8 Best Instagram Follower Trackers for 2025

If you're serious about growing on Instagram, tracking your followers is non-negotiable. It’s how you understand what’s working, catch drops before they spiral, and make sure your audience isn't made up completely of bots or ghost accounts.
Follower data tells a story. It shows you which posts bring in new people, when engagement dips, and whether you're attracting the right kind of audience.

In this guide, we’ll show you 8 of the best Instagram follower tracker tools.

Why you need an Instagram follower tracker

Instagram doesn’t give you the full picture. Sure, you can see your total follower count. But that’s not enough if you actually want to grow.

A good follower tracker fills in the gaps by showing you:

• Who followed and unfollowed you, so you can track retention.
• When followers come and go, you can tie spikes or drops to specific posts or campaigns.
• Whether your growth is organic or inflated by fake followers and giveaways.
• How engaged your audience truly is, so you’re not just chasing numbers.

If you’re running ads, managing influencer partnerships, or pitching to brands, this data matters. It’s how you prove your reach is legit and that your audience actually cares about what you post.

Even if you aren't actively trying to land brand deals, follower data is still important. If you're growing a business account, building a personal brand, or running a paid community, it'll tell you if your content is resonating and if you’re attracting the kind of audience that'll actually take action.

Key features to look for in a follower tracker tool

Every IG follower tracker tool worth its salt will have a few defining features that make it functional. Let's take a look at what those are and how you can use them:

Follower gain/loss tracking

This shows you how many people followed and unfollowed you over a set period of time, so you can spot trends. If your follower count suddenly spikes, you’ll know if it was tied to a specific post or campaign. If it drops, you can trace it back to what might’ve caused it — a controversial post, a change in tone, or even just inactivity.

Unfollowers list

Losing followers is part of the game, but knowing who left can give you clues. Are you losing long-time followers? New ones who just joined? Accounts from a particular segment? If you notice patterns, like a batch of unfollows after a certain type of post, you can adjust your strategy.

Real vs. fake follower detection

This feature helps you spot bot accounts, inactive profiles, or followers with suspicious engagement patterns. Brands, algorithms, and even your audience notice right away when your account has 150k followers but 30 likes on every post.

Engagement analytics

Follower count tells you how many people are watching. But engagement tells you how much they care.

• Likes
• Comments
• Shares
• Saves
• Reach

Solid numbers in these categories usually means your content is resonating. Low or poorly proportioned ones are a sign something’s off, maybe that your posts aren’t landing, or you’re attracting the wrong crowd.

Audience demographics

This feature shows key data about your followers, like their age, gender, location, and sometimes even language. Instagram already has native features for this, but they don't dive as deep into it as a third-party tool would.

Demographics help you shape your messaging, posting times, and even the products or services you promote. For instance, if most of your audience is 18–24 and based in the U.S., your tone, memes, and call-to-actions will look very different than if you're speaking to 35–44-year-olds in Europe.

It also helps with brand partnerships. When brands ask for your audience breakdown, you’ll have it ready (and it’ll actually be accurate).

Growth timeline and history view

This gives you a visual breakdown of your follower growth over time, usually in the form of a graph or calendar-style tracker. The timeline view also lets you zoom out and track long-term momentum, which makes it particularly useful when you're testing multiple content types.

Post-performance breakdowns

After you post, an Instagram follower tracker will tell you how individual posts perform in terms of reach, likes, comments, shares, saves, and follower impact. That way, you can fine-tune your content strategy, repeat what works, and cut what doesn’t based on real-time performance data.

Hashtag performance tracking

Hashtags aren’t the growth hacks they used to be. Slapping 30 on every post won’t skyrocket your reach anymore. But if you’ve created a custom limited-time hashtag (e.g., #MyBrandChallenge), a good tracker lets you monitor how often it’s used, who’s engaging with it, and whether it's bringing in new followers.

Competitor comparison

With the right tool, you can benchmark your own performance against your competitors'. You can see how they're growing, posting, and engaging with their audience, and potentially take a page out of their playbooks.

Alerts for follow/unfollow activity

So you don't have to constantly sit eyes glued to your dashboard, you can configure a follower tracker to send you real-time or daily alerts when someone follows or unfollows your account. It also helps you stay on top of important relationships, like if an important prospect or influencer follows (after which you could slide in their DMs).

Support for multiple accounts

If you manage social media for a business, run a personal brand alongside a company page, or handle client accounts, this is a must. You don’t want to log in and out of multiple tools or bounce between apps just to get basic insights.

