Growi or viral.app? Pay creators on sales, or pay them on views.

Mike SchneiderCo-Founder · September 25, 2026 · 12 min read

The short version: both track creators, pay them and help you find more. Pick Growi if your creators are paid on sales: it ties TikTok Shop, Shopify and Amazon orders to each creator, and its AI agent does the outreach. Pick viral.app if they're paid on views: stricter view counts, deals tested on real videos, payouts through a merchant of record in 180+ countries, and a lower plan price per creator.

We make viral.app, so read this with that in mind. Every Growi fact below comes from Growi's own site, pricing, help center, terms, API docs and App Store listing, checked on September 25, 2026, with links at the end. Where Growi doesn't say something, we write "Not public". Where its own pages disagree, we show both.

This page is about Growi at growi.io, the creator marketing platform, not the open-source GROWI wiki. Are you a creator looking for paid UGC work? This page is for brands; join the Canvas UGC marketplace instead.

Paid on sales, or paid on views

Growi's 2.0 relaunch put sales at the center. Its plans are priced by commerce channel (Shopify, TikTok Shop, Amazon, the App Store, Google Play, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads), its reports lead with GMV, and affiliates are unlimited on every plan. That fits a DTC brand whose creators earn commissions on TikTok Shop and Shopify.

Many UGC programs, especially for apps, pay on something else: views. There the view count is the invoice, so what matters is which accounts you can track, how views are counted, what a deal will cost before anyone posts, and how creators around the world get paid. That is what viral.app is built for.

Who Growi is great for

Growi is a capable platform, and for some programs it's the better choice. It fits best when:

If that's your program, Growi is a sound choice. Close alternatives for sales-based programs are JoinBrands, whose TikTok Creator Engine shows GMV per affiliate, and Trybe, which pays creators a share of the sales their Meta ads drive. The rest of this page is about what changes when creators are paid on views.

Plans matched up

Growi meters "managed creators", the creators whose posts it tracks, while affiliates stay unlimited. viral.app meters active creators and tracked videos. So the fair match is by price and creator count. Prices are per month on monthly billing. Growi's brand pricing takes 10% off for annual billing (its agency page says two months free); viral.app takes about 20% off.

Around these: Growi Scale is $1,999 a month ($1,799 yearly) for 500 creators, with every sales channel, Meta and TikTok ads, payouts on ad results, AI workflows and a dedicated success manager. Enterprise is custom. Every Growi plan comes with credits for AI analyses and post downloads, and packs start at $2.50. On Starter with a Shopify store, you pay $299 plus 3% of Shopify affiliate revenue, or $549 a month flat. viral.app starts at Pro, $99 a month for 10 creators, and has a custom Enterprise plan with syncs up to every hour.

Priced Growi before its 2.0 relaunch? Those quotes no longer apply. In June 2026 its pricing page listed $149 a month for 20 creators and $299 for 50, with 0% payout fees.

Which one should you pick?

Who pays the fees

This is where Growi's price advantage comes from, so here it is in full. Growi charges the brand less on payouts. Part of the cost sits with creators instead, and funding by bank is only listed for US bank accounts.

Growi's own pages don't agree on the fee. Its help center says it charges 0% processing fees once creators join by link, its terms allow the per-payout banking fee above, and a sample payout screen on its payouts page shows a 0.9% platform fee. Ask which applies to you before you sign. On viral.app it's 3% on each payout, on your side of the bill. viral.app has paid out $5M+ to creators.

When the view count is the invoice

If you pay per view, every counting rule changes what you owe. Four things viral.app does that Growi's pages don't describe the same way:

Every difference, row by row

Thirty-nine rows in five groups, starting with what each tool is built around. "Yes" means the product does it, "Partly" means it covers part of the job, and "Not public" means we couldn't find it on Growi's public pages.

