Updated on October 13, 2026
ManyChat alternatives for Instagram, with the numbers
12 comment-to-DM tools next to ManyChat: free plan, price, what you are billed for, accounts included and stated sending speed. Every number was read on the tool’s own pricing page. PigeonDM is one of the 12, so its weak spots are in the table too.
The short answer
- Free, with no DM cap: Zorcha and BuzzWire. PigeonDM has no DM cap on its free plan either, on 3 posts at a time.
- No subscription at all: Meta Business Suite and OpenReply. Read the note under each before choosing.
- Lowest paid price: ChatAutoDM, $5 a month billed monthly.
- Highest stated sending speed: InstantDM, 750 DMs an hour.
- Several Instagram accounts on the cheapest paid plan: Komently (5), LinkDM (3), CreatorFlow (2).
- Each post with its own links, a public reply on the free plan, and a log of the comments it could not answer: PigeonDM, free for 3 posts or $15 a month.
| Tool | Free plan | Paid, billed monthly | Billed yearly, per month | Billed by | Instagram accounts | Stated speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PigeonDMThis is us | No DM cap, 3 posts at a time | $15 | $12.50 | Flat price | 1 | 500 DMs an hour |
| ManyChat | 25 contacts a month | $17 | $14 | Contacts reached | 1 | Not published |
| LinkDM | 1,000 DMs a month | $19 | ≈ $15.17 | DMs a month, capped | 3 | 500 DMs an hour |
| CreatorFlow | 500 DMs a month | $15 | $12 | DMs a month, capped | 2 | Not published |
| InstantDM | Unclear, see note | $12 | $9.99 | Flat price | 1 | 750 DMs an hour |
| ReplyRush | 1,500 DMs a month | $10 | Not shown | DMs a month, capped | 1 | 600 DMs an hour |
| Zorcha | No cap | $14.99 | $9.99 | Flat price | 1 | Not published |
| Inrō | 100 contacts a month | from €12.99 | Not shown | Contacts reached | 1 | Not published |
| ChatAutoDM | 1,000 contacts a month | $5 | $4 | Flat price | Not published | Not published |
| BuzzWire | No cap | $9.99 | $6.58 | Flat price | 1 | Not published |
| Komently | 1,000 DMs a month | $29 | $19 | Flat price | 5 | Not published |
| Meta Business Suite | Free, built in | No paid plan | — | No subscription | Not published | Not published |
| OpenReply | Free, self-hosted | No paid plan | — | No subscription | Not published | Not published |
- Free plan
- No DM cap, 3 posts at a time
- Paid, billed monthly
- $15
- Billed yearly, per month
- $12.50
- Billed by
- Flat price
- Instagram accounts
- 1
- Stated speed
- 500 DMs an hour
- Free plan
- 25 contacts a month
- Paid, billed monthly
- $17
- Billed yearly, per month
- $14
- Billed by
- Contacts reached
- Instagram accounts
- 1
- Stated speed
- Not published
- Free plan
- 1,000 DMs a month
- Paid, billed monthly
- $19
- Billed yearly, per month
- ≈ $15.17
- Billed by
- DMs a month, capped
- Instagram accounts
- 3
- Stated speed
- 500 DMs an hour
- Free plan
- 500 DMs a month
- Paid, billed monthly
- $15
- Billed yearly, per month
- $12
- Billed by
- DMs a month, capped
- Instagram accounts
- 2
- Stated speed
- Not published
- Free plan
- Unclear, see note
- Paid, billed monthly
- $12
- Billed yearly, per month
- $9.99
- Billed by
- Flat price
- Instagram accounts
- 1
- Stated speed
- 750 DMs an hour
- Free plan
- 1,500 DMs a month
- Paid, billed monthly
- $10
- Billed yearly, per month
- Not shown
- Billed by
- DMs a month, capped
- Instagram accounts
- 1
- Stated speed
- 600 DMs an hour
- Free plan
- No cap
- Paid, billed monthly
- $14.99
- Billed yearly, per month
- $9.99
- Billed by
- Flat price
- Instagram accounts
- 1
- Stated speed
- Not published
- Free plan
- 100 contacts a month
- Paid, billed monthly
- from €12.99
- Billed yearly, per month
- Not shown
- Billed by
- Contacts reached
- Instagram accounts
- 1
- Stated speed
- Not published
- Free plan
- 1,000 contacts a month
- Paid, billed monthly
- $5
- Billed yearly, per month
- $4
- Billed by
- Flat price
- Instagram accounts
- Not published
- Stated speed
- Not published
- Free plan
- No cap
- Paid, billed monthly
- $9.99
- Billed yearly, per month
- $6.58
- Billed by
- Flat price
- Instagram accounts
- 1
- Stated speed
- Not published
- Free plan
- 1,000 DMs a month