Exportable reports

With exportable reports, you can download your follower data and analytics into shareable formats like CSVs or PDFs, then send them to a client, a boss, or a brand partner. They’re also great for record-keeping. You can track your performance month over month and see long-term patterns beyond what the app shows you.

Integration with other platforms

Instagram is probably just one part of your social strategy, which is why you’ll need a broader view. Integrations let you compare follower growth and engagement across platforms, spot cross-channel trends, and simplify reporting. Some Instagram follower trackers support multiple platforms natively.

Mobile app availability

Instagram is a mobile-first platform. So it only makes sense that your tracking tool should work seamlessly on your phone, too. Mobile access means you can check insights on the go, get real-time alerts, and manage multiple accounts without needing a laptop.

A tip from our Instagram experts: Even with API-compliant tools, you won’t be able to see exactly who unfollowed you unless the tool caught it before they left. Instagram’s API doesn’t give historical follow/unfollow logs. If a tool promises full unfollower lists without limitations, it’s definitely breaking rules.

Compliance with Instagram’s API

This means the tool uses Instagram’s official API to access your data, not sketchy workarounds or scraping. Using tools that don’t follow Instagram’s rules can get your account flagged, restricted, or even banned.

The 8 best Instagram follower trackers in 2025

Some are simple and free. Others are built for serious growth. Let’s find the one that’s right for you.

Iconosquare

Iconosquare is a comprehensive social media management platform, but that's why we love it so much. You can connect follower tracking and analytics to the rest of your Instagram workflows, like content collaboration, post scheduling, and real-time audience engagement.

Key features include:

• Follower growth, engagement rate, and post performance reporting across multiple social profiles
• Tailored dashboards to monitor KPIs that matter most to your business
• Scheduling for posts, carousels, Stories, and Reels with an intuitive calendar
• Competitor and industry performance benchmarking
• Team workflows with content approval processes and shared calendars
• AI-powered content idea generation
• Centralized dashboard for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Pinterest accounts
• Dedicated iOS and Android apps

Pricing and trial

Iconosquare offers four price tiers:

• Launch (for beginners): $33/month (billed annually)
• Scale (for growing brands): $69/month (billed annually)
• Excel (for enterprises): $116/month (billed annually)
• Custom (for scaled agencies): Talk to sales

14-day free trial available for all plans, no credit card required.

Best for: Social media managers, agencies, and brands seeking an all-in-one platform to analyze performance, schedule content, and collaborate efficiently across multiple social channels.

Social Blade

Social Blade offers no-nonsense, public-facing analytics across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook. It gives you real-time statistics, historical data, and future projections, making it a valuable tool for tracking growth and engagement trends.

Its real strong suit is YouTube and Twitch tracking, but that’s great if you’re a streamer, music artist, athlete, or podcaster who uses Insta primarily for clips of your long-form footage.

Key features include:

• Daily follower gains and losses tracking to understand audience behavior
• Access to up to 3+ years of data to identify long-term trends
• Future follower count projections based on current growth patterns
• Performance benchmarking against similar accounts
• Custom report generation for specific analytical needs.

Pricing and trial

Social Blade offers a free tier and four paid plan options:

• Free: Access basic analytics and limited historical data.
• Bronze: $4.99/month; includes ad-free experience and extended data access.
• Silver: $14.99/month; offers additional features like custom reports.
• Gold: $59.99/month; includes advanced analytics and priority support.
• Platinum: $149.99/month; designed for agencies with multiple accounts.

No free trial, but the free plan gives you access to the platform's basic features, which you can use to get a feel for whether it's the right fit.

Best for: Content creators, influencers, and small businesses that primarily publish YouTube/Twitch content like podcasts, music videos, and live streams, then repurpose it for Instagram.

HypeAuditor

HypeAuditor offers free tools for quick insights into any IG profile, but its true strength lies in its comprehensive influencer marketing platform. You can use it to discover, analyze, and manage influencer campaigns end-to-end, including how their content relates to your own follower growth.

So, it's not as much a follower tracker for your own account. You'd use it to get those insights about other accounts, some of whom you'd partner with on influencer or UGC campaigns for your brand.

Key features include:

• Free tools to audit the follower count, fake followers, engagement rate, and audience quality of any IG profile (including your own)
• End-to-end influencer management, including vetting, outreach, contracting, campaign management, and payment
• Fraud detection for influencers with fake followers and suspicious engagement patterns
• Monitoring for brand mentions, UGC, and competitor behavior

Pricing and trial

HypeAuditor's pricing works as follows:

• Plans: Custom, based on your brand's or agency's needs.
• Free tools: Includes follower count checker and audience quality analysis.

