Collabstr review: a free plan with a 10 per cent fee
Collabstr is the fastest way to hire a creator without a contract, and the percentage fee is where the real cost sits. Our check of collabstr.com on 11 June 2026 recorded a free Basic plan carrying a 10 per cent marketplace fee, Pro at $299 a month and Premium at $399 with the fee halved to 5 per cent. That check is four months old.
The short answer
Buy Collabstr Buy Collabstr Premium if you commission creator work every month and the cut from 10 per cent to 5 per cent saves you more than the subscription costs. Premium was $399 a month, or about $199 a month billed annually, when we checked collabstr.com/pricing on 11 June 2026. The annual figure our check recorded is approximate, so treat it as a rough rate.
Skip it Skip the paid tiers if you hire two or three creators a year. Basic was free on the same June 2026 check, and a 10 per cent fee on a handful of deals costs far less than $299 a month for Pro. Nothing in the paid tiers helps you until the fee itself becomes the biggest line on the invoice.
Where Collabstr fits
Collabstr fits the brand that wants to hire a named creator this week rather than build a programme. You browse listed creators, see what each one charges for a deliverable, pay into escrow and receive the content. There is no contract, no onboarding call and no minimum, which is a different purchase from the creator relationship platforms that sit alongside it in this category.
The free Basic plan is the entry point, and it is not free in the way a trial is free. Our 11 June 2026 check recorded Basic at $0 a month with browsing access to the listed creator pool, and a 10 per cent marketplace fee on every transaction. So the cost is proportional to what you spend on creators, not to the software.
Pro at $299 a month was the first paid tier on that check, adding campaign posting so creators apply to you, advanced search filters, chat before hiring and 20 audience reports. The fee stays at 10 per cent on Pro. Paid monthly that is $3,588 across a year; our check recorded an approximate annual rate of about $149 a month, which works out at about $1,788 for the year, a saving of about $1,800.
Premium at $399 a month is the tier that changes the economics rather than the feature list. Our check recorded unlimited campaigns, 50 audience reports, priority support and the marketplace fee reduced to 5 per cent. Paid monthly that is $4,788 a year, and the approximate annual rate of about $199 a month comes to about $2,388, a saving of about $2,400.
The 5 per cent reduction is worth doing the arithmetic on, because it is the only part of Collabstr pricing that depends on your spend. A month in which you commission about $3,980 of creator work costs about $398 in fees at 10 per cent and about $199 at 5 per cent. The $199 difference is what Premium costs on its approximate annual rate, so that is roughly the monthly creator spend at which Premium pays for itself. At Premium's full monthly price of $399 the same break-even arrives nearer $7,980 of monthly spend.
Against the rest of the category Collabstr is cheap at the bottom and mid-priced at the top. Modash starts at $199 a month on Essentials, verified 14 June 2026, and is a discovery database rather than a hiring marketplace. Grin starts at $399 a month on Lite, verified 11 June 2026, and manages ongoing creator relationships. Passionfroot charges creators 5 per cent on organic deals and 15 per cent on network deals, verified 13 June 2026, and sits on the other side of the table. Several others in this category, including CreatorIQ, Aspire and Klear, publish no rate card at all, so the only way to learn their price is to ask for a quote.
All of the Collabstr figures above come from a single check on 11 June 2026 and have not been re-verified since. Four months is long enough for a tier to be renamed, for a fee percentage to move or for an annual discount to be withdrawn, and the approximate annual rates are the weakest part of the record. Read the live rate card before you commit, and use the creator CRM and sponsorship category to see what else is in the field.
Collabstr pricing
Collabstr charges in two places at once: a monthly subscription and a percentage of every transaction. The figures below come from our check of collabstr.com/pricing on 11 June 2026 and have not been re-verified since, so confirm them before you buy.
| Plan | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $0/mo | Browse the listed creator pool. 10 per cent marketplace fee on every transaction |
| Pro | $299/mo | About $149/mo billed annually, an approximate figure. Campaign posting, advanced filters, chat before hiring, 20 audience reports. Fee stays at 10 per cent |
| Premium | $399/mo | About $199/mo billed annually, an approximate figure. Unlimited campaigns, 50 audience reports, priority support, marketplace fee reduced to 5 per cent |
Nothing here is quoted by a salesperson, but four things still decide what Collabstr costs you:
- How much you spend on creators each month, because the fee is a percentage of it. At 10 per cent, about $3,980 of creator work costs about $398 in fees on its own.
- Which fee percentage you are on. Basic and Pro were both recorded at 10 per cent on 11 June 2026 and only Premium at $399 a month reduced it to 5 per cent.