- Paid, billed monthly
- $29
- Billed yearly, per month
- $19
- Billed by
- Flat price
- Instagram accounts
- 5
- Stated speed
- Not published
- Free plan
- Free, built in
- Paid, billed monthly
- No paid plan
- Billed yearly, per month
- —
- Billed by
- No subscription
- Instagram accounts
- Not published
- Stated speed
- Not published
- Free plan
- Free, self-hosted
- Paid, billed monthly
- No paid plan
- Billed yearly, per month
- —
- Billed by
- No subscription
- Instagram accounts
- Not published
- Stated speed
- Not published
Where each one wins, and what to know
PigeonDM
Where it wins
Each post sends its own links and codes, and a public reply goes under every answered comment on the free plan too. From the moment one post is on, the log keeps every comment for 60 days, including the ones it could not answer, and people who commented before their post was ready get their DM in one click, up to 7 days after their comment.
Worth knowing
Up to 500 DMs an hour per account, a pace PigeonDM sets itself to stay under Meta’s limits: past that, the next DMs wait their turn and still go out. The free plan runs 3 posts at a time, with one trigger word each and a PigeonDM mention in the DM. One Instagram account per subscription.
Read on pigeondm.com · Checked on October 13, 2026
ManyChat
Where it wins
Covers Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, SMS and email, and builds full conversation flows, with AI replies from the Pro plan.
Worth knowing
Billed per active contact: 250 included on Essential, then $0.10 each on monthly billing. The pricing page opens on yearly prices, and says the price depends on your billing country.
Read on manychat.com, help.manychat.com · Checked on September 27, 2026
Full comparisonLinkDM
Where it wins
Up to 3 Instagram accounts and 25,000 DMs a month on Pro, Facebook automations, and Rewind, which DMs people who commented earlier. States 500 DMs an hour.
Worth knowing
The public reply under the comment is Pro only, and the free plan keeps LinkDM branding in DMs. Its pricing page says 25,000 DMs “per month” on one card and “per account” on another.
Read on linkdm.com · Checked on September 27, 2026
Full comparisonCreatorFlow
Where it wins
Email and follow gates, link click tracking, CSV export and geo analytics on Pro, with 2 Instagram accounts.
Worth knowing
Pro stops at 5,000 DMs per workspace a month: automations pause until you buy a top-up. The free plan has no public reply under the comment.
Read on creatorflow.so · Checked on September 27, 2026
Full comparisonInstantDM
Where it wins
The highest stated sending speed here, 750 DMs an hour, plus AI replies built on ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, email and phone capture, and automations on Meta ad comments.
Worth knowing
The pricing page opens on yearly billing ($9.99 a month); billed monthly it is $12. The homepage advertises a free plan the pricing page does not show, which offers a 7-day trial instead.
Read on instantdm.com · Checked on September 27, 2026
ReplyRush
Where it wins
The largest capped free allowance here, 1,500 DMs a month, and Facebook Page DMs on every plan. States 600 DMs an hour on paid plans.
Worth knowing
The free plan has no public reply and keeps ReplyRush branding. The pricing page shows the branding kept on the $10 Lite plan too, while the help center says paid plans can remove it. No yearly price shown.
Read on replyrush.com, help.replyrush.com · Checked on September 27, 2026
Zorcha
Where it wins
A free plan with no cap on automations, DMs or contacts, plus link-in-bio, forms and AI answers to common questions.
Worth knowing
One Instagram account per workspace, billed per workspace. Its sending speed is not published: Instagram’s own limits still apply.
Read on zorcha.com, help.zorcha.com · Checked on September 27, 2026
Inrō
Where it wins
A conversational AI agent with no credit limit on Pro, Make, Zapier and Shopify integrations, and a public API.
Worth knowing
Billed per active contact, in euros, in tiers that rise with use: €12.99 covers up to 500 contacts a month. The yearly plan is a separate higher-volume plan, not a discount on this one.
