Instagram Planner vs Gridder
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Instagram Planner
Visually plan and arrange your social media feed before publishing. Design individual posts, create color palettes, and preview your entire profile grid. Offers AI caption suggestions and story planning.
- Visual feed grid planner
- Post arrangement and reordering
- Color palette and dominant tone analysis
- Carousel and Story design
- On-device AI caption suggestions
- iCloud sync across devices
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Plan your Instagram feed before anything goes live. Swatch is a grid planner made by photographers. See the whole profile at once, arrange your posts, and design each one around the look of the feed instead of one photo at a time. No Instagram login, no subscription, no scheduling. PLAN ON THE BIG SCREEN Swatch Desktop puts your photo library beside a full-size phone in your browser, on the same grid as your iPhone, synced through your own iCloud. Drag a whole shoot in, try posts in place, build carousels and write captions on a real keyboard. In beta and included with Swatch Pro. Try it with sample photos at tryswatch.app/desktop. START WITH THE GRID • Lay posts out in Instagram's real 3:4 proportions, so what you plan is what your profile shows • Block out a feed in color before you've shot anything, with color placeholders • Flatten every photo to its dominant tone with the color map, and read the whole palette at a glance • Press, hold and drag to reorder; the grid reflows around it • Mark reels, carousels, captions and what's already posted COMPOSE THE POST • Single photos, plain carousels and borders for each photo • Photo layouts and framed sets that bake down to one clean tile • Seamless Panorama carousels: one wide photo across several slides, so it reads as one continuous image on the swipe • Preview the finished post in a real Instagram feed PLAN STORIES TOO • Design Stories on a 9:16 canvas with photos and text • Arrange them across slides and preview the sequence WRITE THE CAPTION • On supported iPhones, Apple Intelligence suggests a caption in your tone or polishes your own, entirely on your device • Copy it across when you hand the post to Instagram yourself FREE AND PRO Free plans one grid on one account with the full feed workflow: single photos, plain carousels, color placeholders, the color map, reordering, Stories, iCloud sync and export. Pro is a one-time unlock: more grids and accounts, Layouts and Borders, seamless Panorama carousels, on-device AI captions and Swatch Desktop. No subscription, ever. YOURS, AND PRIVATE Your grids live on your iPhone and sync through your own private iCloud across your Apple devices, free. There's no separate Swatch account. Swatch never posts for you: plan here, then post from Instagram when you're ready. See tryswatch.app/privacy for details about iCloud sync, desktop uploads and limited usage events.
Gridder
Visually plan your social media feed before posting. Arrange photos and videos in a grid layout, previewing how your profile will look. Split single images across multiple posts and crop them precisely for a cohesive aesthetic.
- Grid preview and reordering
- Multi-post image splitting
- Drag and drop interface
- Crop and edit photos
- Profile planning for multiple accounts
- Privacy-focused, no account needed
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See your feed before you post it. Gridder is a planning tool for anyone who cares how their profile looks as a whole. Drop in photos and videos, drag them around, and watch the grid come together — long before anything goes public. No account. No login. Nothing leaves your phone. PLAN THE WHOLE GRID • Drag and drop to reorder until the layout feels right • Mix planned posts with what you've already published • Pin posts to lock them in place • Undo and redo anything, without fear • Archive ideas you're not ready for yet SPLIT ONE IMAGE ACROSS MANY POSTS Turn a single photo into a seamless multi-post layout. Choose 3×3, 2×3, 2×2, vertical strips or horizontal bands, move the image inside the grid until it sits right, and Gridder slices it into perfectly aligned pieces. MAKE IT MATCH YOUR PROFILE • Enter any public username to pull in your existing grid • Or start from an empty canvas • 3:4 or 1:1 cells, whichever you prefer • Highlights row, Reels tab, profile header — toggle what you want to see • Light and dark themes CROP WITHOUT GUESSWORK Pinch, drag and crop each image with a live preview of how it will sit next to its neighbours. Free-form or locked to 1:1, 4:5, 5:4, 3:4, 4:3. WORK ON SEVERAL PROFILES Keep separate projects for different accounts or different ideas, and switch between them in a tap. SAVE IT ALL Export your finished grid to Photos in one go, or save every slice of a split image as its own file, ready to post. PRIVACY BY DESIGN Gridder has no servers. Your photos, projects and settings live only on your device. There is no analytics, no tracking and no advertising in this app. GRIDDER PRO Free includes one project and nine planned posts. Pro removes the limits: • Unlimited planned publications • Up to 25 projects • Splitting one image across multiple posts • Exporting your full grid to Photos Gridder Pro is a one-time purchase of US$9.99. There is no subscription, nothing renews, and you are never charged again. The purchase is tied to your Apple ID, so you can restore it at no cost on any device you sign in to. Prices may vary by region. Terms of Use: https://nova-level-2ad.notion.site/Gridder-Terms-of-Use-3a9a5c9713da80e38c7be879408992c2 Privacy Policy: https://nova-level-2ad.notion.site/Gridder-Privacy-Policy-3a9a5c9713da8036a7d8c18970867f9f Gridder is an independent app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Instagram or Meta Platforms, Inc.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Instagram Planner at every 2 days against Gridder's every 4 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Instagram Planner sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Gridder sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Instagram Planner ships an update every 2 days, Gridder every 4 weeks. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Instagram Planner | Gridder |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 4.5 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | — | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 4 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Alex Stewart | Bogdan Tsokalo |
Customer experience
Instagram Planner
Gridder
In-app purchases
Instagram Planner
- Swatch Pro$9.99
Gridder
- Gridder Pro$9.99
Questions
Is Instagram Planner free?
Is Gridder free?
Do Instagram Planner or Gridder have ads?
Which is updated more often, Instagram Planner or Gridder?
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