and summaries to speed up your responses.

Sprout Social conversation window showing a sample response in the compose window with a drop-down menu showing the different options to optimize the response using Enhance by AI Assist

Not sure if your captions are engaging enough? Use AI Assist to instantly enhance your captions—whether you want to shorten it or make it friendlier.

When you’re ready to publish, know the best times to post with Optimal Send Times suggestions. That way, your posts to go out at times when people are most likely to see them.

Do more with the right Instagram apps

Whether you simply want to enhance the look of your image or need a full-blown AI-generated video, there’s an app for it. Our comprehensive list covers all the bases. So all you have to do is try out these apps to create Instagram posts and see what works for you.

Want to test how Sprout’s AI tools can power your Instagram strategy? Sign up for a free 30-day trial to get started.