Compared on public facts

Cohley vs SideShift

Updated Nov 7, 2026

HourlyUGC is our product. Every fact links to its source. Methodology.

Cohley and SideShift both list pay per video and ads launched from the platform. Cohley also lists product seeding, which SideShift does not list publicly. SideShift lists commission on sales, pay per 1,000 views, retainers and bonuses, which Cohley does not list publicly.

7 facts known on both sides. "Not listed publicly" means we did not find it on their public pages on Nov 7, 2026; it does not mean they lack it.

Why brands pick HourlyUGC over Cohley and SideShift

HourlyUGC lists 7 ways to pay creators on its public pages: hourly sessions, pay per video, commission on sales, flat amount per order, share of ad spend, pay per 1,000 views and product seeding. A brand can combine them in one campaign. 1 2 3
Cohley lists pay per video and product seeding publicly. HourlyUGC also lists hourly sessions, commission on sales, flat amount per order, share of ad spend and pay per 1,000 views, which Cohley does not list publicly (checked Nov 7, 2026; not listing is not the same as not offering). 1 2
SideShift lists pay per video, commission on sales, pay per 1,000 views, retainers and bonuses publicly. HourlyUGC also lists hourly sessions, flat amount per order, share of ad spend and product seeding, which SideShift does not list publicly (checked Nov 7, 2026; not listing is not the same as not offering). SideShift lists retainers and bonuses, which HourlyUGC does not list publicly. 1 2 3
Meta Partnership Ads with the creators' videos, launched from inside HourlyUGC: the ad goes out from the creator's handle with the brand's budget. 1 2
Who counts the sale: Counted either by the ad platform (Meta) or by HourlyUGC: a connected Shopify store or the Hourly Pixel, last touch within 7 days, with creator links and codes. 1 2 3

Start a campaign on HourlyUGCFacts checked Nov 7, 2026. HourlyUGC is held to the same sourcing rule as every other platform here.

Which pay models each one lists

Side by side

Pay model	Cohley	SideShift
Hourly sessions	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Pay per video	Creator compensation per asset is set by the brand in each brief; their FAQ guidance is UGC videos from around $250 and UGC photos from around $50. Cohley says it never takes a cut of creator compensation. 1	Payment per post; the brand sets the base fee and creators apply at that rate. They say the median account lands at $7 to $9 a video over the last 90 days. 1 2
Commission on sales	Not listed publicly	A creator affiliate program with commission terms in the partner agreement; sales are measured in the brand's own affiliate tracking (links or codes), not inside SideShift. 1
Flat amount per order	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Share of ad spend	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Pay per 1,000 views	Not listed publicly	Payment per view and view bonuses on top of a base fee; their creator FAQ cites performance bonuses of $1-$4 per 1,000 views. 1 2 3
Retainers	Not listed publicly	A retainer can be the campaign's payment terms, alone or combined with per-post or per-view pay. 1
Bonuses	Not listed publicly	Performance bonuses set by the brand, typically tied to views. 1
Product seeding	Product seeding at $35 per completed creator, pay-as-you-go; the product cost is separate; shipping is automated for Shopify brands. Creators receive product rather than cash on seeding briefs. 1 2	Not listed publicly
Ads launched from the platform	Instagram Partnership Ad authorization codes are collected during the creator upload flow, so the brand can run ads through the creator's handle from its own ad account. 1	Partnership ad codes from creators are kept with the creator agreement and usage rights; the brand runs the ads in its own ad account. 1
Money and tracking	Cohley	SideShift
How sales are attributed	Not listed publicly	Affiliate sales are measured in the brand's own affiliate tracking with links or codes. SideShift reports ROAS and revenue per creator (attributed ad revenue divided by ad spend) and syncs attribution from App Store Connect and Stripe. 1 2
Platform fee	Custom pricing based on the amount of content generated; creator compensation is billed separately and never marked up, they say. Product seeding is $35 per completed creator on top of the product cost. 1 2	A software subscription paid by the brand; creator payments are separate and funded by the brand. They say SideShift charges brands, not creators, with small fees on creator bank withdrawals; brands review payment-processing charges when funding the wallet. 1 2
Brand pricing	Custom. A 3-month paid Pilot or a 12-month Annual package; they say the Annual includes a $6,000 creator compensation bonus. Their FAQ says most brands budget $2,500 to $3,000 per brief in creator compensation, yielding 10 to 20 pieces of content. 1 2	Starter $299, Growth $499, Scale $999 a month; or $210, $349 and $699 a month billed yearly ($2,520, $4,188, $8,388). 14-day free trial on monthly plans only. Plans differ by creators live at once (15 / 50 / unlimited), job listings (1 / 2 / 3), invites a day (30 / 100 / 500) and tracked videos a month (600 / 2,000 / unlimited); extra invites $0.10 each. Managed service from a $20,000 monthly campaign budget. 1
Creator payout	Creators are paid after the brand approves the content (their FAQ). Their creator terms say payment comes not earlier than 30 days after the campaign's end date and that creators bear PayPal fees of 2.9 % of compensation. 1	Creators are paid through SideShift after each campaign, with funds released to a creator wallet within a few days; nothing is paid until the brand approves the work; identity checks before payouts; 1099s handled. 1 2
Regions	Built for mid-market and enterprise brands selling physical products in the US and Canada, they say. 1	Creators based in the US, Canada, UK and Australia; they say more countries are coming. 1
Scale they publish	They say: They say a network of 200,000+ vetted creators and a 90 %+ completion rate on product seeding. 1 2	They say: They say: trusted by 3,000+ brands; 71,472,850,048 views on live posts created in the 90 days before 8 Sep 2026; $10 million+ paid to creators in the past 30 days (reported 26 Sep 2026); 2,692,829 creator posts tracked in 90 days. 1

