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Want to outperform your Instagram competitors? Get ahead of the competition with the best Instagram competitor analysis tools of 2024.
Instagram now has over 2 billion users worldwide, representing huge opportunities for brands wanting to reach people. But it also has a huge proportion of businesses on the platform, all competing for a chance to impress these users.
In such a competitive landscape, the best Instagram competitor analysis tools can give you the edge you need. This will allow you to up your social strategy, beat the competition, and ultimately gain a bigger market share on the platform.
Of course, you want to have your own unique strategy and post distinctive content that helps you stand out from your competitors. But knowing what works (and what doesn’t) will give you a huge advantage when it comes time to plan your Instagram posts and execute a killer social strategy.
Staying ahead of your competitors involves actually knowing what competitors are up to. But you’re only going to know the top strategies and post top-performing content if you have the tools to inform you along the way.
That’s why we’ve put several Instagram competitor analysis tools to the test and come up with the best ones in the market. So, let’s dive in!
What is a social media competitive analysis?
A social media competitive analysis assesses your top competitors on social media, analyzing their performance and identifying their growth strategies. A competitive analysis can be as brief or as detailed as you want it to be, but it should include all the key metrics that you want to track for your own brand.
You might want to do a detailed analysis for all competitors, or a brief analysis for your wider competitive set and a more detailed analysis for your primary competitors. You can also choose to do a one-off report, or create one every week! The choice is yours.
That said, a social media competitive analysis typically includes the following details about your competitors:
There are also plenty of other tools available to help you track your competitors’ performance within the wider online world. Other tools can help analyze your competitors’ blog content performance, their ranking for certain SEO keywords, their website performance, and even their email marketing performance.
Why perform an Instagram competitor analysis?
You might be wondering why it’s so important to keep an eye on your competitors. But analyzing competitors can have a range of benefits. An Instagram competitive analysis can:
- Establish benchmarks by comparing your performance with competitors
- Gain insights into what your target audience likes and engages with
- Identify the types of content that perform best for your competitors
- Keep up with industry trends and changes in audience behavior
- Refine and enhance your overall Instagram marketing strategy, making it more
Despite these benefits, some brands tend to think it’s better to ignore their competitors completely. It makes sense that some brands have this mentality. After all, the last thing you want to do is copy your competitors and regurgitate the same Instagram content as everyone else.
But it also makes sense to keep an eye on what competitors are doing. You might even learn a thing or two! After all, your competitors’ target audiences are probably very similar to your own, so taking note of which strategies are working can be a very easy way of refining your own strategy.
Think of your competitors’ social media channels as your own little research groups where you can see which ideas are resonating without having to lift a finger. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of that?
Our picks for 2024’s best Instagram competitor analysis tools
There are countless Instagram competitor analysis tools out there, but not all of them are created equally. All these tools vary dramatically in terms of price and their capabilities. Some of these tools are free, whereas others require a monthly or yearly subscription fee.
However, many of these tools also have other functions that can be very helpful when it comes to social media management, meaning that they can be extremely cost-effective in the long run.
They can also save you hours every week. Instead of painstakingly searching through competitors’ posts manually or crunching the numbers trying to analyze things like Instagram engagement rates or video views, tools allow you to export reports to get you the data straight away.
- Sked Social. Best Instagram competitor analysis tool for brands and agencies.
- Phlanx. Best Instagram competitor analysis tool for simple, at-a-glance benchmarking.
- Social Blade. Best Instagram competitor analysis tool for influencers and content creators.
- BuzzSumo. Best Instagram competitor analysis tool for discovering trending topics and identifying top influencers.
Other platforms to consider:
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1. Sked Social
Sked Social is an all-in-one social media management tool, offering everything from in-depth competitor analysis to scheduling, file storage, and opportunities to collaborate with your team on content creation and amendments.
The great thing about this tool is that it really offers beginning-to-end social media management. Instead of having five different tools for different social media tasks, you can simply use one tool, all wrapped up in one cost.
This social media analysis tool offers in-depth insights on your page performance, allowing you to easily track metrics like engagement rates, posting frequency, share of voice, post performance, audience stats, and other key metrics.
