7 GRIN alternatives to power your influencer marketing in 2024

Shopping for the best GRIN alternatives? You’ve come to the right place.

GRIN helps influencer marketers automate workflows and save a ton of time. But it’s not right for everyone. Big-budget DTC brands with paid influencer campaigns are GRIN’s happiest users. If that’s not you, there are many great options and the challenge is finding the right one for you. We’re here to help.

So let’s compare GRIN to other popular tools and see if we can help find the best fit for you.

Meet the Alternatives

MightyScout: Great value for the range of features. Specializes in comprehensive tracking and accurate analytics for Instagram and TikTok.

Aspire: Provides a full-featured platform with a creator marketplace of 1M across the major social platforms.

Influencity: Offers a global all-in-one solution for influencer marketing campaigns.

CreatorIQ: Offers AI-driven influencer marketing features, with a focus on discovery and campaign management.

Traackr: Known for its global database of influencers and building authentic relationships at scale.

Upfluence: Loved for its searchable database, but also offers an all-in-one platform.

HypeAuditor: Provides a range of features to find and analyze influencers, invite and contract with them, manage campaigns, track some activity, and report on performance.

GRIN vs. alternatives: Overview

GRIN Overview

What is GRIN?

GRIN is an influencer marketing platform that aims to help brands manage all aspects of their influencer campaigns. No one feature is particularly strong. But for e-commerce brands that work with a large number of paid influencers, GRIN is an effective all-in-one tool.

With GRIN, brands can get curated lists of influencers, email outreach features, influencer relationship management tools, tracking of authenticated creators, creators payments, and reports. GRIN integrates with multiple e-commerce platforms.

Who is GRIN best for?

GRIN is best for large-budget DTC brands who want an all-in-one solution for paid collaborations, and who need a Shopify integration.

GRIN pros

Scalability: GRIN helps brands scale their influencer marketing efforts. If manual processes are the limitation to growing your influencer marketing program, a tool like this helps you work with more influencers without hiring more staff.

Comprehensive features: GRIN offers features for nearly all phases of influencer management from discovery to final reporting.

Excellent customer support: GRIN users gush about their customer support.

Influencer payments: Organizing and making influencer payments through GRIN is a helpful feature that allows GRIN users to keep all payments in one place.

Integration with Shopify: Many customers mention the seamless integration with Shopify through GRIN as a strength.

Outreach and communication with Influencers: GRIN users appreciate the ability to set up communication sequences with influencers including integrated Gmail inboxes, and the organization provided through the influencer relationship management features.

GRIN cons

Discovery features concerns: Some customers are not impressed with GRIN’s new discovery features. However, influencer contacts can be imported. But note, if you import new influencers they must be authenticated in order to be tracked by GRIN.

Long-term contract required with no free trial: Some customers report being stuck in a long-term contract with GRIN that they want to end.

Learning curve: Some users report GRIN has a learning curve, especially for those new to influencer marketing platforms. Features and analytics can be overwhelming, requiring time to figure out and use effectively.

Influencer account permissions requests: GRIN requires influencers to connect their social media accounts and provide login permission for GRIN to access influencer data. This practice creates extra work for brands and not all influencers will agree to do this.

Content tracking limitations: Some users report challenges with accurate tracking of content produced via affiliates and product seeding campaigns.

Limited integrations: While GRIN offers integrations with major e-commerce platforms, their integration options are limited compared to other influencer marketing platforms.

The 7 Best GRIN Alternatives for 2024

MightyScout

MightyScout, a cost-effective influencer marketing platform, is best known for its tracking, analytics, and reporting. MightyScout can track the content most other platforms cannot. 24/7 content tracking for all content –– including those that are harder to track like Stories, product seeding, product gifting, and influencer events.

MightyScout does not require long-term contracts. It offers a 30-day money back guarantee which makes trial free if you are not happy for any reason.

Affordable pricing makes MightyScout attractive, even as an add-on to platforms that do not have robust tracking capabilities.

Who is MightyScout best for?

MightyScout is best for brands and agencies of all sizes that need robust tracking of Stories, product seeding, and gifting collaborations, and influencer event content.

MightyScout is also great for agencies with its unique features to address agency challenges.

MightyScout pros

Content tracking: MightyScout tracks and notifies you when your influencers create a new Story or post that mentions your brand(s). It even captures elusive Stories, seeding and gifting content.

Efficiency and time savings: Multiple users here and here report cost savings from automating the management and tracking of influencers.

Multi-brand/Agency Features: Unique features make agency influencer management easier.

