Aubrium vs ViralFindr: which is better for finding viral reels?
ViralFindr looks up Instagram posts by account, hashtag or word, and lets you download them. Aubrium is a library of reels that beat their account, from accounts your size. We tested both hands-on.
ViralFindr is one of the simplest tools for finding Instagram posts. Type an account, a hashtag or a word, and it lists the posts it finds with their likes, comments and views. You can sort them and download any one. There's a free plan with 3 searches.1
That's often where the questions start. Which of those posts actually went viral for the account that made it? Was the creator big or small? And why did it work?
Aubrium starts from those questions. It's a library of Instagram reels and posts that already reached far more people than their creators have followers, all from accounts with 1,000 to 100,000 followers. Each one comes with its hook and how it was made. It's ours.
Our team studied both apps hands-on in October 2026, with the same skincare searches in each. ViralFindr was one of the ten tools in our guide to the best viral reel finders, and this page goes deeper on just the two. If you've already decided to move on, we've compared the other options too.
For creators who want ideas, Aubrium is the better pick. Every reel in it reached far more people than its creator has followers, all from accounts with 1,000 to 100,000 followers, and it writes your own version. ViralFindr has no viral score, so it can't tell you which posts beat their account. It fits if you just want one account's latest posts, or downloads, for little or nothing.
A searchable library of Instagram reels, carousels and photos that reached far more people than their creators have followers, all from accounts with 1,000 to 100,000 followers.
Fetches an account's posts, a hashtag's posts or Instagram's top reels for a word when you ask, with their likes, comments and views, ready to download.
What does ViralFindr do?
ViralFindr is a small, simple tool for Instagram. In its own words, it's "a simpler way to find the best performing content on Instagram."1 It doesn't keep a library of its own. Each search goes to Instagram when you ask, and the results come back within about two minutes.
There are four ways in:
An account
Type a handle and you get that account's recent posts, about 84 of them, with likes, comments and views.
A hashtag
Type a tag and you get about 400 posts that carry it, from any year.
A word
Type a word and you get Instagram's own top reels for it. This one is marked as a beta.
Monitor
Type a handle and you get a report on its followers over time, with a guess at where they're heading.
Its account search is the strongest part. When we searched one skincare creator, it returned her posts right up to the day before, with play counts that matched our own almost exactly. It also lists the 20 hashtags she used most and the 20 accounts she mentioned most, which showed the brands she works with.
You can sort results by likes, comments, engagement or views, save a search and download any post. Paid plans add an Excel export, and its site suggests downloading a post to repost it.1 It never asked us for an Instagram login, and its site says one is optional. The app comes in English and Portuguese.
The free plan has 3 searches. Paid plans are $14.95 or $29.95 a month, and the top one has unlimited searches.1
What does Aubrium do?
Aubrium is a library of Instagram reels and posts that reached far more people than their creator has followers. Every account in it has between 1,000 and 100,000 followers. Where ViralFindr hands you raw likes and views, every post here has already beaten its account.
That's the point of it. When an account with 3 million followers gets 5 million views, that's a normal day. When an account with 6,000 followers gets 5 million, the idea did the work. That's the reel worth learning from.
There are more than 260,000 posts in it today, from more than 190,000 creators, and the typical reel reached 18 times its creator's followers. Two in five come from accounts under 10,000 followers, and more than 3,700 arrived in the last week. Each post is filed into every one of the 350+ niches it fits. It arrives already read: its hook type, its format, whether someone is on camera, the words when someone speaks, and the creator's country.
Around the library sit the tools that turn an idea into your own post. Make my version writes your script, hooks and a caption from any reel. Remix puts your own words on a trending reel and downloads it, ready to post. My Rivals watches accounts like yours and flags the reel that's breaking out against that account's usual. Collections keep what you find, and it all works inside ChatGPT and Claude.
It's Instagram only for now. Plans are $49, $99 or $249 a month, and every plan has every tool.3 There's no free plan or trial, but a first plan is refunded in full within 15 days.4
What the category's viral reels have in common, counted across all of them.
Hook type, format, text on screen, talking to camera or not. Every post in the library arrives already read, so you can see how it was built before you make yours.
How are they different?
They do different jobs. ViralFindr fetches posts. Aubrium tells you which posts are worth learning from, and helps you make your own.
What you're looking at
ViralFindr shows whatever Instagram returns for your search, with raw counts. Aubrium only holds posts that reached far more people than their creator has followers.
Whose posts
ViralFindr's word and hashtag results come with no follower counts, so a small account looks just like a famous one. Every account in Aubrium has 1,000 to 100,000 followers.
What's read for you
ViralFindr gives you likes, comments, views and the caption. Aubrium adds the hook type, the format, the spoken words, whether someone is on camera and the creator's country.
What you can make
ViralFindr downloads the post. Aubrium writes your own version: a script, hooks and a caption.
How long it lasts
A ViralFindr search expires after 2 days. In Aubrium, what you save stays in your collections.
How we tested them
We didn't stop at each tool's website. Our team studied both apps hands-on in October 2026, using each one the way a creator would.
In ViralFindr, we searched an account, a word and a hashtag, all for skincare, and kept every result: the account, the likes, comments and views, the date and the caption. We also went through its feed of popular posts and its four popular niches. Then we ran the same searches on Aubrium's library and checked the posts the two had in common. ViralFindr doesn't write, so it wasn't in our blind test of script writers. Aubrium was, next to seven other tools.
