Categories
C Rating instagram software

Ingramer Instagram Growth Service Review

Our Grade – C

Decently run service with a lot of fake reviews.

View our grading methodology.

At a Glance

Ingramer provides a suite of Instagram growth and research tools and has been around for at least two years. The company is based in Latvia. You can view more ownership information here.

What makes Ingramer unique is that they offer many different tools in addition to the basic follow-unfollow growth model that has worked so well for years. One can assume that they do most of their coding in house to be able to support such an array of activities.

All this being said, while we don’t feel the website is particularly deceptive, this type of growth is not approved by Instagram. There are plenty of customers complaining about awful results and constant intervention being required while using the Ingramer software. This is the case for many providers, as Instagram is cracking down really hard.

Business Analysis

ItemResult
Growth TypeTools + Managed SaaS
Quality of ServiceMedium
Business Registry / LocationLatvia / Belarus / Russia
Traceable TeamKind of
Functioning PhoneNo
Longevity2+ Years
Doesn’t Misuse IG BrandingFalse, mis-use name and logo
Active BlogYes
External SitesNo
Dashboard / Account ManagementYes
Offsite TestimoniesTrustpilot
Forthcoming About Password HandlingNo, you’ll be asked for your password during a long setup process

Pricing

The pricing tiers are kind of bizarre but ultimately the prices are very much in line with competitors. These are the prices for growth.

Service Details

The service is a follow-unfollow bot that might have a few extra bells and whistles. All things considered, they can’t escape the watchful eye of Instagram even with all these buzzwords.

What is nice about Ingramer is that they offer auto-posting and auto-responding features. We have no direct proof that these features work, but, if they do, that’s a nice bonus.

Integrity & Reputation

We respect that Ingramer does not hide that their service runs a bot on your account. However, we do not believe that they fully apprise customers of the risks of running such a bot on your account in 2021.

Not only are the results pretty bad across the board, but as soon as Instagram detects you, there will be consequences for your account, including shadow bans.

The Trustpilot page is bizarre, among the most confusing pages we’ve seen.

Please direct your attention to the 1-star reviews. They don’t appear to be coming from enraged customers or jealous competitors. There are tons of people complaining that the service just isn’t working. Even while responding, Ingramer acknowledges this. It seems a little dishonest to still be running one of these services without advising would-be customers of these issues.

Also, I will note that the vast majority of verified reviews are negative ones. We suspect there are hundreds of fake reviews on this page and it’s incredible that Trustpilot hasn’t made any effort to moderate them.

Conclusion

Software services just aren’t worth it anymore. While Ingramer isn’t a particularly shady service, we’re turned off by the amount of fake reviews. The real reviews suggest that this service has issues, so we’re hesitant to recommend it.

It comes down to this: 500+ reviews on Trustpilot, yet we can’t find a single thorough believable testimony.

Categories
C Rating instagram software

Combin Instagram Growth Service Review

Our Grade – C

Somewhat unique service with little blatant deception.

View our grading methodology.

At a Glance

Combin is a Russian Instagram growth service that provides apps for automated growth and post scheduling. While the service has been around for a long time, it hasn’t ever gained significant traction.

The one unique thing this service did was launch on Product Hunt, a website used for small SaaS and eCommerce startups. This was pretty cool.

As expected, users immediately saw through the facade when they launched 4-5 years ago:

Alexandra Malis, who was listed as the creator, tried to weasel out of the explanation… but the truth was discovered easily by people who actually know how to program. Combin was asking for a plain text password and trying to give the impression that it was an approved Instagram app.

In the main description, Alexandra criticized other basic follow/unfollow apps and then described how Combin allows people to … do the same exact thing except with a few more clicks.

The service has now been around for years and years and years. There’s still no real evidence that it works properly.

Business Analysis

ItemResult
Growth TypeApp
Quality of ServiceUnknown
Business Registry / LocationRussia / Germany
Traceable TeamKind of, most of them hide their identities
Functioning PhoneNo
Longevity4+ years
Doesn’t Misuse IG BrandingTrue
Active BlogYes
External SitesNo
Dashboard / Account ManagementN/A
Offsite TestimoniesTrustpilot
Forthcoming About Password HandlingNo

Pricing

Combin offers extremely competitive pricing, though it requires customers to do everything themselves. At the end of the day, it’s not saving you that much work, but all of the options might be worth a try.