Flexible pricing: If your needs don’t align with the pricing model, MightyScout can craft a custom pricing plan. For agencies, flexible pricing helps you manage variable volume across clients.

Ease-of-use: Users say MightyScout is easy to learn and super intuitive to navigate.

Accurate reporting: Accurate reports start with accurate tracking. MightyScout’s comprehensive tracking abilities ensure you’re accounting for all of the content you produce for your brand/client.

Streamlined sending of product gifts: Ship, gift and track products in minutes. Get products to influencers without worrying about inventory and going to a shipping service.

MightyScout cons

No automated payments for influencers: You can log payments in MightyScout but you pay influencers manually (e.g., via Venmo or Paypal).

No whitelisting or spark integrations: If you do whitelisting or spark ads, you’ll need to do it directly through the social media platform, not through MightyScout.

No outreach function: MightyScout does not currently offer a mass email outreach feature.

No campaign briefs: You'll need to link to an external document to provide campaign briefs.

Limited ecommerce integration support: MightyScout supports Shopify and WooCommerce only.

How MightyScout compares to GRIN

MightyScout is a great alternative to GRIN for users needing best-in-class tracking, reporting, analytics, or multi-account management–without the high cost. Here’s where MightyScout is different:

Powerful and Fast Content Tracking and Analytics

If tracking of all content is important, MightyScout is the better alternative. MightyScout reliably tracks Stories and content from trade collabs, product seeding collabs, and influencer events.

User-Friendly Interface

MightyScout users report a highly-intuitive UI. Some users buy MightyScout online and get right to work.

High Coverage Customer Support

MightyScout provides 24/7 live customer support on workdays and 24 hour response time on the weekend. If you have new users, MightyScout can help with new user onboarding and questions to lighten the load on your team.

Agency-Friendly Workflows and Pricing

Most platforms are built for a brand. MightyScout is designed for brands and agencies. For example, you can switch between client accounts without having to log out and log back in. MightyScout does not require a contract with each of your brands – your agency can be the customer. Multi-brand clients can manage the allocation of influencers across all of your brands/clients. If the pricing tiers don’t exactly fit your needs, MightyScout will work to create custom pricing that fits.

Plays Well With Others

If you have a special content tracking need – whether it’s Stories or a seeding campaign or an influencer event – MightyScout makes a great add-on tool to your current platform. It’s easy to export and utilize your data wherever you need. MightyScout does not require a long term contract, and with a 30-day money back guarantee, trial is a risk free.

Aspire

Who is Aspire best for?

Aspire is best for brands that use United States-based influencers for paid and affiliate influencer marketing, and have a large budget for an influencer marketing tool.

Aspire pros

Aspire users appreciate the Creator Marketplace where marketers can publish campaign briefs and let interested influencers apply. Users report high satisfaction with the creator search functionality.

Aspire cons

The price may be out of range for some brands. No trial plus a long term commitment is risky.

Another con is Aspire’s requirement for influencers to authenticate their accounts (i.e., allow access to their logins) for content tracking, something that many influencers are reluctant to do. This can limit the influencers who want to work with you and is time-consuming to manage.

How Aspire compares to GRIN

Neither GRIN nor Aspire users are fully satisfied with the creator discovery options.

Discovery: Aspire’s creator search database has ample US-based influencers, but is not a great fit for global brands. Aspire’s Creator Marketplace allows marketers to post campaign briefs and enable influencers to apply.

Pricing: Aspire’s monthly rate is $2499 per Capterra, but we don’t know what tier that is for. GRIN’s starting rate is $999 per month according to Capterra. Both GRIN and Aspire do not publish their pricing online, requiring a demo.

Long-term contract: Both Aspire and GRIN require a long term contract.

Agency vs. DIY: If you may need help running influencer campaigns, Aspire offers agency services, GRIN does not.

Content tracking: Both tools have limitations when it comes to tracking the content of influencers and Stories. Influencers are required to allow login access to their social media account to make tracking possible.

Influencity

Who is Influencity best for?

Global brands that need influencer discovery and influencer vetting data, but are not focused on accurate tracking and analytics capabilities.

Influencity pros

Affordable entry-level price: Offers an affordable price point at its most basic level. Allows a 7-day free trial. Features include: influencer search filtering for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, campaign management functions, and customizable reports.

Influencity cons

Tracking functions are limited: Influencers must authenticate their social media accounts for their content to be tracked accurately and data to be collected automatically. This makes Influencity not a fit for product seeding campaigns where you’re trying to establish a relationship by giving, not asking.

No e-commerce integrations: Influencity does not offer e-commerce Integrations. This prevents you from tracking revenue attributed to your campaigns.

