The Ick vs DolphinRadar: Instagram Activity Tracker Comparison (2026)
Updated September 4, 2026. Competitor facts are taken from DolphinRadar's website.
The Ick and DolphinRadar both monitor public Instagram profiles without asking for your Instagram login, but they are built for different jobs. The Ick is a follow tracker: it checks up to 5 profiles every hour and tells you who they followed or unfollowed, and who followed or unfollowed them, as it happens. DolphinRadar is an activity report tool: according to its website, one subscription covers one account, and its Activity Analytics reports refresh once per week and cover six categories including likes, comments and story engagement.
The practical difference is timing and breadth. With The Ick you find out about a new follow within about an hour and get a push notification. With DolphinRadar you wait roughly a week for the first report and then get weekly refreshes, but that report includes engagement data such as post likes and comments that The Ick does not collect.
DolphinRadar is cheaper per month on its published prices (4.49 USD per month, or 32.99 USD per year) but covers a single account. The Ick costs 8.99 USD per week or 34.99 USD per year in the US and covers up to 5 accounts. Which one is right for you depends on whether you want fast follow alerts on several people or a slower, wider report on one.
| Feature | The Ick | DolphinRadar |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Web app at theick.io (works in Safari on iPhone, can be added to the home screen) and an Android app on Google Play. Not currently on the Apple App Store. | Web browser only. According to its website, DolphinRadar works entirely through a web browser; no iOS or Android app is mentioned on the site. |
| Instagram login required | No. You only type a public Instagram username. | No. DolphinRadar states it never asks for your Instagram username, password or any account credentials. |
| What it tracks | New follows and unfollows in both directions (who the profile started or stopped following, and who started or stopped following them), follower and following count changes, a history timeline, and a gender breakdown of recent follows. | Six categories of public activity: new follows, unfollows, post likes, comments, story engagement and follower count changes. Also Stories and Highlights download and a comments viewer. |
| Shows recency/order of follows | Yes. Most recent follows are shown sorted by recency. | Its Recent Follow Tracker page shows follows sorted from newest to oldest. Per-event timestamps inside Activity Analytics reports are not published. |
| Update frequency | Every hour, for each tracked profile. | Activity Analytics reports refresh once per week, and the first report takes approximately one week of data collection. Stories and Highlights are updated daily. |
| Profiles per plan | Up to 5 public profiles per subscription. | One public Instagram account per subscription. The plan page states all plans support tracking only one account. |
| Private accounts | No. Public profiles only. | No. DolphinRadar states it only works with public Instagram accounts. |
| Pricing (as published) | 8.99 USD per week or 34.99 USD per year in the US, lower prices in many countries. Pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. | Monthly plan 4.49 per month; quarterly 10.99 per quarter; annual 32.99 per year (2.75 per month). Shown with a dollar sign; the currency code is not stated. |
| Free trial or preview | Yes. Type a username on theick.io and see a 5-step analysis preview before subscribing. | An Exclusive Free Trial gives complimentary access to the Stories and Highlights feature for a limited time. No free trial for activity tracking is stated. |
| Refund policy | Cancel anytime from Settings. Access continues until the end of the current billing period. | Described as digital services that are generally non-refundable once a report has been delivered. Refunds may be granted for repeated delivery failure (5 or more failed deliveries) or if the product does not match the website description. |
| Ratings/reviews | Rated 4.6 on Google Play with over 192,000 ratings. | Not published. The site claims 50,000+ users repeatedly use the service. |
How each one works
The Ick takes a public username, records the profile's public follower and following lists every hour, and compares each snapshot with the previous one. Any difference becomes a timestamped event you can see in the profile's history and in the What's New feed, and you get a push notification when it happens. It tracks both directions: the people the profile follows and unfollows, and the people who follow and unfollow the profile. You can watch up to 5 profiles at once, and each is checked independently.
DolphinRadar, according to its website, also works from a public username and never asks for your credentials. The difference is the delivery model. Its homepage describes a detection period that must end before you access your report, its FAQ says it takes approximately one week to collect enough data for the first Activity Analytics report, and reports then refresh once per week. Within that report it covers six categories: new follows, unfollows, post likes, comments, story engagement and follower count changes. It also offers separate instant lookup tools (the site says results typically appear within 10 minutes for public accounts) and a Stories and Highlights downloader that updates daily.
So the honest summary is: The Ick is faster and narrower, DolphinRadar is slower and wider. If you want to learn more about the mechanics of snapshot tracking, see how Instagram follow trackers work.
Pricing in detail
DolphinRadar's published prices, from its tracker and FAQ pages, are 4.49 per month on the monthly plan, 10.99 per quarter, and 32.99 per year, which it describes as 2.75 per month with a 40 percent saving. Prices are shown with a dollar sign and the currency code is not stated. Every plan covers exactly one Instagram account, so tracking two people means two subscriptions.
The Ick's prices are on the pricing page: 8.99 USD per week or 34.99 USD per year in the US, with lower prices in many countries, payable by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. One subscription covers up to 5 profiles. On the yearly plan the two products cost almost the same per year (32.99 versus 34.99 in the US), but The Ick covers five profiles with hourly checks while DolphinRadar covers one with weekly reports.
Refund terms differ too. DolphinRadar describes its reports as generally non-refundable once delivered, with exceptions for repeated delivery failure or a product that does not match the description. The Ick lets you cancel at any time from Settings and keeps your access until the end of the paid period.
Who each one is best for
Choose The Ick if you want to know quickly when someone follows or unfollows a person, if you want to watch more than one profile, or if you want push notifications rather than a report to open. It suits the classic use case of keeping an eye on a partner, an ex, a friend or a competitor and seeing the latest follows in order.
Choose DolphinRadar if what you really want is engagement data, meaning which posts the account likes and comments on and how it interacts with stories, and you are happy to wait for a weekly report on a single account. That is a different question from who they followed, and The Ick does not answer it.
For other options in both categories, see the best Instagram follower tracker apps and DolphinRadar alternatives.
What DolphinRadar does that The Ick does not, and the reverse
In DolphinRadar's favour: it tracks post likes, comments and story engagement, offers a Stories and Highlights downloader, and its monthly plan is cheaper than The Ick's weekly plan. If engagement tracking is the point, The Ick is not a substitute.
In The Ick's favour: hourly checks instead of weekly reports, push notifications the moment a change is detected, up to 5 profiles on one subscription instead of one, a native Android app alongside the web app, a free 5-step analysis preview before you pay, and a gender breakdown of recent follows. Tracking history is kept for the life of your subscription. The Ick is not on the Apple App Store; iPhone users use the web app at theick.io, and the official app page lists where it is available.
Verdict
The Ick and DolphinRadar overlap on follows and unfollows but are otherwise different products. If your question is "who did they just follow?" and you want to know within the hour, on up to five profiles, with a notification, The Ick is the better tool. If your question is "what has this one account been liking and commenting on?" and a weekly report is fine, DolphinRadar covers ground The Ick does not.
Try the free preview at theick.io with the username you care about and see whether hourly follow tracking answers your question before paying for either.
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