Last Updated: September 1st, 2024
What Is ShoutCart?
ShoutCart is a platform that functions similarly to an influencer marketing platform. This platform was founded in 2016 and is located in Portland, United States. The reason we refrain from calling ShoutCart a complete influencer marketing platform is its main functionality.
As opposed to offering a long-term business relationship where every aspect of your influencer marketing work is covered, ShoutCart is mostly focused on getting you shoutouts. So you might be wondering, what are shoutouts?
A shoutout is when a person with a bigger following than yours mentions your name or username in their content. This practice gained popularity when YouTubers started shouting out smaller creators on their platforms.
So ShoutCart’s main objective is to help you find the right people to shout out your channel, your business, or whatever you want to bring attention to. In this ShoutCart review, we’ll take a detailed look at exactly what this platform can do for you.
ShoutCart Review: Pricing & Features + Best Alternative
Let’s take a look at some of ShoutCart’s features, its pricing options, and the best alternatives you could use.
ShoutCart Features
In this section, we will have a detailed look at what features ShoutCart can offer.
1. Influencer Discovery
If you’re familiar with influencer marketing platforms, you’ve seen this feature thrown around. Typically, influencer discovery is done to find a creator who can work with you for at least a relatively long time.
However, due to the nature of this platform, its functionality is a bit different. In ShoutCart the influencers sign up for a one-off shoutout of your platform. In most likelihood, they are not prepared for anything that takes more than 72 hours.
So everyone in ShoutCart is prepared for a quick and easy task that doesn’t take too much of their time. This can be troubling if you’re looking to execute a complete marketing strategy.
According to experts, influencer marketing works best in a long-term plan. For a more holistic approach to influencer marketing, you can check out a different platform like Ainfluencer.
As a free DIY platform, Ainfluencer gives you the chance to find influencers to collaborate with you, start and maintain campaigns, and get full reports and analytics at no charge at all. This long-term approach to working with influencers has proven to produce the best results.
Join Ainfluencer today to get a chance to use the most modern way of advertising, and to do it for free!
2. Scalable Campaigns
Typically campaign in this context refers to a multi-stepped plan that brings attention to your brand in various ways. With ShoutCart, a campaign seems to refer to collaborating with a few influencers at one time.
The limitations of this collaboration are not specified. For example, how many influencers can you hire at once? Can you ask for more services or not?
3. Tracking and Metrics
ShoutCart also offers reports of how much exposure these shoutouts have brought to you. In hopes of keeping your expenses resultful, this platform offers you analytics of which influencers brought in the most ROI as well.
Note: While shoutouts are great, it’s just not possible for something so short-term to bring in long-term results. If you’re looking to do more for your brand and use influencer marketing to its full potential, you can opt for a platform like Ainfluencer instead.
With the in-app messaging feature on Ainfluencer, you can talk directly to each influencer and explain your project. Most of the time, they also can give you great scenarios, so together, you can create a more useful promotion.
ShoutCart Pricing
First, let’s see how much it would cost you to use ShoutCart. This platform offers you three plans to pick from and no free trials at all.
- The first plan is the free plan. Although this plan is referred to as free, that doesn’t seem to be the case. For each influencer that you decide to collaborate with, you have to pay a 10% fee.
If 10% of your total amount is less than $10, then you have to pay $10 to the platform instead. This plan also limits you on many things, including almost all filters for your influencer discovery, direct messaging influencers, and demographic data.
You also only get three credits on the free plan. Each credit unlocks one creator username, so in the best-case scenario, you’ll get access to three influencers on the free plan. Campaigns are also unavailable on this plan.
It does raise eyebrows that despite so many limitations on the free plan, the platform isn’t really free to use. Alternatively, a platform like Ainfluencer is truly free and doesn’t limit you to any features.
Influencer discovery with more than 20 filters, campaign management with all options, full reports, and analytics are all available on Ainfluencer. The surprising part is that it is completely free of charge. Sign up now to learn more about what this platform can offer you.
- The second plan is called ‘Startup’. For $49 a month, you get to message 10 influencers a day. Campaigns are available, and you can sort and filter your influencer search as well. But there is still a catch.
Even though you’re paying almost $50 a month, there’s still a 10% or $10 buyer fee on every shoutout you purchase. Not to mention, you have to keep count of how many influencers you’ve messaged today as well.
On a free alternative like Ainfluencer, you get unlimited messages to as many influencers as your heart desires. The same thing applies to campaigns and searches.
- Last but not least is the Pro plan. Finally, you’re free of the pesky buyers’ fee and have unlimited credits and messages. However, there is a drawback. This plan costs $99 per month, which is surprising for shoutouts.
ShoutCart Reviews: What Customers Say?
When deciding whether a service is worth it or not, nothing beats real user reviews. So, let’s take a look at what your peers have experienced with ShoutCart. With an overall score of 2.7 on TrustPilot, this platform has a lot to improve on.
