CreatoRain vs Heepsy for restaurant chains: plans, caps and yearly costs compared

Heepsy in numbers

Heepsy is a creator search tool with outreach, a marketplace and card payments built in. It covers 4 platforms: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn. The homepage says it is “Trusted by 50K+ brands and agencies.” Search filters include niche, location, audience size and engagement rate.

The pricing page shows four public plans. Each paid plan has a yearly and a monthly price:

• Free: $0 a month. It allows 500 search results and 10 advanced profiles a month, and 1 project.
• Starter: $69 a month billed yearly, or $89 billed monthly. It allows 5,000 results, 100 advanced profiles and 300 outreach emails a month.
• Plus: $149 a month billed yearly, or $199 billed monthly. It allows 25,000 results, 500 advanced profiles and 500 mailing sequences a month.
• Advanced: $229 a month billed yearly, or $299 billed monthly. It allows 100,000 results, 2,000 advanced profiles and 2,000 mailing sequences a month.

Creator tracking is capped by plan as well: 5 on Starter, 100 on Plus and 400 on Advanced. Paid plans have unlimited projects. Large teams can ask for a custom plan with its own contract terms and an SLA.

Yearly billing cuts $20 a month on Starter, $50 on Plus and $70 on Advanced. Over 12 months that is $240, $600 and $840. The page labels the yearly option “Save 25%.” Worked out from its own prices, the cut is about 22% on Starter, 25% on Plus and 23% on Advanced.

There is no annual lock-in. A brand can cancel any time and keep access to the end of the billing period. The free plan has no time limit and needs no card.

What a restaurant chain pays on each

A Heepsy plan pays for search and outreach. Creator fees are separate, and the brand pays them, by card inside Heepsy or by its own means. Inside Heepsy, funds are held for “a short window” and released once the work is delivered. Work not delivered as agreed earns the brand a proportional refund. Payments made outside Heepsy do not get that cover. The payments page lists no fee rate.

A year of Plus on monthly billing comes to $2,388. Advanced on monthly billing comes to $3,588. On yearly billing, the same two plans cost $1,788 and $2,748. None of those sums pays a creator.

CreatoRain sells the finished video rather than access to a database. It charges $300 a video, the creator’s pay included, with no monthly fee or minimum.

Where CreatoRain fits a chain better

Heepsy hands a brand the tools, and the brand does the work. A marketer runs the searches, sends the emails and pays each creator. With CreatoRain, the restaurant sends its locations and does not send a single email. CreatoRain’s in-house team finds, invites and pays the creators, and follows up until each video is posted.

The service is also shaped around restaurants. CreatoRain is a done-for-you restaurant influencer marketing service for chains and franchises. It books food creators from its network. Creators book their own visit, and the restaurant hosts it. Heepsy’s homepage, marketplace and payments pages do not describe restaurant visits.

Rollouts differ too. A location can join a running campaign any day. On Heepsy, every added location draws on one set of monthly caps for results, profiles and emails.

Where Heepsy wins

Heepsy costs nothing to start. The Free plan costs nothing and has no time limit. Starter is $69 a month on yearly billing. A brand can also post a campaign to the marketplace and let opted-in creators apply.

Its reports go further than visit tracking. Heepsy reports cover output, reach, engagement, cost, efficiency and revenue. It also connects to Shopify and WooCommerce. CreatoRain reports replies, visits booked by location and status, and videos submitted and approved. It does not report views or sales.