Last Updated: May 31th, 2025
What Is Upfluence?
Upfluence is an influencer marketing platform that allows businesses to find and collaborate with influencers across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Twitch, and blogs, while also supporting e-commerce integrations with tools like Shopify and WooCommerce.
In this Upfluence review, we take a closer look at this platform, its features, and whether it is worth it. But before that, let’s see a quick overview of this platform, which includes its history.
Upfluence Overview:
- Founded in 2011,
- It originally started as a blog focused on influencer marketing,
- Evolved from a blog into a comprehensive influencer marketing platform in 2013,
- Upfluence is a New York-based influencer marketing platform,
- It also has offices in Lyon, France, and Mexico City, Mexico.
- Its main features are influencer discovery, campaign management, analytics, affiliate tools, and product seeding for e-commerce brands.
Apart from all the useful features this platform offers to its customers, it isn’t without any downsides.
That’s why we will explore more about this platform in this review to help you decide whether it’s the best option for your business. We will also introduce you to a free Upfluence alternative.
Upfluence Review: Pricing & Features + Best Alternative
In this Upfluence review, we’re going to discuss its features, pricing, and what people say about it. Then, we will introduce you to the best Upfluence alternatives in the market in case this platform doesn’t meet your expectations.
Upfluence Features
The first thing that adds value to an influencer marketing platform is its features. So, let’s see what features Upfluence provides and how you can use them.
1. Influencer Marketplace
This service allows you to find creators using search filters such as platform, niche, gender, location, audience, etc. The automated budget management tool helps you set your budget and find the best match based on it.
If you work with multiple creators, you can manage them in a single dashboard. This allows you to track each influencer, including the number of collaboration invitations sent, the response status, and the progress of price negotiations.
To reach out to influencers, you can use the Upfluence email and contract templates to save time while looking professional.
After the product launches, you can automatically measure the ROI of your influencer marketing through links and sales tracking.
In 2025, Upfluence introduced an AI-powered feature called Jace AI engine, which analyzes influencers based on audience-brand fit and engagement quality, enabling campaigns to go live within hours.
How to Find Influencers on Upfluence?
You should take the following steps to find creators on Upfluence:
- Log in to your Upfluence account.
- Create a campaign in the Creator Marketplace to let influencers apply.
- Or, use search filters (platform, niche, audience, engagement) to find influencers.
- Connect your store (Shopify, etc.) to find customer-influencers.
- Review profiles and contact influencers directly.
However, while Upfluence claims to have over 12 million influencers, it faces some problems:
- Most profiles are pulled from third-party sources like Phyllo, SwaaS, or Auditors.
- These influencers are not part of the platform by choice, and fewer than 0.5% have valid, accessible email addresses.
- This means most outreach is done via cold emails, which often go unanswered or land in spam folders.
- Since the influencers aren’t part of the platform, fewer than 0.5% have real email addresses you can use.
Meanwhile, if you search on Google ‘how many influencers are on Upfluence database’, you will get different answers, which shows this number is not logical and it’s just a claim or promotional text on their website.
Furthermore, although Upfluence offers a free tool on its website to search for influencers, it only allows you to search for influencers based on their locations.
So, the list might be long, and choosing the right influencers can be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive on this platform.
The influencer discovery tool on Ainfluencer is completely free and allows you to search for influencers using 20 filters.
Furthermore, the creators are active and open to brand deals. You can chat with them, send offers, and manage everything—from messaging to payments inside the platform. All at no cost!
2. Campaign Management and Analytics
After finding the influencers, you can use the campaign management tools to run social media campaigns.
With this service, you can:
- Organize influencers into campaigns,
- Scale your initial outreach,
- Negotiate compensation,
- Automate product seeding,
- Track influencer content,
- And keep a ledger of influencer payments.
Once your campaign is live, Upfluence keeps you in the loop with real-time performance tracking. It checks each post’s reach, impressions, engagement, clicks, and conversions (for affiliate links), helping you measure ROI with ease.
But most of the performance analytics are built on outdated or extrapolated data, not real-time activity. This reduces transparency and accuracy when evaluating campaign success.
3. Workflow and Outreach with ChatGPT
With the integrated ChatGPT, Upfluence claims to automate tasks like writing social media captions, brainstorming posting ideas, and sending emails and messages.
But this isn’t true. Although Upfluence integrates AI for some outreach and task automation, its AI engine (Jace) does not handle the full communication cycle. You still need to manually approve applications, manage content drafts, and coordinate deliverables.
Upfluence offers one dashboard for all your workflows, from reviewing the creator’s content to payments. You can also send influencers gifts or products with one click.
Consequently, there will be no need to send them emails or direct messages on different social media platforms.
Simply put, Upfluence simplifies influencer outreach with bulk emails, AI-assisted messaging, team collaboration, and response score tracking.
4. Affiliate & E-commerce Tools
Upfluence isn’t just for influencer marketing campaigns, it also works as an affiliate marketing tool. Wondering how? It creates special discount codes and tracking links for each influencer, making it easy to see which promotions lead to sales.