Service Details

Combin is a hybrid app that allows you to take actions on Instagram from your computer. You control your own destiny; you put the work in yourself and pay for their tools.

Unfortunately, this isn’t an undetectable bot like Followyst. It’s still making Instagram API calls, so you’re still running a large risk of getting action blocks!

Integrity & Reputation

We don’t believe that Combin is particularly dishonest or disreputable. However, their website is a bit sterile and doesn’t really inspire confidence. Further, while they have a few 5-star reviews, many of them seem fake.

Conclusion

It’s likely that Combin has amassed several hundred customers after being around for several years. While it might be worth giving this service a shot, we don’t see the long term viability compared to simply using a hashtag tool and taking your own actions manually, which is compliant with Instagram’s terms.

Categories
A Rating instagram software

Hashtag Fox Instagram Hashtag Tool Review

Our Grade – A-

A trustworthy, highly-functional hashtag discovery tool with no downsides.

View our grading methodology.

At a Glance

Here at Pretty Good Reviews, we’re cynical. We like investigating shady websites. When we decided to start reviewing Instagram tools, we knew that things would be different. Hashtag Fox is a shining example of the type of service that has us appreciating what a great provider can be. They’re not out to scam you or mislead you–they offer a hashtag discovery tool and other useful metrics that provide real value to your marketing strategy.

Best of all, they provide these metrics in real time unlike any competitors that we are aware of.

The contents of this review will be a little bit different than most others we write, however, the formatting will be similar.

Business Analysis

ItemResult
Service TypeHashtag Tool SaaS
Quality of ServiceHigh
Business Registry / LocationEurope
Traceable TeamYes
Functioning PhoneN/A
Longevity1+ Year
Doesn’t Misuse IG BrandingTrue
Active BlogNo
External SitesNo
Dashboard / Account ManagementYes
Offsite TestimoniesTrustpilot
Forthcoming About Password HandlingN/A

Pricing

Hashtag Fox costs $30 per month and offers a free trial. At the time of writing, they are offering a special discount for $15 per month! These are great prices considering you’d otherwise have to use an assistant or dig up the hashtags yourself. When you consider that the queries are dispatched as you execute them, this is a really high-value service for the money. Nobody else has a product like this!

Service Details

Hashtag research is a critical part of any Instagram strategy that seeks to gain maximum exposure. Perhaps you are a marketer looking for hashtags to investigate. A tool like this is invaluable and, despite vague suggestions to the contrary, this type of service is not offered by any major growth services.

Setup was almost instant and we were blown away by how well the search function worked. For example, we search for hashtags similar to #newyorkcity.

The results were instant and were up-to-date. Even as we re-ran the query, the results changed slightly. That’s really impressive!

Hashtag Fox can supplement your own organic growth strategy and can help you discover unique insights about your own account’s stats, such as the much-discussed engagement rate!

This is a truly useful stat that is difficult to calculate yourself. It updates regularly. The site also allows you to save your searches and review them later.

Integrity & Reputation

There is nothing to suggest this is a dishonest business. They don’t have to mislead you or convince you otherwise. You can sign up for the free trial, see for yourself, and cancel if you are dissatisfied.

The Trustpilot page has a lot of positive reviews. Some are suspiciously short, we have to admit, but overall the business seems honest. The one negative review was responded to in a way that we deem satisfactory. As you can see above, we use it ourselves–this was not media provided by the business.

Conclusion

Overall, Hashtag Fox is worth using. We use it ourselves and it’s incredibly useful. A tool like this can supplement your Instagram strategy, whether you’re an agency or someone simply trying to expand his or her own account.

Let us know about your experience in the comments or if we missed anything. Would you like to see more Instagram tool provider reviews?

Categories
F Rating instagram software X Rating

Bigbangram Instagram Growth Service Review

Our Grade – F / X

Though this service pitches itself as a standalone provider, it actually seems to be a front for Russia-based SMM panels and related affiliate webpages.

View our grading methodology.

