Same mechanics, only one meter
LinkDM sells a monthly DM allowance; inDM meters no messages on either plan. So it comes down to entry price, account count and where each free tier stops.
LinkDM is one of the closest tools to inDM in this category: Instagram-first, flat monthly plans, no contact tiers, no credit system. The difference is the unit. LinkDM sells a stated monthly DM allowance, and inDM does not meter messages on either plan.
LinkDM Pro is $19 for 25,000 DMs and three connected accounts; inDM Growth is $14.99 for unlimited messages on up to 5 accounts. There is no volume at which their rate overtakes ours, because ours has no rate.
What is left to compare is the shape. Their entry price is $19 against our $14.99. Their free tier is one Instagram account, 1,000 DMs a month, and LinkDM branding on every message; ours is one Instagram account and unlimited DMs, with app branding removal sold on Growth the way theirs is on Pro, but without the ceiling. Both ladder connected accounts: theirs run one, three, ten; ours run one on Free, up to 5 on Growth, and more on the agency plans.
Why creators switch
More accounts at the entry price
LinkDM ladders accounts across its tiers: 1 on Free, 3 on Pro, 10 on Platinum+. inDM connects 1 on Free and up to 5 on Growth. If you run a main account and two side projects, that is $19 there and $14.99 here. Past 5, the agency plans hold more accounts in one workspace.
The badge comes off at a lower price
Both free tiers brand your messages, LinkDM on the message itself, inDM as a one-line credit at the end of each one. What differs is the removal price: theirs is Pro at $19 for 25,000 DMs and 3 accounts; ours is Growth at $14.99 for unlimited messages on up to 5 accounts.
A lower entry price
Growth is $14.99 a month for unlimited DMs on up to 5 accounts, against LinkDM Pro at $19 for 25,000 DMs and three accounts. Cheaper, with more accounts and no message count, and there is no volume at which that reverses: their next tier up is $99.
Feature by feature
| Feature | inDM | LinkDM |
|---|---|---|
| Comment-to-DMSomeone comments a keyword on a post or reel; they get your link in a DM, instantly. | Yes | Yes |
| Story repliesA reply to your story triggers an automatic DM back. | Yes | Yes |
| Keyword DMsA DM containing a keyword gets an instant, useful answer. | Yes | Yes |
| Follow gateAsk for a follow before the link is delivered. Every link grows your following. | Yes | Yes |
| Email captureCollect an email address inside the DM thread, attached to the contact. | Yes Asks in the thread, saved to the contact | Yes |
| Live DM previewSee the exact DM (bubbles, buttons, link card) before anything goes live. | Yes Always on screen while you build | Partial Verify current builder on their site |
| Built on your real contentAutomations attach to actual posts, reels, and stories, not an abstract flowchart. | Yes The spine of the product | Yes |
| Unified inboxEvery conversation your automations create, in one view. | Yes | Partial Verify current inbox scope on their site |
| ContactsEvery engaged person becomes a tracked contact (leads, hot leads, customers, superfans), exportable anytime. | Yes Light by design, not a sales CRM | Yes DM allowance drives the bill, not contacts |
| AnalyticsTrigger rate, DM click-through, keyword performance, best hours to post. | Yes Trigger rate, keywords and hours on both plans; DM click-through on Growth | Yes |
| Predictable pricingYou can say what next month costs before the month happens. | Yes Nothing is metered, $0 or $14.99, whatever your volume does | Yes Same meter as ours, a stated monthly DM allowance |
| Free foreverA free plan that renews every month, not a trial that runs out. | Yes Unlimited messages and every automation type, on one connected Instagram account | Yes 1,000 DMs/mo on 1 account, with LinkDM branding |
| Follow-up messageA second DM hours after the first: a thank you, a nudge to follow, or the link again. Optionally only to the people who never opened it. | Yes 30 minutes to 20 hours later, with an option to skip anyone who already clicked; on Growth | Yes Flow Automation schedules a sequence of DMs and reminders |
| Running many client accountsHow the plan grows past one Instagram account, for an agency or a team running several brands. | Yes Up to 5 on Growth, 15 on Agency Lite ($39 a month), 30 on Agency Pro ($99 a month) then $3 each. Clients connect from a link you send | Partial Up to 10 accounts on Platinum+ at $99 a month; Enterprise on request above that (read 9 Oct 2026) |
Feature support as of August 2026. Something changed? Tell us and we'll fix it.