How Influencity compares to GRIN

While GRIN and Influencity both have similar content tracking and analytics limitations, GRIN provides significantly more capabilities overall. Influencity’s global database for influencer search is a strength.

Discovery: Influencity offers creator search capability for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube influencers. Influencity helps identify influencers worldwide.

Price: For small brands that are starting out with influencer marketing or automation, the pricing of Influencity is accessible.

Transparent pricing: Influencity spells out pricing at each tier and exactly what you get. The challenge is figuring out what you don’t get (i.e., tracking capabilities without authentication of influencer profiles).

Online demo: Customer friendly sales process provides a demo of the software online.

Creator IQ

Who is CreatorIQ best for?

CreatorIQ (CIQ) is a premium-priced option that is best for paid influencer campaigns.

CreatorIQ pros

This high-touch and attentive service provider gets high ratings from its customers. While most customers praise the ease of use of the platform and amazing customer service, the one feature that stands out is a brand’s ability to create your own private marketplace of influencers through your brand’s portal. Beyond that, CIQ offers a private network of 15M influencers for discovery, fake follower check, campaign management, influencer payments, and custom reporting.

CreatorIQ cons

The price is steep at $36k/year per Capterra. The biggest downside is the inability to track content for influencers that are not authenticated on their platform. If you work with many nano or micro-influencers, or if product seeding and gifting are important to you, asking influencers to authenticate will cause a massive amount of work and still many will not authenticate. If you use the creators already in the database this is not an issue. But if you are importing or using other sources to grow your influencer partnerships, this is an issue.

CreatorIQ does not offer a free trial or monthly payment options.

How CreatorIQ compares to GRIN

CreatorIQ and GRIN both have limitations with automated tracking features that other partners can provide. This is important if:

• You don’t want to be limited only to the creators in CIQs private network of influencers

• You need to track and capture all the content you are producing

• You want to scale product gifting or seeding campaigns

• You want to track influencer event content

Traackr

Who is Traackr best for?

Large, enterprise brands with a large budget for influencer marketing software.

Traackr pros

Traackr is a feature-rich platform with custom reporting options.

Traackr cons

Traackr’s premium pricing is out of reach for most small brands. The platform is hard to learn, hard to use, and integrations are limited.

How Traackr compares to GRIN

While the GRIN influencer database was reported to have 38M influencers, Traackr is reported to have 13M. Keep in mind both numbers are a moving target.

Upfluence

Who is Upfluence best for?

Upfluence is best for brands that work with a small number of influencers due to its small database. Its “Done For You” agency services can be helpful for brands with limited expertise or limited manpower.

Upfluence pros

Advanced search: Upfluence excels in its advanced search functionality, allowing brands to find influencers using precise criteria across multiple social platforms.

Agency services: “Done for you” services are available for brands that need extra help running campaigns.

Affiliate marketing features: Influencer has strong capabilities for finding, managing, creating affiliate links, tracking statuses, paying, and reporting on affiliates. Users report it’s easy to show the ROI of affiliate campaigns. Upfluence integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce and Amazon Attribution.

Upfluence cons

Limited tracking: Upfluence cannot track influencers seamlessly. This is a concern if you plan to import an existing influencer list or grow your own list of creators from other sources. This can make it difficult to run product seeding campaigns.

Learning Curve: Some users find Upfluence's platform complex and challenging to use, particularly for those new to influencer marketing.

Cost: While providing extensive features, Upfluence can be expensive, particularly for small businesses or startups. The pricing might not be as transparent or accessible for smaller or midsize companies looking to start or grow influencer marketing without a significant budget.

Limited database: Upfluence’s influencer database is relatively small and may not be a fit for brands that need niche influencers or who plan to scale up to large numbers of influencers.

How Upfluence compares to GRIN

Upfluence wins on the discovery side. However, the database is relatively small and may not be a fit for niche brands and brands looking to scale into the hundreds of influencers. GRIN is the better tool for ease of use and automation of the campaign management processes. GRIN is the better fit for brands that are looking to scale.

HypeAuditor

Who is HypeAuditor best for?

HypeAuditor is best for brands that need a discovery tool above all else, and who will benefit from the additional features built into the price.

HypeAuditor pros

Discovery: Users love the searchable database of 69M creators for finding talent across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

Scalability: HypeAuditor offers scalable solutions that can grow with your influencer marketing needs.

Influencer Analysis: After finding influencers, you can analyze them using features like Audience Overlap, Quality Score, and Audience Authenticity to help with selection.

Influencer Communication: HypeAuditor enables you to reach out to personalize email outreach messages, and message influencers in bulk.

