Free ManyChat Alternative to DM a Link on Instagram Comments
You post a reel, say "comment LINK and I'll send it", and a tool DMs the link to everyone who comments. That used to be free with ManyChat. Its free plan now stops at 25 active contacts a month, puts ManyChat branding on every message, and the next plan up is $17 a month for 250 contacts.
Aside does it a different way. Aside is a browser with an AI agent built in, and the agent can run on a schedule. You write the rule in plain English, set it to run every 15 minutes, and the agent opens Instagram in your own logged-in browser and does the clicks you would. Nothing gets connected to your account, there is no DM cap (the free plan meters usage in credits, 500 a month, or you plug in your own ChatGPT or Claude subscription), and the rule is a sentence you can change any time.
In this guide:
- Is there a free alternative to ManyChat that sends a link when someone comments?
- How does Aside send the link when someone comments on my post?
- How do I set up the comment-to-DM routine in Aside?
- How does Aside Free compare with ManyChat Free?
- What are the limits?
- What else can the same routine do?
- FAQ’s
Is there a free alternative to ManyChat that sends a link when someone comments?#
Yes. Aside's free plan is $0 forever and includes up to 3 routines, and one routine is enough to watch a post for the word LINK and DM the link to each person who comments it. It is not another comment-to-DM app. It is your own browser doing the task on a timer, using the account you already signed into.
One creator on r/InstagramMarketing (May 2026) wrote: "Manychat is changing the price scheme, free accounts will be only able to reply 25 contacts. Of course I'm leaving Manychat." Another thread from April 2026 got this top reply: "manychat pretty much owns this space. there are other alts, but they're pricier."
The other comment-to-DM tools are the same product with a different cap: a cloud app you connect to your Instagram account, free up to a few hundred or a thousand DMs a month, then a subscription.
How does Aside send the link when someone comments on my post?#
Each run, the agent opens instagram.com in your browser, goes to the post, reads the comments that arrived since the last run, and sends a DM with your link to anyone who wrote LINK. It replies "sent you a DM" under the comment, writes the username to a file so nobody gets the link twice, and stops at 20 DMs.
The thing doing this is a routine. In Aside's words, "Routines let Aside run recurring work without starting each task by hand", and a scheduled routine "starts a new task on a schedule". Every run is a fresh task that follows your written instructions on the same Instagram pages you would use on desktop; if a run takes longer than the interval, Aside skips the overlapping run.
How do I set up the comment-to-DM routine in Aside?#
Sign in to Instagram inside Aside, create a routine in Settings > Routines, paste the prompt below with your own link and post URL, set the schedule to Interval and pick how many minutes, then press "Run a routine now" to test it. Comment LINK from a second account first so the test has something to find.
Here are the steps in order.
- Open Aside and sign in to instagram.com like you would in any browser.
- Go to Settings > Routines and create a new routine.
- Paste the prompt below into the instructions. Replace the example link and the post URL with yours.
- Set the schedule type to Interval. It repeats every N minutes and defaults to 30; 15 is a good start for a fresh post.
- Set the permission mode to Full access, since the routine has to send messages and write the sent.txt file, not just read.
- Save, then use "Run a routine now".
Copy this prompt as is and edit the two lines.
Every run: open instagram.com and go to my latest post (or the post link below). Read the new comments since the last run. For every commenter whose comment contains the word LINK (any case), send them a DM: "Hey! Here's the link you asked for: https://example.com/guide". Keep a list of usernames you've already DMed in a file called sent.txt and never DM the same person twice. Reply to each of those comments with "sent you a DM". Stop after 20 DMs in one run. If anything looks off (a login screen, a verification check, an error), stop and tell me instead of retrying.
Post: https://www.instagram.com/p/XXXXXXXX/
Aside’s Create routine form with the sample prompt, a 15-minute interval, and Full access selected.
Aside’s Create routine form with the sample prompt, a 15-minute interval, and Full access selected.
After the test, open the run in Aside to see what it found and sent.
One run of the comment-to-DM routine in Aside
One run of the routine: nothing to send on the first pass, then five ASIDE comments found and answered an hour later.
Then check the other account's inbox. Side by side, the whole thing looks like this.
Comment-to-DM workflow: a LINK comment on a reel and the DM that follows
Illustrative comment-to-DM workflow using a real creator-video frame. Post copy, comments and inbox entries are examples.
How does Aside Free compare with ManyChat Free?#
ManyChat Free caps you at 25 contacts a month and brands every message. Aside Free has no DM cap and no branding because it is not a messaging service; it is your browser sending the messages. The trade is that ManyChat is triggered by the comment itself, while Aside runs on the interval you set.
Here is the side by side.
| ManyChat Free | Aside Free | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $0 forever |
| Contacts or DMs per month | 25 active contacts | No DM cap; usage is 500 credits a month, or your own ChatGPT or Claude subscription |
| Branding | ManyChat branding | None |
| What's connected to your Instagram | The ManyChat app | Nothing; it uses your logged-in browser |
| When it runs | On each comment, through up to 4 live triggers | Every N minutes you choose (interval schedule) |
| Where it runs | ManyChat's cloud | Your own computer, in your logged-in browser |
What are the limits?#
It runs on an interval you set, not the second someone comments, so a commenter waits up to the length of the interval. Your computer has to be on with Aside open for the routine to fire. And it is your account doing the sending, so keep each run small and the wording human.
The first limit is the one to plan around: shorten the interval for the first hour after posting, when most LINK comments land.
The second comes from where it runs. Aside runs on your own Mac or Windows PC, and there is no cloud copy of your routine yet. Cloud handoff is listed as coming soon on the pricing page. A closed laptop means a paused routine; when Aside is back, the routine runs once and picks up its schedule.
The third is judgment. The prompt stops at 20 DMs per run and tells the agent to halt on any login screen, verification check or error rather than retry. Keep those lines and write the DM the way you would type it.
What else can the same routine do?#
Anything you can describe in a sentence. The public reply, the skip-repeats file and the per-run stop are already in the prompt. You can reword them, switch the stop to a daily total, swap the keyword, watch more than one post, or have the agent log every DM to a Google Sheet so you can see who asked for what.
Each of these is one line added to the prompt.
- Change the public reply to match your voice, or drop it if you do not want the thread full of replies.
- Replace "Stop after 20 DMs in one run" with "Stop once you have sent 50 DMs today, counting from sent.txt".
- Add "After each DM, add a row to my Google Sheet called Link requests with the username, post URL and time". Aside can read and write Google Sheets, so the log stays somewhere you can sort.
FAQ’s#
Can I send a different link for each keyword?#
Yes. Write the rule into the same prompt: "If the comment contains LINK, send https://example.com/guide. If it contains PRESET, send https://example.com/presets." One routine can hold as many keyword-to-link pairs as you want. Keep the keywords distinct so a comment does not match two of them.
What does it cost once I need more than 3 routines?#
Pro is $20 a month. It includes everything in Free, 3x the usage, unlimited routines, and Channels for remote control. One account running one comment-to-DM routine fits in Free.
Does it work for TikTok or YouTube comments too?#
Aside is a browser, so the same kind of routine can run on any site you are logged into. Write the same sentence with the site and post swapped out. Each platform has its own terms on automated activity, so read them first and keep the same stop-on-anything-odd line in the prompt.
To understand scheduling and run history in more depth, read how routines work. Then download Aside, sign in to Instagram, and paste the prompt above into your first routine.