A free account is available to access limited features for up to 10 campaigns with 150 influencers.

Best for: Brands running influencer campaigns that want to vet, reach out to, and monitor the IG accounts of partners and prospective partners, rather than manage their own.

FollowMeter

FollowMeter (available on Google Play and the App Store) is a mobile-first app designed for users who want to monitor their Instagram followers and engagement metrics. You can use it to learn everything about follower growth, unfollowers, ghost followers, and more.

While it doesn't offer the depth of analytics you'll find in some of the desktop platforms, its simplicity and focus on core metrics make it one of our top picks for individual creators and small businesses.

Key features include:

• Real-time follower and unfollower tracking
• Ghost follower identification
• Insight into who views your stories the most, including non-followers (for public accounts)
• Reports on users who frequently engage with your posts (top likers and "secret admirers")
• Detection for users who have blocked your account
• Post engagement analysis
• Account engagement and activity meter over time

Pricing and trial

• Free version: Basic features with limited insights.
• PLUS monthly: $4.99
• PLUS 6 months: $17.99
• PLUS yearly: $23.99

No free trial, but FollowMeter's free version will give you a good enough feel for what the product feels like to use.

Best for: Individuals, small-time influencers, and small businesses looking for a no-frills, mobile-friendly tool to monitor Instagram follower dynamics and engagement.

Not Just Analytics

Not Just Analytics (formerly Ninjalitics) is an Instagram analytics tool that lets you enter any public Instagram handle and receive immediate analytics on follower trends, engagement rates, and post performance (no account needed). This is fantastic for vetting influencers and comparing your profile to your competitors'.

When you create your account, you'll get additional features like ongoing analytics tracking for your profile and AI-powered content recommendations to get you max visibility.

Key features include:

• Instant follower trends, engagement rates, and post performance analytics for public profiles
• Individual post performance evaluation, including likes, comments, saves, hashtags, and publishing time
• Actionable tips you can implement today to improve your Instagram profile
• Account metric benchmarking and ongoing tracking against competitors
• Multi-IG-profile management from a single dashboard
• Branded report generation for clients or internal use

Pricing and trial

NJA offers four subscription options:

• Free: Basic insights for a single profile.
• Light: €7.50/month; includes detailed analytics and one profile analysis.
• Standard: €24.17/month; supports up to five profiles, offers three months of business insights, and allows report customization.
• Pro: €74.17/month; manages up to 20 profiles, provides 12 months of data, and includes team collaboration features.

No free trial, but the free version is enough to give you a taste of the product.

Best for: Small creators/brands and small agencies/freelancers who can fully benefit from Not Just Analytics' automated client reporting capabilities.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social has follower tracking capabilities, but it isn't just a follower tracker. It's a comprehensive social media management and intelligence platform companies use to manage their entire social media operation.

It's got some of the best tools in the game for engagement monitoring (including followers), publishing, analytics, social listening, influencer marketing, and even employee advocacy. And when you connect all your socials, you'll start to connect the dots between your Instagram followers and those who follow you on other profiles.

Key features include:

• Follower growth trends, engagement rates, and audience demographics reporting/comparison across multiple profiles and multiple platforms
• Single-dashboard management for all your social media accounts — Insta, TikTok, X, you name it
• Separate reporting for follower growth from paid vs. organic campaigns
• AI-assisted responses to customers, critics, and engaged followers
• Crisis notifications for followers and commenters who demand your priority
• Team workflows for task management, approvals, content creation, and collaboration
• Tailored reports with specific metrics and timeframes for internal analysis and client presentations

Pricing and trial

Sprout Social offers four different price tiers for paid users:

• Standard: $199 per user/month; includes basic follower tracking, analytics, and management tools.
• Professional: $299 per user/month; offers advanced analytics, reporting, and unlimited social profiles.
• Advanced: $399 per user/month; adds features like message spike alerts and digital asset management.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing; tailored solutions for large orgs.

A 30-day free trial is available for all new Sprout Social users.

Best for: Medium to large businesses, agencies, and enterprises that need an all-in-one solution for managing multiple social media profiles, in-depth analytics, and team collaboration tools.

Later Analytics

Later Instagram Analytics takes its core post scheduling capabilities and expands on them with an analytics suite that punches well above its weight. It instantly tells you which posts had the highest engagement, optimizes your posting schedule based on real follower activity, and digs into Instagram Stories performance in a way that helps you actually improve, not just track.

