I built a free Instagram downloader - stories, reels, highlights & more (No login, No watermark)

#webdev #showdev #instagram #storysaver

What I built

IGSaver - a free web-based Instagram downloader that lets you save any public Instagram content directly from your browser.

No app install. No login. No watermark.

Features

Story downloader - enter any username to view and save active stories
Reels downloader - download reels in HD quality
Photo downloader - save posts and carousels in original quality
Highlights downloader - download entire highlight reels

Tech stack

Framework: Next.js 14 (App Router)
Language: TypeScript
Styling: Tailwind CSS
Backend: Next.js API Routes
Scraper: RapidAPI (Instagram scraper)
Deployment: Vercel
Email: Resend

Why I built it

Most existing Instagram downloader tools are:

Covered in aggressive ads
Slow with unnecessary waiting times
Require sketchy app installs
Break frequently

I wanted to build something clean, fast and reliable that just works - directly in your browser on any device.

Challenges

Download progress tracking - Native <a download> tags don't allow progress tracking. Built a custom useDownloadProgress hook using ReadableStream and Content-Length headers to show real download percentage.

Rate limiting - Instagram aggressively rate limits scrapers. Solved by abstracting the scraper layer into a single swappable module so the backend can be changed in one line if needed.