HookSounds vs Uppbeat Comparison 2026
Both cover music licensing and stock footage & assets. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Royalty-free music written in house
Music for video with a free tier that clears claims
At a glance
- Uppbeat starts cheaper, at $6.99.
- Only Uppbeat has a free tier.
Side by side
HookSounds | Uppbeat | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $9.99 | From $6.99 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | None |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
HookSounds
Royalty-free music written in house
HookSounds writes its own catalogue rather than aggregating other people's, which keeps it smaller than the big libraries and makes the licensing simpler to reason about. Music, sound effects and intros are covered by one subscription, cleared for as long as the track stays in the video. The cheapest tier is for personal work and does not cover clients. Anybody who needs a specific genre in depth will find the size a limit.
Our note
Read the licence scope before the price, because the cheapest tier excludes client work and that is the line most freelancers cross without noticing. Against Epidemic Sound or Artlist this is smaller and cheaper, and the trade is exactly that.
Uppbeat
Music for video with a free tier that clears claims
Uppbeat licenses music for YouTube and social video, and its free plan is three downloads a month rather than a trial that runs out. Channels are safelisted so a claim does not arrive a week after publishing. The catalogue is smaller than Epidemic Sound's, which is the trade being made for a bill under ten dollars.
Our note
The cheap alternative to Epidemic Sound, and the catalogue is where you pay for it. If a track has to be one nobody else is using, this is the wrong library; if it has to fit and clear, it is most of the value at a third of the price.
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.