InboxLoop / Instagram workflows
Manychat vs Chatfuel
Manychat vs Chatfuel for Instagram DM automation: free plans, paid prices and workflows compared from official sources, with InboxLoop as a third option.
Available free during Early Access. Messaging rules and technical limits apply.
Manychat vs Chatfuel: free plans and prices
Published plans
Manychat
New Free
Starting offer$0; 25 Active Contacts per month; up to 4 live automations
The help center says Free accounts have moved to this plan. Verify the plan shown in your account.
SourceEssential
Essential, new pricing$17/month monthly, or $14/month equivalent billed yearly
250 Active Contacts / month
Additional active contacts: $0.10 monthly billing / $0.08 annual billing. Account and regional rollout can vary.
SourcePro
Pro, new pricing$39/month monthly, or $29/month equivalent billed yearly
2,500 Active Contacts / month
Additional active contacts: $0.05 monthly billing / $0.038 annual billing. USD; verify your in-account offer.
Source
Published plans
Chatfuel
Trial
Starting offerNo ongoing free plan; 7-day free trial with full access and $15 in credits
The trial article says a card is needed to activate the trial and is charged after 7 days unless you cancel; the pricing page says no credit card is required. Confirm at signup.
SourceBusiness
Business, monthly$20/month
1 bot; $20 in credits included each month
AI replies and Meta's WhatsApp charges come out of a US-dollar credit wallet; credits do not carry over. The usage-limits page describes unlimited active contacts and messages with fair-use AI limits.
SourceBusiness, annual
Business, yearly$18/month equivalent, billed yearly (US$216/year)
1 bot; $20 AI credits / month
Not a monthly charge. Agency plan names and prices differ between the pricing page and the plans article, so they are not quoted here.
Source
An active contact is counted once in a billing cycle, not once per DM. Official pricing pages and older accounts can still reflect legacy contact-based plans; the reviewed help articles describe the newer model. Do not apply these prices to every existing account. InboxLoop's free launch does not establish a permanent cost advantage.
Chatfuel charges a flat subscription per bot plus a credit wallet for AI replies and WhatsApp charges; static keyword replies are described as unlimited. It has no ongoing free plan, and its 7-day trial is a different kind of offer from InboxLoop's free Early Access, which is not a permanent price promise.
Feature by feature
| Feature or control | Manychat | Chatfuel |  InboxLoop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free access | $0; 25 Active Contacts per month; up to 4 live automations New Free The help center says Free accounts have moved to this plan. Verify the plan shown in your account. Manychat documentation | No ongoing free plan; 7-day free trial with full access and $15 in credits Trial The trial article says a card is needed to activate the trial and is charged after 7 days unless you cancel; the pricing page says no credit card is required. Confirm at signup. Chatfuel documentation | Unlimited automations, free during Early Access Early Access No cap on the number of automations during Early Access. Instagram messaging rules and technical sending limits still apply. Not a lifetime pricing promise. InboxLoop details |
| Comments and keywords | Post/Reel comment triggers with keyword filters and private replies Check selected plan Manychat documentation | Comment autoreply on posts, Reels and ads with a public reply, a private DM or both; up to 50 keywords per rule Paid plans and trial Rules can match a keyword exactly, by containing it, or any comment. Replies can be fixed text or written by the AI. Chatfuel documentation | Comment-to-DM, public replies and incoming-DM keyword replies Early Access InboxLoop details |
| Story workflows | Story-reply trigger documented Check selected plan This row does not establish identical support for every Story event. Manychat documentation | Story replies automation, with rules for selected Stories; Story mentions listed on the Instagram product page Paid plans and trial The help center's list of six Instagram sources does not include Story mentions. Confirm before relying on mention replies. Chatfuel documentation | Story reply and mention workflows; optional reaction to a Story reply Early Access InboxLoop details |
| Follow gates | Follower checks listed Essential Confirm availability under your account's billing model. Manychat documentation | No follow-check step found in the reviewed help center Not established "DM to Follow", in alpha for a limited group, messages new followers; it is not a follow check before a link. Do not interpret this research gap as unavailability. Chatfuel documentation | Ask for a follow, then check follow status when the person confirms Early Access A follow prompt is not a guarantee of follower growth. InboxLoop details |
| Product carousels | Instagram Card and Gallery message blocks documented Check selected plan Carousels are not an InboxLoop-exclusive capability. Manychat documentation | The AI sends catalog items with up to 10 photos each; button menus and quick replies are not supported Check selected plan A multi-card carousel with destination buttons was not found in the reviewed help center. Chatfuel documentation | Up to 10 product cards; up to 3 destination buttons each Early Access Messaging eligibility still applies; this is not native checkout. InboxLoop details |
| Click visibility | Instagram automation analytics includes click-through reporting Paid plans, gradual rollout Check whether the analytics view is available in your account. Manychat documentation | Ad campaign and funnel reporting listed; DM link-click tracking not established Business Not a claim of contact-level link-click reporting. Check the analytics view you need during the trial. Chatfuel documentation | Total clicks, unique clickers, repeat clicks and contact-level history Early Access Click activity is not purchase attribution. Probable bots are excluded from the reported metrics. InboxLoop details |
| Connection controls | Provider reports SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 compliance Provider security documentation These are Manychat's published statements, not an audit performed by InboxLoop. Manychat documentation | Instagram login and permission approval; provider describes itself as an official Meta Partner Provider documentation Partner status is Chatfuel's own statement. InboxLoop has not independently audited this provider. Chatfuel documentation | Meta authorization, server-side tokens and disconnect controls Early Access No Instagram password is collected. This is not an independent security audit or a claim of certification. InboxLoop details |
| Delivery safeguards | No like-for-like pacing implementation assessed in this review Not assessed Not confirmed here does not mean absent or insecure. Manychat documentation | Optional message-delay setting adds a typing pause; no like-for-like pacing implementation assessed Every automation A typing pause is not a rate-limit or retry system. Not confirmed here does not mean absent. Chatfuel documentation | Shared API budgets, rate-limit cooldowns and bounded retries Early Access No guarantee against restrictions, duplicates or failed delivery. InboxLoop details |
Information comes from each provider's published documentation and the InboxLoop implementation reviewed. This is not an independent audit.
Where InboxLoop fits
Consider InboxLoop for Instagram comment replies, a product carousel and click history in one launch-access workflow. Start with one clear use case and evaluate it on your own account.
Questions about this comparison
Are the older contact-based prices wrong?
Not necessarily. Manychat has multiple billing generations and regional rollout qualifications. Check your account's plan and the linked help articles before estimating a bill.
Does Chatfuel have a free plan?
Not an ongoing one. Its help center describes a 7-day free trial with full access, after which a paid plan starts unless you cancel. InboxLoop is currently free during Early Access, which is a different qualification.
How current is this information?
Reviewed in October 2026 from each provider's official pages. Plans change often, so confirm on the provider's site before you decide.
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