Compared on public facts

GRIN vs Social Snowball

Updated Nov 7, 2026

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

GRIN and Social Snowball both list commission on sales and product seeding. GRIN also lists pay per video, which Social Snowball does not list publicly. Social Snowball lists flat amount per order and bonuses, which GRIN does not list publicly.

8 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 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
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
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. GRIN and Social Snowball 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	Social Snowball
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	Not listed publicly
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	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	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 seeding: influencers redeem gifts from their affiliate dashboard; new creators can receive a gift automatically on onboarding. 1 2
Ads launched from the platform	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Money and tracking	GRIN	Social Snowball
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	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	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	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	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	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	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	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	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	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: $1.2B+ in creator-driven GMV, 5,000 brands since 2017, 700K+ creators supported, $215M+ earned by creators. 1	They say: They say they power programs for over 3,500 brands. 1

What the facts say

Where they overlap

Commission on sales
Product seeding

GRIN lists, Social Snowball does not

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.

Checked Nov 7, 2026

Social Snowball lists, GRIN does not

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.

GRIN

brands that can attribute sales and want to pay on orders
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 GRIN and Social Snowball have in common?

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

What does GRIN list that Social Snowball does not?

GRIN lists pay per video. Social Snowball does not list it publicly; that is not the same as not offering it.

What does Social Snowball list that GRIN does not?

Social Snowball lists flat amount per order 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”
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
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”
Social Snowball: Social Snowball home page · socialsnowball.io, checked Nov 7, 2026
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”
GRIN: GRIN help center, setting up payouts as a non-U.S. resident · intercom.help, checked Aug 6, 2026 · “processed through Trolley”