10 Best Story Scheduling Tools For Free In 2023

Instagram stories are like the cherry on top of an already perfect cake. They add that extra oomph and personality to your account, making it more engaging and attractive. 

But, let’s face it, Instagram stories can be quite a hassle, taking up an infinite amount of time to curate, create, edit, and repost. Not forgetting the constant worry of ‘am I posting enough stories?’.

Luckily for you, you have  Instagram story-scheduling apps to the rescue. These apps help you schedule your stories in advance and save you from the dreaded last-minute scramble for content. 

So, let’s say you want to schedule stories for a whole week. Instead of going through the same process every single day, you can create your stories ahead of time and schedule them to be posted at specific times, every day or after a few days. 

That way, you don’t have to worry about checking in daily. The posts will be automated, and you can relax knowing that your stories are taken care of. 

Why Do You Need Instagram Story Scheduling Apps?

The answer is simple: time-saving. 

With Instagram story scheduling apps, you can plan and schedule your stories in advance. 

But that’s not all, here are more reasons why you should use Instagram story scheduling apps:

• You can create stories in bulk and schedule them. 
• You can monitor your Instagram stories’ performance easily. 
• You can save time editing your stories. 
• You can find interesting content ideas to add to your story.
• It helps you ensure your stories are posted regularly and on time. 
• You can see how your story sequence flows
• It helps you find better captions and hashtags for your stories
• The analytics provided by some apps allow you to track your story’s performance and adjust accordingly.

With that said, let’s look at the 10 best Instagram story scheduling apps for free in 2023:

#1. SocialBu

SocialBu sticks out from the rest of the pack thanks to its neat and straightforward interface. It lets you upload, schedule, review, and repost stories with just a few clicks.

The tool offers free and paid plans, and you can schedule up to 30 stories with the free plan.  

Even better, SocialBu isn’t only limited to Instagram stories. You can schedule posts to just about any social media platform out there.

The tool also offers advanced features like story analytics and team collaboration. Plus, you get access to customer support 24/7 — a big plus. 

Suffice it to say the tool has all the features you might need to create and schedule amazing Instagram stories and more.

Here are some of its features:

• Post Scheduling
• Instagram Stories Scheduling
• Social Calendar
• Post Preview
• Custom Queues
• Location Tagging
• Social Inbox
• Dynamic Automation
• Automate messages and responses
• Advanced Analytics
• Social Media Monitoring
• Hashtag suggestions
• And more..

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• The platform allows you to manage multiple social media accounts, not just Instagram.
• It has a simple, user-friendly interface
• The dynamic automation feature is like no other. 
• Advanced analytics and hashtag suggestions will help you optimize your stories’ performance.
• It only takes a few clicks to schedule stories. 

Cons: 

• The free plan is quite limited in terms of features and posts you can schedule.

Price

SocialBu offers a free plan and paid plan. Their paid plan starts at $8/month.

#2. SmarterQueue

SmarterQueue is as feature-rich as the rest, but its intuitive design sets it apart.

The scheduling tools help content creators, entrepreneurs, marketers, and web admins gain complete control of their social media profiles.

It allows you to schedule posts, stories, and even videos effortlessly. 

What’s more?

You can bulk-upload your media files and manage their drafts in the same place.

You can also import content from RSS and CSV feeds, as well as from popular content libraries.

The tool provides loads of features, including post-scheduling, advanced analytics, content assistance, content variations, etc.

It’s an excellent choice of tool for personal brands, agencies, and large teams.

Features

• Scheduling
• Analytics
• Social media monitoring
• Recycling
• Customer support
• Visual calendar
• Content curation
• Customized categories
• Social Inbox

Pros and Cons

Pros

• The tool is intuitive and user-friendly. It provides plenty of features, from post-scheduling to analytics and content curation.
• It’s an excellent choice of tool for those who want to stay active on multiple social networks without sacrificing quantity and quality.
• It allows you to manage all your social media accounts from a central place.

Cons

• You can’t use multiple photos on one post.

Price

SmarterQueue offers a free and paid plan. Their paid plan starts from $19.99/month.

#3. Planoly

Planoly is an easy-to-use social scheduling tool that helps you create and schedule Instagram stories.

