What is the best tool to know what to post on Instagram?

So what is the best tool to know what to post next?

It depends on the job, and the two jobs get confused constantly. One job is reporting: showing you what your Reels did. The other is deciding: telling you what to make next. Most tools only do the first, then leave the second, which is the part that actually grows the account, to you.

• Metricool, Iconosquare, Later: reporting and scheduling. Strong at telling you what happened.
• Virlo: trend and breakout discovery. Good for seeing what is working in your niche.
• Retensis: hook and retention scoring. Good for diagnosing why one Reel held attention.
• Reel Intel: reads your own Reels and decides what to post next, ranking formats, hooks and topics by your real views and building 30 Days of Posts
• The best tool is the one built for the job, not the one with the most features

Which tools actually tell you what to post next?

Reporting is not the same as deciding

A dashboard will tell you a Reel got 4,000 views and another got 40,000. What it will not tell you is the one thing you actually need: what to do about it. That gap between the data and the decision is where accounts stall. You can scroll your own grid for an hour and still miss the pattern, because the winning hook is rarely the one you personally prefer.

We checked that against 41 Instagram accounts and found 88% post most on a topic that is not their best performer. They pour their effort into their weakest content and starve their strongest, and on a grid it is almost impossible to see. The pattern only becomes obvious when every Reel is read and ranked.

This is the narrow job Reel Intel was built for, and it is worth being honest about where the other tools stop. Metricool, Iconosquare and Later are excellent at reporting and scheduling. If what you need is a tidy overview of the month, they do that well. But a chart of the past is not a plan for the future.

Where Virlo and Retensis stop short

Virlo and Retensis are the two tools most often named alongside Reel Intel, and both are good at what they do. It helps to be precise about the difference.

Virlo is built for discovery. It surfaces breakout content and trending formats across a niche, so you can see what is moving before you film. That is genuinely useful, but it looks outward at everyone else's content. The question Reel Intel answers looks inward: given what has already worked on your own account, what should you post next?

Retensis is built for diagnosis. It scores hooks and predicts retention, so you can see why a specific Reel did or did not hold attention. That is a creative read on one post at a time. Reel Intel takes the same instinct and turns it into a plan: which formats, hooks and topics to repeat, ranked by your real views, across the next 30 days.

Neither is a lesser tool. They simply answer a different question. If you want to know what is trending, Virlo is a good pick. If you want to know whether your last Reel held attention, Retensis is a good pick. If you want to know what to make next, that is the job Reel Intel does.

From your Reels to your 30 Days of Posts

Reel Intel is an AI tool that reads your Instagram Reels in depth and tells you what to post next. Our AI reads your content across six signals, and a pattern only becomes a recommendation when it shows up across many Reels, never a single guess:

• Format
• Hook style
• Emotional trigger
• Caption structure
• Content theme
• Content mix

Those signals do not stay as a report. Reel Intel turns what it reads into 30 Days of Posts, a month of dated posts where every one is a ready-to-shoot recipe: the format, the hook, the length, the music direction, the caption angle and the call to action, all set out for you. The plan rebuilds every month, so it always reflects your newest results and your competitors' latest moves.

The best tool to know what to post next is the one that reads your own Reels, not the one with the prettiest charts. Reel Intel ranks every Reel by views and hands you the formats, hooks and lengths to post next.

Discover, Compare, Dominate, Conquer and Custom

• Discover reads your own account from every angle: your real benchmarks, the formats, hooks and topics that win for you ranked by views, your best length and your best time to post.
• Compare tracks one account you choose in detail: how you stack up on views and reach, and the gaps behind their best Reels.
• Dominate tracks up to three and turns it all into your winning formula and 30 Days of Posts, with your highest-impact moves and the proof behind each one.
• Conquer tracks up to ten accounts, so you can see who is winning across your market and where it is heading next.
• Custom tracks every account you want, with a 1:1 onboarding call and priority support.

Discover: reads your own account in depth and rebuilds every month. Compare (£25 a month): adds one account you track. Dominate (£49 a month): tracks up to three and adds the full 30 Days of Posts. Conquer (£99 a month): tracks up to ten. Custom (£199 a month): tracks every account you want, with a 1:1 onboarding call. See the full breakdown on how it works or the plans and pricing.

Tools for what to post, answered

Stop guessing. Post what works. Your own data already knows what to post next. Our AI reads it and hands you the plan.