Heepsy vs Tubular Labs: Which Is Better? (2026 Comparison)
Heepsy and Tubular Labs serve very different ends of the market: Heepsy is a budget-friendly influencer discovery tool for SMBs, while Tubular Labs is an enterprise-grade video intelligence platform for global media brands. If you need to find influencers quickly on a budget, choose Heepsy; if you need massive cross-platform video data at scale, choose Tubular Labs. For those looking for a specialized middle ground focused on UGC tracking, ShortsIntel vs Heepsy is a comparison worth exploring, or you can browse other Heepsy alternatives.
| Feature | Heepsy | Tubular Labs |
|---|---|---|
| Content Discovery | ||
UGC Discovery | 3/5 | 2/5 |
Brand Mention Detection | 2/5 | 3/5 |
Untagged Content Detection | 2/5 | 1/5 |
| Video Tracking | ||
Short-Form Video Tracking | 3/5 | 4/5 |
| Creator Management | ||
Creator Analytics | 4/5 | 5/5 |
Rights Management | 2/5 | 1/5 |
| Intelligence & AI | ||
Competitor Intelligence | 2/5 | 4/5 |
AI Content Tagging | 3/5 | 5/5 |
| Platform & Integrations | ||
Multi-Platform Support | 3/5 | 4/5 |
Integrations | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Reporting & Collaboration | ||
Reporting Dashboards | 3/5 | 4/5 |
Team Collaboration | 3/5 | 3/5 |
API Access | 2/5 | 4/5 |
| Usability & Support | ||
Ease of Use | 5/5 | 2/5 |
Customer Support | 3/5 | 3/5 |
Feature Deep Dive
Content and Creator Discovery
Heepsy excels at the top-of-funnel influencer search. With a database of over 11 million influencers, it provides granular filters for location, engagement, and demographics. It earns a 3/5 for UGC discovery because its primary focus is identifying people, not necessarily tracking every video where your brand appears. Tubular Labs, conversely, focuses on the video itself. With 15 billion videos indexed, it offers a broader look at content trends but is less optimized for the 'handshake' phase of influencer marketing, earning a 2/5 for UGC discovery but a massive 5/5 for video analytics. For teams specifically needing to find untagged brand mentions, ShortsIntel vs Tubular Labs reveals how a specialized tool can bridge the gap between these two approaches.
Video Tracking and Intelligence
Tubular Labs is the undisputed heavyweight in social video measurement. Its ContentGraph AI classifies videos into over 1 million categories, providing a standardized rating system across YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. Heepsy offers basic performance metrics and fake follower detection (4/5 for creator analytics), but it lacks the deep historical data and cross-platform unified metrics that Tubular provides. However, Heepsy’s daily data refresh keeps its metrics current for active campaigns. If you find Tubular's enterprise focus too broad, you might consider a Brandwatch vs Tubular Labs comparison to see how other social listening tools stack up.
Rights and Campaign Management
Neither tool is a full-service CRM. Heepsy offers Shopify integration for sales tracking on its Advanced plan, which is a significant win for D2C brands. Tubular Labs is focused almost entirely on intelligence and benchmarking, offering virtually no tools for creator outreach or UGC rights management. Heepsy is slightly more functional here for small teams, though still limited. For those who need to legally clear content for ads, comparing Archive vs Heepsy might highlight tools that prioritize rights management over pure discovery.
Usability and Interface
Heepsy is designed for the self-serve user, earning a 5/5 for Ease of Use. Its interface is intuitive, and most users can find their first list of influencers within minutes. Tubular Labs has a much steeper learning curve (2/5 for Ease of Use) due to the sheer volume of data and the complexity of its reporting products (Intelligence, Viewpoint, and DealMaker). Teams requiring a more streamlined experience often look for a Heepsy alternative that offers modern UI without the enterprise complexity. You can find more head-to-head data in our all ShortsIntel comparisons directory.
| Plan Details | Heepsy | Tubular Labs |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Flat Rate | Custom |
| Free Tier | ||
| Free Trial | 14 days | |
| Pricing Tiers | ||
| Entry Tier | Free$0/moor $0/yr | Plus$1,500/mo |
| Mid Tier | Starter$89/moor $828/yr | Premium$3,500/mo |
| Top Tier | Plus$249/moor $2,388/yr | EnterpriseCustom |
| Annual Cost (5-Person Team)* | $0 | $18,000 |
| Hidden Costs |
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* Annual cost calculated using entry tier pricing. Per-seat pricing multiplied by 5 users. Actual costs may vary based on specific plan and usage.
The pricing gap between these two platforms is vast. Heepsy uses a flat-rate model starting at $89/mo (billed monthly), with an annual Starter plan effectively costing $69/mo. For a 5-person marketing team, Heepsy is highly affordable, as their tiers typically support multiple users at the Plus ($249/mo) and Advanced ($369/mo) levels. The total cost of ownership for a 5-person team on Heepsy’s top tier would be approximately $4,428 per year.
Tubular Labs operates on a custom enterprise model that is significantly more expensive. Their 'Plus' tier starts at $1,500/mo, and their 'Premium' tier jumps to $3,500/mo. Critically, Tubular Labs often uses seat-based pricing, meaning each additional user adds to the cost. For a 5-person team, even on the entry-level Plus plan, you are looking at a minimum investment of $18,000 per year, likely much higher depending on the number of seats and API requirements.