This is a huge advantage for brands looking to track their return on investment (ROI). With integrations for Shopify, Magento, Klaviyo, and Zapier, you can control influencer-driven sales in real time. Plus, you can reward influencers with commissions or gifts right from the platform!
Note: Magento users cannot generate affiliate links within Upfluence. This reduces tracking accuracy compared to platforms like Shopify, which support more integrated features.
5. Affiliate Management Software
Most advertisers find managing affiliate campaigns challenging. Upfluence offers a full suite of tools for managing Amazon affiliate marketing, letting clients handle every part of their campaigns. It also rewards creators to boost engagement and works well with Amazon systems to increase visibility and sales.
If you’re looking for a platform specifically designed for affiliate management, you should try Algorift.
Algorift makes things easier with real-time reports, customizable tools, and features to discover affiliates. It also streamlines campaign management by automating payments and optimizing landing pages. This platform helps businesses manage affiliates more effectively, engage creators, and boost ROI.
Whether you’re focusing on Amazon campaigns with Upfluence or a broader affiliate network with Algorift, both of these platforms are designed to help you succeed in affiliate marketing.
6. Payments and Contracts
Upfluence facilitates payments through Stripe and PayPal and claims to automate bulk payments.
However, according to Upfluence reviews, Upfluence payment automation and CRM expansion cost $399/year each. So, even if it offers this payment automation, it will not be free.
Upfluence Pricing
Undoubtedly, an Upfluence review would be incomplete without considering its pricing model, which is hidden on its website.
To know about the cost of their plans, you need to set a time and talk with one of their team members, which is not something that most businesses like. It’s always better for them to know the price to be able to compare it with other options.
Key modules available include:
- Search & Contact: Discover and connect with the right creators for your brand using content, audience, and performance insights. Simplify outreach with direct email contacts and manage all communications effortlessly on the platform.
- Campaign Manager: Designed for busy marketers who want to save time through automation, streamline their workflow, and focus on growing campaigns and boosting sales.
- Payments: Streamline and simplify creator payments with transparency. Manage affiliate commissions, powered by Stripe, and execute worldwide creator payments securely.
If you don’t find Upfluence pricing affordable or logical for your business, you can use Upfluence alternative which offers all the features for free.
influencer search, campaign creation, influencer invitations, campaign management and all the analysis and reports you need after you run your campaign are free on Ainfluencer. No need to contact or talk to anyone. Everything is in your hand.
You only need to join Ainfluencer for free.
Upfluence Reviews: What Do Customers Say?
The best way to find how Upfluence is performing is by checking and reading Upfluence reviews. Here is a summary of what customers actually think of this platform:
Overall, Upfluence seems to have a good rating on review websites, as it has 4 stars on G2 and 3.5 stars on Trustpilot. However, despite this rank, it seems that Upfluence customers have faced major problems.
In a recent review on G2, we can see that Chris, a small business owner, says Upfluence hasn’t done anything! Even though he has been using this service for over three months, the tool didn’t help him find the right influencer for collaboration!
David also says this tool hasn’t helped his small business, but that’s only part of the story! He says the Upfluence team has tricked him into signing a yearly contract without telling him!
Another unsatisfied client mentioned the same thing about her small business. She claims that after using Upfluence for six months, they didn’t see any growth in their business or ROI. This suggests that the effectiveness of this platform is being doubted.
Checking the Upfluence reviews, we can see people are not happy with the price of plans and say it’s not worth the money!
According to some other feedback, Upfluence is complicated, expensive, and time-consuming for both users and creators. Even those who signed up struggled with deep links and payments, making influencer relationships harder to manage.
Upfluence allows direct contact with influencers, which is helpful. However, the stats are not always correct, some features are complex, and lists sometimes disappear.
With all the pros and cons that Upfluence has, it depends on your preferences whether to use this platform or not. Meanwhile, we have listed some Upfluence alternatives to give you more options.
Upfluence Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Extensive Influencer Database,
- Advanced Search and Filtering,
- E-commerce Integration,
- All-in-One Campaign Management,
- CRM and Relationship Building,
- AI-Powered Outreach,
- Smooth Payment Processing,
- Support for Multiple Channels,
- Collaborative Tools and Support,
- Continuous Innovation.
Cons:
- High-high Pricing,
- Limited Customization Options,
- Time-Consuming Outreach Process,
- Lack of Transparent Pricing,
- Forced 12-Month Contracts,
- No Free Trial or Plan,
- Difficult Cancellations,
- Mixed ROI,
- Potential Hidden Costs,
- Inactive Influencer Profiles,
- Limited Free Features,
- Overkill for Small Campaigns,
- Difficult to Learn.
With all the pros and cons that Upfluence has, it depends on your preferences whether to use this platform or not. Meanwhile, we have listed some Upfluence alternatives to give you more options.
Ainfluncer: Best Upfluence Alternative
If you’re looking for a simpler, more affordable alternative to Upfluence, Ainfluencer is one of the best options available.
