Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover giveaways & referrals. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Gleam | Viral Loops | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $29 | From $35 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | None | 14 days |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Everything, in an open format |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Not stated | Web |
| Covers | Giveaways & Referrals, Social Media Management | Giveaways & Referrals, Affiliate & Referral |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Giveaways with the rules enforced and the draw run
Gleam runs the mechanics of a giveaway: the entry actions, one entry per person, and a draw you can show your working on afterwards. Competitions is sold on its own, and the lead capture, rewards and gallery apps are each priced again. A free account runs a basic campaign, which is the cheap way to learn whether a giveaway brings you followers who stay.
Our note
Buy the month you need and cancel it. A giveaway brings followers who came for the prize, which makes it worth running only when the prize is something nobody outside your audience would want.
Only on this side
Referral programs from templates, per campaign
Viral Loops ships templates for the referral mechanics that already worked for somebody else, a waiting list, a milestone giveaway, a straight refer-a-friend, and lets you run one without building it. Participants import and export as a list, so it plugs into whatever you already send email with. Pricing rises with the number of participants rather than with features.
Our note
The ten-participant cap on the trial is the thing to plan around: it proves the mechanics work and tells you nothing about scale. Against UpViral this is cheaper at the entry tier and gives away less of the API.
Only on this side
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.