For SMBs, Tubular Labs is often price-prohibitive. If the enterprise costs are a dealbreaker, checking out Tubular Labs alternatives is a necessary step. Conversely, while Heepsy is affordable, many of its best features—like sales tracking and advanced demographics—are locked behind the $369/mo tier. For a middle-ground budget, ShortsIntel vs Heepsy provides a look at how specialized tracking can offer better ROI than general discovery.
Who Is Each Product Best For?
Influencer discovery and analytics platform for finding and vetting social media influencers
Best For
- Small to mid-sized businesses and startups
- Marketing agencies managing multiple campaigns
- D2C/eCommerce brands (especially Shopify)
- Entrepreneurs testing influencer marketing
- Budget-conscious SMBs wanting basic influencer search
Not Ideal For
- Enterprise teams needing advanced features
- B2B brands
- Brands needing micro-influencers (<5K followers)
- Users requiring AI-powered automation
- Teams needing deep analytics and reporting
Social video intelligence and analytics platform — cross-platform video measurement, creator benchmarking, audience insights, and trending content discovery across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch
Best For
- Enterprise media companies needing cross-platform video measurement
- Broadcasters and publishers benchmarking video performance at scale
- Brands requiring audience intelligence across social video platforms
- Agencies comparing creator performance across 40M+ accounts
- Market research teams analyzing video content trends and categories
- Ad sales teams using video data to inform partnership decisions
Not Ideal For
- Small businesses and individual creators (enterprise pricing)
- Teams needing UGC tracking and content rights management
- Brands focused specifically on short-form video analytics
- Companies wanting transparent, self-serve pricing
- Teams needing quick setup without enterprise onboarding
- Organizations requiring text-based social listening beyond video
Choose Heepsy if...
You are a small to mid-sized D2C brand or a boutique agency that needs to find and vet influencers quickly. Heepsy is ideal for teams who want a self-serve tool with powerful filters for location and authenticity without committing to a five-figure annual contract. It is the better choice for those who need a Heepsy alternative that is budget-friendly and easy to use on day one.
Choose Tubular Labs if...
You are an enterprise media company, a broadcaster, or a global brand that needs to benchmark video performance across entire industries. If you require deep audience behavior models and a unified view of social video across five major platforms, Tubular Labs is the market leader. It is built for research teams who need to inform high-stakes ad sales and partnership decisions.
Neither might be right if...
You are specifically focused on tracking User Generated Content (UGC) and short-form video performance for your own brand. Heepsy is great for finding people, and Tubular is great for industry trends, but neither is purpose-built for the day-to-day monitoring of content creators who mention your brand without tagging you. In this case, you may want to look for a more specialized Tubular Labs alternative that focuses on social listening and content tracking rather than just database search.
Consider a Third Option
Scale creator marketing with data, not grunt work.
If Heepsy feels too basic and Tubular Labs feels too enterprise-heavy, ShortsIntel offers a specialized third path. While Heepsy helps you find creators and Tubular helps you analyze the whole video market, ShortsIntel is built to track and analyze the UGC actually being made about your brand.
ShortsIntel fills the gap that both competitors miss: untagged content detection. While Heepsy and Tubular Labs often rely on hashtags and direct tags, ShortsIntel uses AI to detect brand mentions in audio and visual frames, often finding 30% more content than traditional tools. For brands running high-volume UGC campaigns, this is the difference between seeing 70% of your impact and seeing the full 100%.
Furthermore, ShortsIntel includes automated rights management, a feature noticeably absent from Tubular Labs and only basic in Heepsy. This allows you to turn discovered UGC into legal ad creative with a single magic link. Priced from $99/month, it offers enterprise-level AI insights at a price point accessible to the SMBs that typically use Heepsy.
If you're currently weighing these options, consider how ShortsIntel vs Archive or ShortsIntel vs Brandwatch might better fit your specific need for short-form video tracking. You can also browse all alternatives to see how we compare to the broader market and find the tool that scales with your data, not your grunt work.
Why Choose ShortsIntel
- Purpose-built for short-form video (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) unlike general social listening tools
- Detects untagged content that competitors miss (claims 30% more coverage)
- AI-powered content tagging analyzes videos frame-by-frame for format, visual elements, and trends
- Automated rights management with magic-link consent system and audit trails
Best For
Starting at $99/mo
7-day free trial
Full Comparison: All Three Options
| Feature | Heepsy | Tubular Labs | ShortsIntel Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content Discovery | |||
UGC Discovery | 3/5 | 2/5 | 5/5 |
Brand Mention Detection | 2/5 | 3/5 | 5/5 |
Untagged Content Detection | 2/5 | 1/5 | 5/5 |
| Video Tracking | |||
Short-Form Video Tracking | 3/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 |
| Creator Management | |||
Creator Analytics | 4/5 | 5/5 | 4/5 |
Rights Management | 2/5 | 1/5 | 5/5 |
| Intelligence & AI | |||
Competitor Intelligence | 2/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
AI Content Tagging | 3/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 |
| Platform & Integrations | |||
Multi-Platform Support | 3/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
Integrations | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Reporting & Collaboration | |||
Reporting Dashboards | 3/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
Team Collaboration | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
API Access | 2/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 |
| Usability & Support | |||
Ease of Use | 5/5 | 2/5 | 4/5 |
Customer Support | 3/5 | 3/5 | 4/5 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to try ShortsIntel?
Track UGC, discover creators, and monitor brand mentions across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts.
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Last updated: January 30, 2026