Compared on public facts

GRIN vs Upfluence

Updated Nov 7, 2026

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

GRIN and Upfluence both list pay per video, commission on sales and product seeding.

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 Upfluence

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
Upfluence 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 Upfluence does not list publicly (checked Nov 7, 2026; not listing is not the same as not offering). 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 Upfluence 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	Upfluence
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	Flat fee: a set rate for a sponsored post, video or other piece of content; hybrid deals add commission on top. 1
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	Affiliate commissions as a percentage of sales from unique links or discount codes; can be mixed with flat fees. 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	Product gifting campaigns ship products from Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce or Magento catalogs (or manual upload) in exchange for possible posts; posts are not guaranteed. Upfluence says 60 % of gifted influencers share content on average. 1
Ads launched from the platform	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Money and tracking	GRIN	Upfluence
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	Individual tracking links per influencer showing clicks and sales; auto-generated promo codes with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce and Amazon stores; Amazon Attribution supported. No attribution window is published. 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	A fixed platform fee; Upfluence says it takes no percentage of sales and Upfluence Pay carries a 0 % fee. No mandatory setup fee; optional paid onboarding packages exist. 1 2
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	Custom-quoted by module (Find High-Impact Creators; Scale Creator Programs; Run Programs on Autopilot), based on team size and program volume. Minimum contract 12 months; a free trial is offered after an initial call. No prices published. 1
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	Payments through PayPal or Upfluence Pay (bank transfer or direct deposit), in the creator's preferred currency, in bulk, with built-in KYC, W-9 and W-8 collection and automatic 1099s. Available on the Autopilot module. Payout timing is not published. 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	Global payouts in local currencies; no country list is published. The site is offered in English, Italian, French, German and Simplified Chinese. 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: 12+ million creators in the database. 1

What the facts say

Where they overlap

Pay per video
Commission on sales
Product seeding

GRIN lists, Upfluence does not

Nothing in the models we track.

Checked Nov 7, 2026

Upfluence 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

Upfluence

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

Questions people ask

What do GRIN and Upfluence 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 Upfluence does not?

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

What does Upfluence 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”
Upfluence: Upfluence Pay page · upfluence.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
Upfluence: Upfluence home page · upfluence.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “flat fees, affiliate commissions, promo codes, or any mix”
Upfluence: Upfluence help center, product gifting campaign · help.upfluence.co, checked Oct 6, 2025 · “Product gifting campaigns do not guarantee influencer posts.”
Upfluence: Upfluence pricing page · upfluence.com, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “Upfluence takes no percentage of sales.”
GRIN: GRIN help center, setting up payouts as a non-U.S. resident · intercom.help, checked Aug 6, 2026 · “processed through Trolley”