Auto send DM and Comment to users.

The wrong question is which free app to use. The right question is what you want the automation to do, because the wrong answer gets accounts restricted.

1. If the goal is blasting DMs to people who did not ask: free automation tools are the fastest way to get flagged. Meta heavily limits automated outreach, and followers have learned to smell a blast instantly. I have seen creators lose accounts they spent years building over exactly this feature.
2. If the goal is replying to people who message you first: you do not need an app. Instagram's native keyword triggers in the professional dashboard are free and compliant. Set one keyword like LINK or PRICE that replies with what they asked for. The follower started the conversation, and that is the difference between service and spam.
3. If the goal is handling volume: skip fire and forget automation and use saved replies plus Meta Business Suite's free unified inbox. Replying with two taps is nearly as fast, it keeps the account safe, and it converts better because it does not read like a bot.

Rule of thumb: automate the response to a request, never the outreach itself. The first is customer service. The second is spam, and every platform treats it that way.

I suggests my clients to use superprofile or manychat for comment to dm automation. the free tiers are pretty good to starting out tbh

Manychat

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Most free options in the DM automation space are either platform-native (Instagram's built-in replies, Meta Business Suite) or freemium tools that gate you hard on contacts or messages. The tradeoff with most of them is that they are built for blast-style automation, comment-trigger workflows, keyword-based keyword flows, which fans have increasingly learned to recognize and tune out. I am building MePersona (https://mepersona.ai), which approaches it differently: it pulls fan DMs and comments across platforms into one inbox, drafts replies in your own voice, and you approve each one before it sends. The free tier covers 2 platforms and ~300 messages worth of tokens, no card needed. It is not a keyword-trigger auto-blast tool though, so if your goal is true fire-and-forget mass automation, this would not be the right fit.

Honest answer: the free auto-DM tools are how accounts get restricted. Instagram flags automated DM behavior fast, especially on newer accounts.The pattern that is safe: automate the detection, not the sending. Let a tool surface who replied or commented, then you write the DM yourself. 20 real DMs beat 200 automated ones that land in message requests or get your account flagged. If you automate anything, keep it to keyword-triggered replies on a warmed account.

What decides whether a tool is safe is whether it runs on Meta's official API, since those are the only ones that can reply to comments and DMs without putting the account at risk. Two mechanics worth knowing before you set anything up: Instagram allows one private reply per comment, so that first DM has to carry the thing they asked for, not a "check your inbox" teaser. And once they write back, you get a 24-hour window to keep the conversation going automatically. Also leave a short public reply on the comment so other people see the keyword works. Run it on a throwaway post first and watch what fires.

Full disclosure: I'm the founder of Nimply, so weigh that. It has an automations canvas with keyword comment triggers, auto DM, a test mode and an execution history, and there's a free plan.