Kunbaa is invite-only, with no public feed, and nobody's data is sold. Both sides of the family join free, grandparents included.
Instagram is a public stage: a ranked feed, Reels, Stories that last 24 hours, ads, and an audience of followers. Kunbaa is a private, invite-only family space with no algorithm and no public feed, built on a real family tree. Each post reaches everyone in the family or, on Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, the audience you choose (the extended family or just your household) and the photos are kept with the names written down. Keep Instagram for the world; use Kunbaa for the family.
At a glance, as of September 2026. Kunbaa facts describe the current release; Instagram facts are quoted from its own site.
Yes: YesPartly: Partly, or with a conditionNo: No
| Compared | Kunbaa | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sees your posts | Yes:Only the relatives you invited, and within that, on Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, the audience you pick per post: everyone, the extended family, or just your household | Partly:Your followers, or anyone on Instagram unless the account is private; a Close Friends list narrows a Story |
| Feed | Yes:A family wall in the order things happened, with no ranking and nothing from outside the family | No:A ranked feed and Reels, mixing people you follow with suggested posts and ads |
| Ads and data | Yes:No ads on Plus and Ultra, and no personalised ads on Free. Nobody's data sold, and nothing shown to you from outside your family | No:Free because it is ad-supported; ads are chosen from your activity |
| How long a post lasts | Yes:Kept. Every photo, video, story and voice note stays in the family archive, with the names, the place and roughly when in the caption | Partly:Posts stay on the profile; Stories last 24 hours unless saved to Highlights |
| Family tree | Yes:The centre of the product: who everyone is, how they connect, and their birthdays | No:None; accounts are individual profiles linked by following |
| Events and birthdays | Yes:Birthdays from the tree, events with reminders and to-dos, and the photos attach to the event afterwards | No:Birthdays appear as Stories if someone posts one |
| Messages and calls | Yes:Group and one-to-one chat, one-to-one voice and video calls, and group calls of up to 6 people including you on Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, which anyone in the family can join, all limited to relatives in your family space, in the Kunbaa app | Yes:DMs with photos, videos and group chats; message requests can arrive from anyone |
| Children and teens | Every account is held by an adult (18+). Children are on the tree and in the photos, added by their parents, and hold nothing | Accounts from 13; Teen Accounts are private by default with parental supervision through Family Center |
| Location | Yes:Opt-in Family Safety: share your location with the relatives you choose, for a set time or until you stop | No:Optional location tags on posts and Stories |
| Price | Free to start: the tree, the wall, chat, calls and events. Kunbaa Plus is $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr for the whole family's archive; one person pays | Free, with ads |
Source: Instagram facts from about.instagram.com (features page; Teen Accounts announcement of 17 September 2024), read on 22 September 2026. Kunbaa facts describe the current release. Details change; check Instagram’s site for today’s plans and prices.
Instagram is good at its job. This is the plain list of what changes if your family moves this part of its life to Kunbaa.
Every post on the wall carries an audience. Everyone in the family is the default; extended family adds the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins; household keeps it to your parents, partner and children. The audience is enforced on the server, so a relative outside it is never shown the post.
How the wall works →
Instagram links people by following. Kunbaa links them by being family: everyone you invite gets their own place on the tree, their birthday on it, and their photos on their profile. Relatives add their own side, so the tree fills out without one person doing all the work.
The Kunbaa family tree →
A Story is gone in a day and a post is buried in a week. On Kunbaa the photos, videos, stories and voice notes are the family's archive: Moments gathers them into a timeline, and the caption carries who, where and roughly when, so the cousins born next year will know who is in the picture.
Moments →
Kunbaa chat has no message requests from strangers, because only relatives in your family space can message you. Calls start from a relative's page on the tree: voice and video one-to-one, and group calls of up to 6 people including you on Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, which anyone in the family can join. Chat and calls are in the Kunbaa app.
Chat and calls in Kunbaa →
Every Kunbaa account belongs to an adult. Children are on the tree and in the photos, added by their parents. An admin decides per member whether they can post to the wall, add people to the tree or message members, and a relative can request more access from inside the app.
How private is Kunbaa? →More questions? Read the full FAQ or what private means in Kunbaa.
Yes, for the family part. Kunbaa is invite-only, has no ranked feed, and on Kunbaa Plus and Ultra every post goes to an audience you choose inside the family. It is not a public stage: there are no followers, no Reels and no discovery, so most people keep Instagram for the world and use Kunbaa for the family.
Yes. Pick the household audience and the post reaches your parents, partner and children only; pick extended family to add the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins; or send it to everyone in the family space. You choose per post, and the server enforces it.
Kunbaa Plus and Ultra have no ads. The free plan has none today, and any ads on it would not be personalised. Nobody's data is sold, and Kunbaa's revenue comes from its paid plans. There is no algorithm either: the wall shows the family's posts in the order they were shared, and nothing from outside your family ever appears in it.
It keeps strangers out of your profile, but the photos still live inside an ad-funded feed, ranked by an algorithm, next to Reels, and they are not kept with the names and the date, or next to the person on a family tree. Kunbaa does the keeping and the family tree; Instagram does the audience.
Not with their own account. Every Kunbaa account is for adults aged 18 and over. Children and teens are on the family tree and in the photos, added by a parent, so they are part of the family space without holding an account. Instagram allows accounts from 13, with Teen Accounts private by default.
Yes. There is no self-serve export button in this release, so email support from the address on your account and ask for your family archive; we send a complete copy of the photos, videos, voice notes and the tree. Your family's archive is never deleted for non-payment.
Yes. Chat and calls are in the Kunbaa mobile app, and the family tree, the wall and events also work on kunbaa.com, free.
Instagram is free with ads. Kunbaa is free to start: the tree, the wall, chat, calls, events and Family Safety cost nothing for every relative. Kunbaa Plus is $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, paid by one person, and keeps the family's archive: longer videos, room for the whole family's photos, and chat photos kept while the family is on Plus.