Read on inro.social, help.inro.social · Checked on September 27, 2026
ChatAutoDM
Where it wins
The lowest listed paid price of the eight, with AI answers to common questions and AI comment replies on Pro.
Worth knowing
Its FAQ says numeric caps will be published before billing starts, so paid billing may not be live yet. The number of Instagram accounts per plan is not published.
Read on chatautodm.com · Checked on September 27, 2026
BuzzWire
Where it wins
A free plan with no cap on automations or contacts that keeps the public reply under the comment, story replies and DM keywords. Pro adds a follower gate and email capture inside the DM.
Worth knowing
Free DMs carry a “Powered by BuzzWire” badge, which Pro removes. The $9.99 is a founding-member price that the pricing page says will rise to $15 a month after launch, and the site describes the product as in early launch. No sending speed is published.
Read on buzzwire.io · Checked on October 13, 2026
Komently
Where it wins
A public reply under the comment and replies to DMs and stories on the free plan, plus Facebook Pages. Pro removes the DM cap, covers up to 5 Instagram accounts or Facebook Pages, and adds Rewind, which DMs people who commented in the last 7 days.
Worth knowing
The free plan keeps Komently branding in DMs, allows 5 automations, and pauses them once its 1,000 DMs are used, until the next billing cycle. The pricing page opens on yearly billing ($19 a month); billed monthly it is $29. Pro includes 50 AI conversations a month. No sending speed is published.
Read on komently.com · Checked on October 13, 2026
Meta Business Suite
Where it wins
Built into Meta’s own inbox: a “Comment to message” automation sends a message to people whose comment contains chosen words, with nothing to connect and nothing to pay. The same inbox handles Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp messages.
Worth knowing
Set up from a computer only. Meta’s two help pages describe the trigger differently, keywords on one and hashtags on the other, and neither mentions a public reply under the comment, a sending limit or comments made before you set it up. One of them also warns that some organic messaging features are unavailable to and from Europe and Japan, without naming them.
Read on facebook.com · Checked on October 13, 2026
OpenReply
Where it wins
Open source under the MIT license, with no plan limits and nothing to unlock: you run your own copy, so the code and the data stay with you.
Worth knowing
Nothing sends until you have your own Meta app and your own domain, set up from its guide on GitHub, and a server to run it on. Its site gives no hosting cost and no sending speed.
Read on bot.qry.es, github.com · Checked on October 13, 2026
How we checked
Each number was read on the tool’s own pricing page or help center, on the date shown under it, never on another tool’s blog. Several pricing pages open on yearly prices, so the table gives the monthly price first and labels the yearly one.
Prices are in US dollars except Inrō, in euros, and some tools say theirs vary by country. “≈” marks a yearly price we divided by twelve. Where a tool’s own pages disagree, the note under it says so.
Every tool here except Meta’s own says on its site that it uses Meta’s official API, and the ones you do not host yourself add a Meta Business Partner or Meta Tech Provider badge. We did not check those badges against Meta’s directory. PigeonDM uses Instagram’s official API too.
Questions people ask
- Is there a free ManyChat alternative with no DM limit?
- Free plans with no cap on DMs or contacts: Zorcha and BuzzWire. PigeonDM’s free plan has no DM cap either, on 3 posts at a time, with a PigeonDM mention in each DM. ManyChat’s free plan stops at 25 contacts a month.
- What is the cheapest ManyChat alternative for Instagram?
- ChatAutoDM lists the lowest paid plan here, at $5 a month billed monthly. Read the note under each tool before comparing: several pricing pages open on yearly prices, which look lower.
- Which ManyChat alternative sends DMs the fastest?
- InstantDM states 750 DMs an hour, the highest published figure here. Several tools do not publish one. PigeonDM sends at most 500 DMs an hour per account.
- Can I send a DM on a comment for free with Meta’s own tools?
- Yes, from a computer: Meta Business Suite has a “Comment to message” automation for comments that contain chosen words. Meta’s help pages describe it in a line each and say nothing of a public reply under the comment, a sending limit or comments made before you set it up. PigeonDM posts that public reply, keeps each post’s own links, and DMs people who commented before the post was ready, in one click.
What PigeonDM does not try to be
PigeonDM watches comments on your posts and sends the DM. It does not run broadcast campaigns, cover other channels, or build conversation flows. If that is what you need, one of the tools above fits better, and we would rather you knew now.
Connect your Instagram