When it comes to competitive analysis, Sked Social has several features that can provide in-depth insights into what your competitors have been up to on social media. Best of all, Sked allows you to directly compare your brand’s performance to your competitors in an easy-to-read format. What could be better?
Pros
- View competitors' engagement rates, likes, and comments to compare performance
- Great ‘best time to post’ suggestions via comparing competitors' optimal posting times to improve your strategy
- Analyze which hashtags competitors use and track their effectiveness
- Customizable reporting for team collaboration and performance tracking.
Cons
- May be overwhelming for smaller brands or single accounts
- Advanced features may have a learning curve
Cost
Sked Social’s all-in-one platform starts at US$59/month for unlimited users, or level up to US$199/month for larger teams and agencies.
2. Phlanx
If you want detailed analytics on your competitors, or even on specific influencers, Phlanx is the perfect tool to use. It measures Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, making it ideal if you’re running an influencer campaign and need to analyze prospective influencers and their audience demographics.
It’s ideal for grabbing at-a-glance stats and seeing who makes up your competitor’s target audiences. It shows you where your competitors’ followers are based, their gender, and even how many of their audiences are classified as “influencers”.
You can use Phlanx for free if you’re doing a one-off analysis. Or, if you want to keep a close eye on how your competitors are growing over time, you can subscribe for a fee on an ongoing basis.
Pros
- Ideal for quick, at-a-glance stats on your competitors
- Also offers competitor analysis tools for TikTok and YouTube.
- Free Instagram engagement calculator makes benchmarking easy
Cons
- Best for a one-off analysis, not ongoing tracking
- Limited set of insights on competition
- Can be expensive for smaller teams
Cost
Phlanx plans for one user start at $39/month billed annually.
3. Social Blade
Social Blade is similar to Phlanx in that it can provide top-line information about your competitors quickly in an easy-to-read format. It analyzes data from more platforms though, analyzing Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, Facebook, Trovo, Mixer, DLive, and Dailymotion.
It offers users a free account, allowing you to quickly analyze other brands or influencers at the click of a button, but it also offers a paid component with slightly more in-depth stats. In terms of Instagram specifically, it can show you the overall ranking of specific Instagram accounts, as well as provide data on their followers and how they have changed over time.
While it shows how many posts a brand is posting, it doesn’t have in-depth details on post-performance. Its Instagram analytics data probably isn’t as in-depth as some of the other platforms mentioned, but if you’re looking for a free platform that provides some overview data, or you need to analyze the data for a few different social media platforms, this is a great place to start.
Pros
- Offers performance tracking across Instagram, YouTube, X/Twitter, and Twitch
- Easy to navigate, providing accessible insights
- Offers global rankings for social media accounts, helping benchmark performance against top influencers
Cons
- Limited to analytics, not broader social management and scheduling
- Heavily focused on YouTube
- Best for checking out bigger brands and celebrities
Cost
With most Social Blade insights free, a paid plan starts at $3.99/month
4. BuzzSumo
If blog content is a large component of your content marketing strategy, BuzzSumo is a great tool for you. This tool can help you measure content performance, track trending content, track the competitive landscape, and identify influencers. It can even feed into your SEO strategy.
Even if you’re considering starting a blog content strategy or upgrading your website, BuzzSumo can help you to see how your competitors are doing and can help you set benchmarks when it comes to content performance. You can use it to map out your competitors’ content strategies and better structure your own.
In terms of social media, it can help you identify the best-performing competitors and influencers in your space and find brand advocates who are sharing your content (or your competitor’s content!), which can help shape influencer marketing strategies, too.
Much of these features are available on X (formerly Twitter). But Instagram’s API makes it a little more difficult to track in such detail. Yet, if the competitors and influencers you’re tracking are active on both platforms, this can still be a helpful tool.
BuzzSumo certainly doesn’t come cheap, but if budget isn’t an issue and you’re serious about upscaling your content marketing strategy, it can be a key tool for your brand.
Pros
- Backlink analysis - discover who is linking to your competitors and how that affects their authority
- Identify which influencers are sharing your competitors' content
- Compare up to 10 competitor pages at a time
Cons
- Interface can be quite challenging for beginners
- Difficult to filter for most relevant information
- Quite expensive compared to competitors, especially for smaller businesses
Cost
Starts at $199/month (30-day free trial available)
5. Brand24
If you’re running a large marketing campaign, have a large (and loud) social media following, or are running PR activity that you need to track, Brand24 is a great social media monitoring tool for the job.