It also gives you insight into who your top followers and non-followers are, helping you attract more of your ideal follower type (a.k.a. your ICP). And it supports LinkedIn, TikTok, X, YouTube, Threads, Snapchat, and Pinterest scheduling and analytics, making it the perfect choice if you're building across a few different platforms (or plan to in the future).

Key features include:

• Ranking posts by engagement rate to identify top-performing content
• "Best time to post" insights based on when your audience is most active
• Instagram Stories metrics like impressions, reach, completion rate, and reply count
• Audience insights, like what segments they come from and how they interact with your content
• Follower DM replies, AI content help, brand collab tools, and a link-in-bio page builder right within the Later app
• Link-in-bio clicks and traffic monitoring for brands, service providers, affiliates, info offers, and other commercial pages

Pricing and trial

There are five paid tiers to choose from when you sign up for Later:

• Starter: $16.67/month
• Growth: $30/month; unlocks full analytics and best-time-to-post tools.
• Advanced: $53.33/month; gets you full platform capability and unlimited scheduling for up to 6 Social Sets (54 profiles total).
• Agency: $133.33/month; Advanced capabilities, plus additional tools for collaboration, content approval, and client reporting.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing; everything Later has to offer, plus social listening, enterprise SSO, and 1:1 onboarding.

A 14-day free trial (no credit card required) is available to all new Later users.

Best for: Personal brands, solopreneurs, and business owners who need to keep a consistent post schedule and want centralized analytics to support it.

NapoleonCat

NapoleonCat is a social media management platform that stands out as a follower tracker for its ability to show you demographic data (by country, city, age, and gender) that's more granular than what Instagram's native tools offer.

It also connects follower and engagement metrics to tangible business outcomes through its integrated Social CRM. Through the CRM, it builds user profiles for people who DM you, consolidating their comments, messages, sentiment, and personal notes.

Key features include:

• Detailed user profiles encompassing interaction history, sentiment analysis, and internal notes.
• Centralized messages, comments, and reviews across multiple platforms.
• Automated responses to common inquiries, with filters for spam and inappropriate content.
• Performance metrics and customizable report generation to assess social media impact.
• Instagram follower growth history for your account and others'.

Pricing and trial

There are four pricing options for NapoleonCat, each with a sliding scale depending on the number of users:

• Standard: Starts at $79/month; includes 2 users and 5 social profiles.
• Pro: Starts at $89/month, offering enhanced features and higher message capacity.
• Expert: Starts at $119/month; a full-feature platform with automation built in.
• Enterprise: Starts at $495/month; individualized solutions for large and complex businesses.

Free Trial: 14-day trial available with access to all features.

Best for: Ecommerce businesses with Instagram-heavy engagement and customer support workflows.

Which tool is right for you? (scenarios & use cases)

With so many options, the best follower tracker depends on what you're trying to do. Here's how we'd narrow it down:

• Just want to track followers, unfollowers, and ghost accounts? Go with FollowMeter for its simplicity and mobile-friendliness.
• Running a small agency or managing clients? Try Not Just Analytics or Iconosquare — they've both got the white-labeled reports and multi-account dashboards you need for client handoff.
• Work with influencers and want to track their numbers? Choose HypeAuditor for its extensive suite of campaign tools (which include follower tracking).
• Influencer yourself? The features in Not Just Analytics will work for you, too.
• Solopreneur, founder, or personal brand? The visual planning and simple (yet extensive) post analytics you need are in Later.
• Run a support-heavy ecom or retail brand? Use NapoleonCat to connect with your customers and handle things like shipping issues.
• Large company or creator with multiple socials? The advanced, holistic capabilities of Sprout Social (companies) and Social Blade (creators) connect Instagram to your broader account ecosystem.

Are Instagram follower trackers safe?

Some are. Some definitely aren’t.

Here’s the deal: if a tool asks for your Instagram password or promises to show you every single unfollower, it's probably violating Instagram’s terms of service. That can get your account flagged, restricted, or even permanently banned.

Even sooner, you'll get a notification like this:

The safest tools are API-compliant, meaning they use Instagram’s official data access channels. The tools we’ve listed above fall into this category. They’re legit, enterprise-grade, and won’t put your account at risk.

Red flags to watch out for:

• It asks for your password directly (never do this)
• It scrapes data from other profiles
• It promises features Instagram itself doesn’t allow
• It stops working every time Instagram updates

Quick tip: Even with compliant tools, there are limits. For instance, no tracker can show who unfollowed you last month unless it was actively tracking your account at that time. Instagram doesn’t store that kind of historical data in its API.

