SideShift or viral.app? It comes down to who owns your creators.

SideShift, as its own independent contractor, for your benefit (terms B3.1).

You, directly. viral.app is not a party; our payout partner handles each payout.

By default you and SideShift get a perpetual, transferable, sublicensable license (B10.2).

Only what you agree with the creator. viral.app claims no rights to campaign videos.

They need a SideShift account to take part, even when you invite them (B12.1), and are exempt from the 24‑month clause only if documented and disclosed promptly (B14.3).

No viral.app account needed. Never under the clause and never shown to other brands, unless they join the marketplace themselves.

24 months without SideShift, at least $1,000 in damages (B14).

The same kind of rule: 24 months, at least EUR 1,000.

14‑day free trial on monthly plans, but the wallet that pays creators can't be funded until you have paid for a plan. Yearly plans are paid upfront with no trial. No refunds; cancelling takes effect at the end of the billing period.

7‑day free trial on Pro and Ultra.

Not stated on the pages we checked.

Built in Germany, under GDPR; databases on Hetzner in Germany and Finland, the web app on Vercel.

1M+ vetted creators by SideShift's count, with applications usually inside 24 hours.

Canvas UGC marketplace: post a job, creators apply with portfolio, accounts, languages and location. Newer than SideShift's.

A Recommended sort. Filters include total views, earnings and rating.

Each live job gets a ranked list of the creators who best fit it, refreshed nightly.

No language filter in the marketplace. Its influencer database page lists one.

Each job sets languages, and matches follow them.

Filter by niche, age, gender, school, country, past SideShift earnings, total views, rating and course completion.

Ranked matches for each live job. No open database search.

200, 1,000 or unlimited by plan. Extra packs from $49.99 per 100.

10, 25 or 50 invites a day by plan.

0, 1 or 3 by plan. A boost tops the creator feed for 48 hours.

Not offered.

Briefs with an AI writer, chat and group channels, contracts, usage rights, and interviews synced to Google Calendar or Outlook.

Briefs attached to each campaign, drafted with Copilot if you want. Contracts and usage rights are not built in.

Its marketplace also lists UGC agencies, campaign managers and clipping teams.

Not offered.

Optional per campaign: approve, or reject and ask for changes, then download the file.

Not built in. Posts are tracked once they're live.

SideShift suggests a paid two-week trial campaign instead.

An optional application challenge: applicants submit a sample video.

Not stated.

10 applications a day per creator, so applications are chosen, not sprayed.

A verified-country filter and campaign setting.

Verified before a creator is matched.

Tracked "ghost" accounts and videos can be added to a campaign without the creator joining SideShift, and an analytics-only campaign tracks posts without paying anyone.

Unlimited public accounts from a URL, no creator login needed.

Hashtag or keyword rules, verified account connections, Instagram trial reels, and a choice for cross-posted copies.

An eligibility window per campaign, and whether only posts from the current period count.

Every 8 hours, every 4 on Scale, plus a set number of on-demand refreshes.

Every 24 or 12 hours by plan, custom times on Scale, up to every hour on Enterprise, and any account or video on demand for 3 credits per video.

TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat in campaigns. X and LinkedIn also appear as platform options in the app.

TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat.

Not described in its app or docs.

Instagram-only counts, so Facebook views don't inflate the number or the pay.

600 or 2,000 a month on Starter and Growth, unlimited on Scale.

1,000, 5,000 or 20,000 tracked at once, by plan.

App Store, Stripe, RevenueCat and waitlist connections.

RevenueCat revenue, trials and subscribers per project, plus App Store data.

Daily CSVs, creator spend reports, a shareable dashboard, weekly email digests, Slack and webhooks.

CSV exports, API and MCP access on Ultra and Scale.

Audience views by country, plus audience data creators share.

Views by country on a world map, per account and video.

We didn't find it in the app or on public pages.

Mark any tracked account as a competitor and see its top videos next to your own.

Not in the app we saw. Its Video Library holds courses, and had none yet.

New viral UGC found several times a day, on every plan.

Fixed monthly, per post, CPM or a hybrid, with custom terms per creator.

