Steady Instagram growth is the primary purpose of every Instagram tool, be it a bot, scheduler, or an all-around service.
Why is it so important?
Well, popular Instagram accounts help brands and individuals make new connections, partnerships, and sales. Performers find more gigs. Companies promote their products.
Kicksta reviews on the web are somewhat divided – some claim that the tool is working, but they were mostly posted two years ago. Then, some newer ones say that it’s a scam.
I tested it out to find out what’s the truth. Does it work? Will it increase my follower count?
What is Kicksta?
Kicksta (yeah, you guessed it, short for Kickstagram) is a typical Instagram growth service.
It promises to bring you organic followers. They claim that their strategy is pure “Artificial Intelligence technology” and deny any use of spamming and bots.
How does it bring you followers, then?
By automation features like finding profiles similar to yours and engaging you with your target audience. I mean, that’s what they say.
Unfortunately, this service does not work anymore. Instagram’s Terms and Conditions are against automation, and it has become much harder to use it without consequences.
Other Popular Instagram Growth Services
| 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 Kicksta Work?
This question can be separated into two pieces: how is Kicksta supposed to work, and how does Kiksta work in reality?
For starters, Kcksta should work by performing automation operations. In general, different tools focus on various actions such as follow, like, comment, messaging, etc. Kicksta uses only liking.
This should result in connecting you with the people who are interested in your niche, without buying followers.
On to the next part: how does Kicksta work in 2020? Inefficiently. With a lot of bugs and problems.
We’ll come to that a bit later, as I guide you through the actual features and what I learned about them.
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
How to Use Kicksta?
In order to use Kicksta, you first purchase the plan that you want and sign up.
This is the easy part – enter your email address, create a password. Then, you should connect your Instagram profile with the tool, and you’ll be taken to the Kicksta dashboard.
Once there, you’ll need to fill in some data (such as locations, hashtags, etc.), and wait.
You will receive an email saying that Kicksta needs around 24 hours to set everything up for you, and then they will begin driving traffic and real people to your Instagram. The thing is that it’s not precisely the truth.
And let’s see why.
Features of Kicksta
When I tried out Kicksta, I tested all of its possibilities and functions so that I can report back to you how they turned out to be.
Target Accounts
On your dashboard, you’re supposed to enter what is the target audience, aka target accounts, you’re looking for. The tool claims to engage you with people who are following the target accounts that you select.
Three weeks into the testing of this tool, and it was still showing “collecting data.”
Gaining Followers
Unfortunately, the truth is that you aren’t getting new followers, let alone “real and organic” ones.
The most that you can get with this tactic is only like 1-2 followers a month. Questionably “real and organic.” Sometimes, people get 0 followers and even lose some. And that’s not your goal, isn’t it?
Of course, they will tell you to “be patient” and that “the success doesn’t come overnight,” but with Kicksta, it won’t come anytime soon – at least not until they change the core of the service.
Follow Back/Unfollow
First of all, you can’t monitor which accounts follow you because of Kicksta (if there are any). Keep in mind that I went for a whole month with this service without getting a single follower.
Their argument is that “they have to attract followers slowly because, otherwise, your account would be at risk.” This is true, and Instagram would probably ban your account if it detected automated activity.
But should you really be using a service that would get your account blocked had it actually worked?
Also, the tool does not keep track of the accounts that don’t follow you back, which can lead to the negative followers/following ratio. You want to avoid this, as someone may think your account is fake.
Liking
I did notice that Kicksta liked some posts and that some of them reciprocated and liked my posts back – perhaps automation from their side, too?
But hey, at least I spotted some activity. However, it didn’t result in any new followers. People just liked a few of my photos.
According to some people who got more activity from Kicksta, their Instagram accounts were blocked after about three days of liking. This is due to the fact that Kicksta practices are against the Instagram Community Guidelines.
If it liked around 10,000 photos a month, as they state in the description, it would definitely result in a ban.
Customer Support
After all of these issues, naturally, I wanted to contact customer support.
You can only reach them by filling out a form and waiting for them to contact you back via email. This can take longer than 24 hours.
Imagine if your account got blocked because of Kicksta, or you lost your Instagram password (which has happened to some users). You’d be unable to contact them right away.
If you want to have the possibility of live chat support, you’d have to obtain a Premium plan.
When I finally got an answer from Kicksta customer support, it felt generic, for they didn’t personally tackle any of the issues I mentioned. They said something along the lines of “we are working on it” and “you’ll soon notice the results.” It wasn’t helpful and felt like a scam.
Pricing of Kicksta
To say that Kiksta is expensive would be an understatement. Take a look:
Their Standard plan is priced at $49 per month. It includes “moderate growth,” video onboarding, and up to 10 targets. Even if these features worked properly, I would still consider it overpriced.
With the Premium pricing model, there are some additional features within the service, like “advanced targeting,” blacklist,” “live chat support” (possibly with bots instead of actual humans), and so on.
It also promises to grow your Instagram faster. The problem is that it doesn’t function, either. And for $99 a month (at a discount), it should do wonders!
In case you do manage to get a refund, it’s most likely that they will refund you only one payment for a single-month subscription.
There is no free trial. You have to commit and pay in order to try out Kicksta. They claim that there’s a 14-day money-back guarantee. I didn’t check this one because I wanted to try the service for a longer period.
I saw no cancellation option on their website and read on TrustPilot that some people couldn’t get a money-back guarantee.
Is Kicksta Legit?
It’s hard to answer this one. I wasn’t able to reach their team and check who they really are.
Email responses seemed generic and automated.
Also, many Kicksta users had the same experience as me.
When I connect all the dots, it seems that Kicksta isn’t legit, or that it isn’t legit anymore, as there are some claims it once used to be.
I’m not sure whether this is due to the updated Instagram algorithm that blocks automated activity, or a change in their management, but it had to be addressed.
Is Kicksta Safe?
Two things about Kicksta are safe: the secure https website and verified payment. Speaking of which, you can only pay via your credit card. The PayPal option is missing. They do use Norton Secured protocol to process payments, but it’s understandable if you don’t feel safe leaving your credit card info.
To be honest, I’m not too happy, either, that you have to use your Instagram password in Kicksta. While I didn’t encounter any significant issues with it, it seemed a bit suspicious.
Also, a couple of people on TrustPilot say that they experienced a password error when trying to connect Instagram with Kicksta.
Add to the equation the fact that its activity can get your account temporarily banned, and the answer is that Kicksta isn’t safe.
Kicksta PROS and CONS
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| No need to download it | Expensive tariff plans |
| Can get your account banned | |
| It’s unlikely you will get a refund | |
| Doesn’t target your audience appropriately | |
| Unreliable customer support | |
| Lack of organic or real followers | |
| Slow performance |
Kicksta Reviews: Final Verdict
Finding a reliable Instagram growth tool sometimes seems like looking for a needle in a haystack.
As always, I’m there to find it. Unfortunately, not with Kicksta.
Many Kicksta reviews on TrustPilot are saying Kicksta scammed them, and I had the same experience.
And a hefty price tag on their tariff plans makes it even worse.
There are other, safe tools that succeed in getting the Instagram growth and engagement that you need, and I listed them in the table above.
Until next time!
Top 10 Instagram Growth Tools
If you want to grow your Instagram organically I suggest taking a look at some of the tools below. We’ve tested them and we’ve ranked them below for you.
| 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 |