Path Social Review: is this Instagram tool actually safe?
Spoiler alert on what to expect in this Path Social review: Is it worth your time & money? How safe is it? How to use it? Are there any alternatives?
But first and foremost: Why should you care?
You’ve picked your niche, generated some awesome content, and decided to promote it on Instagram. What you need are people who are going to see and like it. The outcome is, of course, converting.
However, it’s easier said than done.
Growing your account requires a lot of effort and time, which can be downright tiresome and stressful.
Luckily, there are many viable Instagram growth tools and services out there that make sure your engagement is done the right way.
The pool of Instagram tools is seemingly never-ending, and it’s important to separate the wheat from the chaff. Today, I analyze one of them – Path Social.
Path Social: The Basics
Path Social has been in the social marketing sphere since 2012, so it could be said that it’s a veteran. It is an Instagram growth service (or, as they put it – social media agency) that is supposed to bring your Instagram follower count up.
They claim to do so by growing your account organically, i.e., they deny interacting with fake and bot accounts.
Also, they announce on their official website that over 24,000 individuals and brands use their services. But who are these customers?
There is an onsite section with Path Social reviews, and they are all glory, laud, and honor about the performance of Path Social Instagram. But here’s the deal – they don’t come from real accounts and real people. It all seems made up.
Although this was the initial red flag, I still decided to try it out, without any presuppositions, and provide you with an objective and honest review.
Without further ado, we can start dissecting different aspects of this Instagram service, one by one.
Getting Started With Path Social
If you decide you want to try out Path Social, here’s what to do:
- Go to their official website, Pathsocial.co, and click “Get Started.”
- You’ll be taken to choose the tariff plan that you wish (more on these a bit later). Select the one of your choice, and click “Start Growing Today.”
- They’ll ask you for your Instagram username and email. You don’t have to provide your IG password, which is a good thing.
- Next, you should enter your Credit Card info and make a payment.
- After you’ve completed the steps described above, you’ll need to specify your target audience by filters such as demographic, gender, location, etc.
- That’s it! Path Social claims to do everything else on its own in order to achieve the desired results for you.
How does it do it?
From their website, it stays unclear. The vague descriptions just say that it does it organically, but I found there was little to no truth to the statement. Let’s see why.
Path Social Key Features
Are you interested in features that Path Social offers? I’ve tested them and analyzed their efficiency so that I could report it back to my readers.
Here are the main Path Social features:
Audience Targeting
As soon as you start using Path Social Instagram, it asks you to select filters that should determine your goals.
The main filters that it uses are:
- Age
- Location
- Hashtags
- Gender
Was I satisfied with this feature? Not really.
While all of these filters are fine and relevant, the problem lies in another fact: Path Social does not seem to use them all that much. At times, it will completely randomize the interaction so that you get a bunch of followers who aren’t interested in you and your niche.
And what happens then? They unfollow you.
Interaction
Path Social promotes your content to other people, or, as they say, they “grab their attention.”
And this feature is the pitfall of the tool.
First of all, the activities they perform to engage with other users seem bot-like. This violates Instagram’s terms and conditions and can result in a ban of your account.
Also, most of the time, it interacts with fake accounts. Not only does Instagram automatically delete such followers, but it is also a potential threat to your account and causes action suspensions.
Don’t get me wrong – interacting with your targeted audience is one of the best techniques for Instagram growth – but this one was, unfortunately, poorly executed.
Path Social’s Pricing Options
There are two main tariff packages of Path Social.
Instagram Core
The cheaper of the two, Instagram Core, is priced at $49 per month. They even convert it to the price per day – $1,63 – to show you how affordable it is.
Maybe in theory.
In practice, paying for a tool that doesn’t function the way it’s supposed to is never worth it.
And with this plan, they claim to get you from 800 to 1,500 followers a month. As we’ve explained, this is far from the actual truth.
Instagram Elite
The next plan, Instagram Elite, costs $69 a month ($2,30 a day), and there is a single difference to the previous plan: the number of followers.
Namely, the Elite one should get you from 2,000 to 3,500 followers monthly, which, in turn, means a more aggressive strategy and more possibility for a ban. So again, not worth it.
Is Path Social Legit?
It’s hard to tell whether Path Social is legit.
I mean, they won’t steal your information or something like that – their website is https secure, and the payment gateway is verified – but there are certainly some things that made me question their status.
It’s not clear who they really are (they just say they have a “Los Angeles team & support), and the information on their website is misleading. They lie about the nature of their followers.
Therefore, Path Social cannot exactly be labeled as legit.
Path Social Alternatives
If you want to crush it on Instagram, you won’t get too far with tools like Path Social.
You have to walk the organic growth path to reach the destination, and Path Social messes up by interacting with fake accounts and shady practices.
Kenji, Upleap, and Nitreo are my recommendations if you want to organically grow your account.
Growing organically means that people who come to your profile are genuine and will stay with you in the long run, unlike those that you may get with Path Social.
Plus, this kind of approach eliminates the risk that comes with tools like Path Social, from account restrictions to temporary bans.
Final Words
If you’re looking for genuine Instagram growth services that actually interact with real people and not bots, Path Social is not it.
This tool does have a nice interface but fails to back it up with quality performance. Your account is at risk of getting banned, and no tool is worth it.
In addition, it fails to properly target your audience, and people who are interested in your content are half of the potential for Instagram growth. It all comes down to organic and real followers.
That’s why I’ve picked the best Path Social alternatives, based on my rigorous testing and analyses.