7 Aspire Alternatives to Power Your Influencer Marketing in 2024

Looking at Aspire alternatives? We can help.

If your head spins while trying to figure out the differences among influencer marketing platforms, you’re not alone. Finding out what each software does – and doesn’t do – takes some serious investigative work. The good news is we’ve done the research for you.

While Aspire is loved by its users for strong influencer discovery features and more, it doesn’t do everything. And then, there’s the price. Maybe there’s another way to get the job done.

So let’s take a look.

Meet the alternatives

MightyScout: MightyScout specializes in comprehensive tracking and accurate analytics for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

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

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.

GRIN: Designed for big-budget e-commerce brands. Best with “paid influencers.”

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.

Aspire alternatives compared

Aspire overview

What is Aspire?

Aspire offers a range of software features to support influencer marketing activations through all stages from finding influencers to managing them to reporting. Influencer discovery and recruitment are Aspire’s strengths.

Who is Aspire best for?

Aspire is best for large-budget brands with marketing targets in the United States, and for paid and affiliate influencer marketing models. Also a fit for brands that need agency services.

Aspire pros

Influencer discovery: Aspire offers multiple ways to find influencers including: a creator database of 500k profiles, a marketplace of 1M creators, and image recognition AI (to find creators with your desired aesthetic).

Campaign management: Aspire automates creator outreach, statuses, content approvals, and creator payments within the platform.

Agency services: Aspire offers “done for you” service for customers that need additional support.

Social media platforms: Aspire supports Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Pinterest.

Aspire cons

High price: The price, reported as $2,499 per month by Capterra, may be out of range for some brands. No trial is offered and a long-term commitment is required.

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

Limited e-commerce integrations: Aspire integrates with Shopify.

Search engine: Some users mentioned the search filters are less effective than desired.

Ease of use: Some users express concerns about the technical skills required to maximize the use of the platform.

Influencer quality: Some reviewers mentioned the lack of a system to control the quality of influencers, with some stating that influencers did not fulfill their contract terms.

Contract inflexibility: Aspire with its long-term contract, may not be a fit for freelancers or small teams. There is no option to pause your account in months where you may not have influencer activity.

The 7 best Aspire alternatives for 2024

MightyScout

MightyScout, a cost-effective influencer marketing platform, is best known for its tracking, analytics and reporting. MightyScout reliably tracks the influencer activity and content most other platforms cannot. It also simplifies analyses and reporting.

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

Affordable pricing makes MightyScout attractive, even as an add-on to your influencer tech stack.

Who is MightyScout best for?

MightyScout is best for brands and agencies that need reliable tracking of influencers and automated capture of content. While most platforms can track accurately for paid content collabs, some have limitations with tracking nano influencers, Stories, product seeding and gifting collaborations, and influencer event content.

MightyScout pros

Content tracking and capture: MightyScout tracks and captures Stories 24/7 so your team doesn’t have to be online evenings, weekends, holidays and vacations to catch them. Also tracks and captures the content other platforms struggle with: product seeding, gifting and influencer events content.

Reporting: Instead of spending hours or days creating a report, MightyScout can do it in minutes.

Discovery: MightyScout offers a look alike feature to find more creators like the ones you love. It also offers social listening to find the die-hard fans already talking about your brand organically.

Ease of use: Users see value quickly from MightyScout with its easy to learn and intuitive interface.

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

Multi-brand/Agency features: Agencies love MightyScout's multi-brand features and pricing flexibility.

MightyScout cons

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

No whitelisting or Spark integrations: If you use whitelisting or Spark ads, you’ll need to do it directly through the social media platform.

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 e-commerce integration support: MightyScout supports Shopify and WooCommerce only.

How MightyScout compares to Aspire

MightyScout is a great alternative to Aspire that should be considered for users needing accurate reporting, analytics, multi-account management, and tracking capabilities without the high cost. Here’s where MightyScout is different:

Content tracking and analytics: MightyScout makes tracking easier and captures all the content. Aspire has some limitations in tracking Stories, seeding, gifting and events.

