Manychat's free plan allows 25 active contacts a month, up to 4 live automations, and puts Manychat branding on every message; extra contacts cannot be bought on Free at all. MintLink's free plan has no contact cap, no automation limit and no branding, but links only to MintLink pages. Manychat is the broader product; its free tier is the narrower one.
Manychat is the tool most people mean when they say "Instagram automation", and on features it beats us comfortably — more channels, more triggers, an AI layer, real integrations. This page is not an argument that it is worse. It is about one number on its free plan, and who should care about it.
Updated · 8 min read
Manychat's free plan includes 25 active contacts a month, which their plan card defines as "people you interact with per month". Read from manychat.com/pricing on 11 November 2026.
A contact is a person, not a message. So the free plan is not "25 DMs" — it is twenty-five humans in a calendar month, after which the automation has nobody left to talk to. One reel that does modestly well will pass that before lunch.
MintLink's free plan has no equivalent counter. None — no send limit, no rule limit, nothing metered, across unlimited rules on every post and every reel. Sends are paced and queued so a post that takes off stays inside Instagram’s own messaging limits — a queue, not a ceiling.
Two more limits sit on the free tier. The automation builder is up to 4 live automations, and their comparison table applies that same limit to the Comment to DM row specifically — so comment-to-DM is on the free plan, inside a budget of four live automations across everything you run.
And the free plan carries Manychat branding on messages. "No Manychat branding on messages" is a row that begins at Essential. MintLink adds nothing on either plan: none — the DM carries no MintLink footer on either plan.
Essential is $14/month billed annually ($168 a year), or $17 billed monthly, for 250 active contacts. Pro is $29/month billed annually ($348 a year), or $39 billed monthly, for 2,500 active contacts. Business starts at from $69/month. Priced in US dollars — no rupee pricing on the page, so an Indian creator pays on an international card with a conversion spread on every renewal.
MintLink is ₹199/month + 18% GST — ₹234.82/month all in — charged in rupees with GST on the invoice, and only for links that point outside MintLink. We are not quoting an exchange rate here: rates move, and a converted figure would be the one claim on this page that goes stale without anyone touching it.
| MintLink | Manychat | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Free, with no trial clock and no card | Free, $0 |
| Cap on free | None | 25 active contacts a month |
| Buy past the free cap | No cap to pass | Not possible on Free |
| Live automations on free | Unlimited | Up to 4 live automations |
| Comment-to-DM on free | Yes, unlimited rules | Yes, inside the 4-live-automation limit |
| Name on the outgoing DM | None | Manychat branding on messages |
| Where a free DM can link | Links to your own MintLink products and pages | Any link |
| Channels | Instagram only | Connect up to 2 eligible channels |
| Entry paid plan | ₹199/month + 18% GST (₹234.82/month) | $14/month billed annually ($168 a year), or $17 billed monthly, for 250 active contacts |
| Billing currency | Rupees, GST on the invoice | Priced in US dollars — no rupee pricing on the page |
| Sells the product too | Yes — checkout, invoice and payout | No, it is an automation platform |
That is not a concession paragraph, it is the honest recommendation for a large share of the people reading this.
Two situations, and they are narrower than Manychat's.
The first is volume on a free plan. If you are not going to pay a subscription and your posts bring more than twenty-five people a month, Manychat's free tier cannot serve you and cannot be topped up. MintLink's free plan has no ceiling to hit — unlimited rules, unlimited DMs, no branding — in exchange for one restriction: the link points at your own MintLink pages, and ₹199/month + 18% GST lifts it.
The second is that the DM is the first step of a sale rather than the whole job. Manychat delivers a message brilliantly; it does not host the product, take the payment or pay you out. A MintLink account sells digital downloads, event tickets, memberships and paid feedback, takes UPI, issues the invoice and settles to an Indian bank account — and the Auto DM drops a tappable product card, or your whole shop as a carousel, into the conversation.
The clean way to decide: if you already have somewhere to send people and you need the best automation tool, that is Manychat. If the thing you would send people to does not exist yet, an automation tool is half a stack.
Set up your first rule free No contact counter, no branding, no trial clock. See what free covers.