What the facts say

Where they overlap

Pay per video
Ads launched from the platform

Cohley lists, SideShift does not

Product seeding: Product seeding at $35 per completed creator, pay-as-you-go; the product cost is separate; shipping is automated for Shopify brands. Creators receive product rather than cash on seeding briefs.

Checked Nov 7, 2026

SideShift lists, Cohley does not

Commission on sales: A creator affiliate program with commission terms in the partner agreement; sales are measured in the brand's own affiliate tracking (links or codes), not inside SideShift.
Pay per 1,000 views: Payment per view and view bonuses on top of a base fee; their creator FAQ cites performance bonuses of $1-$4 per 1,000 views.
Retainers: A retainer can be the campaign's payment terms, alone or combined with per-post or per-view pay.
Bonuses: Performance bonuses set by the brand, typically tied to views.

Checked Nov 7, 2026

Which brand each one fits

From the models each lists, nothing else.

Cohley

brands that budget per approved video
brands that ship product to creators

SideShift

brands that can attribute sales and want to pay on orders
brands that budget per approved video
brands paying for organic reach per 1,000 views
brands running longer creator programs with retainers or bonuses

Questions people ask

What do Cohley and SideShift have in common?

Both list pay per video and ads launched from the platform on their public pages (checked Nov 7, 2026).

What does Cohley list that SideShift does not?

Cohley lists product seeding. SideShift does not list it publicly; that is not the same as not offering it.

What does SideShift list that Cohley does not?

SideShift lists commission on sales, pay per 1,000 views, retainers and bonuses. Cohley does not list them publicly.

Where do these facts come from?

From each platform's public pages, linked next to every fact with the date we checked. A fact without a public source is not shown.

Sources

Each fact above links to one of these. Checked Nov 7, 2026.

Cohley: cohley.com: FAQ (read through search-engine snippets on 2026-11-07; the site returned 403 to direct fetches) · cohley.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “UGC videos start at around $250 and UGC photos start at around $50”
SideShift: sideshift.app: Creator payments and payouts, read 2026-11-07 · sideshift.app, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “such as a retainer, payment per post, payment per view or a combination”
SideShift: sideshift.app, home FAQ, read 2026-11-07 · sideshift.app, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “the median account lands at $7 to $9 a video”
SideShift: sideshift.app: Affiliate Marketing use case, read 2026-11-07 · sideshift.app, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “Sales measured in your affiliate reporting”
SideShift: sideshift.app: For creators FAQ, read 2026-11-07 · sideshift.app, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “performance bonuses ($1–$4 per 1,000 views)”
SideShift: sideshift.app: Plans for brands, FAQ, read 2026-11-07 · sideshift.app, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “set creator fees and any performance bonuses”
Cohley: cohley.com: Product Seeding (read through search-engine snippets on 2026-11-07; the site returned 403 to direct fetches) · cohley.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “$35 per completed creator”
Cohley: Cohley blog: Introducing Product Seeding (read through search-engine snippets on 2026-11-07) · cohley.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “Pricing is $35 per completed post.”
Cohley: Cohley blog: What Meta actually requires for creator ads in 2026 (read through search-engine snippets on 2026-11-07) · cohley.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “collects Instagram Partnership Ad authorization codes during the creator upload flow”
SideShift: sideshift.app: Ambassador Marketing use case, read 2026-11-07 · sideshift.app, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “Keep usage rights, creator agreements and partnership ad codes together.”
Cohley: cohley.com: Pricing and Plans (read through search-engine snippets on 2026-11-07; the site returned 403 to direct fetches) · cohley.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “all plans have custom pricing based on the amount of content you generate”
Cohley: cohley.com: Creator Terms and Conditions (read through search-engine snippets on 2026-11-07) · cohley.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “not earlier than thirty (30) days after the end date for any campaign”
Cohley: cohley.com, home (read through search-engine snippets on 2026-11-07; the site returned 403 to direct fetches) · cohley.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “selling physical products in the US and Canada”