Affiliate support: Aspire offers more support features and e-commerce integrations for affiliate marketing than MightyScout.

Discovery: MightyScout and Aspire discovery features are different. MightyScout offers a look alike feature to find more influencers like the ones you already love and also social listening to find smitten customers and fans of your brand who are already talking about your brand on social media. Aspire offers a search engine, creator marketplace and AI image recognition.

Both Aspire and MightyScout offer features to help analyze an influencer’s previous performance, audience fit, and audience credibility.

Upfluence

What is Upfluence?

Upfluence is an influencer marketing platform beloved by its users for strong searching and filtering of its influencer database. Upfluence offers a range of features to support influencer marketing through all its stages from discovery, automated outreach, CRM, tracking and reporting. Influencer discovery is Upfluence’s strength.

Who is Upfluence best for?

Upfluence is best for brands that work with a small number of influencers due to its small database. Its agency services are helpful for brands with limited expertise or limited manpower.

Upfluence pros

Robust search capabilities: Upfluence offers advanced search functionality for its database of a reported 4M pre-approved creators, allowing brands to find influencers using precise criteria across multiple social platforms.

Influencer analytics: Upfluence provides detailed analytics that help brands analyze influencers for selection.

Agency services: If your team needs extra help to run campaigns, Upfluence offers done-for-you services. Your team can be hands on, or hands off.

Affiliate marketing features: Upfluence has strong capabilities for finding and managing influencer affiliates, creating affiliate links, paying influencers, 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. Some challenges with tracking content.

Outreach from your email: Upfluence enables you to outreach from your own email (e.g., Outlook, Gmail)

Blogger discovery: If blog content or reviews are an important part of your influencer marketing strategy, Upfluence has a search feature for finding bloggers.

Upfluence cons

Limited tracking: Upfluence does not track nano influencers. Some challenges with accurate tracking of content produced via affiliates and product seeding campaigns.

Learning curve: Some users find Upfluence complex and challenging to use, particularly for those new to influencer marketing.

Cost: While it provides extensive features, Upfluence can be expensive, particularly for small businesses or startups. The pricing as you scale 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 small compared to the competition but influencers are pre-approved. The small number in the database may not be a fit for brands that need niche influencers or who plan to scale up to a large number of influencers.

How Upfluence compares to Aspire

Services: Both tools offer agency services for clients.

Discovery: Aspire offers a search engine of 500K profiles and a Creator Marketplace of 1M creators for inbound applications. Upfluence is not clear about their searchable database size. It is reported to be 4M pre-qualified creators.

Pricing: Aspire’s monthly price is $2499 per Capterra, but we don’t know what tier that is for. Upfluence is reported to start at $500 per month. Pricing is not shared publicly by either platform.

Long-term contract: Both Aspire and Upfluence require long-term contracts. Aspire does not allow a trial. Upfluence does allow a trial period with some restrictions.

Reviews: Aspire users report it to be easier to use. Users appreciate its ROI focus and larger creator marketplace. Upfluence users love its influencer scoring feature and influencer payments features.

Influencity

What is Influencity?

Influencity is one of the newer influencer marketing platforms. It is striving to be an all-in-one platform and is still building out its features. Finding influencers is where Influencity shines.

Who is Influencity best for?

Influencity is best for brands that need influencer discovery and influencer vetting features, but are not focused on automated tracking and content collection, and analytics capabilities. Influencity’s database is also a fit for brands that need global influencers.

Influencity pros

Discovery: Strong influencer search filtering capabilities for 170M influencers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. It’s a good option for finding global influencers.

Affordable entry-level price: Influencity offers affordable entry level price points with restrictions.

Trial: Allows a 7-day free trial.

Customer satisfaction: Influencity customers are highly satisfied.

Influencity cons

Tracking functions are limited: Influencity does not automate the heavy-duty part of tracking influencer activity and capturing content. The customer must still retrieve and add the URL of influencers’ content to Influencity for the data to then be pulled into Influencity's platform.

Limited e-commerce integrations: Influencity integrates with Shopify with some limited capabilities, but is unable to pull in revenue data.

