Popfly Review: Is it Worth it for Creators?
I’m a sustainable lifestyle creator with 144k+ followers across platforms, and I signed up for Popfly in March 2026 because of an Instagram ad.
I’ve done 5 UGC partnerships on the platform (making a total of $2,000) and had a mixed experience, so I wanted to share my honest review for other creators.
What is Popfly?
Popfly is a platform where creators can find UGC (user-generated content) deals and sponsorships with outdoors and adjacent brands. There’s a diverse range of companies seeking creators, including Hydro Flask, Osprey, Nathan, Oru Kayak, Farmers Business Network, and more.
Brands pay a monthly membership to access the platform, but it’s free for creators. Campaigns have predetermined rates and usage rights, and you can apply for opportunities based on your interests.
Is Popfly legit? Pros and Cons
Popfly is a legitimate platform, and I can confirm that I have done deals and been paid for them.
Some of the pros are:
Decent number of opportunities—there are new ones several times a week, and you get emailed when they go live.
Relatively easy (?) to get accepted to a campaign—I haven’t been accepted to every opportunity I applied to, but I was accepted to a bunch in a row in April. I’ve heard of others who have a lot of trouble getting accepted, and my main recommendation would be to fill our your Popfly profile and include previous video examples. You can see my profile as an example including some videos that were UGC deals from Popfly. I will say that since April, I have not been accepted to any new campaigns.
Cool mix of brands—I’ve discovered some brands that I wouldn’t otherwise have known about, and received products that will actually be useful.
Unexpected opportunities—within a week or two of signing up, I was invited to a creator dinner with an agency that used Popfly. This was a great networking opportunity.
Team is very responsive—when I’ve had an issue on the platform, the Popfly team has gotten back to me almost immediately.
Some higher-paid opportunities—I’ve seen some collaborations offering $2,000+, but they are less frequent and are commensurate with the deliverables. My highest-paid opportunities were $500 and $700, and I think it was mostly fair since it was 1 short-form video each and a handful of photos. I do wish the usage rights length was shorter though (more about this later). Here’s an example of a video I did for Hydro Flask, which I was paid $500 for, and then a set of photos that was part of my deal with Osprey for $700, as well as the Reel.
There is a creator community—Popfly has an Instagram groupchat and monthly calls. I don’t engage much with the chat since it’s mostly creators not in my niche (sustainability), and similar for the monthly call. I attended one but it was a lot of people (maybe 20), and I didn’t really have a lot in common with the other creators. I think it could be helpful though if you’re early in your creator journey and aren’t in sustainability (I just find it really hard to network in my field since I don’t want to engage with content that is more based on consumerism).
The cons are:
Usage rights and rates are not always fair—a lot of the deals are around $100-300, and that’s for a video with a year of organic and often paid usage rights (for paid especially, it should be ~5x more in my opinion). For full transparency, I did a couple of these since there was usually some other perk, like significant store credit or product, but it was still not the best rate for the usage rights. Some deals are also gifted only, and they still include deliverables and usage rights, which is unpaid labor. See examples below.
Brands don’t seem to want long-term partnerships—I also did some lower-paying deals because I thought that brands would want to work together again, and I could build long-term relationships. That said, it seems like most brands just want one-offs since they don’t want anyone to be recognizable in their feed. I have not been able to get a second collab with a brand I’ve already worked with even though they praised the content I submitted.
Some brands are rude and pay late—for my first collaboration, I submitted my content 5 days early for feedback, and the agency responded the day before the deadline to tell me they were “disappointed” and that my hooks were “flat” and I used too much screenshare (even though it was in the brief). Luckily, I told Popfly about the interaction, and they said their CEO would speak with the agency (Fall Line Digital Agency, if you want to avoid them). It was frustrating because they simply could’ve asked for edits in a respectful way. Another brand was also slow to approve the content (12 days after the deadline), and then my payment came a week late on top of that, so it was a total of 3 weeks late since I couldn’t submit my invoice until the content was approved. Note that they have NET 30 payment terms, where invoices are due 30 days after submitted.
Final Thoughts
Popfly seems like a nice concept, but I do feel that it’s more generous to the brands than creators. I think they can improve by:
- Not offering unpaid collaborations. I think gifted collaborations with deliverables and usage is setting a bad precedent in the content space for unpaid labor. Gifted can be totally fine, but it should come no strings attached. Or, there should at least be a product minimum for gifted collabs, like items valued $500+ (and not just a t-shirt or something).
- Allowing creators to rate brands. I would want to be able to see if the brand was respectful to work with and paid on time. This is apparently coming soon, with ratings both ways, which is great.
- Showing a “repeat customer” score. Before I work with a brand, I would want to see which ones are more likely to work with the same creators again.
- Implementing negotiable rates and usage rights. I would want to be able to share my rate for the requested deliverables and have lower usage rights periods since the default seems to be a year.
I am certainly grateful I was able to work with a handful cool brands on the platform, but Popfly does have some issues that I’d love to see them iron out. Currently, the setup allows brands to take advantage of creators who don’t know better, and I would love to see them better protect and advocate for creators.
If you’ve used Popfly, I’d love to know what you thought!