• Plain fact
• Not public
• No
• Partly
• Yes

5 groups · 39 rows

Growi

viral.app

At a glance · one mark per row, in table order

Every difference between Growi and viral.app, by group

What you need	Growi	viral.app
01What each is built aroundWhere the two differ most
What plans are priced on	Growi Sales channels, tracked creators and outreach: 1 channel and 25 creators on Starter, 2 and 100 on Growth, all and 500 on Scale.	viral.app Active creators, tracked videos and seats: 10, 50 or 500 creators by plan.
Sales tied to each creator	GrowiYes GMV from TikTok Shop, Shopify and Amazon, affiliate links and codes, and app sales you send through its API.	viral.appPartly App revenue, trials and subscribers from RevenueCat per project, next to views. No sales per creator.
Track creators without them signing up	GrowiPartly You can add creators by URL, but they can't be paid through Growi until they join by invite link.	viral.appYes Any public account from a URL, unlimited on every plan. Creators don't need an account, even to be paid.
Show 3 more rows in What each is built around · Affiliate and ambassador programs · Who contracts the creator · Where data is hosted Folded rows: Affiliate and ambassador programs; Who contracts the creator; Where data is hosted.
02Tracking and counting viewsviral.app counts views more strictly; Growi adds listening and alerts
Instagram views on reels shared to Facebook	GrowiNot public Not described on its pages.	viral.appYes Instagram-only counts, so Facebook views don't inflate the number or the pay.
Paid views kept out of creator pay	GrowiNot public Not described. Its ads pages report paid and organic returns blended.	viral.appYes With TikTok or Meta connected, view-based pay counts organic views only.
Alerts when a video takes off	GrowiYes Post performance, GMV, activity and tier alerts, plus daily Slack summaries.	viral.appNo Not built in yet. Copilot, the API and MCP can report on demand.
Show 6 more rows in Tracking and counting views · Platforms · The same video cross-posted to several platforms · 4 more Folded rows: Platforms; The same video cross-posted to several platforms; How often numbers refresh; Tracked video limits; Brand mentions; Competitor tracking.
03Paying creatorsGrowi costs you less per payout; viral.app does more of the paperwork
Fee on creator pay	Growi 0% processing, per its help center; card top-ups 3%, US bank top-ups free. Its terms allow a $0 to $2 banking fee per payout, deducted from the creator; its payouts page shows a 0.9% platform fee in a sample.	viral.app 3% on each payout, paid by you. None of it comes out of creator pay.
Invoices, tax and KYC	GrowiPartly 1099s for US creators through Stripe; W-9 and W-8BEN collected; KYC. No merchant of record or EU invoicing described.	viral.appYes Our payout partner is merchant of record: an invoice for you and a self-billed one in the creator's name, KYC, AML and sanctions checks, and DAC7 reporting.
Creators without a registered business	GrowiNot public Who carries that risk isn't stated.	viral.appYes The payout partner pays them as merchant of record and carries the liability, not your company.
Show 7 more rows in Paying creators · How creators claim · Payout methods and countries · 5 more Folded rows: How creators claim; Payout methods and countries; Pay structures; Caps and view windows; Test a deal before launch; Funding; Paying creators outside the platform.
04Finding creatorsGrowi reaches out; viral.app ranks matches for each job
Creator marketplace	GrowiYes Post a campaign and vetted creators apply; its page cites 4,200+ vetted creators and 1M+ who can apply. 6, 18 or 52 hires a month by plan.	viral.appYes Canvas UGC marketplace: post a job, creators apply with portfolio, accounts, languages and location. 1, 2 or 3 live jobs by plan.
AI outreach to new creators	GrowiYes Juno finds creators on TikTok and Instagram, messages them through TikTok Shop, Gmail or Outlook, and follows up, from Growth.	viral.appNo Not offered. Invite matched creators to apply, 10, 25 or 50 a day by plan.
How matches are ranked	GrowiYes Juno scores applicants on predicted brand fit; filters include niche, audience and past sales.	viral.appYes Each live job gets a ranked list of the creators who best fit it, refreshed nightly.
Show 4 more rows in Finding creators · What creators pay to be hired · Creator portal and app · 2 more Folded rows: What creators pay to be hired; Creator portal and app; Contracts and briefs; Clause on creators met through the platform.
05Ads, AI and team
Launch Spark Ads and partnership ads	GrowiYes On Scale: launch Meta and TikTok campaigns from creator posts, whitelist handles, collect Spark codes.	viral.appYes Create Ad from any tracked post: Spark Ads on TikTok, partnership ads on Instagram and Facebook, on your own ad accounts.
Pay creators on ad results	GrowiYes Ad-spend and revenue-share payouts, on Scale.	viral.appNo Not yet. Creators are paid on organic performance.
AI assistant	GrowiYes Juno on every plan; event-driven AI workflows with approval gates on Scale.	viral.appYes Copilot answers analytics questions and builds campaigns and briefs, with your approval.
Show 4 more rows in Ads, AI and team · AI review of posts · API and MCP · 2 more Folded rows: AI review of posts; API and MCP; Team seats; Trial and refunds.

