Compared on public facts

GRIN vs viral.app

Updated Nov 7, 2026

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

GRIN and viral.app both list pay per video. GRIN also lists commission on sales and product seeding, which viral.app does not list publicly. viral.app lists pay per 1,000 views, retainers and bonuses, which GRIN does not list publicly.

7 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 viral.app

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
viral.app lists pay per video, pay per 1,000 views, retainers and bonuses publicly. HourlyUGC also lists hourly sessions, commission on sales, flat amount per order, share of ad spend and product seeding, which viral.app does not list publicly (checked Nov 7, 2026; not listing is not the same as not offering). viral.app lists retainers and 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 viral.app 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	viral.app
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	Fixed pay can be a per-video fee; live jobs on the platform show a median of $15 per video (typical range $10-21) as of November 2026. 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	Not listed publicly
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	Performance pay can use CPM tiers based on tracked views of the creator's organic post; live-job median $1 per 1,000 views (typical $1-1.25), used mainly by clipping programs. 1 2
Retainers	Not listed publicly	A monthly base (fixed pay as a salary) for as long as the creator works on the job; live-job median $500 a month (typical $310-740). 1
Bonuses	Not listed publicly	Flat bonuses that trigger at view thresholds (recommended ladder $100 at 100K, $250 at 250K, $500 at 500K views; each video earns only the highest reached); live-job median top bonus $250. 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	Not listed publicly
Ads launched from the platform	Not listed publicly	Not listed publicly
Money and tracking	GRIN	viral.app
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	Views, not sales. Public post links are tracked on TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts and Snapchat Spotlight without account logins, refreshed every 24 hours (Pro), 12 hours (Ultra, Scale) or hourly (Enterprise). Payout rules can add caps, minimum views and an eligibility window. No sales attribution is described. 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	A flat 3 % payout management fee paid by the brand on top of each payout; none of it comes out of the creator's amount. The payout partner Talentir deducts a method fee from the creator's transfer: PayPal 2.5 %, Venmo 3.5 %, SWIFT, US wire or non-SEPA IBAN EUR 5; SEPA, UK and US ACH bank transfers and stablecoins on Base are free (fees as of September 2026). 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	Pro $99/month (1,000 tracked videos, 10 active creators, 1 live job, 1 seat); Ultra $299/month (5,000 videos, 50 creators, 2 jobs, 10 seats, API); Scale $499/month (20,000 videos, 500 creators, 3 jobs, 20 seats); Enterprise custom with hourly refreshes. Yearly billing 20 % off; 7-day free trial. Full-service from $20k/month. 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	Creators claim payouts in the dashboard; Talentir pays as merchant of record and issues the invoice in the creator's name (self-billing). Methods: SEPA, UK or US ACH bank transfer, PayPal, Venmo, USDC/EURC and other crypto. Timing from claim: stablecoins within minutes, PayPal and Venmo usually within the hour, SEPA and UK 1-2 business days, ACH 1-3, SWIFT 3-5. Campaigns pay in USD, EUR, CHF or GBP. No minimum payout is stated. EU residents may be asked for a tax ID (DAC7). 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	Creators paid in 180+ countries and 50+ currencies; campaigns in USD, EUR, CHF or GBP (JPY and KRW campaigns are paid by the brand directly); job pages for the UK, Canada and Australia; marketplace jobs are matched by country and language. Built and hosted in Germany. 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: 1M+ accounts tracked, 100B+ views tracked, 50M+ videos tracked, $5M+ payouts issued. 1

What the facts say

Where they overlap

Pay per video

GRIN lists, viral.app does not

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.
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

viral.app lists, GRIN does not

Pay per 1,000 views: Performance pay can use CPM tiers based on tracked views of the creator's organic post; live-job median $1 per 1,000 views (typical $1-1.25), used mainly by clipping programs.
Retainers: A monthly base (fixed pay as a salary) for as long as the creator works on the job; live-job median $500 a month (typical $310-740).
Bonuses: Flat bonuses that trigger at view thresholds (recommended ladder $100 at 100K, $250 at 250K, $500 at 500K views; each video earns only the highest reached); live-job median top bonus $250.

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

viral.app

brands that budget per approved video
brands paying for organic reach per 1,000 views
brands running longer creator programs with retainers or bonuses

Questions people ask

What do GRIN and viral.app have in common?

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

What does GRIN list that viral.app does not?

GRIN lists commission on sales and product seeding. viral.app does not list them publicly; that is not the same as not offering them.

What does viral.app list that GRIN does not?

viral.app lists pay per 1,000 views, 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”
viral.app: viral.app, creator payments page · viral.app, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “Fixed, performance, or both.”
viral.app: viral.app, what UGC jobs pay (figures as of November 2026) · viral.app, 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
viral.app: viral.app home page · viral.app, checked Nov 7, 2026 · “Paste a public link. That's it.”
viral.app: viral.app docs, creator payouts (fees as of September 2026) · viral.app, checked Sep 1, 2026
GRIN: GRIN help center, setting up payouts as a non-U.S. resident · intercom.help, checked Aug 6, 2026 · “processed through Trolley”
viral.app: viral.app blog, Canvas UGC marketplace launch (updated 6 Nov 2026) · viral.app, checked Nov 6, 2026 · “claim their payouts in the dashboard”