When Instagram, the popular photo- and video-sharing platform, was founded in 2010, it racked up 1 million registered users by the end of that year. Now, it’s the fourth most popular social media platform in the world with a whopping 2 billion monthly active users.
Instagram helps you stay connected with friends, family, celebrities, and brands; find new products and experiences to try; and take fun, interactive polls. And due to its photo- and video- sharing capabilities, it’s especially popular with small business owners and influencers trying to build brand awareness, extend their reach, boost engagement, and visually market all aspects of their new venture.
However, as popular as Instagram is, it’s not without its limitations. One of the most notable is that the platform only allows you to include one link in your account bio for people to learn more about you. That may not sound like a big deal, but it can make it difficult for users who want to link to other social media profiles or websites in order to gain followers on as many social platforms as possible.
As a result, in an effort to capitalize on Instagram’s link restrictions, link-in-bio apps like Beacons and Linktree arrived on the scene. Here’s a breakdown of how these two services allow you to share more information with your followers.
Overview of Beacons
As one of the most popular link-in-bio tools on the market, Beacons focuses on helping creators build and develop new career opportunities, offering users the ability to link to other sites from their social media profiles. It also facilitates potential income streams, too, through donations or affiliate links. So, whether you’re a comedian, cosplayer, meme star, or anything in between, Beacons vows to help you decide when, where, and what to work on to further enhance your presence in the creator ecosystem.
Overview of Linktree
Founded in 2016 (three years prior to Beacons), Linktree was one of the first link-in-bio tools to challenge Instagram’s link limit, revolutionizing how influencers can grow multichannel followings. Though it originally focused solely on offering multi-link landing pages to those with less capital and social reach, it quickly expanded into what it is today: a platform with more than 35 million users worldwide, versatile third-party integrations, and powerful analytics.
While both Beacons and Linktree allow users to create customized, branded landing pages with multiple links they can add to their social media bios, they do differ in terms of features and pricing. Here’s how.
Migrate your existing Linktree account to Jotform Apps
Beacons vs Linktree: Features
Since Beacons is all about helping creators create, it should come as no surprise that one of its most popular features is its variety of customization options — from optimizing your landing page with buttons, GIFs, and videos to adding links with thumbnails and animation.
By linking your Beacons page to platforms like TikTok, where you can add a clickable link directly to your bio, you can seamlessly drive traffic to your customized landing page. This small adjustment can maximize visibility and engagement with your content. And since there is no limit on the number of links you can include with Beacons, even under its free plan, you can let your creativity shine.
Another trendy Beacons feature is its monetization tools, including shoppable TikTok feeds, digital stores, and the ability to take requests or accept donations from followers who want to show their support for your custom art, videos, or photos.
Linktree is an oldie but goodie, especially when you consider some of its advanced features — like allowing users to collect email signups for newsletters, fundraising, and e-commerce; create a quick response (QR) code for convenient page sharing; and even animate important links to showcase personal favorites.
And thanks to its powerful analytics feature and integrations with various search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing tech tools — like Google Analytics and Facebook — you can measure your marketing performance and analyze detailed, revenue-based insights (like views, clicks, and time-to-click) to make improvements.
Beacons vs Linktree: Pricing
There’s a slight difference in pricing plans when comparing Beacons vs Linktree.
Beacons users have three options: the free plan, the Creator Pro plan and the Business Pro plan. Beacons charges users a 9 percent commission on digital store transactions with the Free plan and $25 a month and no commission on sales with the Store Pro plan. The latter offers a lot more control and customization options, including your own custom domain, five extra page tabs, email/SMS integration with Zapier, priority customer support, and the ability to remove Beacons branding.
Linktree, on the other hand, has four plan options to choose from: Free, Starter, Pro, and Premium. The paid plans offer more features and range in price from $4 to $19.5 per month when billed annually.
Beacons vs Linktree alternative: Jotform Apps
Though Beacons and Linktree have a lot to offer in terms of useful features and affordable pricing, there’s another link-in-bio tool worth considering: Jotform Apps.
With mobile app builder Jotform Apps, users can build their own app in minutes — adding multiple links to a landing page, changing colors and layout, and adding elements with a powerful, drag-and-drop visual editor. Plus, Jotform Apps is not only simple to navigate, free to use (for up to five forms), and fully customizable, but it’s also a completely code-free tool, letting you design the landing page of your dreams with no programming knowledge.
To create your app using Jotform Apps, just follow these simple steps:
- Sign in to Jotform or sign up for free to build an app from scratch or choose from 300-plus ready-made templates.
- Customize the design of your app to match your brand’s style, including your logo, colors, and font.
- Drag and drop elements like forms, payment gateways, social media profiles, videos, and more.
- Share your app via a link (for your Instagram bio, for example), email, or QR code for easy access.
Whether you’re new to the world of social marketing or more of an old hand, it’s worth having a link-in-bio app in your toolkit to keep your business growing and scaling. And now that you have a better understanding of some of the more popular link-in-bio options on the market — Beacons, Linktree, and Jotform Apps — you can choose the best fit for you, your brand, and your creative spirit.
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