Show all 39 rows

24 more rows in 5 groups, folded to keep the page short. Nothing is left out.

What each one costs for your program

Set your team, your creators, your video volume and what you pay creators each month. The calculator picks the cheapest plan on each side, fees included. It counts Growi's fee at the 0% its help center states, with top-ups from a US bank account; card top-ups add 3%. Growi publishes no video cap, so videos never push you up a Growi plan. viral.app's 3% is charged on your side, none of it comes out of creator pay, and every payout comes with its invoices. Creator pay itself is the same with either tool and not in the totals.

The creator count sets the plan, and creator pay sets the fee. From 11 to 25 creators both plans cost $299, so Growi is cheaper by our 3% fee. Below that, viral.app Pro at $99 stays cheaper until creator pay passes about $6,600 a month. Past 25 creators the plan gap takes over: viral.app stays cheaper up to $20,000 a month in creator pay with 26 to 50 creators, about $13,300 with 51 to 100, and $50,000 with 101 to 500.

The same view-based deal in both tools

Growi's campaign builder covers most of a view-based deal: pay per views, a retainer on top, minimum views, view-based bonus tiers and how many days a post is tracked. Two parts differ. viral.app caps performance pay in dollars per period, where Growi caps the views that are paid. And viral.app runs the whole deal on one of your creators' recent videos before launch, so you see the real amount they would have earned. Here is one common deal, term by term.

The deal's terms, and whether Growi and viral.app can run each one

Deal term	Growi	viral.app
01$200 monthly retainer	Yes	Yes
02$1 per 1,000 views	Yes	Yes
03$250 for each video past 500K views	Yes	Yes
04Performance pay capped at $2,000 a month	Partly	Yes
05Views count for 30 days after posting	Yes	Yes
06Test the deal on last month's videos first	Partly	Yes

Partly: Growi caps the views a post is paid for rather than dollars per month, and a campaign can start on a past date so tracking backfills from there, instead of simulating the deal on a creator's videos before launch.

What the creator is owed

Example month

Cap at $2,000−$60

Video 1 · 420,000 views

$420

Video 2 · 1,300,000 views

$1,300

Video 2 · past 500K bonus

$250

Video 3 · 90,000 views

$90

Performance pay

$2,060

Cap at $2,000

−$60

Monthly retainer

$200

Creator receives

$2,200

Your 3% payout fee

$66

Invoice and tax paperwork

handled

viral.app counts each video's views for 30 days after posting, applies the cap, and shows this breakdown before you approve the payout.

When a payout is approved, the creator gets one link and picks how to be paid. They don't need an account or a Stripe login, and none of your 3% fee comes out of their pay.

A campaign, start to finish, in real screens

These are the actual viral.app screens, not illustrations. Under each step is what the same step looks like in Growi.

1. Full size, opens in a new tab
   1

   Find creators

   Post a job on the Canvas UGC marketplace and get matches ranked by best fit to your job. Or add creators you already work with by URL.

   In Growi

   Post a campaign to its marketplace, or let Juno find creators and message them. Creators pay 10% at hire.

2. Full size, opens in a new tab
   2

   Write the deal

   Put the agreed terms in the campaign: retainer, per-video pay by platform, CPM tiers, bonuses and caps.

   In Growi

   Per view, per post, fixed or retainer, with tiers, view caps and commissions per store.

3. Full size, opens in a new tab
   3

   Track every post

   Every creator's account and post across TikTok, Reels, Shorts, Facebook and Snapchat lands in one table.

   In Growi

   Creators join by invite link, and posts are matched by hashtag, mention, keyword or the whole account.

4. Full size, opens in a new tab
   4

   Approve and pay

   Check each calculated payout, adjust it if needed, then pay up to 50 creators at once.

   In Growi

   Pay from a pre-funded balance, by ACH or by card at 3%; creators receive it in their Stripe account.

Where each one is better

What teams running creator programs say

Moving from Growi

You don't have to move everything at once. Some teams keep Growi for TikTok Shop affiliates and seeding, and run the creators they pay on views in viral.app. Before you move creators, read section 7 of Growi's terms: creators "sourced, discovered, introduced, invited, hired, or otherwise engaged through Growi", including through its marketplace, discovery tools and outreach, must be paid only through Growi while its terms apply. Creators you worked with before Growi are the clearest to move; for the rest, ask Growi in writing.

Questions about Growi

Other Growi alternatives