Influencity vs Upfluence: Which Is Better? (2026 Comparison)

TL;DR

Influencity is best for mid-market brands seeking an affordable, AI-powered discovery platform with a flat-rate pricing model, while Upfluence is the premier choice for enterprise e-commerce brands needing deep Shopify integrations and affiliate tracking. If you are struggling with either, you might consider an Influencity alternative or a specialized Upfluence alternative that focuses specifically on short-form video tracking.

Feature Comparison
Feature
Influencity
Upfluence
Content Discovery
UGC Discovery
3/5
4/5
Brand Mention Detection
3/5
3/5
Untagged Content Detection
2/5
2/5
Video Tracking
Short-Form Video Tracking
4/5
4/5
Creator Management
Creator Analytics
4/5
4/5
Rights Management
2/5
3/5
Intelligence & AI
Competitor Intelligence
3/5
3/5
AI Content Tagging
4/5
4/5
Platform & Integrations
Multi-Platform Support
4/5
5/5
Integrations
3/5
5/5
Reporting & Collaboration
Reporting Dashboards
4/5
4/5
Team Collaboration
4/5
4/5
API Access
3/5
4/5
Usability & Support
Ease of Use
3/5
3/5
Customer Support
2/5
4/5

Feature Deep Dive

Influencer Discovery and Database Quality

When comparing the search capabilities of these two giants, the scale is impressive on both sides. Influencity (3/5 for UGC Discovery) boasts a massive database of over 200 million profiles across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter. Their AI-powered search filters allow for granular audience analysis, though users frequently report that search results can feel repetitive for specific niches.

Upfluence (4/5 for UGC Discovery) takes a slightly different approach with its 'Live Capture' technology. Rather than just searching a cold database, Upfluence integrates with your e-commerce store to identify influencers who are already your customers. While their indexed database is smaller (ranging from 4M to 12M high-quality profiles), the data is often more actionable for DTC brands. If you find these databases lacking for your specific niche, you may want to explore Influencity alternatives that offer different scraping methodologies.

Campaign Management and Workflow

Influencity provides a robust end-to-end workflow (4/5 for Short-Form Video Tracking) that includes content calendars and inbox management. It is designed as a high-efficiency automation tool for brands like Samsung and Nestle. However, it lacks deep e-commerce features, making it more of a generalist marketing tool.

Upfluence is widely considered the superior choice for e-commerce-centric campaigns (5/5 for Integrations). It features native integrations for Shopify, WooCommerce, and Amazon, allowing for automated affiliate link generation and commission-free payouts. The trade-off is a steep learning curve; many users find the UI confusing and report that once a campaign is set up, it can be difficult to edit. For teams who find this complexity overwhelming, checking out a ShortsIntel vs Upfluence comparison might reveal a more streamlined approach to content monitoring.

AI Intelligence and Rights Management

Both platforms utilize AI to categorize content, but they focus on different outcomes. Influencity excels at performance analytics and demographic reporting, though users have noted data accuracy issues where reports are off by significant margins. Upfluence focuses its AI, like the Jace AI assistant, on automating outreach responses to improve creator conversion rates.

One area where both platforms show moderate capability is rights management. Upfluence (3/5) offers more structured tools for creator contracts than Influencity (2/5). If your primary goal is securing usage rights for ad creatives, you might find that neither platform is as specialized as a dedicated tool. You can see how these stack up against other market leaders in our Archive vs Influencity breakdown or our Critical Mention vs Upfluence report.

Social Platform Support

Upfluence is the more versatile platform in terms of network coverage, supporting eight platforms including Twitch and Pinterest. Influencity focuses on the 'Big Four' (IG, TT, YT, TW). For agencies managing a diverse portfolio of clients across niche channels, Upfluence’s breadth is a significant advantage. However, for brands focused strictly on viral short-form growth, the depth of tracking on TikTok and Reels is usually more important than the number of platforms supported. To see how other tools handle this focus, view our ShortsIntel vs Influencity head-to-head analysis.

Pricing Comparison
Plan Details
Influencity
Upfluence
Pricing Model
Flat Rate
Custom
Free Tier
Free Trial7 days14 days
Pricing Tiers
Entry Tier
Basic$168/moor $1,344/yr
Starter$478/mo
Mid Tier
Professional$398/moor $3,180/yr
BusinessCustom
Top Tier
Business$698/moor $5,580/yr
Enterprise$2,350/moor $28,200/yr
Annual Cost (5-Person Team)*$1,344$5,736
Hidden Costs
  • No refund policy - strict SaaS billing model
  • Currency not always clearly displayed (USD vs EUR confusion)
  • Annual subscriptions may be pushed without clear pricing
  • Mandatory 12-month contract - no month-to-month option
  • Additional modules may add $199+/month to base price
  • Must request demo for actual quote - prices vary significantly

* Annual cost calculated using entry tier pricing. Per-seat pricing multiplied by 5 users. Actual costs may vary based on specific plan and usage.

Pricing Analysis

The pricing models for Influencity and Upfluence represent two entirely different SaaS philosophies. Influencity operates on a transparent, flat-rate model. Their tiers start at $168/mo for Basic, $398/mo for Professional, and $698/mo for the Business tier. For a team of five people, the Business plan ($5,580/year when billed annually) is the standard choice. This makes it an accessible Influencity alternative for mid-sized teams who want to avoid high-barrier enterprise contracts.

Upfluence, conversely, is an enterprise-level investment. While they offer a Starter tier at roughly $478/mo, most serious e-commerce brands are pushed toward the Enterprise tier, which can cost $2,350/mo ($28,200/year). Furthermore, Upfluence typically requires a mandatory 12-month contract, meaning there is no month-to-month flexibility. This "contract lock-in" is one of the most common complaints among users who felt the software didn't fit their needs after three months.