The pricing math
Free forever: $0, no card, unlimited messages, every automation type, unlimited keywords, the follow and email gates, automation and audience analytics, the unified inbox and export. Nothing is metered on either plan, so there is no allowance to forecast and nothing to run out of. Free connects one Instagram account. Growth removes app branding, connects up to 5 Instagram accounts, takes the limit off how many automations you keep, carries multiple links in one automation, sends a follow-up message hours after the first, lets an automation wait for a post you haven't published yet, broadcasts one message to your audience, opens the workspace to your team, and shows you who clicks your links and the countries they came from, at $4.99 for your first month, then $14.99 a month. inDM bills in USD at the same price wherever you are.
A monthly DM allowance, checked 2026-08-14. Free $0: 1 Instagram account, 1,000 DMs a month, LinkDM branding on messages. Pro $19/mo or $182/yr: 3 Instagram accounts, 25,000 DMs, branding removed. Platinum+ $99/mo or $832/yr: 10 Instagram accounts, 300,000 DMs. LinkDM publishes USD only. There is no India-specific price; linkdm.com/in/pricing returned Not Found when checked on 2026-08-14.
Only one side of this comparison is counting. LinkDM Pro is $19 for 25,000 DMs and 3 accounts; Platinum+ is $99 for 300,000 DMs and 10 accounts. inDM Growth is $14.99 for unlimited messages on up to 5 accounts, so there is no volume at which their per-message rate overtakes ours, and no case for their upper tier on volume grounds. On the free tiers, both give you one Instagram account and put the vendor's name on your messages; theirs stops at 1,000 DMs a month and ours does not stop. Figures as of 2026-08-14 for LinkDM and 2026-10-12 for inDM; both pricing pages change, so check before you commit.
Their pricing, from the source: LinkDM's pricing page (checked August 2026).
Where LinkDM is genuinely strong
Three places LinkDM is the better answer, stated plainly because a compare page that only flatters its author is not worth reading:
- A published ceiling you can plan against. Their allowances are stated numbers, so you know precisely what you have bought. Ours is "unlimited" subject to fair use, which is a promise rather than a figure. If you would rather have a contractual number than a policy, that is a real preference and theirs is the one that gives it to you.
- Ten accounts with an interface built for them. Platinum+ is explicitly a multi-account plan. Our agency plans hold more accounts too, but ours is an account switcher rather than an agency console, and at ten brands that difference is felt daily.
- Multi-account tooling built for it. Their plans are explicitly structured around 3 and 10 connected accounts. Ours hold more on the agency plans, but a product designed around managing ten of them may fit an agency better than one designed around a creator's own.
What is LinkDM?
LinkDM is an Instagram DM automation tool built around the same core job inDM does: someone comments a keyword on your post, and the tool sends them a direct message with the link, the code, or the freebie you promised. It supports comment triggers, story replies, keyword DMs, follow gates and email capture, and it prices the whole thing on a monthly allowance of messages sent.
That last part is why this comparison is worth reading carefully. Most tools in this category meter something other than messages: ManyChat charges by monthly active contact, Zorcha sells AI credits, GRO.co prices on follower count. LinkDM counts DMs, which makes its plans easy to read: each tier states exactly what it holds. inDM counts nothing, so the arithmetic only runs on one side.
LinkDM vs inDM pricing
Their published plans, checked 2026-08-14:
- Free, $0. 1 Instagram account, 1,000 DMs a month, LinkDM branding on messages.
- Pro, $19/mo (or $182 a year, 20% off). 3 Instagram accounts, 25,000 DMs, branding removed.
- Platinum+, $99/mo (or $832 a year, 30% off). 10 Instagram accounts, 300,000 DMs.
Ours, as of 2026-10-12: Free forever with unlimited messages on one connected account; then Growth at $4.99 for the first month and $14.99 after, which removes app branding and connects up to 5 Instagram accounts, two of the things it adds. For more accounts in one workspace, Agency Lite is $39 a month for up to 15, and Agency Pro is $99 a month for 30, then $3 a month for each one after.
Divide their price by their allowance and LinkDM Pro works out at $0.00076 per DM, if you send all 25,000. There is no matching figure on our side, because Growth's $14.99 does not change with how much you send.