Many users have expressed frustration with Upfluence’s unclear pricing, long-term contracts, and inconsistent ROI, especially for smaller businesses.
Ainfluencer addresses these challenges directly with a flexible, transparent, and entirely free platform.
Ainfluencer is a 100% free end-to-end influencer marketing solution built for brands of all sizes. It supports Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, offering access to a growing network of over 5 million active influencers.
Brands can create campaigns, discover influencers using advanced filters (niche, country, gender, audience type), and send unlimited invitations — all without any subscription fees or limitations.
Key Features of Ainfluencer:
- Unlimited Campaigns & Invitations
Create and manage as many campaigns as you need. There are no limits on offers, invitations, or influencer responses. - Smart Matching & Targeting Tools
Use filters to find ideal creators and let the algorithm recommend the best matches for your brand goals. - Built-in Chat & Collaboration Tools
Manage everything — messaging, negotiation, content review, payments, and feedback — within the platform’s unified inbox. - Content Creation Support
Collaborate with influencers to produce creative, on-brand videos and images for your products or services. - Influencer Insights & Reviews
Evaluate influencers based on previous partnerships, audience quality, and peer reviews. - Shopify Integration
Ainfluencer now supports Shopify integration, allowing brands to sync their stores, manage influencer-driven sales, and streamline promotions directly from their e-commerce dashboard.
| Features | Upfluence | Ainfluencer |
|---|---|---|
| Database of Influencers | +12 M | +5 M |
| Pricing Options | N/A - No Free Trial | Free |
| Influencer Search | ✅ | ✅ |
| Platforms | Amazon, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitch, and WordPress. |
Instagram, Tiktok |
| Number of Invitations | 1 on Basic Plan | Unlimited |
| Number of Campaigns | 1 on Basic Plan | Unlimited |
| Campaign Management | ✅ | ✅ |
| Detailed Insights | ✅ | ✅ |
Other Upfluence Alternatives
There are other influencer marketing tools you can use instead of Upfluence. Check out other Upfluence alternatives:
1. Grin
In the case of managing influencer marketing campaigns, Grin can be one of Upfluence competitors. It focuses on influencer relationships and campaign management for e-commerce brands. Is Grin your best option?
Read Grin Reviews
2. Aspire
Aspire (formerly AspireIQ) positions itself as an all-in-one influencer marketing solution, offering tools for influencer discovery, campaign management, and performance tracking.
It competes directly with platforms like Upfluence by providing strong features tailored to businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises.
Read Aspire Review
3. Traackr
Traackr is a cloud-based influencer marketing and relationship management platform designed for enterprise and mid-sized businesses.
This platform is mostly known for its global reach and advanced analytics. Traackr is particularly well-suited for industries such as beauty, fashion, consumer goods, and technology.
Read Traackr Review
4. Captive8
Captiv8 is another Upfluence alternative that connects brands with influencers across various channels.
It offers a large influencer database, campaign management tools, and analytics. However, it lacks transparency with its pricing.
Read Captiv8 Review
5. StoryClash
Storyclash is an AI-powered platform that helps businesses grow by connecting them with influencers.
It makes finding and working with creators easy, whether you’re running a campaign on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube.
However, it lacks a free plan or free trial, and its pricing is hidden, requiring you to request a demo to learn more about the costs.
Read Storyclash Review
The following video compares the top Upfluence alternatives:
Conclusion
Different platforms are helping you connect with your niche influencers and grow your audience through collaborations, and Upfluence is one of them. In this Upfluence review, we covered its key features, pricing, and what users are saying about the platform. Also, we introduced you to a better tool that is free, and everyone can use it.
Ainfluencer is the best Upfluence alternative with over 5 million influencers on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. This platform simplifies creating content for products, raising brand awareness, and driving sales. It is 100% free and does not charge subscription fees. Want to test this platform?
FAQs
If you want to collaborate with social media influencers or run influencer-based campaigns, Upfluence can help you. Upfluence uses AI to help you find creators in your niche, collaborate, make payments, and analyze the results in the app.
This platform doesn’t provide any free plans (However there is a free extension that helps you view the profile details of influencers). Based on your needs, you can talk with their team and choose a plan. These plans differ in the number of active influencers in a campaign.
There are over 3 million influencer profiles on Upfluence with a collective reach of 82 billion followers. However, not all of these creators are active and you might find many accounts that you can’t reach out to.
No, Upfluence is not a free influencer marketing platform. It is a paid influencer marketing software that offers various pricing plans depending on the services and features you require. It also doesn’t offer any free trial. Instead, it has a demo for its customers to check out its features before purchasing it.
Yes, Upfluence is a legitimate and trusted influencer marketing platform. It’s used by over 1,600 global brands and agencies, including companies like Amazon, Verizon, and Asics. It’s known for its advanced search tools, e-commerce integrations, and campaign management features.
Upfluence uses custom pricing based on your needs. Instead of fixed plans, you choose the tools you need (like influencer search, campaign manager, or payments). To get exact pricing, you must request a quote.