Ecommerce Integration: Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento all integrate with HypeAuditor.

Campaign organization: Store your contracts, schedule campaigns, approve content, and pay influencers all from one platform.

HypeAuditor cons

Doesn’t Track Stories: HypeAuditor cannot track Stories. For conversion-focused brands, this may be a showstopper.

Steep learning curve: Some users report HypeAuditor has a steep learning curve, especially those new to influencer marketing platforms. Features and analytics can be overwhelming, requiring time to figure out and use effectively.

Limited reports: HypeAuditor’s reporting functions are limited, lack depth, and require users to add screenshots to reports.

Team functionality lacking: When multiple team members use this platform, they report a lack of multi-user functionality. Team members can’t see what other team members have done.

High price: While initial pricing appears to be low, multiple users report the price as high, as you scale, compared to competitors.

Small TikTok database: Multiple users reported the number of TikTok influencers in the database was too small.

How HypeAuditor compares to GRIN

Discovery: HypeAuditor offers the stronger influencer discovery features and powerful influencer analytic features so that you can find influencers and make good choices in influencer selection. Whereas many GRIN users report dissatisfaction with its discovery features.

Commitment: GRIN does not allow a trial period or a short term commitment. HypeAuditor offers both, reducing your purchase risk.

Tracking: Both tools have limitations with tracking. HypeAuditor cannot track Stories. GRIN cannot seamlessly track influencers. These limitations impact accurate analysis and reporting.

Front End vs. Back End: While both tools offer some end to end features, HypeAuditor has stronger front end features for discovery, evaluation of, and outreach to influencers. GRIN offers the more powerful features after influencers are selected: from influencer outreach, to campaign management, to reporting.

How to Choose a GRIN Alternative

Selecting an influencer platform requires homework. Even if you have an unlimited budget, don’t assume the higher-priced platforms have what you need.

We’ve laid out five steps to help you make the best decision.

Step 1: Define your influencer marketing goals

Identify objectives

What is the focus of most campaigns? What are you trying to accomplish?

Identify your unique requirements

• What social media platforms will you use?

• Is it important for you to automate the tracking and capture of content?

• Will you be working with a small number of influencers or hundreds to thousands?

• Do you pay influencers? Or are gifting and seeding an important part of your strategy?

• Is affiliate marketing an important part of your strategy?

• What geographic markets do you need to reach?

• Is product seeding an important part of your influencer strategy?

• How many new influencers do you need to find and reach out to each year to meet your goals?

• Will you be importing influencers?

What is/are the most important pains for you to solve

Understanding ROI, automating the tracking of Stories, discovering new influencers, collecting the content, tracking the status of each influencer, capturing the content, reporting, integrating an e-commerce platform?

Step 2: Assess platform features and capabilities

The above baseline information will help determine what features and capabilities are essential, and which you’ll have to evaluate more closely such as:

• Influencer discovery

• Campaign management tools

• Tracking and capturing content

• Analytics and reporting

• Integration options

Step 3: Consider Usability and Support

User Interface/Ease of Use

What does that platform look like? Is there a learning curve? Can you afford the time it will take to get your team trained? Do you have a dedicated user or several users?

Customer Support and Resources

What level of support is offered? What days and times is live help available? Are any live chat, tutorials, email, or phone support offered? Is there a knowledge-base?

Step 4: Review Pricing and Scalability

Transparent Pricing

Is pricing clear? Are you locked in? Are there any setup fees, monthly or annual subscription costs, and additional charges for premium features?

Scalability

Can the platform grow with your business? It should be able to accommodate a growing number of influencers and campaigns without the price skyrocketing.

Step 5: Read Reviews and Case Studies

Customer Feedback

Look at reviews and testimonials from users, especially recent users.

Success Stories

Read case studies to help understand how the platform helped a customer achieve their goals or improved their workflows or processes.

Ready for a no-risk trial?

In an industry with no one-size-fits-all solution, it’s important to identify your biggest pain points and requirements and match them with the tool (or tools) that best meet your needs.

If your strategy includes product gifting or seeding campaigns, you’ll need a strong campaign management and tracking tool–one that tracks when each influencer has posted –– or not –– and pulls in data and content for you, without asking creators to send you their content.

Not all tracking and monitoring tools are the same. MightyScout offers the most reliable influencer management and tracking tools for brands and agencies.

So you can get rid of spreadsheets. You can collect all the influencer content without having to screenshot Stories on the weekend. You can use the content to fuel your ads. And, finally have a reliable model to grow your brand or agency–without needing additional staff.

See MightyScout pricing. Or, schedule a call now to see how it works.