Best tools to find influencers for a small brand

By the RecruitAffiliates.ai team · 27 October 2026 · 6 min read

Facts about other tools come from their own sites, with the date we checked. Our editorial policy · About us.

The best tool to find influencers for a small brand is the one that fits your stage. With fewer than 20 creators on your list, search by hand and pay for nothing. Once searching is the slow part, a database such as Impulze, Modash or Influencity can speed it up. All prices below were read on 27 October 2026.

An influencer database is a searchable list of creators with follower counts and audience details. You filter it, then contact the ones you like. This page compares tools that do that job. For the free by-hand method, read how to find micro influencers. For tools that find affiliates more widely, see the affiliate prospecting tools list.

What do the tools cost?

Here is each tool's published price on the day we checked. For three of the six tools here, we found no influencer price. That is worth knowing before you book a call. Prices are as shown on each page, checked 27 October 2026. Impulze and Modash show a dollar sign and name no currency.

Two cautions on the table. The FAQ on the Influencers.club pricing page gives $199 for the dashboard plan, while its plan cards say $140. We use the pricing page. Later's $18.75 plan is its social scheduling product, so it is not the price of finding influencers. We list it because the same company sells the influencer side. Prices change, so check each page before you buy.

Which tool fits which stage?

Match the tool to what you need today.

• You have no list yet. Search by hand. It is free and it teaches you what a good creator looks like. Our micro influencer guide walks through it in an afternoon.
• You can find creators but it is slow. A database such as Impulze lets you filter creators instead of searching one by one. Impulze's cheapest paid plan is $29 a month, and it lists a Free plan at $0.
• You want analysis before you pay anyone. Impulze says it shows audience details and spots fake followers. Influencity says its trial lets you test audience analytics (Influencity pricing page). Influencity's trial lasts 7 days, so you can test it first.
• You have a budget and a team. We found no public influencer price for Aspire or Later, so you will need to ask them for one.
• You want affiliates, not one-off posts. Some databases only list creators. Modash says it also tracks sales and automates commission payouts on Shopify, on its higher plans. See affiliate prospecting tools for the tools built for that.

Platform tools

Shopify Collabs matches Shopify stores with creators. Its help page says "Collabs isn't accepting new creator signups at this time" (Shopify Help Center, read 27 October 2026). That limits how many new creators you can find there.

How does RecruitAffiliates.ai fit?

RecruitAffiliates.ai is our own product, so weigh this section with that in mind. It reads your site, suggests your rivals, then finds the websites, blogs, review sites, podcasts, YouTube channels and creators already promoting them. It ranks the best fits first and shows the page where it found each one (how we score). It also looks up an email and shows whether it was checked.

Here is what it does not do. It is not a creator analytics database, so it does not rank people by audience profile. It also does not aim to list every creator on Instagram or TikTok the way a database does. If you want a list of only Instagram creators sorted by audience age, a database from the table suits you better.

The 7-day trial includes 20 email lookups, so you can test it on your own brand before paying.

Picking a tool without wasting money

Run the same test on every tool, in this order.

1. Write down what you need. For example, 20 creators in one niche, with 10,000 to 100,000 followers.
2. Use the free plan or trial. Search for your brand's niche and open the top 10 results.
3. Check the accounts by hand. Look at the last 10 posts for real comments, as in the micro influencer guide.
4. Count the good ones. As a rule of thumb, if 7 of 10 fit, the tool works for you. If only 3 do, it does not.
5. Only then pay. Take the cheapest plan that does the job, and cancel if you do not use it.

This test costs nothing and takes an hour. It also stops you buying an annual plan before you know the search works.

After you find creators

Finding is the first step. Next you write to them, send a product and track the result. Start with influencer marketing for a small Shopify brand for the whole plan. If your budget is small, read about nano influencers. Use the outreach email template for the first message.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best tool to find influencers for free?

Searching by hand on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube is the free baseline. Impulze lists a Free plan at $0, and Influencity offers a 7-day free trial (both read 27 October 2026).

How much do influencer discovery tools cost?

It varies. Impulze lists $29 to $199 a month. For Influencity and Aspire we found no price, and Aspire asks you to book a demo. For Later's influencer side we found none. Modash starts at $199 and Influencers.club at $140. Check the vendor's page, since prices change.

Do I need an influencer database as a small brand?

Not at the start. Search by hand until you have 20 creators and know what a good one looks like. Buy a tool when searching is the slow part.

Sources

• Impulze, pricing, read 27 October 2026
• Impulze, home page, read 27 October 2026
• Modash, pricing, read 27 October 2026
• Influencers.club, pricing, read 27 October 2026, including the FAQ answer "Can I start small and scale up later?", which gives $199 a month
• Influencity, pricing, read 27 October 2026
• Aspire, home page, read 27 October 2026. Its /pricing address returned not found.
• Later, pricing, read 27 October 2026
• Shopify Help Center, Collabs, read 27 October 2026