Key takeaways
- • Both read Instagram’s official data export and neither asks for your password, so on account safety they are equivalent — ignore anyone claiming otherwise, us included.
- • FollowBuddy ships as iOS and Android apps as well as on the web; GhostList is web only, which means no install and no app store.
- • GhostList is in five languages. FollowBuddy is in English.
- • On price at the time of writing, GhostList’s yearly plan is roughly half FollowBuddy’s Pro, and the free tier shows five names rather than three.
- • Prices and features move — check both before deciding, and treat this page as a starting point rather than an authority, since we wrote it.
This comparison is written by one of the two tools in it, so take the checkable facts and distrust the adjectives. Everything below is either verifiable on FollowBuddy’s own site or in this product, and the parts where they genuinely beat us are left in.
Where they are the same
Both work from Instagram’s official data export. You request the file from Instagram, the tool reads it, and neither one ever logs in as you. That matters more than everything else on this page combined, because logging in as you is the thing that actually gets accounts banned.
So: neither can get your account suspended, neither needs your password, and neither touches Instagram’s API on your behalf. If safety is the only question you have, both answers are the same and you can choose on anything else.
Both also share the same hard limit. Neither can tell you who unfollowed you before you started, because Instagram keeps no record of departures — naming them requires two exports taken at different times, whichever tool you use.
Side by side
FollowBuddy’s figures below are from its own site and app store listing and were accurate when this was written; both products change, so re-check before you pay for either.
| GhostList | FollowBuddy | |
|---|---|---|
| Asks for your password | No | No |
| Can get you banned | No | No |
| Where it runs | Web — any browser | Web, iOS and Android apps |
| Languages | English, French, Spanish, Italian, German | English |
| Free tier | 5 accounts that don’t follow you back | 3 accounts that don’t follow you back |
| Yearly price | €24.99 | $50 (Pro) / $100 (Pro Plus) |
| Paced clean-up tool | Yes | Not advertised |
| Track other people’s accounts | No | Yes — “Spy on Key Accounts” |
Where FollowBuddy is the better choice
You want an app on your phone. FollowBuddy is on the App Store and Google Play. GhostList is a website — it works fine on a phone browser, but there is no icon on your home screen and no push notifications.
You want to watch accounts that aren’t yours. FollowBuddy advertises tracking specific handles you enter. GhostList does not do this at all, and does not plan to.
Where GhostList is the better choice
You don’t read English comfortably. The export process is the fiddly part of this whole exercise, and following it in a second language makes it harder than it needs to be. GhostList is fully translated into five, including the step-by-step export guide with screenshots.
You don’t want to install anything. No app store, no permissions prompt, no update to approve — it opens in the browser you already have, on a laptop as readily as a phone.
You care what the thing costs. At the time of writing, a year of GhostList is about half the price of FollowBuddy’s Pro plan, and the free tier shows five names instead of three.
You actually want to clean up, not just look. Reading the list is the easy half; unfollowing people at a rate Instagram tolerates is slow and easy to get wrong. GhostList opens them in paced batches and remembers where you stopped.
What we store, since it is the fair question back
GhostList opens your export in the browser and the ZIP never leaves your device, but the usernames inside it are saved. That is what allows a later export to be compared against this one to name who left, and it is a real trade rather than a footnote: a tool that keeps nothing exposes less and can answer less.
If keeping nothing matters more to you than comparison over time, there are tools built that way and we would rather you used one than felt misled by us. The wider comparison covers them.
The short version
Both are safe. Pick FollowBuddy if you want a phone app or want to track other people’s accounts. Pick GhostList if you want it in your own language, in a browser, cheaper, with help doing the unfollowing afterwards. The first list is free either way — ours is two minutes from here.