Looking for a Trend.io alternative
Trend.io was acquired by soona, and the offer now sits inside a larger content business. Credits are cheap per video. They also expire, and that is the number to plan around.
- Per video this is one of the cheapest routes available, with soona listing user-generated content from around eighty-nine dollars.
- Credit packs start near five hundred and fifty dollars for roughly six videos and expire twelve months after purchase.
- Turnaround runs two to three weeks, which is slower than a pure marketplace and close to our own fourteen business days.
- Creators on the soona side are paid at the end of the following month, which is up to sixty days. Ours are paid within seven days of approval.
Trend.io built a straightforward proposition: buy credits, brief a job, receive vertical video. Since the acquisition by soona the offer sits alongside studio photography and a broader content catalogue, which is good news if you need product stills as well as creator video and neutral news if you do not. The economics are still credit-based, and credits behave differently from an invoice. They are bought in advance, they expire after twelve months, and the effective price per video depends entirely on whether you use them all. This page compares that against a fixed scope, and says plainly which brief is better served by cheap credits.
What this offer is actually good at
Two things, and the second is more interesting than it first appears.
- Price per video. Around eighty-nine dollars for user-generated content is well under half what a commissioned asset costs from us.
- Everything in one supplier. Studio product photography, stills and creator video from one account is a real convenience for a store that needs all three.
- Perpetual rights on the soona side, which removes the usage question that catches people out elsewhere.
- Two revision rounds, which is in line with the rest of the market at this price point.
For an e-commerce brand relaunching a catalogue, buying stills and creator video from the same place solves a coordination problem that has nothing to do with influence and everything to do with production scheduling.
How credits change the arithmetic
A credit pack is prepayment. That is fine when your plan is certain and expensive when it is not, and the twelve-month expiry is the mechanism that decides which.
- Buy a five hundred and fifty dollar pack for roughly six videos and use all six inside the year, and your true cost per video is about ninety-two dollars.
- Use four of the six and the true cost is around one hundred and thirty-eight. Still cheap, but no longer the headline number.
- Use two and you have paid two hundred and seventy-five apiece, which is more than our largest package charges per asset.
- The expiry is not a penalty. It is a standard term. It just means the advertised price assumes a level of usage you should honestly forecast.
We do not sell credits and there is nothing to forecast. A package is a fixed scope at a fixed price, and if you never brief a second one you have still had everything you paid for.
What it costs, both ways
Figures as researched in 2026, after the soona acquisition. Compare the whole row rather than the first line.
| Line | Trend.io and soona | Four Cents Media |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | Credit packs from $550 for about 6 videos | $1,250 for six finished assets |
| Headline per video | From about $89 | About $208, falling to $200 on larger packs |
| Expiry | Credits expire 12 months from purchase | None. A fixed scope with no balance |
| Turnaround | Two to three weeks | 14 business days from the product arriving |
| Revisions | 2 rounds | 1 round per hero video, 2 on the monthly packages |
| Rights | Perpetual on the soona side | Perpetual worldwide, paid and organic, included |
| Audio clearance | Confirm per order | Licensed library or original voiceover on every asset |
| Creator payment | End of the following month | Within 7 days of approval |
Turnaround is the row people misread. Two to three weeks is not far off our fourteen business days, so speed is not the reason to choose between these two. Price and structure are.
Why creator payment timing shows up in your footage
This sounds like an ethics point and it is partly a supply point, which is why it belongs in a buying decision rather than in a manifesto.
A creator paid at the end of the following month is waiting up to sixty days for money on work delivered today. Creators with steady demand price that delay in, or simply decline the brief and take one that pays sooner. The pool that remains is weighted towards people early in their careers, which is not a quality judgement but is a real difference in what shows up.
We pay within seven days of approval, at the fee we agreed with the creator in writing, with nothing deducted. That is the main reason experienced people take our briefs, and it is a large part of why our prices are what they are. You are paying, in part, for a faster supply chain.
When credits are the better buy
Where cheap credits beat a fixed scope.
- Your budget per video is the binding constraint. Eighty-nine dollars against our two hundred and eight is not a comparison we win, and volume testing at that price is genuinely sensible.
- You need studio product photography as well as creator video. Buying both from one supplier removes a scheduling problem we cannot help with at all.
- You will reliably use a credit pack within the year. At full utilisation the effective price is excellent and the twelve-month expiry costs you nothing.
- You already have an editor. Much of our price is finishing and quality control, and paying twice for that is not a good use of money.
How to decide, in one pass
Answer three questions honestly and the choice usually makes itself.
- Will you genuinely brief six or more videos in the next twelve months? If yes, credits are excellent value and you should buy them.
- Do you need product photography as well? If yes, one supplier for both is worth more than any difference in creator quality.
- Is the content going into paid media where the hook decides the result? If yes, the casting and the hook approval are the thing you are short of, and that is a commissioned brief.
Questions
Is Trend.io still running after the soona acquisition?
The offer now sits inside soona rather than standing alone, and the practical effect for a buyer is that creator video is one line in a broader content catalogue that also includes studio photography. Check the current product pages before assuming any specific feature carried across, because the merged offer has been repackaged and the terms that matter to you may sit under the soona brand rather than the original one.
How do credits compare with a fixed price?
They are cheaper if you use them and dearer if you do not. A pack near five hundred and fifty dollars covering roughly six videos works out around ninety-two dollars each at full use, and around two hundred and seventy-five each if you only ever brief two. Our packages have no balance and no expiry, so the price you pay is the price per asset regardless of what you do afterwards.
Which is faster?
Neither by much. Two to three weeks against our fourteen business days from the product arriving is close enough that speed should not decide it. If you genuinely need video inside a week, the honest answer is a wallet-based marketplace rather than either of us, and we would point you there rather than promise a date we would miss.
Do we get perpetual rights either way?
On the soona side, perpetual rights are part of the offer, which puts it ahead of several competitors whose paid advertising window defaults to thirty days or one year. Ours are perpetual, worldwide, paid and organic, in the base price. The distinction worth chasing with any supplier is whether perpetual covers the soundtrack as well as the footage, since library music and in-app sound are licensed very differently.
What do you do that a credit pack does not?
We approve the hook before anything is filmed, we define in writing where a revision ends and a reshoot begins, and we reshoot at our own cost when an asset is unusable. We also clear the audio for advertising on every asset. That is the list. It is a short list and at roughly double the price you should decide whether those four things are worth it for your particular brief.
Pricing, credit terms and product packaging change, and this category has seen acquisitions. Everything here was accurate as researched in 2026 and should be checked against current published terms.
Sitting on unused credits?
Use them first. When you know which hooks worked, send us the brief and we will build the next batch around what already performed.