At a Glance

Bigbanggram is very hard to understand, maybe because it is based in Russia. It seems like an Instagram growth service / software agency. As you read the detailed descriptions, it becomes more clear that the website might just be a front for other services. Once you click some of the links, you’ll be taken to other websites seemingly at random. We can’t pin down exactly what’s going on here.

We had this realization after we started writing this review. We will continue writing this review but with limited information.

Business Analysis

ItemResult
Growth TypeAffiliate Website
Quality of ServiceUnknown
Business Registry / LocationRussia
Traceable TeamNo
Functioning PhoneNo
LongevitySince 2017
Doesn’t Misuse IG BrandingFalse
Active BlogNo
External SitesMany
Dashboard / Account ManagementN/A
Offsite TestimoniesN/A
Forthcoming About Password HandlingN/A

Service Details

Bigbangram contains links to many different types of social media services. These services include post scheduling, Instagram unfollowing, Instagram growth bots, TikTok promotion, and Instagram downloaders.

It seems that most of the links on the website contain affiliate codes to somewhat-well-known services like Ingramer.

Integrity & Reputation

All I could find about this service is that it is based in Russia. That was made somewhat clear by the Cyrillic alphabet being used by default in some of the links on the site. There is also an address listed:

Tulskaya 2
Moscow, 480013 Russia

My understanding of this address is that this is just a massive soviet-era apartment building in Moscow, there’s no specific street address. Let’s see if LinkedIn turns up anything interesting.

Ah, that was easy. Some Belarusian works at both Ingramer and BigBangram. It’s safe to assume that the services are related.

Conclusion

This is a strange website that we don’t recommend visiting for any reason. Knowing that this website shares an employee with Ingramer causes us to question the integrity of both websites.

Categories
instagram software X Rating

Gram Multi Tool / GMT2 Instagram Growth Service Review

Our Grade – X

This service died off in late 2019–the owner is now running a TikTok automation service and nobody seems to be giving him a hard time for abandoning his previous project.

View our grading methodology.

At a Glance

Gram Multi Tool (also known as GMT or GMT2) was an Instagram growth app heavily marketed on BlackHatWorld as an alternative to Follow Liker and Jarvee.

It was positioned as a successor to Mass Planner in late 2017.

Business Analysis

ItemResult
Growth TypeSelf-managed App
Quality of ServiceExtremely High
Business Registry / LocationUnknown
Traceable TeamThis Guy
Functioning PhoneNo
Longevity2 years
Doesn’t Misuse IG BrandingFalse
Active BlogNo
External SitesBlackHatWorld
Dashboard / Account ManagementYes, embedded
Offsite TestimoniesBHW
Forthcoming About Password HandlingYes

Pricing

GMT2 was cheap software that put everything in the user’s hands! $10 per month was just as cheap as Mass Planner.

Service Details

This was a fully-featured app that allowed you to fine-tune your Instagram growth experience. Unfortunately, it also left you exposed to all issues which could be a significant time sink.

During most of Gram Multi Tool’s existence, Instagram was always one step ahead, and users were left to the futile exercise of trying to outsmart Instagram despite not having the resources to test any suitable number of accounts.

For the price, and when things were good, this was a useful service. For most people, it ended up being a major source of frustration. The learning curve is pretty steep.

Integrity & Reputation

GMT2 got great reviews on Black Hat World. As the name suggests, Black Hat World is a community where people buy and sell services that typically run afoul of providers’ terms of service.

The forum is ultimately a pretty awful place, as the users are almost exclusively people looking to make money dishonestly despite having any real skills. It’s really frustrating that interesting projects and discussions are often overwhelmed by some of the dregs of the internet.

Anyway, this service worked for a while. There are 150 pages in the official thread. Unfortunately, this service met an unceremonious end. There were many Instagram updates during the summer of 2019 and the owner simply abandoned the project.

From what I can tell, there was no official statement of any kind. People gradually realized that the project was abandoned. I wonder how many of them were still paying!

I find it odd that the owner never posted any type of statement about this (that I could find). He proceeded to start a TikTok growth service in July 2020.

But … he abandoned that project too by the end of 2020. People were not happy and the thread was locked.

