Last Updated: March 18th, 2025
What Is Grin?
Grin Media Agency was founded in 2014 by Brandon Brown and his team as a software solution aimed at helping e-commerce brands connect with influencers. Today we’ll be delivering one of the most complete Grin reviews on the internet to help your business make the best choice possible.
As an influencer marketplace, Grin claims to help businesses manage and optimize their influencer marketing projects by providing tools for:
- identifying potential influencers,
- reaching out to them,
- and tracking the performance of influencer-driven marketing efforts.
It offers features for managing influencer relationships, including negotiation and contract management. Additionally, Grin provides analytics and reporting tools to assess the impact and effectiveness of influencer campaigns.
However, that’s just the claims. We need to check it out thoroughly to see if it is the perfect solution for all brands or do you need to use one of the Grin alternatives.
Grin Reviews: Features & Pricing + Best Alternative
Like most influencer marketing platforms, Grin also offers some features that make it unique among other platforms. On the other hand, it also has drawbacks that may make people decide to choose one of Grin alternatives, like Ainfluencer, which is free and easy to use.
So, in this review, we are going to explain all about this influencer marketing platform, from Grin pricing to its features and customers’ reviews.
We start by checking out Grin features and tools:
Grin Features
Grin promises to help brands streamline their influencer marketing campaigns by offering a range of features, including:
1. Influencer Discovery
Every influencer marketing offers a discovery feature. In order to get a hold of the correct creator partners, you need to have access to a search tool with filters. There are a few factors to take into consideration with Grin’s discovery tool:
- The platform has more than 190 million influencers to pick from.
- The lookalike feature helps you find similar influencers to the ones you’ve already liked.
- Grin offers you deep audience analytics as well.
2. Campaign Management
Another feature that’s stable with this sort of platform is campaign management, and Grin does a good job of it. You can create campaigns, set goals, track your progress, and check all deliverables without using any other apps.
Workflows are automated to ensure on time outreach, content submissions, approvals, and follow-ups. To communicate at a big scale, you may even create outreach email sequences using templates and automated follow-ups.
3. Relationship Management
It can prove difficult to maintain good relationships with influencers. This is especially true if you’re working with a few creators simultaneously. The platform integrates into your email to further personalize your relationships.
4. Product Seeding
If you’re wondering what product seeding means, it’s just industry jargon for gift-giving. Grin integrates with various e-commerce shops such as Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce, in an effort to streamline your gifting process. This includes the following:
- Syncs with e-commerce shops to gather relevant data straight from the source.
- Allows for curated lists of products creators can pick from.
- Send products and track the process through Grin.
5. Content Collection
Grin holds your hand throughout the whole process. Part of the process is receiving and managing the content made for you. The platform automatically organizes the content and delivers it to you in neat folders.
- Screenshots are automatically provided and stored in an organized library.
- This library is organized via different criteria you can search with, including tags, keywords, and even color.
- Grin also integrates into cloud storage apps including Dropbox and Google Drive.
6. Performance Analytics
Grin provides strong performance data to raise campaigns and other activity ROIs. The Grin reporting dashboard will show important metrics, including impressions, engagement rates, clicks, conversions, and money made from influencer marketing. Over time, users can create personalized reports and see the outcomes.
For instance, you may look at the engagement rates for each post on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, or the material delivered and impressions per quarter. By linking sales to each influencer and program performance as a whole, these insights assist marketers in demonstrating the return on investment.
7. Payments and Contracts
Grin can take the billing and payment process off your mind, helping you focus on the creative things. It automatically provides you with instant payments for creators and analyzes your payment history.
The tool allows brands to create and monitor influencer contracts, making sure that all conditions and disclosures are followed. Grin’s payment system makes it possible to track and pay influencers directly, for example, using PayPal or another means.
8. Compliance and Disclosure
Since this field is new, the rules and regulations are rather unclear. That’s why leaving it to an experienced platform is a good idea. Grin’s legal team makes sure no content is going to cause you legal trouble.
Grin Pricing
Unfortunately, Grin adapts a rather frustrating attitude when it comes to pricing. The platform does not offer any exact information about the cost. Not only that, but the subscription plans are also not available.
If you’re trying to learn how much Grin costs you, the only option is to reach out to the sales team and get that information from the source. Grin also offers a demo, the terms of which are unclear.
However, Reddit users have pointed out experiences that have cost them tens of thousands of dollars. This user mentions the platform costs around $2k/month. Another points out that Grin and similar platforms cost a minimum of $30k/year.
