You’re at the right place if you’re already read the original Later vs Planoly article. I put PLANOLY and LATER through rigorous challenges, used them consistently and simultaneously for a year, and came out with one clear winner, BUT now that another 6 months have elapsed there are many additional features available so it’s time for an update on my thoughts on Later, and if it still takes the lead! Both have a free option, and paid upgrades, but for the purpose of this comparison, I have used the free versions.
New Things or Changes as of March 2018
- BOTH platforms now allow for auto-publishing (HURRAY!) photo-posts to Instagram
- upsides:
- you can get everything ready on your desktop and set to post on your phone without getting distracted by the read
- you can plan out your week’s post ahead of time at your computer, and then leave placeholders or notification posts in between for your on-the-go images
- downsides:
- hard-returns don’t translate in the auto-post as they do when the caption is copy-pasted manually with notification, only line-breaks
- you cannot add location or tag other accounts in the image when auto-posting (you can always go in afterwards and edit, but you miss the engagement boost while it matters)
- videos & carousels can still only be posted with notification (not available on the free plans anyways)
- upsides:
- Later still allows for you to post via notification, while Planoly has switched over to auto-post-only
- Later has decided that commenting is no longer available on the free plan, and is only part of the premium paid options
- Planoly does not allow for you to crop your image within the desktop version, Later does
- For a short period of time, you could choose on Later whether you wanted to post a photo or post as your story, but it seems to have stopped (I hope it comes back because that makes scheduling a few stories here and there quite convenient!)
More updates to come as they get released!
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