How much do UGC platforms cost?
UGC platforms charge in one of four ways: a price per video, a monthly subscription, a fee on each creator payment, or a custom contract. Published prices in 2026 run from free plans that take a fee per order to subscriptions of several hundred dollars a month. Creator pay is usually a separate cost on top.
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The four ways a UGC platform charges
Two platforms can quote very different numbers and cost you the same, because they are charging for different things. Sort the quote into one of these four before you compare it with anything.
- Per video
- You pay for each finished video, and the creator's pay is inside that price. Billo, Twirl and soona UGC sell this way.
- Subscription
- You pay a monthly or quarterly fee for access to the tool, and pay creators separately. Insense, Influee and SideShift sell this way.
- A fee per creator payment
- The platform adds a percentage to what you pay each creator. Collabstr and JoinBrands do this on free plans, and several subscriptions add a fee as well.
- Custom contract
- No public price. You book a demo and receive a quote based on volume. Cohley sells this way.
What nine UGC platforms publish
Each cell is the vendor's own published wording, summarized, with the page it was read on. Where a vendor publishes no price list, the cell says that and nothing more.
| Option | Pricing, as published |
|---|---|
| Scouty | Subscription plans with a free trial. Creator pay is separate and goes directly to the creator, with no commission. Creator management (the posting schedule and reminders) is its own subscription, bought per campaign. |
| Billo | No public price list: the pricing address redirects to the business login. A Billo blog post says videos start at $99 per video, and the managed service page says it starts from $2,000 a month.Source: billo.app/pricing, Billo blog: how Billo pricing works, billo.app/managed-service |
| Insense | Trial plan: $650 for one month, up to 1 campaign and 10 creators. Brand plan: from $500 a month billed quarterly, or from $400 a month billed yearly. Agency plan: from $800 a month billed quarterly, or from $640 a month billed yearly. A marketplace fee that varies by plan is added to each creator payment, and creator pay is separate.Source: insense.pro/pricing |
| Trend (soona UGC) | trend.io still lists credit packages from $550 to $3,872, with credits that expire 12 months after purchase. soona UGC lists videos from $89 to $259 per video across three creator levels, with no credit packages. Which of the two a new buyer is offered is not clear from the two sites.Source: trend.io/pricing, soona.co/ugc |
| Influee | Starter: $229 a month for up to 10 creator collaborations a month. Basic: $529 a month for up to 25. Pro: $999 a month for up to 50. Enterprise is quoted by sales. A 10% marketplace fee applies to each creator's fee, and there is no free trial. Read as shown to a United States visitor: Influee runs country sites and prices may differ by market.Source: influee.co/pricing, Influee terms |
| Collabstr | Free: $0 a month with a 10% hiring fee. Pro: $299 a month, or $249 a month billed annually. Premium: $399 a month, or $333 a month billed annually, with a 5% hiring fee. Enterprise: starting at $1,000 a month on an annual contract. Creators pay a separate 15% fee on their payout.Source: collabstr.com/pricing |
| SideShift | Monthly: Starter $299, Growth $499, Scale $999, with 14 days free and then billed monthly. Annual: $210, $349 and $699 a month, billed yearly. The managed option lists a starting campaign budget of $20,000 a month. Starter covers 15 creators live.Source: sideshift.app/plans/brands |
| JoinBrands | Pay as you go: free, with a 15% platform fee. Start-up: $99 a month with a 12% fee. Pro: $299 a month with a 10% fee. Max: $499 a month with an 8% fee. Annual billing is advertised at 10% off. Listed content prices start from $10 for a UGC image and from $25 for a UGC video, with the platform fee on top.Source: joinbrands.com/pricing |
| Twirl | Pay as you go video credits, with no subscription and no additional platform fees. With United States dollars selected on the read date, the pricing calculator showed $475 per video, falling to $440 at 10 videos and $325 at 60, with a minimum first purchase of 4 credits. Prices for the monthly plans were not shown on the page as it rendered.Source: usetwirl.com/pricing |
| Cohley | No public prices. The plans page says all plans have custom pricing based on the amount of content you generate, and offers an optional 3 month paid pilot. Creator compensation is set by the brand in each brief and is separate.Source: cohley.com/plans, cohley.com |
Vendor facts as published on each vendor's own site on . A linked name opens the full comparison with Scouty. Vendors change prices often. Open the source before you rely on a figure.
What the listed price leaves out
The published price is rarely the whole cost of a campaign. Four lines sit outside it often enough that you should ask about each one.
- Creator pay, on every subscription and marketplace model. It is usually the largest line.
- The product you send each creator, and the shipping.
- Extras priced per order, such as running a creator's post as an ad from their handle, extra formats or extra revisions.
- Your own team's hours. A marketplace that costs little per month can cost a lot in screening and follow-up.
How to compare two quotes fairly
- Fix the output. Write down what you need for one month: how many videos, or how many creators posting how often.
- Add creator pay. Add what the creators will be paid to any price that does not already include it.
- Add the fee. Apply any percentage fee to the creator pay, not to the subscription.
- Add the hours. Estimate who screens, briefs and chases, and for how long each week.
- Check the term. Note the shortest period you can commit to, and what happens to prepaid credits if you stop.
Where Scouty's price sits
Scouty belongs to the subscription group: plans with a free trial to begin. Two things sit outside the plan. What creators earn is the rate in your brief, sent by you straight to them. And keeping creators on a posting schedule with reminders is a second subscription, taken for each campaign that needs it.
The difference from most subscriptions is the missing percentage. No fee is added to creator pay, because the payment never passes through Scouty.
Related questions
Short answers, in plain words. Each one stands on its own.
What is the cheapest UGC platform?
By entry price, the marketplaces with a free plan: Collabstr and JoinBrands both let a brand hire without a subscription and charge a fee on each order. Cheapest to start is not always cheapest in total, because creator pay, fees and your own screening time are added on top.
Is creator pay included in a UGC platform's price?
Only on per video models, where the price of the video covers the creator. On subscription and marketplace models creator pay is separate, and some platforms add a percentage fee to it. Always ask whether a quoted price includes what the creator earns.
Which UGC platforms do not publish prices?
Of the nine we read, two. Billo does not publish a price list: its pricing address leads to the business login, though its blog gives a starting price per video. Cohley says all its plans have custom pricing based on the amount of content, quoted after a demo.
Do UGC platforms charge creators as well as brands?
Some do. Collabstr publishes a separate fee that creators pay on their payout, in addition to the brand's fee. Scouty charges creators nothing and takes no commission. For most other vendors, what a creator is charged is not described on the brand-facing pages we read.