Looking at Grin’s alternatives in case of pricing, nothing can beat Ainfluencer, which is free, easy to use, and doesn’t require you to take your time filling out forms that doesn’t have anything to do with what you’re searching.
It’s all free, you can join Ainfluencer now and easily search for influencers, create campaigns, or send collab invitations.
Grin Reviews: What Do Customers Say
To have a clear understanding of how Grin works and whether it’s worth your money, we went through many Grin reviews on different legitimate websites, such as TrustPilot and G2.
- Lack of Influencer Discovery Functionality: Many users have reported that Grin creator discovery feature was removed from the platform without any prior notice. This sudden change has led to frustration and a decline in their ability to find and engage with new content creators, ultimately affecting their overall user experience on the platform.
The worst part is, that the support team didn’t respond to any of the complaints, and the users didn’t manage to get a refund. Some were even charged for a feature that didn’t even exist.
- Bad UI Design: Another drawback with Grin is the unfriendly interface. This user shares their view on this issue:
Having a bad UI design can negatively impact brands by making it more challenging for marketers to effectively collaborate with influencers, access critical data, and execute campaigns efficiently.
- Underdeveloped: In addition to all that, many users have highlighted that Grin’s platform is underdeveloped and has too many glitches:
- Weak Customer Support: This user also states that the support team failed to address the issues, and the problem remained unsolved for too long.
This review is self-explanatory. This user was charged for a feature that didn’t work as expected, and they weren’t able to cancel their subscription.
Overall, one significant concern on Grin reviews is the reliability of Grin’s Creator Search feature, which has been unexpectedly removed in the past, causing disruptions in influencer marketing efforts and frustration among users.
The lack of responsiveness from Grin’s support team and the absence of refunds for affected users further compound these issues. Additionally, an unfriendly interface and technical glitches have negatively impacted user experiences and campaign performance.
Grin Pros and Cons
Let us complete this part with a list of cons and pros of this platform so you can see everything at a glance:
Pros:
- Integrated Communications,
- Strong third-Party Integrations,
- Built-in payment and Legal Tools.
Cons:
- Expensive, Enterprise-Level Pricing,
- Influencer Discovery Gaps for different niches,
- Additional Costs for Add-ons,
- Steep Learning Curve,
- Not Ideal for One-Off or Small Campaigns,
- Occasional Software Glitches.
Before making your final decision about using the Grin platform or not, we recommend you to check out some of the Grin competitors, as listed below:
Ainfluencer: Best Grin Alternative
Every brand and influencer is in pursuit of a platform that’s not only efficient but also budget-friendly. This is where Ainfluencer emerges as a game-changer. If you’re a brand that cares about your ROI, or an influencer searching for opportunities without the expensive prices, then Ainfluencer is the answer you’ve been waiting for.
The key feature of Ainfluencer, among many others, is its promise of unlimited usage of the platform, forever, without ever reaching for your wallet. Yes, you heard that right! At no point will Ainfluencer interrupt your journey with payment requests.
For brands, this means that when you seal deals with influencers, you pay a total of $0 in fees. This is a massive relief for countless businesses and brands, making Ainfluencer a remarkable choice in the influencer marketing world.
Here is a list of Ainluencer features you can expect to receive while using this platform:
- Influencers Database: Access to over a million influencers.
- Unlimited Campaigns: Create as many campaigns as you need and define your influencer criteria.
- Content Creation: Collaborate with influencers for content creation.
- End-to-End Communication: Seamless communication between brands and influencers.
- Influencer Insights: Access to influencers’ past collaborations, reviews, and audience insights.
- Built-in affiliate programs: companies can put up affiliate program information, such as promotional coupons and special links for every influencer, and integrate their Shopify or Google Analytics accounts.
- AI-powered Campaign Creation: The AI-powered campaign design feature of the platform assists customers in creating campaigns that are optimized by recommending the best form
Don’t miss this opportunity. Sign up on Ainfluencer today and surpass all your competitors with just a few clicks!
