Shortimize or viral.app? Track your creators, or also find and pay them.

Mike SchneiderCo-Founder · September 25, 2026 · 10 min read

The short version: pick viral.app when you run a creator program, not just a watchlist. You find creators on the Canvas UGC marketplace, pay them on deals with base pay, CPM tiers, bonuses and caps that you test on real videos first, and pay out with invoices and a merchant of record. Views are counted the way creators earned them: Instagram-only on reels shared to Facebook, paid ad views left out, a cross-posted video paid once. Pick Shortimize when one to three people mostly watch accounts and want Slack or Discord alerts, X and Sora tracking, or the lowest payout fee.

We make viral.app, so read this with that in mind. Every Shortimize fact below comes from Shortimize's own site, help center, changelog and docs, checked on September 25, 2026, with links at the end. Where Shortimize doesn't say something publicly, we write "Not public" instead of guessing.

Who Shortimize is great for

Shortimize is a good tracker, and for some teams it's the right tool. It fits best when:

One to three people watching accounts and paying a simple CPM will also pay less there, and Contra's 2% plus $5 a batch is below our 3%. If that's your setup, Shortimize is a sound choice. Other trackers to compare are UGC Trackr, built around a Tech UGC agency's playbook, and GetViraly, a lighter campaign tracker still in beta. If payouts are all you need, Grade tracks posts for free and charges 5% on each payout. The rest of this page is about what changes when it isn't.

When a watchlist becomes a creator program

Teams that move from Shortimize to viral.app usually hit one of these moments.

1. You need new creators

   Shortimize tracks creators you already have. viral.app's Canvas UGC marketplace brings applicants, and AI Matches ranks the creators who best fit each job.

2. The deals get layered

   Base pay per platform, CPM tiers, milestone bonuses, a monthly cap and a view window, run on a creator's real videos before launch. Shortimize covers weekly base pay, milestone bonuses and CPM.

3. Finance asks about compliance

   Our payout partner is merchant of record: an invoice in each creator's name, KYC, DAC7, and the liability for creators without a registered business. None of our fee comes out of creator pay.

4. You start boosting creator videos

   Launch Spark Ads and Meta partnership ads from any tracked TikTok, Instagram or Facebook post, and paid views stay out of creator pay. Shortimize has no ad integrations.

Counting the views creators actually earned

Paying on views only works if the views are right. Three things viral.app counts differently, none of which Shortimize's pages describe:

Plans matched up

Each Shortimize plan next to the viral.app plan with the same tracking limits. Prices are per month on monthly billing; both tools take about 20% off for yearly billing.

Above these, Shortimize Enterprise is custom, with unlimited videos and seats. Faster refresh is an add-on on Shortimize: every 4 hours for $250 a month or every hour for $500. viral.app Scale is $499 a month with 20,000 videos, 20 seats, 500 active creators and custom sync times, and Enterprise is custom too.

Which one should you pick?

Every difference, row by row

Thirty-eight rows in six groups. "Yes" means the product does it, "Partly" means it covers part of the job, and "Not public" means Shortimize's pages don't say.

