Story Origin vs Bookfunnel vs Both

[The Masked Scrivener]

Recently, StoryOrigin emailed their users to announce their advancement out of beta and into a paid service. Not sure if they posted anywhere else, but here is the pricing info:

The Standard Plan, which has all of StoryOrigin’s features, will be $10 per month or $100 per year (if you want to save money!).
Also, you get unlimited file delivery, no hidden overages or upsells, and integrations!

With this change, which service is the best option?

I have enjoyed using StoryOrigin. Have had no trouble finding group promotions or newsletter swaps, but would I be better off with Bookfunnel?

[Jeff Tanyard]

StoryOrigin's big draw was that it was free.  At the same price point as Bookfunnel, though, you might as well use the more popular service.

[idontknowyet]

I've been using bookfunnel. It's been easy to use and has lots of promo selections available.

[Jeff Tanyard]

StoryOrigin sent out a second email that mentioned a free tier and a discount offer for the paid tier.

From Evan's email:

3) Will there be a free tier?
Yes. The free tier will be limited to the following features:

    Direct Downloads
    Universal Book Links
    Goal Trackers
    Integrations

This plan isn't appropriate if you're serious about trying to build your mailing list, find reviewers, or increase sales.

[alhawke]

StoryOrigin is a bit more Wild West to me. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I owe a great deal to them for some of their promos. But I think Bookfunnel is more well known. I also really like a lot of the extra functionality of Bookfunnel when gifting or creating ARC exchanges.

For newsletter and sales swaps, it really depends more on who's participating than which service I pick. I like to choose promos based on the marketing advertisement, the books, and the authors who I'm sharing with, not whether the source is Bookfunnel or StoryOrigin.

Ultimately, I'd love it if they both prosper. I like to provide my readers with different books and authors and, unfortunately, many of the same authors choose one service or the other.