Match the tool to your program size, not the hype
The right platform depends on your stage, not the buzziest name. A five-person DTC brand and an enterprise with a $1M+ program need completely different tools.
AI can shortlist the right tier and pull live pricing. But the vendor's own pricing page is the source of truth, because these numbers move (GRIN's and Modash's both did) and third-party reviews lag.
Fastest path: one prompt, end to end
🤖 AI prompt — paste into ChatGPT / Claude
You are my martech buyer. Recommend an influencer platform for my stage.
My situation — monthly influencer spend: [$ amount]; store: [Shopify / WooCommerce / other]; team size: [n]; main job I need: [discovery / vetting / full campaign management / affiliate tracking].
1. Open the CURRENT pricing page of each candidate and read the real 2026 numbers:
- Shopify Collabs (shopify.com) — native, free to use.
- Heepsy (heepsy.com), Modash (modash.io/pricing) — discovery & vetting.
- GRIN (grin.co/pricing), Aspire (aspire.io), CreatorIQ, Traackr — full-service/enterprise.
- Upfluence (upfluence.com) — affiliate/flat-fee.
2. For each, record: entry price, free trial, whether it does the job I need, and best-fit stage.
3. Recommend ONE primary + one fallback for my stage, and say what I'd be overpaying for if I went a tier too high.
Output ONE markdown table: Tool | Entry price | Free trial | Best for | Fits me? (Y/N). Then 2 lines: primary pick + why.
Do not guess prices — open each pricing page and cite the number with its source. If a page is behind "contact sales," write "quote-only" rather than inventing a figure. If you can't browse, list the tools by job and tell me to check each pricing page myself.
Or do it in 4 steps
- Start Shopify-native or light if you're a small program. Shopify Collabs (free to use, Shopify takes a small payout cut) is the natural first stop for any Shopify merchant. Heepsy (heepsy.com, has a free browse tier) is a budget search/vetting option — confirm its current entry price on its own page.
- Add discovery & vetting when you're picking creators at volume. Modash — 350M+ creator database, audience demographics, fake-follower detection, 14-day free trial; the entry (Essentials) plan is $299/mo billed annually or $399/mo month-to-month (per modash.io/pricing, 2026). HypeAuditor — quote-priced fraud/authenticity audit to sanity-check a shortlist.
- Move to full-service when you run an always-on program. GRIN now publishes self-serve, month-to-month plans: Lite $399/mo, Essentials $699/mo, Growth $1,149/mo, Complete $1,799/mo, with a 30-day free trial (per grin.co/pricing, 2026) — check it directly, since older reviews still quote enterprise-only pricing. Aspire (formerly AspireIQ — same product, renamed), CreatorIQ and Traackr are custom annual (quote-only).
- Use an affiliate/flat-fee tool if you want tracking without a revenue cut. Upfluence charges a flat platform fee, not a sales percentage; pricing is quote-only, typically an annual commitment. Confirm the current terms with their sales team.
Done looks like: one tool chosen at your actual spend tier, its price confirmed on the vendor's own page, and a fraud-check layer in the plan.
Worked example: pick by stage (prices from vendor pages, July 2026)
| Stage | Primary pick | Entry price | Free trial |
|---|
| Small program, Shopify | Shopify Collabs | Free to use | — |
| Choosing creators at volume | Modash | $299/mo (annual) or $399/mo (monthly) | 14 days |
| Always-on program | GRIN | $399/mo (Lite, self-serve) | 30 days |
| Enterprise, in-house team | CreatorIQ / Traackr | quote-only | — |
Two gotchas: AspireIQ is not a separate product from Aspire, just an old name; and 2025–2026 consolidation (Publicis → Influential then Captiv8; Later → Mavrck then Mavely) means "two" options you compare may share back-end ownership — ask the sales rep directly.
Re-check each vendor's pricing page at every renewal — several changed structure in the last year.