People opening their first panel usually pick a platform by the size of the social network: Instagram has more users, so Instagram it is. In practice the choice is decided by the depth of the provider's catalogue, the entry price and how often the same customer comes back. We measured the catalogue on 1 November 2026 and sorted sixteen platforms by exactly those traits.
What to measure before you launch
- Shelf depth. How many positions exist for the platform. A single service is not a direction, it is one line in the storefront: nothing for the customer to choose from and nothing to fall back on if the provider pulls it.
- Entry price. The cheapest position decides how small a first order can be. Where a thousand costs a fraction of a cent, people try without thinking.
- Type coverage. Followers, views, likes, comments, shares. More types means more reasons to return and easier bundles.
- Repeat rate. Followers are bought rarely and in bulk, views often and in small amounts. For early sales the second is worth more.
Telegram: cheapest entry, deepest shelf
Forty-nine positions, more than any other platform here. Three categories inside: 40 follower positions from $0.3113 per thousand, 8 view positions from $0.0166 and one comment position from $4.80. Geo targeting covers India, the CIS, Ukraine and the USA.
Views at $0.0166 are the reason to start here. A thousand costs you under two cents, you sell it for ten or twenty, and the customer tries without hesitating. Then they come back, because posts keep going out and views keep being needed.
The second reason is those forty follower positions. That depth is rare: you can split the storefront by speed, geo and guarantee window, so the buyer gets a choice instead of one button. The full breakdown is on the Telegram SMM panel page.
Instagram: the widest spread of types
Twenty-four positions in four categories: 12 likes from $0.36, 7 followers from $12.00, 4 views from $0.108 and a single comment position. Second by count after Telegram, first by variety.
The thing to understand is the price gap. A like costs thirty-six cents per thousand, a follower twelve dollars - thirty-three times more. One markup across the platform does not work here: it is pennies on likes and frightening on followers. Markup belongs on categories, and that is the first thing to configure. Details are on the Instagram SMM panel page.
Streaming: Kick, Twitch and TikTok
Three platforms that look modest alone and make a whole direction together: Kick with 11 positions from $0.072, Twitch with 10 from $0.192, TikTok with 11 from $0.168. Almost all of it is views and live viewers.
Their value is not the price but the rhythm. A streamer goes live on a schedule, several times a week, and needs viewers every single time. One such customer brings a series of orders rather than one, and keeping them is cheaper than finding someone new. They are also the easiest audience to reach early on: streamers publish their contacts and are easy to find.
TikTok adds live viewer packages of 30, 60 and 120 minutes - a position rarely stocked by neighbouring storefronts but searched for on its own. See the TikTok SMM panel page.
Spotify: a narrow audience nobody else stocks
Nineteen follower positions from $0.414, the third deepest shelf after Telegram and Instagram. One category only, but an audience of its own: musicians, producers and small labels who never visit the usual storefronts.
That is the main argument for starting here. Neighbouring panels usually carry nothing for Spotify at all, so you compete on availability rather than price. The honest downside: one category means fewer reasons for a customer to come back than Telegram offers.
Where not to start
- YouTube. Six positions, views from $1.14, a subscriber at $24.00 per thousand. Market rates, but there is no cheap trial order here, and a beginner needs exactly that.
- VK. Six positions, entry from $2.16. A reasonable platform for a panel with turnover, a poor one for a first panel.
- Pinterest. Three positions from $6.00. Too small a shelf to call it a direction.
- WhatsApp and OK. One position each. Fine to stock, not fine to promise.
Facebook (7 positions from $0.084) and Threads (5 positions, one per type) sit in between: worth adding, too early to build on.
How to check the choice before your first customer
Half an hour is enough if you go in order. Open the catalogue and count three numbers for your platform: total positions, service types and the cheapest price. Fewer than five positions, or nothing under a dollar per thousand, and it is not a starting platform.
Then pick ten to fifteen services from it and hide the rest. A storefront of a hundred and sixty positions looks impressive and sells badly: it is hard to choose from, and services you do not understand yourself generate the most refunds. The step-by-step is in the piece on building a service catalogue, and the wider choice is in niche and platform for a panel.
One last thing: do not marry your first decision. Swapping the platform takes an evening - services hide and unhide one by one and nothing has to be set up again. The whole 166-service catalogue arrives stocked, and while orders go through it the panel costs nothing at any turnover: only orders to third-party providers are billed, and the first hundred a month are free too.
