Compared on public facts

Cohley vs Social Snowball

Updated Nov 7, 2026

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

Cohley and Social Snowball both list product seeding. Cohley also lists pay per video and ads launched from the platform, which Social Snowball does not list publicly. Social Snowball lists commission on sales, flat amount per order and bonuses, which Cohley does not list publicly.

6 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 Social Snowball

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
Social Snowball lists commission on sales, flat amount per order, bonuses and product seeding publicly. HourlyUGC also lists hourly sessions, pay per video, share of ad spend and pay per 1,000 views, which Social Snowball does not list publicly (checked Nov 7, 2026; not listing is not the same as not offering). Social Snowball lists bonuses, which HourlyUGC does not list publicly. 1 2
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. Social Snowball does not list this publicly. 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	Social Snowball
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	Not listed publicly
Commission on sales	Not listed publicly	Percentage commissions on affiliate orders, set per program or per product (product-level commissions). 1 2
Flat amount per order	Not listed publicly	A fixed amount per product sold, through product-level commissions (requires cash or store-credit payouts). 1
Share of ad spend	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Pay per 1,000 views	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Retainers	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Bonuses	Not listed publicly	Performance bonuses and tiered benefits; gift tiers reached at performance milestones. 1 2
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	Product seeding: influencers redeem gifts from their affiliate dashboard; new creators can receive a gift automatically on onboarding. 1 2
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	Not listed publicly
Money and tracking	Cohley	Social Snowball
How sales are attributed	Not listed publicly	Auto-generated affiliate links and discount codes. Safelinks turn an affiliate link into a unique, single-use discount code for every click, to stop coupon leaks. Attribution windows are configurable per program (lengths not published). Shopify and TikTok Shop integrations. 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	Shopify App Store listing: Snow Day starts at $249/month plus 3 % of affiliate revenue; Blizzard starts at $899/month with a custom plan. Affiliates pay no service fee. The FAQ page on socialsnowball.io still describes Dusting $19/month plus 10 % of affiliate revenue, Snow Day $59/month plus 3 %, and Blizzard $499/month with no commission fees; the site's /pricing page returned 404 on 2026-11-07, so the two sources disagree. 1 2 3
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	Shopify App Store listing: Snow Day from $249/month plus 3 % of affiliate revenue; Blizzard from $899/month, custom. The socialsnowball.io FAQ lists older tiers (Dusting $19, Snow Day $59, Blizzard $499). No free trial is stated on the app listing. 1 2
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	Brands bulk-send cash, gift-card and store-credit payouts; the app listing lists PayPal, ACH, bank transfers, card payouts and multi-currency, with Tremendous as an integration. Affiliates pick how to redeem earnings in a self-serve portal with over 700 reward options. Payout timing is not published. The affiliate terms say compensation may be money, goods or services, as stated in each campaign description. 1 2 3
Regions	Built for mid-market and enterprise brands selling physical products in the US and Canada, they say. 1	No country list is published. Runs as a Shopify app; the app listing mentions multi-currency payouts and gives a developer address in Miami, Florida. 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 they power programs for over 3,500 brands. 1

What the facts say

Where they overlap

Product seeding

Cohley lists, Social Snowball does not

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.
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.

Checked Nov 7, 2026

Social Snowball lists, Cohley does not

Commission on sales: Percentage commissions on affiliate orders, set per program or per product (product-level commissions).
Flat amount per order: A fixed amount per product sold, through product-level commissions (requires cash or store-credit payouts).
Bonuses: Performance bonuses and tiered benefits; gift tiers reached at performance milestones.

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

Social Snowball

brands that can attribute sales and want to pay on orders
brands that ship product to creators
brands running longer creator programs with retainers or bonuses

Questions people ask

What do Cohley and Social Snowball have in common?

Both list product seeding on their public pages (checked Nov 7, 2026).

What does Cohley list that Social Snowball does not?

Cohley lists pay per video and ads launched from the platform. Social Snowball does not list them publicly; that is not the same as not offering them.

What does Social Snowball list that Cohley does not?

Social Snowball lists commission on sales, flat amount per order 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”
Social Snowball: Social Snowball help center, product-level commissions · intercom.help, checked Oct 24, 2025 · “assign either a percentage or a fixed amount for each product”
Social Snowball: Social Snowball on the Shopify App Store · apps.shopify.com, checked Nov 7, 2026
Social Snowball: Social Snowball, influencer marketing page · socialsnowball.io, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “tiers with gifts that can be earned by hitting performance milestones”
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.”
Social Snowball: Social Snowball home page · socialsnowball.io, checked Nov 7, 2026
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”
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”
Social Snowball: Social Snowball FAQ page · socialsnowball.io, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “The Blizzard plan is $499/m, with no commission fees ever.”
Social Snowball: Social Snowball affiliate terms of service · socialsnowball.io, checked Jun 20, 2024 · “We do not currently charge Affiliates any service fee”
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”