Read off Cohley's plans page and pricing FAQ

Cohley Reviews and Pricing, what the Cohley license and creators cost a brand

Cohley sells a quoted platform license, a 3-month paid Pilot and an Annual plan with a $6,000 creator credit. Creators are paid on top, about $250 a video. Here is how the bill adds up in year one, what the few public reviews say, and the license price below which Cohley is the cheaper buy.

Start a brief See our published prices

Month to month from $49. Escrow on every hire, charged only when you approve the video.

What a Cohley year is made of

Annual plan

Platform License unlimited briefs, no seat limits: quoted after demo
Creator pay, UGC video set by you in each brief: ~$250
Typical brief 10 to 15 creators, 10 to 20 assets: $2,500 to $3,000
Annual creator credit: minus $6,000
Cohley's cut of creator pay: 0%

The short answer

Cohley pricing has two parts: a Platform License that Cohley quotes privately and creator compensation you set, about $250 per UGC video. You start with a 3-month Pilot paid upfront (there is no free trial) or an Annual plan that includes a $6,000 creator credit. Cohley takes no cut of creator pay. Public reviews are scarce: one 3.0 rating on Capterra. For ten videos a month, Cohley costs less than a $149 monthly marketplace plan only if the license is under about $9,900 a year.

How Cohley pricing works

Cohley's FAQ puts it plainly: the license and the creators are always separate costs. That is a cleaner structure than most marketplaces, which add a percentage to every order. The catch is that only one of the two numbers is public.

Part one

Platform License

Quoted after a demo, scaled to how much content you plan to make. Covers unlimited briefs, all integrations, perpetual rights on every asset, a customer success manager and Finn, Cohley's AI assistant for matching and brief drafting.

● Pilot, 3 months, paid upfront
● Annual, 12 months, $6,000 creator credit
● Custom for multi-brand and enterprise

Part two

Creator compensation

A rate you set in each brief before creators apply, so there is no negotiation. Creators are paid only after you approve the content. You can preload a balance, be invoiced per brief, or pay by ACH or card.

$250

per UGC video

$50

per UGC photo

Cohley markup

What Cohley costs in year one, and the license that breaks even

Since the license is private, the useful number is the ceiling: the most Cohley's Annual license can cost before a monthly marketplace plan is cheaper for the same videos. Both sides pay creators $250 a video. Cohley subtracts its $6,000 credit and adds the license. We add our plan and our fee.

Ask for the quote with this table open. If the license lands under the ceiling for your volume, Cohley is the cheaper buy and you should take it.

UGC videos a month	Creator pay a year	Our plan and fee a year	Cohley license ceiling
4	$12,000	Plus, $2,628	$8,628 ($719 a month)
10	$30,000	Plus, $3,888	$9,888 ($824 a month)
20	$60,000	Pro, $8,988	$14,988 ($1,249 a month)

Our side on monthly billing: Plus $149 a month plus 7%, Pro $499 plus 5% (Pro is needed past ten hires a month). On our yearly billing each ceiling drops by $894 on Plus and $2,994 on Pro. Assumes the full $6,000 Cohley credit is spent inside the year.

$972

The Pilot ceiling

Three months at ten videos a month cost us $972 in plan and fees. The Pilot carries no creator credit, so a Pilot quote above $972 for the quarter is the more expensive way to test.

Cohley's fee on creators

Cohley's real advantage. Our 7% on $30,000 of creator pay is $2,100 a year. That is why its ceiling is several thousand dollars, not zero.

12 months

The commitment

Annual is a year. The Pilot is a quarter paid upfront. Our plans cancel at the end of any month, which matters if creative testing stalls.

Cohley Managed Services, six to eight weeks per brief

For teams without time to run briefs, Cohley's team does it. Its FAQ lays out five stages. The bars below are drawn to the longest stated duration, which is why the reporting stage looks long: it runs after the content is already delivered.

Kick off

1 week

KPIs, creative strategy, timeline and vetting criteria agreed.

Creator selection

1 week

Cohley recruits and vets creators for your approval, handles contracts and ships product.

Creator briefing

2 to 3 days

A mandatory live briefing call; Cohley reviews each creator's concept.

Content completion

2 to 3 weeks

First drafts filmed and submitted. Cohley manages one round of edits.

Reporting and insights

2 to 5 weeks

Wrap-up call, results analysis, recommendations for the next brief.

If you are weighing a managed service against doing it yourself, the same trade-off applies to UGC agencies. Our UGC agency alternative page prints the published agency packages ($4,500 for 12 videos and up) next to buying from creators directly.

Cohley reviews, what the public record shows

Very little, and that is the honest finding. Cohley sells to marketing teams through demos and annual contracts, and those buyers rarely write public reviews. Here is every rating we could confirm.