Affiliate payments: Influencity does not have functionality to pay affiliate influencers.

Limitations of basic plan: At the lowest of three pricing plans, currently $168 per month, there are limitations: you do not get access to a dedicated success manager, you can only create one list, you can analyze up to 30 influencer profiles per month, and you cannot download reports of creator profiles.

No campaign scheduling: Influencity does not enable campaign scheduling from within the platform.

How Influencity compares to Aspire

Discovery: Influencity has 170M in its searchable database which is strong worldwide. Aspire has 1M in its Creator Marketplace and 500K in its search engine. Aspire is reported to be strong in the United States. Influencity is stronger globally.

Content tracking: Aspire has automated influencer tracking and content capture. Influencity does not automate tracking and content capture. However, Aspire does have some challenges with accurate tracking of content produced via affiliates and product seeding campaigns.

Contract length: Influencity does not require a long-term contract and allows a trial. Aspire requires a long-term contract and does not allow a trial.

Transparent pricing: Influencity spells out pricing at each tier and exactly what you get. Aspire requires a demo to get pricing.

Creator IQ

What is CreatorIQ?

CreatorIQ is an end to end influencer marketing platform designed to allow global teams to collaborate on a single system of record.

Who is CreatorIQ best for?

CreatorIQ (CIQ) is a premium-priced platform for large enterprises. It includes a full range of features for influencer marketing, including: discovery, campaign management, influencer payments, and custom reporting.

CreatorIQ pros

AI-backed discovery: AI improves the speed and relevance of influencers found during the discovery process.

Customer support: This high-touch and attentive service provider gets high support ratings from its customers.

Strong integrations: CIQ supports seven social media platforms, plus ecommerce and marketing and advertising tools.

Content review: CIQ offers a content review and approval feature.

Private influencer marketplace: With CreatorIQ, you can create a private marketplace of influencers through your brand’s portal.

CreatorIQ cons

Discovery: CIQ’s private network of 20M influencers is on the smaller side compared to competitors.

High price: The price is steep at $36k/year per Capterra.

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

No trial: CreatorIQ does not offer a free trial and requires a long-term contract.

How CreatorIQ compares to Aspire

Social platforms: CIQ and Aspire both support 7 social media platforms.

Discovery: CIQ has 20M creators in its database. Aspire has a searchable database of 500K and a Creator Marketplace (for inbound) of 1M. Customers report Aspires global database is limited.

Tracking: Both tools have similar limitations and challenges with automated influencer tracking and content capture.

Price: Both platforms are premium priced.

Traackr

What is Traackr?

Traackr, an influencer marketing software platform, offers end to end influencer marketing capabilities including: discovery, influencer vetting, campaign management, tracking, and reporting.

Who is Traackr best for?

Large, enterprise brands with a big budget for influencer marketing software. Traackr has deep experience with beauty brands.

Traackr pros

Full-featured: Traackr is a feature-rich platform with discovery, influencer audience evaluation, relationship management, campaign management, and custom reporting options.

Tracking: Tracking is a strength for Traackr. However Traackr has some challenges with delays in tracking.

Social media platforms supported: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, and Snapchat.

Payments: Enables payments to influencers through the platform.

Affiliate support: Traackr has features to help you manage and track affiliate influencers.

E-commerce support: Integrates with Shopify.

Team orientation: Traackr makes it easy for team members to work together.

Traackr cons

Discovery: Users report the database is not large enough to identify the number of influencers needed and another source of influencers is sometimes necessary.

Pricing: Traackr’s pricing starts at $20k/year for small teams, and a long-term commitment is required.

Steep learning curve: Some users report the platform is hard to learn and hard to use.

Support: Some customers find customer support lacking for Traackr.

How Traackr compares to Aspire

Discovery: Aspire users appreciate its strong discovery features and ability to streamline influencer relationships and scale programs effectively. Traackr is reported to have strong vetting and tracking features, but some users report limitations with finding enough influencers.

Tracking: Traackr has the stronger tracking features, despite some delays in tracking. Aspire has challenges with accurate tracking of content produced via affiliates and product seeding campaigns.

