Who we are, and why you should believe a number on this page
SMM Panel Index covers the social media marketing panel industry: what services cost, how long they take, who really supplies them, and what the platforms do about it.
What makes this different from the other SMM blogs
Almost everything written about this industry is affiliate marketing wearing a review's clothes. Rankings are sold. Delivery times are copied from the panel's own marketing. "Tested by our team" means nobody tested anything.
We took the opposite approach and made it structural. Every factual claim on this site rests on one of exactly two things: a measurement we took ourselves, printed with its date and sample size, or a citation to a primary source, listed at the foot of the article. If a claim has neither, it does not get published — and that rule is enforced by the software, not by our good intentions.
Who publishes this
SMM Panel Index is published by SMMRates, a price-comparison index for the SMM panel market. SMMRates sells no panel services of its own, which is why an editorial arm sits under it rather than under an operator.
What money can and cannot buy here
Panels can pay for a labelled listing. It buys a sponsored tag and a rel="sponsored" link, both applied automatically by the software. It does not buy a ranking, a favourable figure, a removed figure, or a mention in a report. We would rather lose the listing than the reason anyone reads us.
Our editorial standards
Six reports a month, capped in code. Not a target — a ceiling. There are not more than six things a month worth measuring properly.
A named human clears every report. Drafts are AI-assisted; publication is not. The editor who cleared the piece is named on it.
Every number is measured or cited. A check rejects any figure in the prose that is not in the evidence table or attached to a source.
We print unflattering findings, including our own. Our sister panel appears in the tables on the same terms as everyone else.
Blocked claims. Guaranteed, 100% real, permanent, non-drop, undetectable. Platforms remove purchased engagement. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling.
Corrections are dated and visible. We fix the article, leave a note at the foot of it, and never quietly edit the record.
Getting a correction
If a figure here is wrong, tell us and show us. We would rather be corrected in public than be wrong in private. Full detail on collection and gating is on the methodology page.