Social Tip or viral.app? Reward your customers' posts, or pay creators on the views they get.

Mike SchneiderCo-Founder · October 2, 2026 · 12 min read

The short version: pick Social Tip if you want your own customers to post about what they bought, with receipt checks, small rewards its algorithm sets and no subscription. Pick viral.app if you want creators, your own or ones who apply to your jobs, posting every week on five platforms and paid on views by rules you set, for 3% of creator pay instead of 35%.

We make viral.app, so read this with that in mind. Every Social Tip fact below comes from Social Tip's own site, help center, brand and member terms, privacy policy and case studies, checked on October 2, 2026, with links at the end. App store and Trustpilot ratings are third-party and labelled as such. Where Social Tip doesn't say something, we write "Not public". Where its own pages disagree, we show both.

Social Tip Ltd is a UK company with its registered office in Edinburgh. Its member terms are written for the UK, and its US and Australian pages describe betas with hand-picked brands. Are you a creator? This page is for brands. For paid UGC work in any country, join the Canvas UGC marketplace; the questions at the end cover how Social Tip pays its members.

Rewarded customer posts, or creators paid on views

Social Tip is built around one loop: a shopper buys from you, posts about it on Instagram or TikTok with "Ad", @socialtiphq and your handle, adds the post in the Social Tip app, and about 48 hours later gets a cash reward its algorithm sets. You fund the rewards, cap them and set post guidelines, and Social Tip pays its members. viral.app starts from the other end: creators you bring or find on the marketplace post on the cadence in your deal, every post is tracked, and pay follows the views by rules you write.

Who Social Tip is great for

Social Tip's homepage counts 426 brands, 153,700+ members, 206,000+ posts and 204 million views so far, from brands such as DASH Water, PerfectTed, HelloFresh, Starbucks and Myprotein. It fits best when:

It also rewards Instagram Stories and photo posts, includes a licence to reuse every synced post in your own channels and ads, lets you ask members for the raw file, and pays every reward for you. If your customers already post about you without a reward, Archive finds and measures those posts instead. partnrUP, formerly Bounty, rewards customers who post through a Shopify app, and Methods runs per-view campaigns that creators find in its app. The rest of this page is about creators you pay on views.

What Social Tip costs

Social Tip has no subscription plans. You top up a reward pot, its algorithm rewards each qualifying post out of it, and Social Tip adds its platform fee. Here is the full list, next to ours.

Social Tip's own pages don't agree on the fee. Its brand terms (sections 3.1 and 4.4) and its pricing page for local businesses say 35%. Its help center says 35% of each reward, then prices a £1 reward at £1.30. And all five of its published case studies show total spend at 1.3 times the rewards paid:

VAT comes on top of the fee, so ask which rate applies before you top up. Social Tip's homepage puts the cost at about £10,000 per million verified views in the UK and $20,000 in the US; its Australian page quotes a £6.12 CPM. Gold members, whom it hand-picks for strong content, get double reward caps, and that extra comes out of your budget.

Which one should you pick?

Every difference, row by row

Thirty-one rows in five groups, starting with who posts and how they're paid. "Yes" means the product does it, "Partly" means it covers part of the job, and "Not public" means we couldn't find it on Social Tip's public pages.

