It writes the posts.
It does not
publish them.
Let us get that out of the way first, because Instagram is your entire storefront. What this does is remove the blank caption box and show you what the shop down the road is doing — and it starts free.
Free · no card · result in about 60 seconds
Publish “What a proper fade costs in {city} and why prices vary.” Low effort, genuinely searched, and completely unclaimed by any actual shop.
The morning this replaces.
One brief, one action, one approved post — before your first appointment. No feature tour, just the loop.
Your storefront is Instagram. We do not post to Instagram.
That is the honest starting point. What we do is remove the blank page, watch nine channels for you, and start at zero cost — which for a business at your margins matters more than features.
A Tuesday at a two-chair barbershop.
The blank caption box, and the small unclaimed field.
He has meant to post for three weeks. Between clients there is no time, and at nine at night he opens the app, looks at the blank caption box and closes it again.
He searches what a fade costs in his city. A booking marketplace answers — the one taking a fee from every appointment booked through it.
He starts on the free plan, because $29 is a real decision on two chairs. The scan is blunt: most of his clients walk past, and content reaches the rest.
Captions written for him, four guides on styles and pricing, and a morning read on what two nearby shops are running. The blank page is gone. He moved to Starter when it had earned it.
Three jobs this does — and one it does not.
The last tab is the one that determines whether the rest is useful to you.
Compose + Prompt Studio
The brief decides what to post about and Compose writes it in your voice with a branded graphic from a 330-design library. You paste and publish — about thirty seconds.
Competitor watch
Track nearby shops across nine channels, summarised each morning. This is the most tangible thing at this price point and it works on the free plan.
AI-Visibility check
We ask ChatGPT and Gemini the pricing and style questions people search, and show which platforms are cited — usually the ones charging you for placement.
No — and that matters here
No, and in your trade that is the most important sentence on this page. Instagram is your storefront and we do not publish to it. We write the caption and make the graphic; you paste. If auto-posting is genuinely your gap, a scheduler is the better spend.
Less time. Less spend. More found.
What a normal month looks like — modest, and appropriate to a small shop.
Two rows are deliberately marked unchanged and they are the important ones. ⚠️ Demoted in the v3 roster because Instagram-native demand meets our lack of auto-posting, and margins cap this at Free/Starter.
Start free. See what the shop down the road is doing.
No card, ever, on the free plan. Drop your site in — we’ll show you which marketplace is cited for your city.
The full report lists every prompt you’re missing and the top 3 actions to fix it.
Free · no credit card · this is a sample — your real scan runs live
Three ways to solve this. One is free.
A scheduler, a marketplace listing, or one seat. The honest comparison — including the two things we don’t do.
Marketing agency
- Rarely measures AI visibility
- Competitor watch not in scope
- Direction on a monthly call
- Writes content — in 2–4 weeks
- Manages reviews and posting
- You own the content — check the contract
Four separate tools
- Tracks AI visibility
- Listening is enterprise-priced
- You interpret all of the data
- Generic content unless you prompt well
- Four logins, none share context
- You own everything you make
ScoutRival
- Two engines, labelled — re-check any day
- Nine channels + founder-level tracking
- A daily brief with one clear action
- Content in your voice, drafted in ~90 seconds
- Branded graphics + one-click WordPress
- Yours forever — export anytime
- Doesn’t post to Instagram — the most important limitation in your trade
- Doesn’t reach walk-past trade or word of mouth
Instagram is the storefront in this industry and we do not publish to it. Combined with how much of the trade is location-driven, the addressable share here is smaller than in most verticals — which is exactly why it is a free-and-Starter product.
Built for the owner who is the whole shop.
The blank caption box — in the words of the shops that stopped losing to it.
One regular covers the year.
Drag to your reality: how many clients a month find a marketplace listing instead of you?
Client values vary by service and frequency — use your own. Full plan details on the See the pricing page →
Everything owners ask before they start.
Does it post to Instagram for me?
What does the free plan actually do?
Which AI engines do you check, and how?
Is the score something I can trust and act on?
I already pay an agency. Does this replace them?
What does one seat actually include?
How soon will I show up in AI?
What if it isn’t right for us?
Start free and see what they are doing.
Then decide. The scan is free, the report is yours, and nobody calls you.
Your audience run salons and shops. Send them something useful.
If you educate salon owners, run an industry community, or serve beauty businesses, ScoutRival pays recurring commission on every shop you refer — for as long as they stay.
- Recurring commission, not one-off. You earn every month they stay, not just on the first payment.
- Your rate is set on fit. Reviewed individually on your audience and authority — not a flat rate everyone gets.
- A link that does the work. Send this page. The free scan gives them a specific finding in about a minute — no demo call to book.
- Nothing you have to defend. Two engines, labelled. No invented rankings. We say what the product doesn’t do, so you’re never the one over-promising.
- A 30-day attribution window and a partner dashboard showing clicks, signups and earnings.