This all-encompassing listening tool lets you easily track brand mentions and brand sentiment in real-time, allowing you to manage any negative brand mentions before they get out of hand.
A social listening tool allows you to do just that: listen. It helps you track all the mentions of your brand or your competitors’ brands in the social media landscape and the wider online world. You can also easily track and filter competitor mentions, narrowing them down to track specific their products or marketing campaigns across social media channels and the wider online space.
Their competitor analysis feature lets you track your competitor’s social media channels and even track specific marketing campaigns. It also has a comparison tool that allows you to compare your own results directly with other competitors.
Pros
- Real-time competitor monitoring across multiple platforms
- Easy-to-understand sentiment analysis for competitor brands
- AI-powered topic analysis to identify the most discussed topics
Cons
- Not an all-in-one tool social media management tool
- Primarily focused on monitoring conversations, with fewer tools for content management.
- Quite expensive for smaller businesses
Cost
Plans range from an Individual plan at $119/month billed annually, up to the $399/month Enterprise plan.
6. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is one of the best Instagram competitor analysis tools thanks to its powerful competitor performance tracking tools, user-friendly dashboards, and robust integration with other social platforms. Sprout’s suite of competitor reports can help you track fundamental metrics like audience growth, engagement and post volume for each network, then compare them against your own profiles.
It’s a great all-in-one choice for brands managing multiple social accounts.
Pros
- Real-time Listening Spike Alerts notify you in shifts of activity
- Comprehensive platform for content management, no need for multiple tools
- Filter your listening topics by sentiment to gain insight into how people really feel about your brand and competitors
Cons
- More expensive than some alternatives, especially for small businesses
- Lacks advanced Instagram scheduling and automation capabilitie
- Overwhelming for smaller teams looking for a more streamlined Instagram management solution.
Cost
Annual pricing starts at $199/month for 5 social profiles, with higher-tier plans needed for more advanced features like competitive reports and automation.
7. Hootsuite
A well-known powerhouse, Hootsuite still provides a top option for businesses looking for an all-in-one platform for tracking performance, scheduling posts, and monitoring how your competitors are performing.
A popular choice for teams looking for a streamlined dashboard to consistently monitor competitor trends and stay ahead, Hootsuite excels in managing multiple social accounts, offering detailed competitor analytics for platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and X/Twitter.
Pros
- Great competitor analysis and industry benchmark comparisons.
- Generates easy-to-understand and customizable reports across multiple platforms.
- Tracks key metrics like followers, engagement rates, and content performance, providing a clear picture of where your brand stands relative to competitors.
Cons
- Interface can be difficult to navigate
- High cost for advanced features
- Advanced features may be overwhelming for beginners.
Cost
Professional account starts at $99/month for 1 user and 10 accounts.
8. Keyhole
Unlike some of the other tools on this list, Keyhole focuses specifically on social media analytics. That makes it one of the best standalone solutions for Instagram analytics, insights, and reporting.
In Keyhole, you’ll find features for social listening, competitor analysis, benchmarking, influencer tracking, and hashtag analysis. The tool measures real-time and historical data and spits out these metrics in easy-to-read graphs. They make it simple to analyze, report, and apply your findings to your strategy.
Pros
- Puts real-time metrics into easy-to-read graphs
- Unlimited tracking to monitor as many influencers and mentions as you need
- Branded dashboards let you customize data presentations with your own branding.
Cons
- Lacks scheduling and post automation features
- Focused on analytics rather than broader content management
- Limited team collaboration functionality
Cost
Keyhole offers campaign-based pricing starting from $100/campaign. Costs increase based on the number of mentions per campaign.
9. Sociality.io
Sociality.io is another versatile all-in-one social media management platform for digital agencies and enterprises. Its competitor analysis tools provide advanced insights, allowing users to track competitors’ social media performance across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Pros
- Historical data access - review past competitor activity for trend analysis.
- Easy to generate customized reports for team collaboration.
