Hamsterra vs StoryOrigin

100 readers per campaign, 100 invitation emails in any 30 days, 500 MiB of files, 1 pen name. No time limit.

A permanent Basic plan: direct downloads, mailing-list integrations, universal links and reader support. Review copies, magnets and promos need Standard.

No trial: the Free plan has no end date.

No trial or free first campaign is described on the pricing page.

Subscription: Stash €8 a month before VAT (UK consumers: €9.60 including 20% VAT), Hoard €15 a month before VAT (UK consumers: €18 including 20% VAT). No per-book or per-reader fees.

Standard: $10 a month or $100 a year, with no per-book or per-reader fee stated. Extra pen-name accounts $50 a year under conditions.

Open sign-up after email verification. No book approval before publishing.

Open sign-up. No ISBN, genre or territory rule found on the pages read.

Invitations to readers who opted in on Hamsterra, counted against the invitation limit. No import of an existing contact list.

Basic: a direct download limited to subscribers of the author’s integrated mailing list. Standard adds review copies with applications and reminders.

Published campaigns appear in the public ARC catalogue while eligible for listing. No paid promotion.

Standard review copies can be listed in a public directory; group promos and swaps are other routes. StoryOrigin keeps no mailing list of its own.

No private, link-only or invite-only campaign setting.

A direct download limited to list subscribers is free. A review copy kept out of the directory is shared by link (Standard).

The author approves or declines each application, manually or automatically, with an optional form.

Readers apply; the author approves or declines each, seeing completion rates and their history with the author’s other review copies.

Contacts with consent history and tags; CSV export of eligible contacts who opted into the author’s reader list; blocked readers. No contact import or notes.

Standard shows each applicant’s history with the same author’s review copies; magnet sign-ups export as CSV. Tags, notes and import are not publicly confirmed.

EPUB and PDF download. No browser reading, no Send to Kindle, no audiobooks.

Free direct downloads to the device or “directly to Kindle and more”. Review and browser-only beta copies are paid; PDF and a reading app are not publicly confirmed.

Readers add up to 10 review links; reminder rules. Self-reported, not checked on review sites.

Readers submit review links; the author sees a timeline, and reminders go out automatically. Links are self-reported.

Up to 5,000 characters with any result.

Beta copies collect private, chapter-by-chapter feedback and inline comments. Private feedback in ARC review copies is not publicly confirmed.

1 open magnet on Free; 5 or 20 on paid plans.

Reader magnet pages and email collection are on Standard, with sync to email services or a CSV download.

5 giveaways at a time on Free; on paid plans the limit follows the giveaway rating.

Organise or join multi-author group promos with genre filters and click tracking per participant; subscriber lists are not shared.

Each campaign copy shows the reader’s name and a Copy ID; a free-book copy shows the reader’s email. Not DRM.

The terms allow a “digital watermark” showing a copy came through StoryOrigin; a visible or reader-specific mark is not stated.

Last 30 days on Free; 12 months, sources and CSV export on paid plans.

Review-copy timelines and completion, plus click counts for group promos and newsletter swaps. A full view-to-download funnel is not publicly confirmed.