The platform distributes social media files into scheduled, unscheduled, and drafts.

It allows you to organize your posts into different folders.

It’s also worth mentioning that the platform is an official Instagram and Pinterest partner, so there’s no risk of getting shadowbanned or anything like that.

Pros

• You can create different hashtag groups for your posts
• You can reply to your social media comments from a central place
• You can create your social media posts
• You have more than a hundred templates to choose from
• You can access previously saved layouts to create new Insta stories quickly

Cons

• Quite challenging to use if you’re a beginner
• Limited auto-posting

Features:

• Post scheduling
• Stories Scheduling
• Advanced Analytics
• Hashtag Monitoring
• Post Notifications
• Customer support
• Image Filter
• Auto-post first comment
• Quick schedule
• Drag-and-drop editor
• Comment inbox option

Price

Their free account allows you to schedule up to 30 stories per month, while their paid plans start from $7/month.

#4. Later

Later is an all-in-one social media scheduling platform.

It helps you create and schedule posts for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. 

You can plan, schedule, analyze, and collaborate on social media posts. 

The tool offers auto-posting, hashtag tracking, analytics, post previewing, and more.

The tool is free, but you can upgrade to their paid plan for more features. 

Their drag-and-drop feature makes it easier to manage your content and schedule posts.

Supported Social Media Platforms:

• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• TikTok
• Twitter

Features: 

• Post scheduling
• Hashtag tracking and suggestion
• Analytics
• Content creation tools
• Unlimited media
• Paid campaign tracking
• Report customization
• LinkedIn bio
• Visual Instagram planner

Pros and Cons

Pros

• The platform is easy to use, even for beginners.
• The tool has functionality for developing better content.
• You can have multiple users assigned to one account
• It provides a visual planner that helps you plan your content.
• Its calendar feature allows you to plan your content weeks.
• Their hashtag suggestion tool can help you find the best hashtags for your posts.

Cons

• Only links to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. 
• Their free plan only limits you to about 30 posts per month
• Placeholder images cannot be uploaded

Price

• The free plan allows you to schedule up to 30 posts per month, and the paid plans start from $15 to $40/per month.

#5. MeetEdgar

MeerEdgar is the platform you use to stay consistent on social media. 

You can use the tool to schedule posts and manage your social media accounts all in one place. 

It allows you to upload, preview and schedule Instagram stories and add videos or photos. The tool offers analytics and insights on post-performance, allowing you to track the success of your campaigns.

Features:

• Post scheduling
• Auto-posting feature
• Content Library
• Post suggestion tool 
• Analytics reports
• Weekly automation
• Customer support
• Category-based scheduling

Supported Social Media Platforms

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Pros and Cons

Pros

• Saves you time by refreshing and reposting old content
• It allows you to categorize and organize your content 
• The platform is very user-friendly and easy to use
• You can use their stats dashboard to see which posts have the highest engagement
• The tool will automatically fill in the gaps, from lack of content to trending topics and traditional publishing tactics

Cons

• Their analytics feature is slightly limited in the free version 
• You need to log into each platform individually for any manual editing

Price

• The free plan allows you to schedule up to 25 posts per month, and the paid plans start from $19/per month.

#6. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a familiar name in social media management.

It helps you manage multiple accounts and even collaborate with your team. 

The tool offers auto-posting, hashtag tracking, analytics, post previewing, and more. 

You can also easily schedule Instagram stories from their platform. 

Supported Social Media Platforms:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Features:

• Post scheduling
• Hashtag tracking and suggestion
• Analytics
• Content creation tools
• Team collaboration 
• Paid campaign tracking

Pros and Cons

Pros

• It is one of the most established platforms for social media management. 
• You can preview and schedule Instagram stories from their platform
• It allows you to collaborate with your team in real-time
• The tool offers an array of useful features, including a handy hashtag suggestion tool. 
• It

Cons

• Their basic plan is limited and does not offer any reporting features. 
• You need to upgrade to the paid version for more features. 
• Their custom URL shortener is a little pricey
• You can’t use the same post to set up multiple tweets

Price

• Hootsuite offers a 30-day free trial, after which their plans start from $19/month.