Purchase risk: Both platforms require a long-term commitment. Aspire does not offer a trial. Traackr does offer a free trial.

Pricing: Traackr reports a minimum price of $20k per year. Aspire is reported to start at $2,499 per month according to Capterra.

GRIN

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 set of tools.

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 (post September 2022) discovery features.

Tracking: Some users report challenges with accurate tracking of content produced by affiliates and product seeding campaigns.

Long-term contract is required and you can’t try before buying: 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.

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

How GRIN compares to Aspire

Discovery: Aspire users are more satisfied than GRIN users when it comes to discovery.

Tracking: Aspire and GRIN have similar content tracking limitations. Some challenges with accurate tracking of content produced via influencer affiliates and product seeding campaigns.

Purchase risk: Both Aspire and GRIN require a long-term commitment, do not allow a trial, and are not transparent with pricing. To reduce risk, read reviews and speak with current and past customers.

User reviews: Aspire customers are more impressed with the influencer discovery, influencer analysis, outreach and affiliate features. GRIN customers are impressed with its outreach and campaign management features.

HypeAuditor

Who is HypeAuditor best for?

HypeAuditor is best for small to midsize brands who need a discovery tool above all else, but who will also benefit from the additional features built into the price. For brands that need to track Stories, HypeAuditor is not a fit.

HypeAuditor pros

Influencer discovery: Users love the searchable database of 154M creators for finding talent.

Influencer analysis: After filtering the database for influencers, you can analyze them using features like Audience Overlap, Quality Score, and Audience Authenticity.

Shopify integration: Shopify users benefit from the integration which allows them to ship product to influencers, track influencer conversions, and access sales data.

Campaign organization: Store your contracts and pay influencers all from one platform.

HypeAuditor cons

Tracking: HypeAuditor does not track Stories, a potential deal breaker for conversion-focused brands.

No commission payments: HypeAuditor does not offer commission payment functionality.

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

Team functionality lacking: Lack of multi-user functionality prevents team members from seeing what other team members have done.

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

How HypeAuditor compares to Aspire

Discovery: HypeAuditor’s database of 154M is much larger than Aspire’s database of 500K. However, Aspire also offers the Creator Marketplace of 1M. HypeAuditor users praise its influencer analytics tools for helping with the vetting and selection processes.

Content tracking: HypeAuditor does not track Stories. Aspire does track Stories. Stories tracking is an important feature for brands with conversion-based goals and for brands that capture and reuse Stories content for ads.

Affiliate marketing: Aspire has features and integrations to support all stages of affiliate marketing. HypeAuditor does not.

Ease of use: Multiple Aspire users find the platform difficult to learn and use. HypeAuditor users are generally satisfied with ease of use.

Purchase risk: HypeAuditor, with its monthly purchase option, has the lower purchase risk. Aspire requires a long-term contract without a trial.

Customer reviews: Overall, HypeAuditor users offer praise for its influencer vetting analytics and ease of use. Some mention billing issues and lack of support for TikTok and Twitter. Aspire users praise its discovery and recruitment features, influencer relationship management, and ability to help scale.

How to choose an Aspire alternative

Selecting an influencer platform requires homework to find the right fit. 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? And are gifting or seeding an important part of your strategy?
• Is affiliate marketing an important part of your strategy?
• What geographic markets do you need to reach?
• How many new influencers do you need to find and reach out to each year to meet your goals?
• Will you be importing influencers or moving your current influencers to a new tool?

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

• Understanding ROI
• Automating the tracking of Stories
• Discovering new influencers
• Discovering customers that are die-hard fans
• Auto-collecting the content
• Tracking the status of each influencer
• Reporting
• Integrating an e-commerce platform for product gift shipping and tracking sales

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. Are the results reported in metrics that help you understand business impact? Or only vanity metrics?

Is MightyScout the answer? Try it risk-free.

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 without asking creators to send you their content.

So you can finally get rid of spreadsheets. You can auto-collect all the influencer content without having to screenshot Stories on your days off. 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.

Get started for free. Or, schedule a call now to see how it works.