Our Standards
Who we are and how we score.
Independent reviews of social media growth services, run by a named two-person editorial team since 2021. Our judgments are anchored by a hands-on paid pilot of five Instagram follower services and built out from public data, vendor terms, and user reviews, all published under a scoring rubric you can inspect.
- 30+ services reviewed
- 30-day hands-on pilot
- 5 services bought and tracked
- 5 scoring categories
- Founded 2008
Our mission
Most reviews are paid placements dressed up as journalism.
HowSociable exists to be the alternative: a single place where readers can see what each vendor advertises, what published user reviews report, what our hands-on signup and checkout checks turn up, and how it all stacks up against the five services we bought and tracked ourselves.
How we test
Anchored by a paid pilot, built on evidence.
Our scoring is grounded in a hands-on paid pilot plus public data, vendor-advertised terms, published user reviews, and our own signup and checkout checks, not vendor marketing copy.
A hands-on paid pilot
We ran a hands-on 30-day pilot of five Instagram follower services, ordered and paid for with our own money so we saw exactly what a normal buyer receives. That pilot anchors how we read the rest of the market.
30-day pilot window
For the five piloted follower services, we tracked each order for 30 days, logging delivery start, completion, and retention drop-off. Every other service is assessed from public data, vendor-advertised terms, published user reviews, and hands-on checks of signup and checkout.
5 scoring categories
Account Quality (30%), Delivery Speed (20%), Retention Rate (25%), Customer Support (15%), Pricing (10%). The weighted average produces the published editorial score from 0 to 10.
Reviewed on a schedule
Top-ranked services are revisited regularly. If a vendor's advertised terms or pricing change materially, or credible user reports shift, the review is updated and the rank may move.
The team
Two editors, two names, one rubric.
Maddy Osman led the hands-on pilot and writes the reviews; Georgia Austin owns the scoring rubric and fact-checks every scorecard against the evidence on file before it goes live.
Maddy Osman
Content Marketing Expert · Founder, The Blogsmith
Content marketing expert with 16+ years in SEO, social media strategy, and digital content. Founder of The Blogsmith.
Denver, COJoined 2008
Georgia Austin
Senior SEO Content Writer · Founder & CEO, Wordbrew
Senior SEO copywriter and Forbes 30 Under 30 nominee (2026: Marketing & Advertising). Founder & CEO of Wordbrew with 10+ years writing for global brands.
United KingdomJoined 2022
Richard Lambert
Career Strategist · Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW)
Career strategist and CPRW-certified resume writer with 18+ years helping people get noticed by employers and applicant-tracking systems.
United StatesJoined 2026
What we stand for
Editorial values.
Editorial independence
Affiliate relationships do not influence rankings. Vendors cannot pay for placement and cannot preview reviews before publication.
Documented and checkable
Our methodology is documented so anyone can see how a score is reached. The sources behind each published review, from vendor terms to our pilot findings, are recorded so the judgment can be checked.
Reader-first
When a recommendation is uncomfortable for a vendor partner, we publish it anyway. Our duty is to the reader, not to the affiliate program.
Transparent disclosure
Every review and listing page carries a visible advertising disclosure. We earn a commission on some links at no cost to you.
Transparency
How we make money.
HowSociable earns a commission when readers click affiliate links and make a purchase. The commission comes from the vendor, not the buyer, and never affects pricing. Affiliate revenue does not buy placement on our top lists, and links are tagged rel="sponsored nofollow" for transparency.
Found something we should fix?
Spotted outdated pricing, a vendor change, or a methodology question? We respond to every email.
Contact the editorial team