Tired of visiting the dashboard of every single agency just to check your earnings? That where third-party applications come in handy. Those applications check your microstock earnings automatically and often have extra features to analyze those earnings. The downside is of course that you usually have to pay for them. In this blog we will compare a few different third-party applications that can analyze and track sales statistics of your microstock earnings among different agencies.
Disclaimer: this blog is written as subjective as possible, however we at PangaMedia have made such a third-party application as well (Link to application ‘Panga Media Analytics’).
Okay let’s get straight to the point: after investigating the internet I have found 5 different third-party applications that can analyze your microstock earnings from different agencies. I’ve put them in the table below.
| Panga Media Analytics | Stockperformer | Microstockanalytics | Microstockr | Nektarstock | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Link | Panga Media Analytic | Stockperformer | Microstockanalytics | Microstockr | Nektarstock |
| System | Windows / Mac | Browserplugin | ? | Windows / Mac | ? |
| Free trial | 10 days | – | 30 days | 30 days | – |
| PRICING | PRICING | ||||
| Month | Basic $5,99 Pro $7,99 Team – | Basic € 9,- Pro € 29,- Team: – | 500 Free 1000 3,33 2000 6,66 2000+ $13.33 | Basic $6,99 Pro $ 9,99 Team: $40,99 | Basic €9,99 Pro: – Team: – |
| Year | Basic $4,99 Pro $5,99 Team $9,99 | Basic € 7,50,- Pro € 24,- Team: – | 500 Free 1000 $2,50 2000 $5,00 2000+ $9,99 | Basic $5,99 Pro $7,99 Team: $35,99 | Basic €6,99 Pro: – Team: – |
| Agencies included | 8 agencies Adobestock Bigstock Depositphotos Dreamstime Igetty Pond5 Shutterstock Videohive | 15 agencies 123RF Adobestock Alamy Bigstock CanStockPhoto Canva Depositphotos Dreamstime Igetty/Getty Photocase Pond5 Shutterstock Stocksy Videohive | 7 agencies 123RF Adobe Stock Bigstock Depositphotos Dreamstime iStock/Getty Shutterstock | 24 agencies 123RF Adobe Stock Alamy Audiojungle Bigstockphoto Canstockphoto Canva Colourbox Creative market Crushpixel Depositphotos Dreamstime EyeEm Graphicriver iStock/ Getty Mostphotos Photodune Pixta Pond5 Shutterstock Vectorstock Videohive Yaymicro | 7 agencies Adobestock DepositPhotos Dreamstime Dissolve iStock/ Getty Pond5 Shutterstock |
| FEATURES | FEATURES | ||||
| Real time tracking | updates manually or per 15, 30,60 min / 3,8 hours | ? | ? | ? | |
| Sales data header | Today, month, balance | Today, month, year, total | – | Today, Week, Month, Balance | ? |
| Overview chart | Timespans Alltime, year, month Media separation agency, media type, license type Can show Downloads, revenue Plotting options Stacked/unstacked | Timespans Alltime, last 3 years, last 12 months, year to date Media separation agency Can show Revenue Plotting options Stacked | Timespans Month, week, day Media separation agency Can show Revenue Plotting options Stacked | Timespans Alltime, month, year, custom timeinterval Media separation agency Can show Revenue Plotting options Stacked* * Custom timeinterval shows to plots next to eachtother | ? |
| Image matching | Yes | Unknown | Unknown | Yes | Yes |
| Individual image chart | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Media top sellers | Timespans Alltime, year, month Media separation Agency, media type, license type Can show Revenue, RPD, downloads | Timespans Alltime, year, quarter year, month, week Media separation Agency, upload year, media type Can show Revenue, RPD, downloads | Timespans Alltime , Month Media separation Agency, upload date Can show Revenue, RPD, downloads | Timespans Alltime, year, month, custom timeinterval Media separation Agency, media type Can show Revenue, RPD, downloads | |
| Image collection | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ranking option | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Sales breakdown | Purchase model/ content type / country / orientation / file type / model released / upload date / frame rate / codec / duration / license type | Purchase model / upload year / file type / content type / Time zone / license type | – | – | – |
| Keyword features | Alltime, yearly and monthly RPD, revenue, downloads for top 25 keywords Monthly downloads for individual keywords | Individual keywords how many files include the keyword, RPD, revenue, downloads, str, profit and RPI/M | – | – | – |
| RPI/RPD and Portfolio size | RPI / RPD / Portfolio size | RPI / RPD / Portfolio size | RPI | RPI / RPD | RPI / RPD |
| Export function | Export earnings to PDF per month/3m/ 6m/ year for custom timespans | – | Export possible | – | – |
| Image tracking | Track image place with a database search at Adobestock and shutterstock | – | – | – | – |
| Other features | Unique images per timespan per agency Show level at agency (Adobestock and shutterstock) Desktop widget | – | – | – | – |
Comparison:
Below I will highlight some of the more important features which you can find back in the table above as well.