#7. Combin Scheduler

A free Instagram scheduling tool, Combin Scheduler, is designed to help you plan and manage your Instagram campaigns.

The tool allows you to bulk upload photos and videos from your computer, preview content before posting, repost content from other accounts, and more. It also provides analytics data on post-performance. 

You can also use the tool to create beautiful Instagram feed themes and analyze your followers. 

Features:

• Bulk media uploads
• Post scheduling 
• Regramming
• Hashtags mentioning
• Content previewing
• Automated posts publications
• Repost content from other accounts 
• Analytics on post-performance 
• Pre-set the aspects

Supported Platforms

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest 

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Their hashtag suggestion tool helps you find relevant hashtags for your posts
• You can create beautiful Instagram feed themes with their range of tools
• The platform offers a variety of analytics data, including insights on follower performance. 
• It allows you to schedule posts in bulk, saving you time.
• Combines images into grids with the drag-and-drop feature

Cons

• Can’t be accessed via a web browser 

Price

You can download the tool for free. But their premium versions offer many advanced features, starting at $15 for personal and $30 for business plans.

#8. Loomly

Loomly is another popular Instagram story-scheduling app that helps you easily create and schedule Instagram stories.

The tool offers a range of features, including a powerful post recommendation engine, hashtag suggestion tool, content calendar view, live previewing capability, and more. 

It also provides post ideas based on date-related events, RSS feeds, trending topics, and social media best practices.

It’s a brand-success social media management platform that allows you to polish their content through post-optimization suggestions.

The tool is available as an app for Android and iOS and as a webpage. It also helps you collaborate with your team and manage multiple accounts.

Features: 

• Post Scheduling
• Campaign Management
• Reporting
• Third-party Integrations
• Customization option
• Data Import and Export
• Multi-channel marketing

Supported Social Media Platforms

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Slack
• Twitter
• Zapier

Pros and Cons

Pros

• You can use the tool to manage your social media account
• You can publish your posts on the various social media accounts automatically without manually logging into each account
• It provides analytics tools for a better understanding of post-performance
• It has optimization suggestions for better content
• They have a calendar planning function that you can use to plan your content based on the different events happening 

Cons

• Their analytics is pretty limited and basic

Pricing

The tool offers a 15-day free trial, with paid plans ranging from $34 to $332 per month.

#9: Tailwind

Tailwind is one of the market’s best-rated Instagram story-scheduling apps.

The tool allows you to create, schedule and publish content on multiple social media platforms. It also provides detailed analytics and performance insights for each post. 

You can use the tool to plan with their built-in content calendar, which helps you stay organized and save time.

Features

• Automated Publishing
• Hashtag Finder
• Content Management
• Personalized Smart Schedule
• Social Listening and Monitoring
• Personalized Smart Scheduling

Supported Social Media Platforms:

• Instagram 
• Pinterest

Pros and Cons

Pros

• They have scheduling pins that they can use to schedule posts across different boards at a go
• They have recommended times for scheduling Instagram posts
• They have a smart bio for linking your Instagram posts directly to your website

Cons

• Not enough options for filtering your previously posted pins
• The app is still a work in progress and is a bit buggy
• It’s cumbersome to add pins to multiple boards

Pricing 

• Tailwind has a free trial. Their paid plan starts at $9 to $39 per month

#10. Sked Social

Sked is an all-rounded social media management platform for brands, agencies, and businesses. Social media scheduling has never been easier, thanks to Sked Social’s intuitive drag-and-drop feature. 

Sked can be used to manage multiple accounts across different social media networks and schedule content for them in a single dashboard.

Features:

• Content Management
• Post Scheduling 
• Auto Publishing
• Analytics 
• Social Media Analytics 

Supported Social Media Platforms:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• YouTube

Pros and Cons 

Pros

• It is easy to use with its straightforward drag-and-drop feature for scheduling posts. 
• It allows you to schedule posts across different platforms in a single dashboard.
• It has an extensive library of GIFs, images, and videos that you can use in your posts 
• It offers analytics that you can use to measure your posts performance

Cons

• The basic plan is quite limited and only allows for scheduling three accounts.