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

5 groups · 31 rows

Social Tip

viral.app

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

Every difference between Social Tip and viral.app, by group

What you need	Social Tip	viral.app
01Who posts and how they're paidWhere the two differ most
Who posts	Social Tip Its members: shoppers who bought from you, found you in its app and linked Instagram or TikTok. 153,700+ by its homepage counter, over 125,000 by its members page.	viral.app Creators you bring, tracked from a URL, plus creators who apply to your jobs on the Canvas UGC marketplace.
Pay that grows with views	Social TipPartly Reach and engagement feed each reward, up to your cap. Posts in a lower quality tier get £1 or £2 whatever their views.	viral.appYes CPM tiers and milestone bonuses on each post's views, counted for the number of days you set.
Proof of purchase	Social TipYes Optional per brand, per its help center, though its marketing pages say every post comes from a verified buyer. Receipts are checked by software and its moderation team.	viral.appNo Not offered.
Show 5 more rows in Who posts and how they're paid · Fee on creator pay · Who sets each payment · 3 more Folded rows: Fee on creator pay; Who sets each payment; Creators beyond your customers; Test a deal before launch; Posting limits.
02Paying the people who postSocial Tip pays for you; viral.app pays through a merchant of record
Who pays them	Social Tip Social Tip, from your prepaid pot, once a reward is set, typically 48 hours after the post is added. Rewards are at its discretion (member terms 4.6).	viral.app Our payout partner, as merchant of record, in its own name, once you approve each payout.
How they get the money	Social TipYes From the app wallet to a bank account, no withdrawal fee, minimum over £5, processed in 24 to 72 hours. Its terms also name PayPal.	viral.appYes One claim link, no account needed: bank transfer, PayPal, Venmo, USDC or EURC. Bank transfers take 1 to 5 business days.
Countries	Social TipPartly The UK, with US and Australian betas for hand-picked brands. Its member terms make no promise the app works outside the UK.	viral.appYes Creators paid in 180+ countries, from campaigns in EUR, GBP, CHF or USD.
Show 4 more rows in Paying the people who post · Invoices and tax · You approve each payment · 2 more Folded rows: Invoices and tax; You approve each payment; Who the poster contracts with; Spending past your budget.
03Content, rights and rulesSocial Tip's strongest area
Formats that earn	Social TipYes Instagram feed posts (Reels, photos, carousels) and Stories, and TikTok videos from public accounts. No TikTok Stories.	viral.appPartly Instagram Reels, TikTok videos and photo carousels, YouTube Shorts, Facebook Reels and Snapchat Spotlight. No Stories or Instagram feed photos.
Rights to the content	Social Tip A worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to every synced post for marketing, ads included, at no extra cost. The member keeps copyright (brand terms 4.2).	viral.app Only what you agree with the creator. viral.app claims no rights to campaign videos.
Raw files	Social TipYes You can ask for the original file, without captions, music, filters or watermarks.	viral.appPartly Download any tracked video, as posted, for 3 credits.
Show 2 more rows in Content, rights and rules · Briefs and post rules · Posts checked before pay Folded rows: Briefs and post rules; Posts checked before pay.
04Tracking and reportingviral.app tracks more; Social Tip adds receipts
Platforms	Social TipPartly Instagram and TikTok on its site and help center. Its member terms and privacy policy also cover connecting a YouTube channel, Shorts included.	viral.appYes TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat.
Which posts are tracked	Social TipPartly The posts members add in its app, each tagging @socialtiphq and your brand.	viral.appYes Any public account by URL, competitors included; each account's videos count toward 1,000, 5,000 or 20,000 tracked videos by plan.
Sales and new customers	Social TipYes Receipt-verified sales and new customers, per its homepage and case studies, plus a monthly shopper insights report.	viral.appPartly App revenue, trials and subscribers from RevenueCat per project, next to views. No sales per creator.
Show 3 more rows in Tracking and reporting · Dashboard · Competitor tracking · How often numbers update Folded rows: Dashboard; Competitor tracking; How often numbers update.
05Plans, team and data
Pricing	Social Tip Pay as you go: rewards from £500 or $500, plus the 35% fee. No subscription.	viral.app Pro $99, Ultra $299, Scale $499 a month, or $79, $239 and $399 billed yearly.
Trial, refunds and leaving	Social Tip No free trial described. Payments aren't refunded except under its 100‑day money-back guarantee. 7 days' notice to leave; unspent credit follows the same refund rules (brand terms 17).	viral.app 7‑day free trial on Pro and Ultra. Cancel any time, effective at the end of the billing period; fees already paid aren't refunded.
Team seats	Social Tip Invite teammates to the brand portal with a role. Seat numbers and roles aren't published.	viral.app 1 on Pro, 10 on Ultra, 20 on Scale, then $15 each. Scoped roles, including view-only.
Show 2 more rows in Plans, team and data · API · Where data is hosted Folded rows: API; Where data is hosted.

