Girlboss upgraded from Viral Loops to SparkLoop.
Here’s their unfiltered opinion...
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SparkLoop is the essential suite of tools for newsletter growth, trusted by thousands of leading media brands and newsletters.
Viral Loops is a generic referral tool designed for scrappy entrepreneurs who are just starting out. Ideal if you're creating a waitlist for a new product of service.
SparkLoop has a true, 2-click integration (and excellent relationships) with 15+ of the most popular email platforms. Plus the option to extend via our API and Zapier.
As a generic referral tool, Viral Loops has only basic import and export functionality with a few email platforms. For a reliable integration, you'll need to invest weeks of developer resources.
With SparkLoop it's easy to run milestone referral programs, giveaways, or both. You can include a beautiful referral widget (including the subscriber's referral link) inside any email, or on any website.
Viral Loops has both milestone referral programs and giveaways. Due to the lack of direct ESP integrations, it isn't possible to reliably include a personalised referral link inside of your emails.
SparkLoop makes fulfilling any kind of referral reward easy and fully automated. Including unique coupon codes, Zapier, digital goods and even merch/swag via our Printful integration.
Viral Loops has some basic options for reward fulfilment, including coupon codes and digital rewards. Fulfilling any kind of physical reward, like branded merch, will be an expensive and manual process.
SparkLoop has industry-leading, fully customisable anti-fraud protection, built specifically for newsletters. It is the only solution proven to work at scale — even with huge giveaways and millions of subscribers.
Viral Loops has in-built anti-fraud functionality. As a generic referral tool, their anti-fraud isn't optimised for how newsletter subscribers cheat — so you'll need to supplement with ongoing manual work.
SparkLoop is the solution of choice for seven of the world's ten biggest newsletter referral programs. Our security, scalability and extensibility are industry-leading. With designated account managers and fully customisable white-labelling.
As Viral Loops is really designed for beginner entrepreneurs, we couldn't find any information about their high-volume capabilities. It appears that certain elements of the platform can be white-labelled.
SparkLoop has tiered support from our team of newsletter growth experts. Including email, chat, and phone support. We also offer a concierge onboarding package for strategy support.
According to their website, Viral Loops offers standard and priority support. We don't know what that means, but over half of operators who upgrade to SparkLoop from Viral Loops mention support as a key factor.
As well as the core referral software, SparkLoop includes a suite of other tools to boost your audience growth. Including our one-click subscribe tool, Upscribe widget, Partner Network and more.
As a generic referral platform, Viral Loops has great flexibility across all kinds of referral programs. From SaaS, to ecommerce, to one-off waitlists. Ideal if you aren't yet sure what your goals are.
There's a SparkLoop plan suitable for every newsletter operator. Starting at $16/month (paid annually) for up to 5'000 subscribers.
Viral Loops plans start at $34/month (paid annually) for up to 1'000 subscribers. On average, operators who upgrade to SparkLoop find that Viral Loops was costing them 3.7x more per referral.