Compared on public facts

GRIN vs Howl

Updated Nov 7, 2026

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

GRIN and Howl both list pay per video and commission on sales. GRIN also lists product seeding, which Howl 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 GRIN and Howl

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
GRIN lists pay per video, commission on sales and product seeding publicly. HourlyUGC also lists hourly sessions, flat amount per order, share of ad spend and pay per 1,000 views, which GRIN does not list publicly (checked Nov 7, 2026; not listing is not the same as not offering). 1 2 3
Howl lists pay per video and commission on sales publicly. HourlyUGC also lists hourly sessions, flat amount per order, share of ad spend, pay per 1,000 views and product seeding, which Howl does not list publicly (checked Nov 7, 2026; not listing is not the same as not offering). 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. GRIN and Howl do 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	GRIN	Howl
Hourly sessions	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Pay per video	Paid and UGC programs with a flat creator fee set per program, marked fixed or negotiable; terms lock at acceptance. Per-video pricing is not itemised publicly. 1	Content flat fees and licensing paid upfront; brands can also mix in pay per click (CPC) and pay per lead (PPL) offers. 1 2
Commission on sales	Affiliate programs with links, codes and commissions; commissions are paid from the brand's funded wallet and tracked in a commissions ledger. 1 2	Commission on sales with flexible structures set by the brand; creators can get higher rates based on results. 1 2
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	Not listed publicly
Retainers	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Bonuses	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Product seeding	Gifting and seeding programs on every plan, with monthly gift limits by plan; a gift counts when its $0 order or shipment is created in GRIN. Gifting-only campaigns need no wallet deposit. 1 2	Not listed publicly
Ads launched from the platform	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Money and tracking	GRIN	Howl
How sales are attributed	Affiliate links and discount codes. Shopify connects in one click; custom or headless stores send signed order webhooks through the API naming the creator who drove each sale, on every plan including Free. No attribution window is published. 1	Engagement, conversion, GMV and ROI tracked in real time, with attribution windows from 1 to 90 days. The tracking method is not described on the page. 1
Platform fee	A management fee is added on top of every wallet deposit: 20 % on Free, 10 % on Starter, 7 % on Growth, 5 % on Scale, custom on Enterprise. Charged at funding; not refunded if unspent funds are withdrawn. Card deposits may carry a processing fee; ACH is the lowest-cost option. GRIN says it takes nothing from what creators earn. 1	Howl handles payment processing with no minimum threshold or hidden fees for creators. A brand-side fee is not stated. 1
Brand pricing	Free $0/month (2 live campaigns, 10 gifts in total, 20 % fee); Starter $200/month (10 % fee, 100 gifts/month, 30-day free trial); Growth $500/month (7 %, 300 gifts/month, multiple brands); Scale $1,500/month (5 %, 1,000 gifts/month); Enterprise custom with annual agreement. Prices monthly in USD. Paid and affiliate campaigns need at least $250 in the wallet before going live. 1	Not listed publicly
Creator payout	Creator fees are held in escrow in the brand's wallet until payout. The pricing page says payouts go through Stripe with tax handling; the help center article for non-U.S. creators (6 Aug 2026) says payments are sent as a bank transfer processed through Trolley after a W-8BEN is on file, with 24 % withholding without a verified foreign tax ID. Unclaimed payments expire after 30 days and return to the brand's creator fund. No payout schedule is published. 1 2	Earnings are paid in the next payout cycle after a transaction clears, often net 30, 60 or 90 days, straight to the creator's bank account. 1 2
Regions	No country list is published. Prices are in USD; reporting and payouts are described as correct in any currency; non-U.S. creators are paid by bank transfer after a W-8BEN. 1 2	Not listed publicly
Scale they publish	They say: They say: $1.2B+ in creator-driven GMV, 5,000 brands since 2017, 700K+ creators supported, $215M+ earned by creators. 1	They say: They say thousands of creators; no brand or sales totals are given. 1

What the facts say

Where they overlap

Pay per video
Commission on sales

GRIN lists, Howl does not

Product seeding: Gifting and seeding programs on every plan, with monthly gift limits by plan; a gift counts when its $0 order or shipment is created in GRIN. Gifting-only campaigns need no wallet deposit.

Checked Nov 7, 2026

Howl lists, GRIN does not

Nothing in the models we track.

Checked Nov 7, 2026

Which brand each one fits

From the models each lists, nothing else.

GRIN

brands that can attribute sales and want to pay on orders
brands that budget per approved video
brands that ship product to creators

Howl

brands that can attribute sales and want to pay on orders
brands that budget per approved video

Questions people ask

What do GRIN and Howl have in common?

Both list pay per video and commission on sales on their public pages (checked Nov 7, 2026).

What does GRIN list that Howl does not?

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

What does Howl list that GRIN does not?

Nothing in the pay models we track.

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.

GRIN: GRIN platform page · grin.co, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “When a program includes a paid fee, GRIN automatically requires the terms”
Howl: howl.link, home (creators), read 2026-11-07 · howl.link, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “Get paid upfront for what you create.”
Howl: howl.link: For brands, read 2026-11-07 · howl.link, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “mix and match CPC, PPL, or Flat Fee offers to fit your strategy.”
GRIN: GRIN home page · grin.co, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “Affiliate links, codes and commissions”
GRIN: GRIN pricing page · grin.co, checked Nov 7, 2026
GRIN: GRIN help center, setting up payouts as a non-U.S. resident · intercom.help, checked Aug 6, 2026 · “processed through Trolley”