Compared on public facts

GRIN vs impact.com

Updated Nov 7, 2026

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

GRIN and impact.com both list pay per video, commission on sales and product seeding. impact.com lists flat amount per order, retainers and bonuses, which GRIN does not list publicly.

9 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 impact.com

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
impact.com lists pay per video, commission on sales, flat amount per order, retainers, bonuses and product seeding publicly. HourlyUGC also lists hourly sessions, share of ad spend and pay per 1,000 views, which impact.com does not list publicly (checked Nov 7, 2026; not listing is not the same as not offering). impact.com 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. GRIN and impact.com 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	impact.com
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	Sponsored posts with a fixed fee negotiated per deliverable, paid through performance campaigns or a partner funds transfer. 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 actions as a percentage of the order (help example: 10 % of a $200 sale); dynamic commissioning pays more for new customers, high-margin SKUs or subscribers. 1 2
Flat amount per order	Not listed publicly	A fixed dollar amount per action (sale, signup, install, free trial), set in template terms. 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	Ambassador deals with recurring fees; placement fees in template terms can be a monthly payout for regular promoters. 1 2
Bonuses	Not listed publicly	Tiered bonuses and performance-bonus tiers layered on a default payout (help example: 4 % per order rising to 6 % past $200 revenue); placement fees for accepting terms or a first event. 1 2
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	Product gifting as a creator compensation method: creators pick from the brand's catalog (Shopify-synced or uploaded) after being hired; can be the only compensation or combined with a flat fee or performance payout. 1
Ads launched from the platform	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Money and tracking	GRIN	impact.com
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	Cross-device, cookieless affiliate tracking with links; promo-code attribution for social and offline purchases; full-funnel attribution beyond last click, with automatic deduplication across channels (they say 10-25 % lower commission spend on average). Online Sale/CPA event types with locking and payout periods set in template terms. 1 2
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	Starter: $30/month plus 2.5 % of revenue (the page does not define the base). Essentials, Pro and Enterprise list no percentage; setup and onboarding at $250 per hour; 12-month contract; partner payouts above the included monthly amount are billed a la carte with no overage fees. 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	Starter $30/month plus 2.5 % (Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Adobe Commerce, Squarespace, Ecwid, Shoplazza, nopCommerce, Zoho Commerce only; 30-day free trial). Essentials $500/month, includes up to $2,500/month in partner payouts. Pro $2,500/month, includes up to $14,300/month. Enterprise custom. Free for creators and affiliate publishers. 1 2
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	Free for creators. Withdrawals to a bank account or PayPal in 70+ currencies, with a $10 minimum balance. Autopay by balance threshold (processed the following Tuesday or Thursday) or on a fixed day (1st or 15th); Anytime PayPal for immediate withdrawal of smaller balances. 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	Brands are billed in USD; Canada and Australia in local currency; regional pricing for the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Japan and China expected by December 2026. Partner payouts in 70+ currencies; the creator page addresses international and global creators. 1 2
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: 6,500+ brands, 250K+ partners, 25m+ creator profiles searchable, 1m+ active partnerships. 1 2

What the facts say

Where they overlap

Pay per video
Commission on sales
Product seeding

GRIN lists, impact.com does not

Nothing in the models we track.

Checked Nov 7, 2026

impact.com lists, GRIN does not

Flat amount per order: A fixed dollar amount per action (sale, signup, install, free trial), set in template terms.
Retainers: Ambassador deals with recurring fees; placement fees in template terms can be a monthly payout for regular promoters.
Bonuses: Tiered bonuses and performance-bonus tiers layered on a default payout (help example: 4 % per order rising to 6 % past $200 revenue); placement fees for accepting terms or a first event.

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

impact.com

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

Questions people ask

What do GRIN and impact.com have in common?

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

What does GRIN list that impact.com does not?

Nothing in the pay models we track. Every model GRIN lists, impact.com lists too.

What does impact.com list that GRIN does not?

impact.com lists flat amount per order, retainers and bonuses. GRIN 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.

GRIN: GRIN platform page · grin.co, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “When a program includes a paid fee, GRIN automatically requires the terms”
impact.com: impact.com, for creators page · impact.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “a flat fee for each piece of content”
impact.com: impact.com help center, payouts and incentives for influencer partnerships · help.impact.com, checked Nov 7, 2026
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
impact.com: impact.com help center, performance bonus FAQ · help.impact.com, checked Nov 7, 2026
impact.com: impact.com help center, configure product gifting for your creator campaign · help.impact.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “a creator compensation method that rewards creators with free products”
impact.com: impact.com home page · impact.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “Cross-device affiliate tracking with cookieless attribution”
impact.com: impact.com, influencer marketing page · impact.com, checked Nov 7, 2026
impact.com: impact.com pricing page · impact.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “2.5% of Revenue”
GRIN: GRIN help center, setting up payouts as a non-U.S. resident · intercom.help, checked Aug 6, 2026 · “processed through Trolley”
impact.com: impact.com help center, select how often you get paid as a partner · help.impact.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “withdraw your funds into your bank or PayPal account”