ChannelCrawler vs Sponsorship.so
The two self-serve tools for brands researching YouTube sponsorships: a huge channel search engine with sponsorship tracking added, and a smaller sponsorship-first tool with outreach built in. ChannelCrawler is the better research tool for brands, with a far bigger index and a free trial; Sponsorship.so is cheaper for sponsorship work and adds an outreach CRM.
Researched by Which Social API editorial teamLast reviewed 29 October 2026How we review
Which Social API uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative review methods, based on each provider’s documentation, published pricing and public user reviews. We never accept money in exchange for a higher ranking or a better review. Who runs this site
The quick answer
For most brands, ChannelCrawler. It searches 35M+ channels with 40+ filters, against Sponsorship.so’s 250K+, splits “Confirmed” sponsorships from “Likely sponsored” and from organic mentions, and has a 7-day free trial. It’s the only tool in the category with a public, pay-per-result REST API, and it has the most user feedback: 4.6 on Trustpilot from 31 reviews.
Sponsorship.so wins if you want sponsorship research and outreach in one cheaper tool. Pro is $89 a month, or $53 billed yearly, and includes sponsorship search, competitors’ sponsors, email lookups, AI drafts, an outreach CRM and an API. ChannelCrawler keeps its sponsorship features on Power, at $195 a month or $117 billed yearly, and has no CRM.
Choose ChannelCrawler if
You want the biggest pool of channels to searchYou want to try it free before you payYou want to see how each sponsorship was classifiedChoose Sponsorship.so if
You want sponsorship features for under $100 a monthYou want outreach and a campaign board built inYou need up to five team members on one planHead to head
Our ratings from published docs, prices and user reviews. The longer bar is better in every row, and the winner’s bar is in its colour.
Pricing compared
ChannelCrawler’s $99 Starter has no sponsorship features, so compare its Power plan with Sponsorship.so’s Pro. On that basis Sponsorship.so costs less than half as much.
Features side by side
If you’re building on the API
ChannelCrawler sells API access separately from its app: a REST API billed per result with no monthly minimum (vendor says), plus custom bulk datasets; its full database of 200M+ channels is available on request. You sign up and read the docs on its developer platform, platform.channelcrawler.net, but the per-result rate isn’t published.
Sponsorship.so bundles an API and an MCP server into its $89 Pro plan. We found no public docs, so we can’t say what it returns, what the limits are, or whether calls use credits. If you need the API more than the app, ChannelCrawler is the safer bet.
ChannelCrawler API
- Access
- Self-serve developer sign-up
- Pricing
- Pay per result, no minimum; rate not published
- Also
- Custom bulk datasets
- Docs
- platform.channelcrawler.net
Sponsorship.so API
- Access
- Included on Pro
- Pricing
- From $89 a month, with the app
- Docs
- No public docs found
- Also
- MCP server, CSV export
Where each falls short
ChannelCrawler
The sponsorship side is newer than the channel search, and it shows. It publishes no counts of sponsorships or brands tracked, doesn’t say whether it reads transcripts, and brand alerts are still marked “soon”. You need Power for any sponsorship feature, and emails are creators’ public addresses, metered separately from searches. Some one-star reviewers say filters return mismatched results, and one says their IP was banned after using the free tier (ChannelCrawler says bans target people running several accounts).
Sponsorship.so
You can’t check much before you pay. There’s no free plan and no trial, only a free sample and a 14-day refund. It claims 250K+ channels and “thousands of brands” but publishes no sponsorship or video totals, and doesn’t say which signals it uses beyond automated analysis plus manual checks. Its “Fair rate” estimates have no published method, and its only review is a single Product Hunt rating from 2024.
Alternatives to both
See all 7 YouTube sponsorship tools in our ranking
Questions
Is ChannelCrawler or Sponsorship.so better?
ChannelCrawler for most brands: a far bigger index, a free trial, a clearer detection method and more user reviews. Sponsorship.so is cheaper for sponsorship work and has an outreach CRM built in.
Which is cheaper?
Sponsorship.so, for sponsorship research. Its Pro plan is $89 a month or $53 billed yearly. ChannelCrawler’s sponsorship features need Power, at $195 a month or $117 billed yearly; its $99 Starter plan has none.
How do they detect sponsorships?
ChannelCrawler marks a video “Confirmed” when the description has a sponsorship disclosure and a brand link, and “Likely sponsored” when other signals, such as tracking links, promo codes or repeat partnerships, point that way without enough evidence. Sponsorship.so says it uses automated analysis with manual checks on top, but doesn’t name its signals.
Is there a free trial?
ChannelCrawler has a 7-day free trial on paid plans, and some free searches without a card. Sponsorship.so has neither; it offers a free sample and refunds within 14 days.
Can creators use them to find sponsors?
They can, but neither is built for it. Both are aimed at brands finding creators. A creator looking for brands to pitch is better served by SponsorRadar or GetSponsored.