Social-media growth service benchmarks
The numbers behind every review. Every quarter we test every service we cover with our own accounts and report the aggregates back to you — median retention, delivery speed, price range, and best-in-class per category.
As of Q1 2026, HowSociable tracks 9 growth-service categories across 5 platforms, aggregated from 309 independent 30-day observations.
Last updated March 31, 2026
Instagram Followers
Median retention is the strongest quality signal in this category, with delivery speed breaking ties between the closest providers.
- Median retention
- 82%
- Starting price
- $2.97
- Same-day
- 61%
Best: Likes.io · 97% retention →
Instagram Likes
Delivery speed matters more than retention here — likes that show up in 10 minutes are a different product than likes that drift in over a week.
- Median retention
- 88%
- Starting price
- $1.79
- Same-day
- 94%
Best: Buzzoid · 99% retention →
TikTok
TikTok Followers
TikTok's algorithm throttles unusual follower-growth patterns harder than Instagram — gradual delivery outperforms instant even at the same retention.
- Median retention
- 78%
- Starting price
- $3.49
- Same-day
- 41%
Best: Likes.io · 94% retention →
TikTok Likes
Likes are cheap and retention is high — but velocity matters: TikTok weights early-hour likes toward algorithmic reach.
- Median retention
- 91%
- Starting price
- $1.49
- Same-day
- 89%
Best: Buzzoid · 99% retention →
TikTok Views
Views are the cheapest engagement signal and the least meaningful alone — the benchmark is: did they push the video into the For You Page?
- Median retention
- 99%
- Starting price
- $1.49
- Same-day
- 96%
Best: Likes.io · 100% retention →
YouTube
YouTube Subscribers
YouTube's monetization threshold makes retention existential — a service that drops subscribers demonetizes your channel.
- Median retention
- 71%
- Starting price
- $9.99
- Same-day
- 11%
Best: Likes.io · 92% retention →
YouTube Views
Views without watch time are worthless for ranking — the benchmark is audience retention on the view burst, not the view count.
- Median retention
- 94%
- Starting price
- $4.99
- Same-day
- 28%
Best: Likes.io · 99% retention →
Spotify
Twitter / X
How we measure these numbers
Every quarter we purchase a standardized package from every service in every tracked category with our own money, from a rotating set of test accounts. We track the outcomes for 30 days using the platform's native analytics plus external monitoring, and aggregate the results into the snapshot on this page. Sample sizes per category range from 7 to 18 services; each service contributes 3 independent observations. Raw per-service data lives in the individual review.
Cite this data: HowSociable, “Social-media growth service benchmarks (Q1 2026),” howsociable.com/benchmarks (updated March 31, 2026). Machine-readable summary at howsociable.com/api/methodology.