Can I track who unfollowed me on Instagram?

Yes, but only going forward, not retroactively.

Instagram doesn’t give you a built-in way to see who unfollowed you. And third-party tools can’t magically retrieve past unfollow data unless they were already tracking your account when it happened.

That’s why Instagram follower tracker tools are so helpful: they track unfollowers in real time (or close to it). As long as you have the tracker set up, it logs changes as they happen, then potentially notifies you.

Do IG follower trackers work for private accounts?

Yes, but only for your own.

If your account is private and you connect it to a follower tracker that uses Instagram’s official API, it’ll work just fine. You’ll get access to your own follower data, engagement stats, and growth trends no problem.

But: You can’t use these tools to track private accounts you don’t own. Instagram doesn’t allow third-party apps to access follower or content data from private profiles unless you’re logged in as the account owner.

Are there free follower tracking tools?

Yes, but don’t get too excited.

Most free follower tracker apps get taken down from the App Store or Play Store eventually because they’re either noncompliant with Instagram’s rules or just don’t have enough traction to survive long-term. Some free apps even give you false analytics information.

If all you want is a basic “who unfollowed me” list and you’re okay with random outages, a free tool might hold you over. But if you care about accuracy, longevity, and real insights, you’re better off going with a trusted paid option.

Will Instagram ban me for using tracker apps?

Instagram doesn’t ban you just for using third-party tools, but it will flag your account if the tool violates its terms.

That includes:

• Logging in with your username and password (instead of using the official API)
• Scraping data from other users
• Automating follows/unfollows or mass DMs
• Making too many requests in a short time (rate-limiting violation)

If a tool seems shady, over-promises features, or wants your login credentials directly, don't use it.

Can I track someone else’s follower growth?

If their account is public, you can.

Some tools let you monitor follower counts and growth trends for other public Instagram profiles. Influencer tools like Social Blade, Not Just Analytics, and HypeAuditor specialize in this. If you use one, you'll see daily/weekly changes, estimated engagement rates, and basic audience metrics.

Which tool shows real-time updates?

Most tools update your follower data daily — or every few hours — but if you’re looking for real-time or near-instant alerts, your best bet is a mobile-first tracker like FollowMeter.

The more robust social media management platforms (like Iconosquare or Later) update less frequently but offer deeper insights, cleaner data, and full historical views.

So it’s a trade-off: speed vs. depth.

How accurate are third-party tracker apps?

If a tool is API-compliant, its data is pulled directly from Instagram’s official systems, so the accuracy is solid. But if it relies on scraping, guesswork, or unauthorized methods, you’re going to run into problems:

• Delays or data gaps
• Unreliable follower counts
• “Ghost followers” that aren’t actually inactive
• Engagement stats that don’t match Instagram’s numbers

What’s the best tool for spotting fake followers?

HypeAuditor is the clear winner here.

It’s built specifically to assess audience quality, not just count followers. It runs fake follower audits, detects suspicious growth spikes, and scores your audience on authenticity. It can even flag “fraudulent influencers” who bought followers or engagement.

That said, most major social media/influencer marketing platforms have a free fake follower checker you can plug any public Instagram profile URL into and get a detailed report.

Can I export reports from these tools?

Tools like Iconosquare, Later, Not Just Analytics, and HypeAuditor let you export clean, professional reports as PDFs or CSVs. Some even let you white-label them for client use.

Budget apps like FollowMeter, though? Not so much.

Exporting is usually a premium feature for desktop SaaS apps, or it's not available at all.

What should I do if I notice a sudden follower drop?

If you see a sudden drop in followers, use your follower tracker to pinpoint when the drop happened and whether it aligns with a specific post or campaign. Did you post something off-brand, overly promotional, or controversial?

It’s also worth checking whether Instagram is running a fake account purge. These happen from time to time, and when they do, almost everyone sees a dip, especially if you’ve attracted bots or inactive accounts over the years.
If the decline continues, it’s a sign to reevaluate your strategy. Your audience is no longer interested in your content and you need to either fix your content, targeting, or both.

The bottom line

Instagram follower trackers aren’t just for ego checks — they’re tools for clarity. Whether you’re a creator trying to grow, a brand optimizing content, or an agency managing accounts, the tools we listed will help you understand what’s actually happening behind the numbers.

Just remember: use one that plays by Instagram’s rules, gives you clean data, and helps you connect follower growth to your broader content strategy.

Want us to grow your Instagram for you? Book a call with our team and we'll get you set up.