Inrō is the Instagram-native Beacons alternative for the conversation in the DM: it answers comments, story replies and DMs and saves each person as a contact, with no link page or store. For the other jobs, Systeme.io sells and emails with no transaction fee, MailerLite runs the email list, Komi a brand-deal page and Linktree a plain link page. Every price below was read on each vendor's page on 28 October 2026.
Pick Inrō to own the Instagram conversation and the contacts in it; for the other jobs, Systeme.io sells and emails without a seller fee, MailerLite runs the list, Komi a brand-deal page and Linktree a link page; stay on Beacons if Creator Plus covers all of it.
How to choose: if your followers buy or book after an Instagram conversation, keep that conversation in Inrō. Then move the Beacons job that costs you most, whether the cut of each sale, the email sends or the logo, to a tool made for it.
Beacons is cheap to open a store on and costs more as you sell. On 28 October 2026, Beacons' pricing page listed a 9% seller fee on Free, and Beacons' help center put Creator ($10 a month) at 9% too. The fee drops to 0% only from Creator Plus, $30 a month or $300 a year. Stripe (2.9% plus $0.30) and PayPal (3.49% plus a fixed fee) charge on top, the same help article says. Inrō is not a store: it sends the link to wherever you sell, inside the DM.
Two more reasons, from Beacons' own pages:
DM limits are not the reason. Smart Reply, Beacons' Instagram comment-to-DM, is on the Free plan, and Beacons' Smart Reply page says "Unlimited DMs" and "No caps". Some reviewers on Trustpilot also mention trouble reaching support, for example "no way to speak with a real person" (8 April 2026, read 28 October 2026).
Beacons bundles a link in bio, a store, email, a media kit and Smart Reply. Most people who leave move one or two of those jobs, so each tool below takes a different one.
Inrō takes over Smart Reply's job and keeps the conversation going after the first DM. It is Instagram-native and an official Meta Tech Provider: it answers comments, story replies, DMs, live comments and mentions, follows up with people who do not click and saves the email they give you on their contact; its AI agent, included in Pro, answers questions. The free plan counts activated contacts; see what Inrō's Free and Pro plans include.
For the rest of the bundle, Inrō makes no link page and hosts no store, though with Shopify connected (Pro) it sends product and checkout links in the DM. It sends no email newsletters: its broadcasts are DM campaigns to a segment of your contacts. It finds you no brand deals, and its media kit is a free one-page generator you fill in yourself.
More link pages are compared in Linktree alternatives, course and checkout platforms in Stan Store alternatives. If you are comparing DM tools on cost, the Inrō vs ManyChat cost calculator prices both at your volume.
How we picked them: one tool for each job Beacons does, priced only from that tool's own pricing or help pages on 28 October 2026. We left out tools whose pricing pages blocked us.
Still comparing?
Leaving Beacons? Keep the people who DM you, with their emails
Inrō answers comments, story replies and DMs with your link, asks for an email in the same conversation and saves it on the person's contact, ready to export. No cost up to 100 activated contacts a month.
Free plan, no card
In a few cases Beacons is still the better deal. Stay if:
Think about what you want to own once you leave: the people who message you on Instagram, your email list or your domain. Each one leaves Beacons its own way.
To own the people who message you, move the DM side to Inrō. Turn Smart Reply off before Inrō's comment-to-DM goes on: one Instagram account runs one auto-DM tool, and Beacons' help center also asks that no other DM automation tools be active. Start from the comment-for-link template.
To own the email list, export it as a CSV from Beacons' Audience manager (Beacons' help center).
To own your address, pay Beacons for the domain transfer (the fee is in the FAQ), or start on a domain you buy yourself and change the link in your Instagram bio. Whatever moves, cancel last, on a computer, not your phone (how to cancel).
Yes. For comments, story replies and DMs, Inrō Free gives you 3 active automations, 50 AI Agent credits, 3 DM campaigns a month and 100 activated contacts each month without a card on file; it makes no link page or store. On 28 October 2026, Systeme.io's free plan covered 2,000 contacts and a course, MailerLite's a list of up to 250, and Komi's Starter plan was free. Beacons Free is $0 with a 9% seller fee (Beacons' pricing page).
Yes. Smart Reply is on every Beacons plan and answers keyword comments, story replies and DMs with a link, a product or a text reply (Beacons' Smart Reply page, read 28 October 2026). If your DMs move to Inrō, turn Smart Reply off first: one auto-DM tool per Instagram account.
No. Beacons' help center says such a domain remains the property of Beacons AI Inc., with no access to its DNS records (Beacons' help center), and that taking ownership costs a one-time $70 transfer fee (its transfer article), both read 28 October 2026.
Yes. Export your audience as a CSV from Beacons' Audience manager; automatic export to Mailchimp or Zapier is a paid feature (Beacons' help center, read 28 October 2026). In Inrō, an automation can ask for an email in the DM and save it on the contact, and you can export your contacts, emails included, as an Excel file.
For selling, email and a media kit, Beacons does more. Linktree is a link page first, and its Free plan sends up to 1,000 Instagram auto-reply DMs a month, according to Linktree's help center on 28 October 2026. Inrō is neither a link page nor a store; on Instagram, its comment-to-DM sends the link and can follow up with people who do not click. For other link pages, read Linktree alternatives compared.
Built only for Instagram, with the AI agent included in Pro. Rebuild your flows from a template or a prompt.