So this is not a "cheaper to start, dearer at scale" comparison: there is no scale at which our price moves. $14.99 buys unlimited messages on up to 5 accounts against their $19 for 25,000 and three. What they still offer that we do not is a contractual number rather than a fair-use promise, and a top tier designed around ten brands.
There is nothing to fold into the arithmetic on our side, because our side has no arithmetic. Work out which LinkDM tier your sending would need; ours is $0 or $14.99 whatever that answer is.
The two differences that are not about price
Connected accounts. LinkDM's tiers are structured around how many Instagram accounts you can attach: one on Free, three on Pro, ten on Platinum+. inDM's answers are one account on Free, up to 5 on Growth, up to 15 on Agency Lite, and 30 on Agency Pro, then $3 a month for each one after. If you run a main account plus two side projects, that is $19 a month at LinkDM Pro and $14.99 at inDM Growth.
Branding. LinkDM puts its own branding on free-tier messages, and "Remove LinkDM Branding" is something Pro buys. This turns out to be the category norm rather than a LinkDM quirk, most tools in this space treat their badge as a tax you buy your way out of.
inDM runs the same shape at a different price, and with the ceiling taken out. Remove app branding is one of the things Growth buys, at $4.99 for the first month, then $14.99 a month. The difference from LinkDM is not that we skip the badge, it is that the plan carrying it does not also stop at 1,000 messages, and the plan removing it costs $14.99 rather than $19.
Which one should you pick?
If you want your allowance written down as a number rather than described as unlimited, LinkDM publishes exactly that at every tier, and this page is not going to argue you out of preferring it.
If you want the bill to stop responding to how well your posts do, inDM is built for that shape: $14.99 for unlimited messages on up to 5 accounts, or $0 for the same product on one connected account. Where LinkDM sells branding removal at Pro, we sell it at $14.99, and we do not also cap the free tier at 1,000 DMs.
Both tools ride the same Meta API, so neither can outrun Instagram's own DM limits. Those are enforced per account, not per tool. The mechanics of how comment-to-DM automation works are the same on either.
Already using it?
Switch from LinkDM: what carries over, what doesn't, and what the move actually costs.
Questions, answered plainly
Is LinkDM cheaper than inDM?
inDM, at every volume. Growth is $14.99 for unlimited messages on up to 5 connected accounts; LinkDM Pro is $19 for 25,000 DMs and three accounts, and Platinum+ is $99 for 300,000 and ten. Because we do not meter messages there is no crossover volume at which their per-DM rate overtakes ours. On the free tiers both brand your messages and both give one account; theirs adds a 1,000-DM ceiling. Figures as of 2026-08-14 (LinkDM) and 2026-10-12 (inDM).
How many Instagram accounts can I connect to each?
LinkDM allows 1 on Free, 3 on Pro and 10 on Platinum+. inDM allows 1 on Free, up to 5 on Growth, up to 15 on Agency Lite, and 30 on Agency Pro, then $3 a month for each one after. No inDM plan meters messages.
Does LinkDM put its branding on my DMs?
On the free tier, yes, "Remove LinkDM Branding" is a Pro feature at $19. inDM sells the same removal on Growth at $14.99 a month, $4.99 for the first. The difference is the ceiling: only one of the two free tiers also stops at 1,000 DMs.
Does LinkDM have India pricing?
Not that they publish. Their pricing page quotes USD only, and linkdm.com/in/pricing returned Not Found when checked on 2026-08-14. Some tools in this category do publish INR: ReplyRush shows both currencies side by side, and SuperProfile and Zorcha run separate India pricing pages.
Can I switch from ManyChat or another tool?
Yes. Disconnect isn't even required first: connect your Instagram to inDM, rebuild your key automations (most creators have three or four that matter), preview, and set them live. Conversation history doesn't transfer between tools, no tool can import another's, so export your contacts from the old tool for your records. The switch guides walk through the order of operations.
Is Instagram DM automation allowed?
Yes. When it runs through Meta's official Instagram API on a professional account, and only messages people whose own action invited it, like commenting a keyword or replying to a story. That's exactly how inDM works. What breaks the rules is different: unofficial apps that ask for your password, scraping, purchased engagement, and cold outreach to people who never engaged.