Show all 31 rows

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

What each one costs for your program

Set your creators, your team and what you pay creators each month. On the Social Tip side, creator pay is the rewards your customers earn. The calculator counts Social Tip's fee at 35%, the rate in its terms and on its pricing page; at the 30% its help center example and case studies imply, it is $50 less per $1,000 of rewards. Social Tip doesn't publish seat limits, so seats show as an open item, and it publishes no limit on how many customers can post, so the creator slider only moves viral.app's 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 viral.app's plan, and creator pay sets both fees. With up to 10 creators, viral.app Pro plus 3% costs less than Social Tip's 35% once creator pay passes about $310 a month. With 11 to 50 creators that point is about $935, and with 51 to 500, about $1,560. On yearly billing they drop to about $250, $750 and $1,250. Below them, Social Tip costs less.

Its one-month case studies run 179 to 430 posts. If those come from hundreds of different customers, viral.app needs Scale, and Social Tip stays cheaper until rewards pass about $1,560 a month. Keep in mind what the 35% buys: the member app, receipt checks, moderation and paying every reward. On viral.app, finding the people who post is your job or the marketplace's.

From customer posts to a paid creator program

Say a customer who posts well about your product should keep going, two videos a week, with a base per video and pay that grows with views. Term by term:

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

Deal term	Social Tip	viral.app
01$25 for each posted video	Partly	Yes
02$1 per 1,000 views	Partly	Yes
03$100 for each video past 100K views	Not public	Yes
04Views count for 30 days after posting	No	Yes
05Proof they bought the product	Yes	No
06Usage rights to the video for your ads	Yes	No

Partly: on Social Tip each post earns a reward its algorithm sets from content type, quality, reach and engagement, within your cap; you don't fix a fee per video or a rate per 1,000 views. Not public: bonuses you set yourself aren't described. No: each reward is settled about 48 hours after the post is added. The last two rows are the reverse: viral.app doesn't check receipts or grant usage rights.

What the creator is owed

Example month

8 videos · base pay

$200

240,000 views in 30‑day windows

$240

1 video past 100K views

$100

Creator receives

$540

Your 3% payout fee

$16.20

Social Tip's 35% on the same $540

$189

Invoice and tax paperwork

handled

viral.app counts each video's views for 30 days after posting and shows this breakdown before you approve the payout. The Social Tip line is its fee on the same amount, if its algorithm paid that much; by default it caps each reward at £30.

When a payout is approved, the creator gets one link and picks how to be paid. They don't need an account, and none of your 3% fee comes out of their pay. Creator payouts on viral.app run through a merchant of record, with an invoice for every payout.

A campaign, start to finish, in real screens

These are viral.app's real screens. Under each step is what the same step looks like on Social Tip.

1. Full size, opens in a new tab
   1

   Find creators

   Post a job on the Canvas UGC marketplace and invite the creators AI Matches ranks as the best fit. Or add creators you already work with by URL.

   In Social Tip

   Tell your customers with parcel inserts, emails and posts from its brand toolkit; members who bought from you find you in the app.

2. Full size, opens in a new tab
   2

   Write the deal

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

   In Social Tip

   Set reward caps, post limits, post guidelines and whether a receipt is required; its algorithm sets each reward.

3. Full size, opens in a new tab
   3

   Track their posts

   Each creator's accounts and latest posts across TikTok, Reels, Shorts, Facebook and Snapchat land in one dashboard.

   In Social Tip

   Members add each Instagram or TikTok post in the app; your dashboard shows posts, views, spend, EMV and ROI.

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 Social Tip

   Its moderation checks posts and receipts, and rewards leave your prepaid pot about 48 hours after a post is added.

Where each one is better

What teams running creator programs say

Running both, or moving over

You don't have to pick one for everything. Social Tip is built to get many customers posting about what they bought; viral.app to run creators beyond your customer base who post every week and get paid on views. A brand can keep Social Tip for customer posts and receipts and run its regular creators in viral.app, where any public account is tracked from its URL, and UGC analytics cover all five platforms.

Two things to check before you move anyone. Social Tip's brand terms count its app usernames and post metrics as confidential information, to be used only for your contract with it (sections 1.1 and 13.1), so ask Social Tip before you approach members you met through it. And leaving takes 7 days' written notice, with unspent credit handled under its refund rules (17.1 and 17.3).

Questions about Social Tip

Other Social Tip alternatives