Base pay per video by platform, fixed salary, CPM tiers and milestone bonuses.

Charged at wallet top-up: 3%, 2% or 1% by bank and 5%, 4% or 3% by card on Starter, Growth and Scale. The homepage FAQ says 3%; the payments page says there are no processing fees.

3% on each payout, paid by you. None of it comes out of creator pay.

Payouts to 190+ countries, per its help center. Its creator FAQ says the marketplace takes creators in the US, Canada, UK and Australia.

180+ countries.

CPM brackets, minimum views, a view window (30 days by default), max views and a max CPM payout per cycle.

Set per campaign: tier ranges, payout caps and how many days views count.

The builder shows what a post earns at example view counts.

Simulate the payout for one of your creators on their recent videos.

Weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly, custom, or after 30 posts. Its help center says creators are usually paid once the full contract is done.

A payout cycle and window per campaign, locked once creators are assigned.

Yes. Content counts as approved after 5 days without a reply (terms B9).

A due queue: adjust amounts, approve, pay up to 50 at once.

Groups copies into cross-post clusters and pays per platform, on combined views, or on the best copy only.

Visual matching finds the copies automatically and groups them as one creative: base pay once, performance on the best copy.

Card or PayPal (5% on Starter), bank transfer or wire (3%) and crypto (3.5%); card and bank fall to 4% and 2% on Growth and 3% and 1% on Scale. Only accounts that have paid for a plan can top up, the first top-up is at least $500, and withdrawing unused balance costs 1%.

Free bank transfer by SEPA, UK Faster Payments, US ACH, wire or SWIFT, with no conversion fee. Cards aren't accepted.

Contracts, invoices and 1099s for US creators; the 1099‑Ks come from its payment processor (Whop for 2026 earnings).

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.

Who carries that risk isn't stated.

The payout partner pays them as merchant of record and carries the liability, not your company.

Analytics-only campaigns track creators you pay elsewhere. Work sourced on SideShift is paid through SideShift (B14.1).

Creators you bring: record payments you make yourself, with no fee. Marketplace hires are paid through our payout partner.

Bank transfer (standard or next-day) and crypto. PayPal, Venmo and Cash App aren't live yet.

Bank transfer, PayPal, Venmo, USDC or EURC.

Paid into a SideShift wallet, then withdrawn, most the same day. Quick Pay sends claim links and bulk CSV payouts on paid plans.

One claim link, no account needed. USDC arrives in minutes, PayPal and Venmo within the hour, bank transfers in 1 to 5 business days.

On your own Meta or TikTok ad account, with creator ad authorization.

Create Ad from any tracked post: Spark Ads on TikTok, partnership ads on Instagram and Facebook, on your own ad accounts.

Since Sep 14, a Spark Ad runs from the creator's account and its paid views stay out of organic counts, per its founders.

With TikTok or Meta connected, view-based pay counts organic views only.

Commission Ads, launched Sep 23: partnership ads that pay the creator a percentage.

Not yet. Creators are paid on organic performance.

Conversions, app installs or reach.

Video views, traffic, app installs or conversions.

An Ads page with spend, cost per result and paid views attributed.

Analytics › Ads: spend, CPM, results and cost per result for every ad on a tracked post, with a daily chart per ad.

For example, pause a campaign when ROAS drops below a target.

Pause, resume and reschedule by hand.

Usage rights for organic and paid ads in every campaign contract; videos stay live for 3 months (terms B10, C6).

Not built in. You agree usage rights with the creator; ad permissions go through TikTok and Meta.

3 on Starter, 5 on Growth, unlimited on Scale. No per-seat fees.

1 on Pro, 10 on Ultra, 20 on Scale, then $15 each.

Platform API and an MCP server with 284 tools.

API and MCP server, included on Ultra and Scale.

Sidekick, also inside the campaign builder, with connectors to Slack, ad accounts, Notion and Google.

Copilot answers analytics questions and builds campaigns and briefs, with your approval.

A Scraper API for 7 platforms from $1.50 per 1,000 credits.

Live analytics endpoints for the 5 tracked platforms, billed in credits.