Grin vs. Ainfluencer
| Features | Grin | Ainfluencer |
|---|---|---|
| Database of Influencers | 37M | +1M |
| Filtering | Search based on location, language, and gender |
AI-powered search engine/
More than 20 filters |
| Pricing Options | No Free Trial/ Hidden Pricing |
Free |
| Influencer Search | ✅ | ✅ |
| Platforms | Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube Facebook, Pinterest |
Instagram, Tiktok |
| Number of Invitations | N/A | Unlimited |
| Number of Campaigns | N/A | Unlimited |
| Campaign Management | ✅ | ✅ |
| Detailed Insights | ✅ | ✅ |
Other Grin Alternatives
If you would like to use other influencer marketing tools instead of Grin, here are other Grin competitors:
1. Upfluence
Although Upfluence doesn’t have clear pricing plan, when it comes to comparing Upfluence vs Grin, the estimates suggest GRIN is more expensive. Therefore, it can also be one of Grin alternatives if you look for a slightly cheaper influencer marketing platform.
One thing that must be said about Upfluence is that their plans are yearly and you can not leave them at any time when the deal is sealed. There have also been lots of reviews about their fake influencers that will hurt the overall experience with the platform. Let us look at some of the pros and cons of this platform and see if it is a good alternative for Grin or not:
Pros
- Big Influencer Database (although there is a probability of a percentage of them being fake),
- Search and Filtering,
- E-commerce Integration.
Cons
- High Pricing,
- Limited Customization Options,
- Time-Consuming Outreach Process.
Read Upfluence Reviews
2. AspireIQ
Grin competitors have their own pros and cons. For example, AspireIQ has a larger influencer database, which Grin lacks. On the other hand, it has a more complex navigation. In the case of pricing, both platforms have hidden pricing plans. However, when you compare AspireIQ vs Grin, some believe that Grin is still more expensive.
It must be mentioned that AspireIQ shines with its emphasis on collaboration and community building. This platform is designed for brands looking to have long-term relationships with influencers rather than just executing one-off campaigns. If you are eager to know what the features are that AspireIQ can provide, here is a short list of them:
- Influencer Relationship Management: AspireIQ provides tools designed for managing ongoing relationships with influencers. This feature is particularly beneficial for brands looking to maintain consistent communication and collaboration over time.
- Content Collaboration Tools: The platform facilitates the co-creation of content between brands and influencers, enhancing authenticity and ensuring that the content resonates with both parties’ audiences.
- Campaign Performance Tracking: You can monitor key metrics over time to assess campaign effectiveness and ROI. This analysis helps you refine your strategies based on performance data.
Read AspireIQ Reviews
3. HypeAuditor
Another alternative to Grin influencer marketing is HypeAuditor, a general influencer marketing platform focused on influencer discovery, vetting, and fraud detection across various industries. The influencer discovery on HypeAuditor is claimed to work better than Grin’s creator’s search feature. However, this platform also doesn’t have any clear pricing plans, too.
Besides the pricing, which by the way is an important matter, HypeAuditor is doing a good job in areas such as sheer influencers number or supporting multiple social media platforms. Another aspect of HypeAuditor that is better than Grin is its services in general. For brands that have limited time, HypeAuditor offers full campaign management services, automating every step with the help of experts. This can be a game-changer in some cases. Now, let’s look at an overview of this platform’s pros and cons:
Pros:
- Massive database of creators,
- Supports multiple social media platforms,
- Detailed influencer analytics.
Cons:
- Lack of a campaign creation tool,
- No free plans,
- No in-app chat feature,
- Hidden pricing,
- App glitches and bugs.
Read HypeAuditor Reviews
Conclusion
Grin is a known influencer marketing platform that offers different features for brands and agencies. However, Grin reviews show that it has faced criticism due to issues with its Creator Search feature, sudden changes, and a lack of transparency regarding pricing.
Its users have reported challenges with discovering and engaging with content creators, unfriendly interface, and ongoing glitches. While Grin has its merits, these drawbacks have raised concerns about its effectiveness in connecting brands with their target audiences.
Now that you have a better understanding of the details and potential challenges associated with Grin, you can make an informed decision for your business or choose one of Grin alternatives.
Don’t forget that Ainfluencer is a free alternative to Grin which offers all similar features for free. You can join Ainfluencer and start your influencer marketing campaign right now. Don’t hesitate.
FAQs
No, Grin is not a free influencer marketing platform. Even though they offer a demo for users, there are no free plans available. For more information about their pricing structure, users need to reach out to Grin’s team directly.
Grin is an influencer marketing platform that facilitates collaboration between brands and social media influencers. It provides tools and features to help businesses identify, connect with, and manage influencer partnerships for marketing campaigns.
Unfortunately, GRIN does not publicly disclose pricing details. Their pricing model is customized based on each brand’s specific needs and requirements for their influencer marketing program.