Conclusion

The Gram Multi Tool saga helps illustrate why we do not give ‘A’ ratings to any services that are single owner-operated. There are too many business risks. When things get difficult, one individual or even one individual and his developer cannot usually handle new coding challenges in reasonable amounts of time.

It also shows how short peoples’ memories are. This project was abandoned, the owner wasn’t disciplined, and then he started another project where he ended up taking people’s money and ghosting again, though he only ran the new service for 1/15th the amount of time.

Categories
instagram software X Rating

Mass Planner Instagram Growth Service Review

Our Grade – X

Mass Planner shut down around the same time as Instagress in spring 2017.

View our grading methodology.

At a Glance

Mass Planner was a desktop app that could be used to automate growth activity on a plethora of social networks. It was shut down at nearly the same time as Instagress in what was a coordinated effort.

It’s notable that Mass Planner had useful features for many other social networks. They originally told users that they’d re-open without the Facebook and Instagram features, but they never did.

Business Analysis

ItemResult
Growth TypeAutomation Desktop App
Quality of ServiceExtremely High
Business Registry / LocationUnknown
Traceable TeamNo
Functioning PhoneNo
Longevity3+ Years
Doesn’t Misuse IG BrandingTrue
Active BlogAt the time, yes
External SitesNo
Dashboard / Account ManagementYes
Offsite TestimoniesNo
Forthcoming About Password HandlingYes

Pricing

Mass Planner cost $9.95 per month. Due to the similarity in price between it and Instagress’ $9.99 per month, it seems plausible that both services were developed by the same team.

In any case, $10 per month was a bargain! This service was powerful. The only downside was that you had to keep your computer running in order to continue to get results.

Service Details

This was a feature-rich, kitchen-sink application. You could do anything and everything that had been discovered for the private APIs of any of these social networks.

Today, Google Plus no longer exists, while LinkedIn and Facebook are now considered all but impossible to automate.

There were so many features available from this service that it is impossible to list them all. You could tune them to your heart’s content. Using these features, many early growth specialists who didn’t have software backgrounds developed more advanced methods which are still used in some services today.

The disadvantaged of local app-based services is that you have to keep your computer running and that you have to run your own proxies, if desired.

Integrity & Reputation

Mass Planner simply shut down one day. They apologized to customers. This was taken hard by marketers around the world, as this was seen as the most popular, most accessible tool in the industry at that time.

We have nothing bad to say about Mass Planner. We’d have loved to know who was behind it, but they didn’t lie about how their service worked.

Conclusion

Mass Planner was the original desktop app used for Instagram growth. It met the same fate as Instagress in the early 2017 ban-wave. It is possible that Instagress and Mass Planner were owned by the same people, which may explain why they shut down nearly in tandem.

The Mass Planner website today
Categories
F Rating instagram software

Instagress Instagram Growth Service Review

Our Grade – X

This progenitor service was shut down after a request from Instagram in April 2017.

View our grading methodology.

At a Glance

Instagress is widely considered as the service that started it all. Not the first to run or provide an Instagram bot, but the first to offer a dashboard from which users could automate their activity.

Though many services have moved away from the dashboard approach, Instagress is still a model for how these services operate and market themselves.

Instagress shut down in April 2017.

Business Analysis

ItemResult
Growth TypeSaaS Website / Automated Growth
Quality of ServiceHigh
Business Registry / LocationUnknown
Traceable TeamAnonymous
Functioning PhoneNo
Longevity2013 – 2017
Doesn’t Misuse IG BrandingFalse
Active BlogFalse
External SitesNone
Dashboard / Account ManagementYes, the original
Offsite TestimoniesNo
Forthcoming About Password HandlingN/A

Pricing

Oh, that’s why everybody used Instagress! Instagress only charged $10 per month for their monthly plan. This price was absurdly low, affordable even for those in developing countries.

Their 3 days for $1.99 deal was just as good as any free trial.

Unfortunately, our group is unable to reach consensus on just how many customers Instagress had. Remember that, back in 2017, Instagram only had about 750,000,000 monthly users. Today, that number is nearly doubled, north of 1,300,000,000 monthly active users (though plenty are fake accounts and secondary/business accounts).

