Archive vs YouScan: Which Is Better? (2026 Comparison)

Understanding the Cost of Archive vs YouScan

Archive and YouScan operate on two very different pricing philosophies. Archive uses a usage-based model that scales with the amount of UGC captured. While their Pro plan starts at $308/month, the total cost can become unpredictable if your brand suddenly goes viral or if you scale your creator program significantly. This lack of transparency on the website—requiring a demo for most pricing—can be a hurdle for smaller teams looking for Archive vs Collabstr style simplicity.

YouScan follows a flat-rate model but at a much higher entry point. Their 'Starter 3' plan is priced at $499/month ($5,988/year billed annually). While this sounds expensive, it includes unlimited users, which is a massive value-add for agencies or large marketing departments. However, it is important to note that many of YouScan's best features, like Visual Insights (image recognition) and Audience Insights, are only available as paid add-ons on their Custom/Unlimited plans.

Total Cost of Ownership for a 5-Person Team

For a team of five users:

• Archive: You would likely be on a Custom plan or a high-tier Pro plan. If your volume is moderate (e.g., 500-1,000 posts/month), you might expect to pay between $400 and $700 per month.
• YouScan: You could stay on the $499/month Starter plan since users are unlimited. However, you would be restricted to only 3 'topics' and 15,000 mentions. If you need the visual AI that makes YouScan famous, you'll likely jump to a custom plan costing upwards of $1,000/month.

Ultimately, Archive is better value for teams focused strictly on UGC ROI, whereas YouScan is better for those who need a centralized 'source of truth' for brand mentions across the entire internet. For those on a tighter budget, finding a YouScan alternative with more transparent tiers is often the first step.

Choose Archive if...

You are a D2C or e-commerce brand that lives and breathes on Instagram and TikTok. Archive is built for the Shopify era of marketing, where the goal is to find every single mention of your product, secure the rights, and turn those videos into high-converting ads. It is the perfect fit for small teams that want to act like a large agency by automating the grunt work of content monitoring. If you've been looking for an Archive alternative because you need better short-form tracking, you'll find Archive is actually the benchmark for that specific use case.

Choose YouScan if...

You are an enterprise brand (like PepsiCo or L'Oreal) that needs deep consumer intelligence. You should choose YouScan if you need to know every time your logo appears in the background of a photo at a music festival, or if you need to monitor sentiment across hundreds of millions of global sources in multiple languages. It is the right choice for PR departments and market researchers who value the 'Insights Copilot' and unlimited user seats for cross-departmental collaboration.

Neither might be right if...

You are a mid-market brand or a growing agency that finds $500/month too steep for social listening, but also finds Archive's volume-based pricing too unpredictable. If you need specialized tracking for TikTok, Reels, and Shorts but want the legal protection of automated rights management without the enterprise bloat, you may want to look at ShortsIntel vs YouScan comparisons to see how a more focused tool can offer better ROI. Both Archive and YouScan can feel 'heavy'—one in terms of cost and the other in terms of UX complexity—so brands needing a faster, more agile setup should look elsewhere.