Platform:
At least three of the applications are available for both Mac/Windows. The other two do not indicate whether it is available on all platforms. So, if you are on a Mac, I would go for the third-party microstock analytics tool of ‘Panga media analytics’, ‘Stockperformer’ or ‘Microstockr’ just to be sure it works fine.
Pricing:
All third-party applications have a monthly and yearly subscription system. Thereby the yearly subscription system saves you some money. Depending on your portfolio size you might want to go for a different option to get a cheaper pricing.
Small portfolios of under 500 files can use ‘Microstockanalaytics’ for free and this third-party service stays the cheapest up to a portfolio of 2000 files if you pay per month. When your portfolio size increases above the 2000 files ‘Panga Media Analytics’ becomes the cheapest. If you pay per year ‘Panga media Analytics’ also has the cheapest plan for portfolios above 1000 files. So the winner for small portfolios (500-1000 files) would be Microstockanalytics whereas Panga Media Analytics is the cheapest service for larger portfolios.
Stockperformer is by far the most expensive, the pro plan is four times as expensive as Panga Media Analytics. The second most expensive is Microstockr of which prices are up with at least 1 dollar or more for the different subscription plans.
Agencies included
An important feature is of course the number of agencies that are included. Her Microstockr is the clear winner with 24 different agencies. Second best is stockperformer that can download your data of 15 different agencies. The other third-party applications come last with with 8 and 7 different agencies. Hence, if you are active at a very large number of agencies microstockr will probably include the majority (if not all) of them. Whereas Panga media analytics, Microstockanalytics and Nektorstock only support the largest agencies.
Ranking: Compare your stats with other users
Panga media Analytics and Stockperformer have an option in which you can see how you rank (anonymously) with other users of the same application. Although not necessary, it is a nice feature that gives you an idea of where you stand in the market or a feel of ‘competition’ that could drive you to work a little harder so you get to the top.
Overview chart
All parties have an overview chart. The chart of Panga media Analytics outperforms the other parties by far as it is highly customizable. For one, you can choose to plot the number of downloads or the revenue by both whereas the other agencies let you plot the revenue and only with a hover-over you can see the downloads. Moreover, the overview chart of Panga Media Analytics can be customized to show one type of media asset (video/photo/vector) and one type of license asset (commercial or editorial) as well.
Microstockr dashboard chart has an useful feature in which you can compare two agencies in a custom timeframe which cannot be found back in the application of the other parties which only have standard all-time/year/month timeframes.
Individual image sales
All third parties let you see best sellers, highest RPD per image, highest number of downloads per image. Hence that has been covered thorough. The application of Panga Media Analytics once more includes a better adjustable overview which can differentiate between media license type (commercial/editorial) whereas the others can differentiate up to the level of media type (video/photo/vector).
I believe images are being matched automatically at all applications, although I am not 100% sure for stockperformer and microstockanalytics as they did not state directly that images are being matched automatically.
Stockperformer, microstockanalytics and microstockr have an option to make custom collections which you can follow and analyze whereas Panga Media Analytics and Nektarstock do not have this feature. Furthermore, the same third-party services also show individual image charts which is not a feature included in the other third-party services.
RPI, RPD, PS
All parties include graphs and information for RPI & RPD. Stockperformer and Panga Media Analytics also have a feature to show your portfolio size, hence they are the clear winners with regards to RPI, RPD and portfolio size.
Keywords
Only Stockperformer and Panga Media Analytics have a feature to analyze your keywords. I believe that at Stockperformer you can get stats of individual keywords: how many files include the keyword, RPD, revenue, downloads, str, profit and RPI/M. Whereas at Panga Media Analytics you can get RPI, downloads and revenue of the top 25 keywords and you can display downloads of individual keywords over time.
Sales breakdown
Once more, the same two third-party applications stand out: Panga Media Analytics and Stockperformer. Those two give you an overview of your sales metadata. Showing what purchase model (subscription, on demand, el etc.), size that has been downloaded, upload year, content type, country, codec, duration etc. The other services only have the basic information (downloads and revenue).
Exporting data
Only two agencies (Panga Media Analytics and Microstockanalytics) have an option to export data to your computer. I am not sure to what format Microstockanalytics can export your data, however there is an option to do so. Panga Media Analytics can export your revenue to PDF, and thereby calculating taxes as well.
Other features
Panga Media Analytics has a few additional features, not included by any of the other services. So does it have a chart that shows the amount of unique images being sold, it shows at which level you are for Adobestock and Shutterstock, it can track the place your images rank with a search string in the database of Adobestock and Shutterstock and there is an option to place a small widget on your desktop background showing your earnings.
Conclusion
There are two application that outcompete the others with regards to the amount of features they include. Those are Panga Media Analytics and Stockperformer. Whereas Microstockr is by far the best with the inclusion of many agencies. Depending on what is more important you should go for a different service.
- If it is most important that all agencies are included you should go for Microstockr.
- If you want to know more stats about your sales you should go for Pangamedia Analytics or Stockperformer.
- If prices is important you should go for Pangamedia Analytics.
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