- Whether you need campaign posting. That feature arrives on Pro at $299 a month and is the difference between searching for creators and having them apply to you.
- Billing period. Our check recorded approximate annual rates of about $149 a month on Pro and about $199 on Premium, roughly half the monthly prices, which is a large enough gap to verify before prepaying a year.
Collabstr pricing against the rest of the category
Collabstr is the only tool in this category we track with a genuinely free working tier, and that is its strongest pricing argument. Modash was $199 a month on Essentials and $499 on Performance when we checked on 14 June 2026. Grin was $399 a month on Lite and $699 on Essentials, verified 11 June 2026. #paid was $499 a month on its Just Content brand plan, verified 10 June 2026. By contrast Upfluence, Impact.com and Influencer.com do not publish brand pricing we could verify, so we do not quote a figure for them anywhere on this site.
Collabstr billing terms worth knowing
The fee, not the subscription, is the term that decides your bill.
- Free plan
- Basic at $0 a month with a 10 per cent marketplace fee per transaction, as of 11 June 2026.
- Pro
- $299 per month, or about $149 per month billed annually. About $3,588 or $1,788 across a year.
- Premium
- $399 per month, or about $199 per month billed annually. About $4,788 or $2,388 across a year.
- Marketplace fee
- 10 per cent on Basic and Pro, 5 per cent on Premium, on our 11 June 2026 check.
- Premium break-even
- The 5 per cent saving equals Premium's approximate annual rate at about $3,980 of monthly creator spend, and its $399 monthly price at about $7,980.
- Contracts
- Our check recorded no contract and no minimum commitment on any tier.
- Check date
- 11 June 2026. Not re-verified since, so confirm before buying.
Two of these figures, the annual rates, were recorded as approximate rather than exact, and all of them are four months old. If the live rate card differs, the rate card is right and this page is behind. Our creator tool cost calculators will total a creator budget once you have today's percentages.
What Collabstr gives up
Reporting is thin. Our snapshot records audience reports as a counted allowance, 20 on Pro and 50 on Premium, which tells you Collabstr treats creator analysis as a metered extra rather than a dashboard you live in. If you need campaign attribution, this is not the tool.
The fee never goes away. Even on Premium at $399 a month you are paying 5 per cent of every transaction on top of the subscription, so a brand that scales its creator spend keeps paying more for software that does not change.
Campaign management is limited at every tier. You can post a campaign from Pro upwards and collect applications, but approval flows, content licensing and multi-brand structures are the things the expensive platforms in this category sell, and they are not here.
There are no commerce integrations to tie creator work to revenue. If you need product seeding, affiliate links and sales attribution in one place, Grin at $399 a month on Lite, verified 11 June 2026, is built for that and Collabstr is not.
The creator pool is a marketplace, which means it is opt-in. Everyone you can hire chose to list themselves, so the brands that want to approach creators who have never heard of them need a discovery database such as Modash, which was $199 a month on Essentials when we checked it on 14 June 2026.
The annual prices we recorded are approximate. Our 11 June 2026 check wrote them down as about $149 and about $199 a month rather than as exact list prices, so do not budget to the dollar off this page.
Our pricing evidence is four months old, and on a product whose cost is a percentage that is a real risk. A fee that moved from 10 per cent to 12 per cent would change your bill more than any subscription change, and we would rather state the age of the check than present June figures as current.
How Collabstr compares
The three tools below are the ones brands weigh against Collabstr, and the axis is hiring speed against programme depth. Each price is that vendor's own published rate with the date we checked it, and all four dates sit in June 2026. The wider field, including the vendors that publish nothing, is in the creator CRM and sponsorship category.
| Tool | Best for | Price | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collabstr | Hiring individual creators quickly with no contract | Free Basic, $299/mo Pro, $399/mo Premium (June 2026) | A 10 per cent fee on every deal, 5 per cent only on Premium |
| Modash | Finding and vetting creators who never listed themselves | $199/mo Essentials, $499/mo Performance (June 2026) | A discovery database, so hiring and paying happen elsewhere |
| Grin | Running an ongoing programme tied to an online store | $399/mo Lite, $699/mo Essentials (June 2026) | Active creator caps, and the top tiers are quote-only |
| #paid | Brands that want vetted creators to pitch them | $499/mo Just Content, $999/mo Advanced (June 2026) | The cheapest brand plan costs more than Collabstr Premium |
What to test on the Collabstr free plan
Basic was free on our 11 June 2026 check, which means you can test the thing that matters, the quality of the creators you can hire today, before paying anything. Confirm the fee percentage first, because our figures are four months old.
- Check the current marketplace fee on collabstr.com/pricing. We recorded 10 per cent on Basic in June 2026 and this single number will decide most of your cost.
