Have you ever heard of Instagress? I wouldn’t be surprised if you said no, especially if you’re new to the whole Instagram growth services business.
Instagress has been gone for a long time now, but I still hear people mention it now and then. And why is that?
Instagress was a household name, and now it’s gone. Actually, it’s been gone since 2017.
At one point, they stopped accepting new clients and were officially shut down due to a request by Facebook.
But why was Instagress so popular?
They were a favorite to many Instagram users. Maybe it was because of their affordable prices, how easy it was to use it, or something else entirely, but I gotta hand it to them, they knew how to attract attention.
Now that they no longer exist, many people (including their old users) wonder what the best alternatives are. What is the Instagress of 2020?
I was also curious, so I set out to find the answer. Firstly, I’ll tell you all about Instagress, and then I’ll list the best alternatives for you to try out.
So, what are the best Instagress alternatives today?
Read all about it in my Instagress review. Let’s dig in!
What is Instagress?
Instagress was among the giants in the industry. They were a classic automation tool that helped people increase activity and engagement on Instagram.
It automatically liked and commented on other people’s posts for you. Their main goal was for people to notice your account and then they might want to follow you back.
It also had the automatic follow feature that was supposed to follow accounts from your niche, which is a good game plan, although it had a few issues (more about than in a second).
There was the automatic unfollow feature too. This was useful at times as it helped you get rid of followers not interested in your content and sometimes it even got rid of bots. While this was a helpful feature, the problem was that Instagress was the one who attracted bots in the first place.
Best of all, Instagress was cost-effective, simple to use, and they had a well-organized website, which I believe were the main reasons people liked to use it.
Top Instagress Alternatives
| Service | Rating | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Flock Social | 4.8 | Check Price |
| Upleap.com | 4.6 | Check Price |
| Nitreo.com | 4.3 | Check Price |
| SocialFollow | 4.2 | Check Price |
| KENJI.AI | 4 | Check Price |
| Stim Social | 3.9 | Check Price |
How Does it Work?
It was very simple to use Instagress. You didn’t have to download any kind of software, you could use it straight from the web on any browser.
The automatic liking, following, and commenting were based on specific hashtags and geolocations. They also offered to unfollow users who were not a part of your niche.
Based on so many reviews by Instagress users, Instagress did what it said it would do.
But did it work? More importantly, did it work well?
Yes and no.
Their strategy would bring you a certain number of followers, but not as many as you might have expected, and for sure not as many as they promised in the first place.
Popular reviews you should also read:
- Nitreo Review: Is It Really One Of The Best Instagram Growth Services?
- Upleap Review: Is It Safe To Grow Your Instagram Faster?
- Kenji Instagram Review – Is It Legit? All You Need to Know
So, what was the end result?
The number of followers wasn’t even the issue at hand – it was the quality of said followers. Too often you would get followers that were likely bots or completely uninterested in your content, even though they had filters for targeting.
This just means that, while they had a smart business plan, the execution could have been better.
Instagram is pretty strict about bots and they have little to zero tolerance when it comes to bot followers.
Bots and users outside of your niche are not the best way to grow your profile. You want to do that organically with a targeted audience.
I’ve listed great Instagress alternatives at the end of this article that will help you do it, so feel free to check it out.
Instagress Features
Instagress does the automatic following, liking, and commenting based on your targeting. You could set the targeting options as you wish.
Hashtags
There was the option to follow or like based on hashtags.
Instagress would find posts with those hashtags and it would either like the post, follow the account, or both, based on your preferences.
There was no limit to how many hashtags you could put, so you could go nuts there, as many people admit they did.
Along with hashtags, you could choose locations and follow or like based on that.
Speed
One ingenious feature on their website was the speed option. You were able to choose at what speed Instagress would do the automated tasks for you. They even suggested you don’t put it on high because it would make your profile suspicious to Instagram.
Activity
There was a section on their website called Activity where you could track how many days you’ve been active. The information, including status, starting date, and time used were displayed as well.
In this section, you could start and stop your activity, and you could turn on and off different options (likes, comments, follows, unfollows).
Auto-unfollow
The unfollow feature was another useful thing. After you followed someone (by this, I mean Instagress did it for you), and if they didn’t follow you back in three days at most, the automatic unfollow feature would unfollow that account.
It would also unfollow people outside of your targeted audience or accounts it suspected were bots, but this was a bit problematic since it didn’t have good filters to separate bots from real accounts.
You’d still end up with bots in your followers’ list, which is a huge no-no.
Auto-comment
For automatic comments, you could set a few default words or phrases that Instagress would use as a comment on posts. Most commonly used were compliments like ‘Awesome!’, ‘Beautiful!’ and so on.
The problem occurred when Instagress couldn’t sense the tone or the subcontext of a post, so it’d end up leaving a completely inappropriate comment in your name.
This is why people generally avoided using the auto-comment feature.
Instagress pricing
Instagress pricing was kind of different from most of what we see today.
They offered you to purchase server time. For example, you could buy it for 3, 10, or 30 days, so you’re actually buying 3, 10, or 30 days of server time.
You didn’t have to use it all at once. You could turn it on for 12 hours, turn it off, then use it for another 12 hours, and you’d still have 2 more days left (with the 3 days package). This was really convenient since it gave you a bit of control over your account growth.
I have to say, I was surprised at the price points of Instagress. They were very budget-friendly, unlike most similar services today.
For a 3 day package, you’d pay only $1.99, 10 days were $4.99, and 30 days of activity cost you $9.99.
Furthermore, Instagress offered you a 3 days free demo to try them out.
Is Instagress Legit?
Instagress was a legit service. They weren’t out to trick you or take your money, and they did what they promised.
However, their algorithms were troublesome in the sense that you ended up with fake or bot followers, which meant your account could get suspended or banned by Instagram.
They were shut down due to a request from Facebook, who owns Instagram since 2011, and it was most likely because they violated their terms of service.
Is Instagress Safe?
If you’re to believe reviews on Trustpilot and Sitejabber, yes – Instagress was safe to use.
I couldn’t find a single complaint concerning security. Their website and payment options were safe.
Again, the only problem regarding safety was the possible presence of bot accounts.
Pros and Cons
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Instagress was budget-friendly. | Their ideas were better than executions. |
| It was very simple to use. | They didn’t use good algorithms to separate real accounts from bots. |
| The automatic comments feature was to be avoided. | |
| They no longer exist. | |
| Facebook had to shut them down most likely due to a violation of their terms. | |
| The filters for targeting could have been a lot better. |
Instagress Review: Final verdict
Did Instagress really deserve to be a household name?
I guess it’s a moot point now.
While they had many great ideas, they just didn’t bring it as expected. Or maybe my expectations are too high.
Whatever it is, there’s really no point in discussing it further since they no longer exist. Instead, I think we should focus on the current Instagram growth services that do a good job and follow the rules.
When it comes to growing your Instagram account, you can never be too careful.
You have to make a smart decision if you want to boost your activity and engagement, and always remember the keyword – organically.
If Instagress’ features sound compelling to you and you’d like to try a similar (but completely legit) growth service, I recommend you to check out the ones I listed for you below.
Top 10 Instagram Bots
Check out the table below for Instagress alternatives. They are safe, legit, and they grow your account organically!
What’s not to like?
| Service | Rating | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Flock Social | 4.8 | Check Price |
| Upleap.com | 4.6 | Check Price |
| Nitreo.com | 4.3 | Check Price |
| SocialFollow | 4.2 | Check Price |
| KENJI.AI | 4 | Check Price |
| Stim Social | 3.9 | Check Price |