3.0

Capterra, from 1 review (2022)

Trustpilot reviews on cohley.com

What the reviewer praised

Easy campaigns, a friendly interface and customer service scored 5 out of 5. Cohley's hands-on onboarding is also what independent write-ups mention first.

What the reviewer flagged

Analytics too shallow for advanced influencer work and a slow interface when browsing content. Cohley replied that Instagram and TikTok analytics have since been rebuilt.

Who uses it

The homepage shows consumer brands such as Burt's Bees, Braun, BVLGARI and '47. Its FAQ puts retail launches, product seeding and text reviews next to UGC.

What it means for a buyer

Do not rely on star ratings here. Ask the sales team for two reference customers at your spend level, and ask what happens to unused Annual credit.

Where Cohley is the better buy, and where it is not

Cohley is built for larger consumer brands running content across paid social, retail and product pages. Some of that we do not sell at all.

Choose Cohley if you need

Zero fee on creator pay. At high volume, a flat license beats any percentage, ours included.
Text reviews and product seeding. Review sampling for retail and product pages sits in the same platform. We sell video and photo for your ad account only.
A 200,000+ vetted network. Our catalog is new and far smaller, so a narrow niche fills faster at Cohley.
Someone to run the brief. Managed Services does strategy, recruiting and edits. We do not offer a managed tier.
Tax paperwork off your desk. Cohley pays creators and handles the forms.

Choose a monthly marketplace if you need

A price before the demo. Every plan, fee and creator rate is public on our UGC pricing page.
No upfront quarter. Start at $49 or $149 a month and stop at the end of any month.
Creators you pick by name. On Cohley creators apply to your brief. Here you can also invite specific creators straight from the catalog.
Reshoots set by plan. One on Starter, three on Plus, unlimited on Pro, the same for every creator.
Escrow per video. The card is authorized at hire and captured only when you approve the footage.

If Cohley is on your list because you sell groceries, snacks or household goods, our UGC platforms for CPG brands guide prices eight options for ten videos a month, and the Minisocial pricing page covers the other managed option CPG teams shortlist.

The same ten videos, run month to month

1
Write one brief

Hook, product beats, length, claims to avoid and the usage rights you need, in one spec every creator films against.
2
Invite or accept

Invite creators by name or take applications. Each creator's own rate is visible before you hire.
3
Pay into escrow

Authorized at hire, captured on approval. Nothing is prepaid and nothing expires.
4
Reshoot on the plan

If a take misses the brief, the reshoot is covered by your plan, not negotiated per creator.

Questions brands ask about Cohley pricing

How much does Cohley cost?

Cohley does not publish its license price. You pay two things: a Platform License quoted after a demo, and creator compensation you set in each brief. Cohley suggests about $250 per UGC video and $50 per UGC photo, and says most brands budget $2,500 to $3,000 per brief. The Annual plan adds a $6,000 creator credit.

Does Cohley have a free trial?

No. Cohley's own FAQ says there is no free trial. The closest option is a 3-month Pilot, paid upfront, with full platform access, unlimited briefs, perpetual content rights and a customer success manager. After the Pilot you move to an Annual plan or stop.

Is Cohley legit?

Yes. Cohley is an established creator content platform whose homepage shows brands such as Burt's Bees, Braun and BVLGARI, with a vetted network of 200,000+ creators. The public review record is thin: Capterra lists a single 3.0 out of 5 review, and Trustpilot shows no reviews for the company.

Does Cohley take a cut of creator pay?

No. Cohley states that it never takes a cut of creator compensation and never marks it up. Its revenue is the Platform License. Creator pay flows through Cohley, which also handles the tax paperwork, so your team does not issue 1099s to individual creators.

How much should I budget per UGC video on Cohley?

About $250 per UGC video and $50 per UGC photo, per Cohley's own guidance, with influencer rates depending on audience size. A typical brief uses 10 to 15 creators, so Cohley suggests $2,500 to $3,000 of creator compensation per brief, which usually returns 10 to 20 assets.

What is the Cohley pilot?

A three-month commitment, paid upfront, that includes everything in the Annual plan: unlimited briefs, all integrations, perpetual rights and onboarding with a customer success manager. The difference is length, and the $6,000 creator credit comes only with the Annual plan.

What does Cohley Managed Services include?

Cohley's team runs the brief for you: strategy, creator recruiting and contracts, a live briefing call, one round of edits and a results analysis. Cohley says the five stages take six to eight weeks from kickoff to final assets. It is priced as a custom quote on top of the platform.

What is a cheaper Cohley alternative?

For a brand buying about ten videos a month for paid social, a monthly marketplace plan is cheaper unless the Cohley license comes in under roughly $9,900 a year. Our Plus plan is $149 a month plus 7% of creator spend, month to month, with no pilot and no annual contract.

Brief your first ten videos while you wait for the Cohley quote

Plans, fees and every creator's rate are public. Put the brief up this week and you will have real per-video numbers to hold against the license when it arrives.

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