- A great, user-friendly mobile app
Cons
- Lacks automation for Instagram posting
- Can be costly for smaller businesses and individuals
Cost
The pro plan starts at $99/month, or $199/month for business plans.
How to choose the right Instagram competitor analysis tool
Choosing the right Instagram competitor analysis tool can be tricky, but most services – like Sked Social – allow you to sign up for a free trial and test out the different features to determine the best tool for you and your team.
There are several considerations to take into place when choosing the right tool, such as:
Do you need a standalone tool or a larger social media marketing platform?
Do you need a tool that will just allow you to create regular competitor analysis reports? Or do you need a more comprehensive tool that will help you with other aspects of social media management?
Ideally, it’s better to have just one tool instead of four different tools. Not only is it typically cheaper to do things this way, but it also means that your team only needs to learn how to use one tool and can collaborate much more easily using that tool.
What types of competitor insights will you need for upcoming campaigns?
Think about your social media strategy and the marketing campaigns you’ve got coming up. If you’re simply starting with a trial influencer marketing campaign and you need some extra intel, you might just want to use a free tool in a one-off capacity.
On the other hand, if you really want to upscale your long-term social media strategy, you might want to think about a platform that can be used in an ongoing capacity. Sked Social, for example, offers many other features besides reporting and advanced analytics. It also helps you to store files, schedule posts, collaborate, and track comments and post performance.
How important is Instagram to your overall social media strategy?
Most of these tools come at a reasonable price, but the one you ultimately choose will depend on how important your Instagram strategy is within your overall marketing strategy, how large your social media following is, and what you’re planning to achieve in the next 6 to 12 months.
If you have a lot of work to do or some ambitious goals, you’ll need to invest in the tools that will allow you to make that happen. On the other hand, if you’re just looking for a one-off tool to check out what your competitors are doing before a specific campaign, you might be better off using some of the free tools that are already available.
Most social media competitor analysis tools are relatively easy to use, however, some are more compatible with other social media platforms (like X) than they are with Instagram. Your chosen platform needs to be easy to use, and work well with Instagram. That said, it will depend on how many people are using the tool and how they are using it.
Unsure which competitor analysis tool to use? Take advantage of free trials!
We recommend trialling any tools that you’re considering using, if possible, and encouraging your team to try them out, too. This will help ensure that the tool will be a worthwhile investment.
When you’re considering cost, however, be sure to think about the time it takes to perform your social media management work with and without tools.
Social media posting can take up hours out of every week, and it can be disruptive having to post at optimal times throughout the day. Scheduling is a much better option. It allows your team to optimize their time, increasing productivity throughout the day. It also ensures better post performance, as it ensures high-quality social media content is being uploaded at the best-performing time of day, with all the correct hashtags, location tags, and product tags.
Keep up with your competitors with Sked Social
If you want to level up your social media game, it’s critical that you have the right tools to support your team. Advanced Instagram analytics tools can give you the extra insight you need to supercharge your strategy and streamline your processes. Only through setting up the right processes from beginning to end will you be able to streamline your work, increase efficiency and maximize your bottom-line profits.
With so many tools out there, it can be difficult to know which are the best for you and your team. Ideally, you want an intuitive social media management tool that can work seamlessly with your team, allowing you to collaborate effortlessly.
High-performance social media scheduling tools like Sked Social can help you create an efficient working environment, even when working remotely. Sked Social is an all-in-one social media analytics tool with powerful scheduling capabilities and advanced reporting functions which can provide you with unique insights, allowing you to optimize your social media strategy and your content marketing strategy on an ongoing basis.
Its reporting features will enable you to create regular automated reports, so you can keep a close eye on your competitors and spot trends over time. All these insights are so valuable in helping you to fine-tune your social media marketing strategy, whether you’ve got an important campaign coming up or you just want to level up your social media marketing activity.
Apart from its advanced reporting functionality, Sked Social also includes a social media scheduler, which allows you to automatically schedule social media posts for every major social media platform, including Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook and plenty of other social networks, saving you hours each week! Schedule posts, add hashtags, locations, and product tags all in one go. You’ll never have to post on a weekend again!
Don’t believe us? Try it yourself. Get started by signing up for Sked’s 7-day trial.