Best Instagram Story Template Apps (2026): Honest Comparison

Updated: 2026-10-23 · 3 min read

The best Instagram story template app depends on what you post: Canva is the most complete all-round design tool, Unfold is known for minimal editorial layouts, Mojo for animated video stories, StoryArt for a very large template library, and Allapulla for quickly turning a set of photos into a finished story – it shows only templates made for the number of photos you pick, and all of its templates are free.

All five apps below make good Instagram stories. They differ in what they are built for, so the right choice depends on what you usually post. Prices change often and differ by country, so we don’t list them here – check the current price in the App Store or Google Play before subscribing.

Quick comparison


Canva	All-round design tool for phone and web. Huge template library for stories, posts, presentations and more. Free plan; paid plan adds premium content and brand tools.
Unfold	Minimal, editorial story layouts. Free to download; a subscription unlocks the full template collection.
Mojo	Animated stories and Reels. Strong if you want motion and video; subscription for the full library.
StoryArt	Very large library of story, post and animated templates. Subscription (or one-time purchase) for VIP templates.
Allapulla	Photo-first story templates. You pick photos and it shows only the layouts made for that many photos. All templates free; Android now, iPhone coming soon.

Canva

Best for: people who design many kinds of content, not only stories.

Canva is a full design tool. It has templates for almost everything and works on phone and computer, which is handy if you also make posters, menus or presentations. The trade-off is that it isn’t built specifically around stories, so finding a story layout for exactly three photos takes more searching and resizing.

Unfold

Best for: clean, minimal, magazine-style stories.

Unfold popularised the minimal “white frame” story look. Its layouts are calm and editorial. A subscription is needed for most of the collection.

Mojo

Best for: animated stories and Reels.

If you want text and photos to move, Mojo is built for it. For still photo stories it can be more than you need.

StoryArt

Best for: the widest choice of templates.

StoryArt advertises thousands of story templates plus post and animated templates, so there is a lot to browse. Much of it sits behind its VIP subscription.

Allapulla

Best for: turning a handful of photos into a finished story in a minute.

Allapulla works the other way round: you choose your photos first, and it shows only the templates designed for that number of photos – 1 to 6. The photos drop into the frames automatically; you adjust the crop, change the text and share a 1080×1920 story to Instagram or WhatsApp.

Free: every template is free. Allapulla Pro only removes ads and the small Allapulla signature.
Private: photos are processed on the phone and are not uploaded.
Weekly designs: 240+ templates across 17 categories – photo dump, monthly recap, birthday, love, travel, business and more – with new ones every week, following current Instagram and TikTok trends.
Limits: still images only (no video stories), Android only for now (the iPhone version is in App Store review), and the app is in English and Turkish.

Which one should you choose?

You design lots of different things → Canva.
You want a minimal, editorial feed → Unfold.
You want motion and video → Mojo.
You want the biggest catalogue to browse → StoryArt.
You have photos and want a finished story fast, for free → Allapulla.

Many people use two: one for video and one for photo stories. Whatever you pick, keep stories at 9:16 and keep text out of the top and bottom edges – see our story size guide.