Some ShoutCart reviews complain of their accounts being blocked after a purchase, and not getting results even after they were unblocked:
Another user had trouble with getting their money back, and customer support was of no help:
This user had their account banned after they left a negative review:
This brand is unhappy with how long their campaign was being reviewed, and the lack of customer support:
To wrap up the real review section, here are a bunch of different reviews, all calling this platform a scam for various reasons:
ShoutCart Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fast and Easy Hiring
- Secure Payments
- ShoutCart Score
Cons
- Limited Use
- No Real Free Plan
- No Messaging on the Free Plan
- Limited Database
- No Influencer Vetting
Almost all of these cons can be avoided by just switching to the best alternative platform. ShoutCart’s number one alternative is Ainfluencer.
Ainfluencer: The Best ShoutCart Alternative
Ainfluencer is the number one free DIY influencer marketing platform. With a massive database, more than 20 search filters, and quick customer service, nothing can go wrong with this platform.
There are many things that make Ainfluencer unique. Instead of naming them, let’s take a detailed look at what sets this platform apart from all of its competitors.
1. 100% Free
When we say Ainfluencer is free, we don’t mean there are a thousand limitations, and you have to pay a certain amount. This platform is completely free on every feature, with absolutely no limitation on any of them.
You don’t have to worry about secret fees hidden in the terms of service, or a 10% surcharge on any purchase. Enjoy the full potential of influencer marketing without having to worry about your budget with Ainfluencer.
2. Direct Communications
Since your influencer rarely checks their email, don’t bother going through a mountain of information to find it. Enjoy the comfort of directly messaging them with our in-app messaging feature, which ensures a fast reply.
Not only does this feature make your work easier, but just like any other feature in Ainfluencer, it’s completely free and unlimited. Enjoy asking as many questions as you like from as many creators as you wish on this platform.
3. Campaigns and Everything They Offer
In Ainfluencer campaigns aren’t just multiple shoutouts. On this platform, you can specify exactly what you need from your creators and make sure they deliver it to the last details. Message your influencer of choice and give them your proposal with every detail.
Alternatively, you can set up a campaign and allow creators to make their proposals instead. Either way, you can get the full influencer marketing experience with Ainfluencer.
If a free, unlimited, end-to-end marketing platform with more than 2M influencers listed on it sounds appealing to you, sign up now on Ainfluencer for a risk-free investment.
| Features | ShoutCart | Ainfluencer |
|---|---|---|
| Database of Influencers | N/A | +2M |
| Filtering | Keyword filtering | AI-powered search engine/
More than 20 filters |
| Pricing Options | Starts with a “free” plan with a 10% buyer fee | Free |
| Influencer Search | ✅ | ✅ |
| Platforms | YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram | Instagram & TikTok |
| Number of Campaigns | None on the free plan | Unlimited (Free) |
| Number of Invitations | N/A | Unlimited (Free) |
| Campaign Management | ✅ | ✅ |
| Detailed Insights | ✅ | ✅ |
Other ShoutCart Alternatives
So now that you know ShoutCart and its number one alternative, here are a few other platforms you could use:
1. IZEA
Referred to as a “powerhouse” for influencer marketing, IZEA is sure to make up for everything you lack with ShoutCart. In addition to the typical influencer marketing services, this platform provides users with blog writers as well.
Although IZEA can be the right choice for many, it does have its drawbacks. To learn more about this platform, check out our IZEA review.
2. Influencify.co
We said IZEA can do everything a typical influencer marketing platform does, but Influencify takes it a step further. This company uses AI to fill in the inefficiencies of the influencer marketing world and is somewhat successful in doing so.
There’s a lot to be said about Influencify, much more than we could fit in this paragraph. If you want to know whether this platform works for you or not, take a peek at our Influencify review.
3. Webfluential
What stands out with Webfluential is its focus on gathering a reliable influencer database. While most platforms are moving towards incorporating AI, Webfluential is proud of its human-vetted creator pool.
To learn more about this platform and its pricing and features, check out our Webfluential review.
Conclusion
Picking a platform that works for you depends on many different factors. Whether your budget matches, the services are what you require, and whether the database is right for you or not can all play a role in the choice you make.
Based on our ShoutCard review, it may not be the perfect solution for most brands and companies. However, that all depends on your own preferences and budget.
Ultimately, you have the choice to pay a platform at the very least $10 for a shoutout or get full services for no charge at all through a different platform like Ainfluencer. The choice is yours.
FAQs
The answer to that question depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re looking to find a limited pool of influencers, pay them for a shoutout + a surcharge of 10% for the platform, then Shoutcart can be worth it. However, there are platforms out there that give you much better value for your money.
Each shoutout cost is determined by the influencer you choose. Remember that ShoutCart’s business does include a buyer fee, which is 10% of what you’re paying the influencer, or 10$ depending on which one is more.
Depends on who you ask. On their website, ShoutCart assures you that they have no fake influencers on their platform. However, many of the users have complained about inactive or fake influencers in their reviews.