When calculating the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), Influencity is significantly more affordable for growing agencies. Upfluence’s custom pricing often includes hidden costs for additional modules, which can add $199/month or more to the base price. For brands that are budget-conscious or prefer to test software before committing to a five-figure annual spend, exploring Upfluence alternatives with month-to-month options is highly recommended. For more pricing insights, you can compare any two tools in our database to find the best value for your specific budget.

Who Is Each Product Best For?

Influencity

AI-powered influencer marketing platform for discovery, campaign management, and performance analytics

Best For

  • Mid-sized brands starting with influencer marketing
  • Agencies needing multi-platform coverage
  • Companies wanting AI-powered discovery
  • Brands needing global payment support
  • Teams seeking affordable all-in-one platform

Not Ideal For

  • Enterprise teams needing premium support
  • Brands requiring highly accurate data
  • Users who may need refunds
  • Teams needing extensive customization
  • Companies sensitive to data accuracy
Upfluence

End-to-end influencer marketing platform for discovery, outreach, campaign management, and affiliate tracking

Best For

  • Mid-market to enterprise e-commerce brands
  • Companies with dedicated influencer marketing teams
  • Brands needing deep Shopify/WooCommerce integration
  • Marketing agencies managing multiple client campaigns
  • DTC brands running affiliate programs

Not Ideal For

  • Small businesses and startups (cost-prohibitive)
  • Companies needing month-to-month flexibility
  • Magento-based e-commerce stores
  • Teams without dedicated influencer marketing staff
  • Budget-conscious brands under $28K/year
Use Case Analysis

Choose Influencity if...

You are a mid-market brand or agency that needs a powerful, AI-driven search engine to discover influencers across the major social platforms. It is ideal for teams that prioritize a large database (200M+) and need an end-to-end workflow without the five-figure price tag of enterprise software. It's the right choice if you want to pay a flat monthly rate and don't require deep e-commerce integrations like automated Shopify coupon generation. You can explore more options for this use case in our Influencity alternatives guide.

Choose Upfluence if...

You are a DTC or e-commerce brand with a substantial marketing budget ($30k+/year) and a dedicated team to manage the platform's complexity. It is the best choice for brands that want to turn their own customers into influencers through Shopify or WooCommerce integrations. If your strategy relies heavily on affiliate marketing and you need a platform that handles payouts and commission-free tracking natively, Upfluence is the market leader. To see how it compares to other agency-grade tools, check out Critical Mention vs Upfluence.

Neither might be right if...

You are primarily focused on tracking short-form video content (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) and need to find 'untagged' mentions where creators forget to tag your brand. Both Influencity and Upfluence can struggle with detecting content that doesn't use specific hashtags or tags. Furthermore, if your biggest bottleneck is managing usage rights and repurposing UGC for ads, the generalist features of these platforms may feel cumbersome. In these cases, you might want to browse all alternatives to find a tool specifically built for video social listening and automated rights management.

Consider a Third Option

ShortsIntel
Recommended

Scale creator marketing with data, not grunt work.

While Influencity and Upfluence are excellent for broad influencer management, many modern B2C brands find themselves 'content rich but insight poor.' If your primary challenge isn't finding new influencers, but rather tracking the thousands of short-form videos (TikTok, Reels, Shorts) already being made about your brand, ShortsIntel offers a specialized alternative.

ShortsIntel is purpose-built for the era of short-form UGC. Unlike Influencity and Upfluence, which function as generalist CRMs, ShortsIntel focuses on deep video social listening. It uses AI to detect brand mentions even when a creator forgets to tag you—a gap that often results in brands missing up to 30% of their organic reach. While Influencity (2/5 for Rights Management) offers limited tools for legal compliance, ShortsIntel provides an automated 'magic-link' consent system and high-res asset library, making it much easier to repurpose UGC for ad creatives.

Starting at just $99/month, ShortsIntel is significantly more affordable than Upfluence's enterprise contracts. It provides a more focused experience for teams who don't need a 200M-person database but do need to know exactly what is being said about them in TikTok audio or Instagram captions.

If you find yourself overwhelmed by the manual 'grunt work' of tracking creator content, consider looking at ShortsIntel vs Influencity or ShortsIntel vs Upfluence to see how a specialized UGC-tracking tool can complement your stack. For those currently using older tracking methods, the ShortsIntel vs Archive comparison also highlights key differences in rights management automation.

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

DTC/B2C brands running UGC creator campaigns
Marketing teams drowning in content but starving for insights
Brands needing to track creators who forget hashtags or tags
Teams wanting to build a library of ad creatives from UGC

Starting at $99/mo

7-day free trial

Try ShortsIntel Free

Full Comparison: All Three Options

Feature Comparison
Feature
Influencity
Upfluence
ShortsIntel
Recommended
Content Discovery
UGC Discovery
3/5
4/5
5/5
Brand Mention Detection
3/5
3/5
5/5
Untagged Content Detection
2/5
2/5
5/5
Video Tracking
Short-Form Video Tracking
4/5
4/5
5/5
Creator Management
Creator Analytics
4/5
4/5
4/5
Rights Management
2/5
3/5
5/5
Intelligence & AI
Competitor Intelligence
3/5
3/5
4/5
AI Content Tagging
4/5
4/5
5/5
Platform & Integrations
Multi-Platform Support
4/5
5/5
4/5
Integrations
3/5
5/5
3/5
Reporting & Collaboration
Reporting Dashboards
4/5
4/5
4/5
Team Collaboration
4/5
4/5
3/5
API Access
3/5
4/5
3/5
Usability & Support
Ease of Use
3/5
3/5
4/5
Customer Support
2/5
4/5
4/5

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 28, 2026