- Search for five creators in your niche and read their listed rates. If the pool cannot staff one campaign, no subscription tier fixes that.
- Hire one creator on the free plan and pay the 10 per cent fee once. The brief, the delivery and the escrow release are the whole product.
- Add up what you expect to spend on creators each month. At 10 per cent, about $3,980 of creator work carries about $398 of fees.
- Compare that figure with Premium at $399 a month, where the fee drops to 5 per cent. On the approximate annual rate of about $199, the saving covers the subscription at around $3,980 of monthly spend.
- Confirm the annual rates before prepaying. Our check recorded them as approximate, about $149 a month on Pro and about $199 on Premium, which is roughly half the monthly price.
- If you need a creator database rather than a marketplace, price Modash at $199 a month on Essentials, verified 14 June 2026, instead of upgrading here.
Collabstr questions buyers ask
How much does Collabstr cost per month?
Collabstr has a free Basic plan with a 10% marketplace fee per transaction. The Pro plan costs $299/month ($149/month annually) and adds campaign posting, advanced filters, and 20 audience reports. The Premium plan costs $399/month ($199/month annually) and includes unlimited campaigns, a reduced 5% marketplace fee, and 50 audience reports. You also pay a marketplace fee on top of creator rates on all plans.
Does Collabstr have a free plan?
Yes. The free Basic plan lets you browse 200,000+ creators, see their rates, and hire directly. The catch is a 10% marketplace fee on every transaction and no access to campaign posting, advanced filters, creator chat before hiring, or audience reports. It's enough to test the platform and make your first few hires, but you'll feel the limitations quickly if you're hiring regularly.
Who is Collabstr best for?
Collabstr works best for small-to-mid-sized brands and marketing teams hiring individual creators for sponsored content, UGC, or product reviews. It's ideal if you want transparent pricing, no contracts, and a self-serve experience. It's not the right fit for enterprise brands running large-scale programs, DTC brands needing e-commerce attribution, or agencies managing dozens of campaigns simultaneously.
Collabstr vs Grin: which is better?
They serve different markets. Collabstr is a self-serve marketplace starting at $0/month, designed for brands hiring individual creators without long-term commitments. Grin starts at $399/month month-to-month and is built for e-commerce brands that need Shopify integration, affiliate tracking, product seeding, and full CRM management. Choose Collabstr for quick, affordable creator hiring. Choose Grin if you need to tie creator partnerships to actual revenue.
What platforms does Collabstr support?
Collabstr's marketplace includes creators on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter/X, Twitch, and Amazon. You can also find UGC-only creators who produce branded content for your channels without posting to their own. Search filters let you find creators by platform, so you can browse specifically for TikTok creators or Instagram influencers without sifting through irrelevant results.
Is Collabstr good for finding UGC creators?
Yes, and it's one of Collabstr's strongest categories. The marketplace has a dedicated UGC section where creators specialize in producing ad-style content that brands can repurpose across their own channels. Each creator sets and publishes their own rate, so you see the price before you book. For brands that need short-form video ads without hiring a production company, it's a practical option.
How does Collabstr's escrow payment work?
When you hire a creator, Collabstr holds your payment in escrow until the work is delivered. Once the creator submits content, you have 48 hours to approve it, request revisions, or open a dispute. Payment is released to the creator only after you approve. This protects brands from paying upfront and getting low-quality work or no delivery, and it gives creators confidence they'll be paid for completed work.
Can teams use Collabstr together?
Collabstr is designed primarily for individual users or small teams. There are no multi-seat plans, role-based permissions, or content approval workflows built into the platform. If your team has multiple people hiring creators, you'll coordinate outside of Collabstr. For teams needing collaborative features, Grin, Aspire, or CreatorIQ offer shared workspaces, approval pipelines, and team management tools.
Is Collabstr worth the money?
On the free Basic plan, Collabstr is worth it if you're making occasional hires and the 10% marketplace fee is acceptable. Pro at $299/month earns its keep if the campaign posting, advanced filters, and audience reports save you more time than they cost. Premium at $399/month is $100 more than Pro and halves the marketplace fee from 10% to 5%, so that extra $100 pays for itself once your monthly creator spend passes $2,000, because 5% of $2,000 is $100. Prices verified 11 June 2026. It's not worth it if you need advanced analytics or e-commerce integrations.
Can I cancel Collabstr anytime?
Yes. Collabstr has no long-term contracts on any plan. You can cancel your Pro or Premium subscription at any time through your account settings. If you're on an annual plan, you'll retain access through the end of your billing period. There are no cancellation fees or lock-in penalties, which makes it significantly more flexible than CreatorIQ and other platforms that still require annual commitments.