The original Instagress landing page which still holds up fairly well

Service Details

Instagress provided a dashboard from which you could log in and tune your activities. This was a follow/unfollow service. There were also features to leave comments and likes.

Before the major Instagram restrictions, most accounts could get hundreds of followers per month while using this service. Even if an account’s content was awful, it would be taking so many actions that it was bound to get a satisfactory amount of reciprocal likes.

People often ask us: why? How? Who are the people so interested in these real accounts growing via automated activity? Four years ago, most Instagram users were naive. They simply weren’t aware of the bot activity because it wasn’t commonplace.

Further, there were plenty of users on Instagram who were internet virgins. Underserved communities across the world were getting access to the internet and cheap smartphones. If you are dirt poor living in Bangladesh and you see that someone from America interacted with you, of course you’re going to follow them back! At scale, this is still a great method to get “real” followers.

Integrity & Reputation

Before Instagress shut down, it wasn’t particularly well known that Instagram took a hard line against bots. There had been only a few news articles and nobody was really paying attention to it. Remember: Twitter allows some bots and post scheduling.

It was big news when Instagress stopped operating. Ultimately, many people think that since they used “Insta” in their name, that was the kiss of death. There are a few–though not many–different services from that era still operating. Since this ban wave, Instagram has been more focused on fake accounts, not automated engagement services, which makes sense.

All sources point to Instagress being fairly “trustworthy.” However, as highlighted by the New York Times, they were notably anonymous. Nobody knows who was behind the business and the website still exists, though prominently features the “closed” message.

We speculate that this was a US-based service and that Instagram/Facebook sent a very scary cease and desist letter to the company. They complied and shut down while offering refunds to all subscribers.

There have been rumors that Instagress, along with other shuttered services, have re-opened under other names. We were unable to substantiate these claims.

What continues to shock us is that some businesses still use parts of “Insta” and “Gram” in their names. It’s idiotic. And it’s no surprise that the majority of them don’t end up getting good reviews from our team.

Conclusion

Instagress was an early player in the space that anyone who claims to have been around “since the beginning” will surely remember. Instagram’s legal action against the company surely scared away many imitators. Due to changes in guidelines and bot detection software, we’ve never seen a service operate as cheaply as Instagress.

Categories
F Rating instagram SMM software

Instavast Instagram Growth Service Review

Our Grade – F

Based on numerous red flags this service seems to be a complete fraud.

View our grading methodology.

At a Glance

Instavast is a long-running service with a silly name that seems to be effectively dead. The business is still accepting new customers despite there being a stream of unacknowledged negative reviews on Trustpilot.

This service is unique in that it offers several marketing tools in addition to an Instagram growth service and smm panel services.

Business Analysis

ItemResult
Growth TypeMany
Quality of ServiceNone
Business Registry / LocationUnited States
Traceable TeamSingle-owner
Functioning PhoneNo
Longevity3+ Years
Doesn’t Misuse IG BrandingFalse
Active BlogLast post in 2019 explaining how things were difficult
External SitesNo
Dashboard / Account ManagementYes
Offsite TestimoniesTrustpilot
Forthcoming About Password HandlingNo

Pricing

Instavast claims to offer the absolute-cheapest Instagram growth service. $15 per month? We truly wonder how they can even begin to offer customer service at such a low price point. Most likely, they can’t.

It’s deeper than that They also require customers to run their own proxies which is really inconvenient. Then, once you log in after paying $15 per month, you basically still need to use your account as normal. In other words, customers claim you pay the $15 per month for no service at all.

You can also install an app which requires full use of your phone, which we don’t recommend.

You can also buy likes and views, but prices aren’t displayed. Always be wary of services that sell bulk activity alongside offering bot growth services. They’re likely using your account to fulfill other customers’ orders!

Service Details

Instavast offers an extremely cheap automated growth product with a free trial. Unfortunately, there is no evidence suggesting it has been functioning for any of the past two years.