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

6 groups · 38 rows

Shortimize

viral.app

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

Every difference between Shortimize and viral.app, by group

What you need	Shortimize	viral.app
01TrackingClose, with different extras
Track any public account from a URL	ShortimizeYes Unlimited accounts on every plan, plus Chrome and Firefox extensions.	viral.appYes Unlimited accounts on every plan. No creator login needed.
Instagram views on reels shared to Facebook	ShortimizeNot public Not described on its public pages.	viral.appYes Instagram-only counts, so Facebook views don't inflate the number.
Alerts when a video takes off	ShortimizeYes Slack and Discord alerts at a view count you set.	viral.appNo Not built in yet. Copilot, the API and MCP can report on demand.
Show 6 more rows in Tracking · Platforms · How many videos per account · 4 more Folded rows: Platforms; How many videos per account; Refresh speed; Competitor tracking; Views by country; Viral video library.
02Finding creatorsviral.app only
Find new creators	ShortimizeNo You bring your own creators.	viral.appYes Canvas UGC marketplace: post a job, creators apply with portfolio, accounts, languages and location.
Matches ranked for each job	ShortimizeNo No creator search.	viral.appYes Each live job gets a ranked list of the creators who best fit it, refreshed nightly.
Invite creators who fit	ShortimizeNo No creator search.	viral.appYes 10, 25 or 50 invites a day by plan.
Show 2 more rows in Finding creators · Onboard many creators at once · Give creators a brief Folded rows: Onboard many creators at once; Give creators a brief.
03Paying creatorsBoth pay; viral.app writes more of the deal
Pay types	ShortimizeYes Weekly base pay (per week, per video or custom), milestone bonuses and CPM.	viral.appYes Base pay per video by platform, fixed salary, CPM and milestone bonuses.
Fee on creator payments	Shortimize Contra takes 2% plus $5 per payout batch. You absorb it or deduct it from creator pay.	viral.app 3% on each payout, paid by you. None of it comes out of creator pay.
CPM tiers that rise with views	ShortimizeNot public A CPM rate per creator; tiers aren't described.	viral.appYes Tiers per video or across the period.
Show 7 more rows in Paying creators · Caps and view windows · Test a deal before launch · 5 more Folded rows: Caps and view windows; Test a deal before launch; A cross-posted video paid once; Review and approve payouts; Invoices, tax and KYC; Creators without a registered business; Currencies and payout methods.
04Creator videos as adsviral.app only
Launch Spark Ads and partnership ads	ShortimizeNo No ad integrations.	viral.appYes Create Ad turns any tracked TikTok post into a Spark Ad, and any Instagram or Facebook post into a partnership ad.
Paid views kept out of creator pay	ShortimizeNo No ad integrations.	viral.appYes With TikTok or Meta connected, view-based pay counts organic views only.
Every ad on creator content in one view	ShortimizeNo No ad integrations.	viral.appYes Spend, CPM, results and cost per result for every ad on a tracked post.
05Data and integrationsDifferent strengths
App revenue next to views	ShortimizeYes RevenueCat and Superwall.	viral.appYes RevenueCat revenue, trials and subscribers per project, plus App Store data.
Send video data to product analytics	ShortimizeYes Mixpanel, Amplitude and PostHog.	viral.appNo Not offered. Pull it through the API instead.
API and MCP	ShortimizePartly A free basic API returns masked metrics. The full API with webhooks and MCP is $150 a month.	viral.appYes API and MCP server included on Ultra and Scale.
Show 3 more rows in Data and integrations · AI assistant in the app · Keep data after pausing tracking · CSV exports Folded rows: AI assistant in the app; Keep data after pausing tracking; CSV exports.
06Team and trust
Team seats	Shortimize 1 on Launch, 3 on Scale, then $20 each.	viral.app 1 on Pro, 10 on Ultra, 20 on Scale, then $15 each.
Roles and permissions	ShortimizeYes From admin to read-only.	viral.appYes Scoped roles, including view-only.
Compliance claims	ShortimizeYes GDPR, SSO, 99.9% uptime and an SLA listed.	viral.appYes GDPR; built in Germany, databases on Hetzner servers in Germany and Finland.
Show 2 more rows in Team and trust · Your data and other customers · Free trial Folded rows: Your data and other customers; Free trial.

Show all 38 rows

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

What each one costs at your size

Set your team, your video volume, your creators and what you pay them each month. The calculator picks the cheapest plan that fits on each side, fees included. It counts Contra's 2% on Shortimize payouts; its $5 per batch comes on top. 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.

Three things move the result. With three people or fewer, Shortimize is cheaper, and its 2% Contra fee is lower than our 3% (though Contra's can be deducted from creator pay, ours never is). Every Shortimize seat past three costs $20, so from six people up viral.app Ultra is cheaper on seats. And if you need the API, Shortimize adds $150 a month, while Ultra includes it.

Both pay creators. The difference is which deals they can write.

Shortimize pays creators on every plan through Contra, with weekly base pay, milestone bonuses and CPM. viral.app adds CPM tiers, caps and view windows, and runs the whole deal on a creator's real videos before launch. Here is one common deal, term by term, and what the creator is owed in an example month.

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

Deal term	Shortimize	viral.app
01$200 monthly retainer	Partly	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	Not public	Yes
06Test the deal on last month's videos first	Partly	Yes

Partly: Shortimize's base pay is weekly, per video or custom, and a payment group can be backfilled from a past start date. Its CPM caps are weekly or per video, not monthly. Not public: view windows aren't described on its pages.

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.

This is what the CPM part of that deal looks like in viral.app's campaign builder. Each rule can apply to all platforms or only some, and tiers raise the rate as views grow.

When a payout is approved, the creator gets one link and picks how to be paid. They don't need a viral.app account.

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 Shortimize.

1. Full size, opens in a new tab
   1

   Find creators

   Post a job on the Canvas UGC marketplace and invite the creators who fit it best.

   In Shortimize

   Bring your own creators; there is no marketplace.

2. Full size, opens in a new tab
   2

   Write the deal

   Put the agreed terms in the campaign: retainer, per-video pay, CPM tiers, bonuses and caps. Test them on recent videos.

   In Shortimize

   Weekly base pay, milestone bonuses and a CPM rate per creator.

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 Shortimize

   Very similar: accounts tracked by URL and sorted into collections, with Slack alerts.

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 Shortimize

   Approve and pay through Contra, with one invoice per batch and a 2% + $5 fee.

What teams running creator programs say

Moving from Shortimize without losing your history

The worry we hear most is history. Your account list moves in minutes, and every video comes in with its current views, but day-by-day growth starts from the day you add it. So keep Shortimize for one payout cycle while viral.app builds its own history, then switch.

Questions about Shortimize

Other Shortimize alternatives