Integrity & Reputation

The company’s Trustpilot is filled exclusively with negative reviews. None of them have been responded to. Here’s my favorite one:

Like many others, if I could give no stars, I would. I am always leery and hesitant to do anything that is going to “buy” likes/follows and initially pushed back on a client’s request, but then relented. The homepage made it seem easy and seamless and like their had their poop in a pile to make sure my client wasn’t going to get banned. The options were clear, too. $15/mo for automated likes/follows. $10/mo for direct DM management. Not bad! Then you sign up and pay your initial $15 or whatever and it says you have no money applied and you have to “buy days” to continue. WTH does that mean? Didn’t I just pay for 30 days? I thought maybe I had clicked the wrong thing because the options on the “dashboard” were completely different than on their home/landing/sell page. And I thought, maybe they’re in a transition. But as the days went on (and I only did this for about 2 weeks total) I realized it was a scam. Everything they “automate” actually just makes you go to each individual IG page and follow them yourself and hope that person follows you back. I can do that myself and have it be more targeted. Then there is the app… Apparently, it does do the automated stuff it says it does, but only if you use the app. I went to install the app, and it needed full and complete control over my phone. I’m not one who has a lot of hesitations about installing things, but this made me UNCOMFORTABLE. I backed out thinking there HAD to be ANOTHER WAY! Nope, so I installed it and found that you had to keep Instagram open and your phone couldn’t sleep and then it would do it’s thing, which for me was nothing. To top it off, I made a call and received a call and both times shortly after the call connecting it sounded like someone else was dialing and/or on the line. I immediately removed the app and it hasn’t happened since (I’ve also now run virus scanners on my phone just to be safe). This product is a total rip-off and you’d be better off doing the legwork on your own!

Phew. Sorry you had to go through this, but thanks for sharing your experience.

Conclusion

Instavast was a service that some of our team members would hear about people using back in 2018. While the website has stuck around, the service hasn’t seemed to function for years. The owner should just pull the plug and stop taking money from people.

Categories
B Rating instagram software

Jarvee Instagram Growth Software Review

Our Grade – B+

Trustworthy, widely-recognized software solution.

View our grading methodology.

At a Glance

Jarvee is considered best-in-class desktop social media growth software. It is reasonably-priced. It is also known to be extremely complicated, but is essential to learn if you are trying to understand exactly what goes on within the Instagram growth space.

In other words, some growth providers probably charge you to run your account in their Jarvee instance.

Business Analysis

ItemResult
Growth TypeDesktop Software
Quality of ServiceHigh
Business Registry / LocationEurope
Traceable TeamYes, though not particularly important
Functioning PhoneNo
Longevity3+ years
Doesn’t Misuse IG BrandingTrue
Active BlogTrue
External SitesExtremely well known and well placed
Customer SupportFacebook Support Group
Dashboard / Account ManagementN/A
Offsite TestimoniesYes
Forthcoming About Password HandlingN/A

Pricing

Jarvee has three different plans. All of them include a 5-day free trial. These all provide excellent value, provided you are willing to learn how to use the software.

Service Details

Jarvee provides an overwhelming amount of control over your Instagram growth. It will take a new user hours before they can begin to grasp the feature set. Nearly everyone in the growth space has at least tried Jarvee. In fact, anyone who hasn’t should be regarded with extreme suspicion.

The problem with running your own software is that your computer needs to remain running. Sounds easy but, over time, you’ll see gaps in your results that other managed services wouldn’t allow to happen. You’ll also have to provide your own proxies, which is a huge hassle and added expense (depending on the number of accounts you’d like to grow).

Another problem with running widely-known software is that they usually take actions according to some type of pattern. This might not be obvious to you, but to a bot detection system analyzing billions of data points, you’ll really stick out. Somewhat frequently, an update will come out and Jarvee will lose pieces of functionality for extended periods of time.

These negatives aside–Jarvee is a great service and we highly recommend it for powerusers.

Integrity & Reputation

Jarvee is straightforward about their service offering. It is not a scam. There is nothing misleading about the business.

Jarvee has been known for great results and providing a high, if not the highest, quality of service. It is highly customizable and there are few, if any, true competitors at this time.

Conclusion

If you are a power-user or willing to invest serious time into learning the ins and outs of Instagram growth, Jarvee is probably the best option for you. However, there is a significant time cost, and there’s no guarantee that the service itself is flawless–much of that will fall into your own hands.