ViralFindr vs Aubrium at a glance
Here's how the two line up. ViralFindr's plans are from its own site, read on 22 October 2026. The rest is from using both apps in October 2026.
| Feature | Aubrium | ViralFindr |
|---|---|---|
| Shows which posts went viral | Yes: Every post already beat its account | No: No viral score |
| Accounts your size | Yes: Only 1,000 to 100,000 followers | No: No follower counts on word or hashtag results |
| Search by topic | Yes: Posts filed into 350+ niches, plus captions and spoken words | Partly: Instagram's own search, by word or hashtag |
| Views on every reel | Yes: Yes | Partly: None on hashtag results |
| Country filter | Yes: Yes | No: No |
| The hook and how it was made | Yes: Read on every post | No: The caption only |
| Your own version | Yes: A script, hooks and a caption | No: No hooks or scripts |
| Any account's latest posts | Partly: The rivals you track | Yes: Any public account, up to the day before |
| Download a post | Partly: Your own version, through Remix | Yes: Yes, plus an Excel export on paid plans |
| Results you can keep | Yes: Collections | Partly: Each search expires after 2 days |
| Free plan | No: No; a full refund within 15 days of a first plan | Yes: 3 searches |
What we found when we tested both
Features only tell you so much. Here's what happened when we searched skincare in both, starting with the question most people bring to a tool like this.
From our skincare searches in ViralFindr, October 2026.
Does it tell you which posts went viral?
No, and that's the biggest gap. ViralFindr has no viral score. It lists likes, comments and views, and leaves the maths to you.
When we searched one skincare creator with about 52,000 followers, more than a third of her reels had done far better than her usual. Nothing in ViralFindr marked them out. Its engagement figure doesn't help either. It's printed 100 times too small, so a post at 40% reads "0.40%". On word and hashtag searches it reads 0% on every post, because those results carry no follower count.
The word search shows why this matters. For "skincare", one reel it returned had more than 36 million views, and it looked like any other big reel. Aubrium has the same reel, from an account with 3,129 followers. It reached 11,535 times that account's followers. Twelve of the 84 reels in that search came from small accounts like this one, and Aubrium holds all twelve.
What we found when we checked the numbers
- No: ViralFindr: no viral score, and engagement printed 100 times too small
- No: ViralFindr: a small account's breakout looks the same as a celebrity's post
- Yes: Aubrium: every reel reached far more people than its creator has followers. The typical one reached 18 times its creator's followers
Whose posts do they show you?
ViralFindr's word search hands you Instagram's own top reels for that word. For "skincare", they ran from 604,000 to 73.5 million views. None came with the account's follower count, and 22 of the 84 were brand campaigns, challenges or partnership posts.
Here's what each search gave back for the same word:
| For "skincare" | What came back | The accounts | Views |
|---|---|---|---|
| ViralFindr, word search | 84 reels from 77 accounts | No follower counts | Middle reel: 7.84 million |
| ViralFindr, hashtag search | 405 posts from 337 accounts | No follower counts | 0 on every post |
| ViralFindr, account search | 84 posts from one creator | One account, about 52,000 followers | Middle reel: 52,558 |
| Aubrium | More than 3,000 viral posts from more than 2,400 creators | Typical creator: 15,786 followers | Typical reel: 17.4 times its creator's followers |
Aubrium's row counts the viral posts with skincare in the caption. Across the whole library, every account has 1,000 to 100,000 followers, and two in five posts come from accounts under 10,000.
Every reel here comes from an account with 1,000 to 100,000 followers. When a small account gets millions of views, the idea did the work.
Does the search find what you typed?
ViralFindr's searches are Instagram's own. Its hashtag search returns the posts filed under that tag, and 109 of the 405 were from 2025 or earlier. Its word search returns what Instagram ranks top for the word. In our test, 38% of those reels never used the word in the caption, because Instagram's search looks past the caption.
That isn't wrong, but you can't steer it. There's no filter for account size, country, language or date on the page. The captions we got back were mostly in English, but the accounts were from all over the world, and ViralFindr shows no country.
Aubrium files every post into each of its 350+ niches by what it's about, and its search reads captions and the words spoken in the reel. It knows the creator's country for 96% of its posts, across 200 countries, and you can filter by it, along with format and hook type.
How fresh is it?
This is where ViralFindr is strong. Its account search is live. It returned one creator's posts right up to the day before, and on a reel with 2.9 million plays, its count was within about 100 of ours.
But it only reaches about 84 posts back, around three and a half months for someone who posts every day. That creator's biggest reel of the year, with 4.71 million views in June, fell outside it. Aubrium has it.
Its ready-made screens are older. The newest post in its feed of popular posts was from December 2024. Its four popular niches were captured in March 2024, and the middle post in them had 1 like. And every search expires after 2 days.
In Aubrium, more than 3,700 posts arrived in the last week, and My Rivals keeps watching the accounts you add.
Can it help you make your own?
ViralFindr doesn't write hooks, scripts or captions, and it can't open a reel from a link. What it offers is the download.
Aubrium's Make my version turns any reel into your own script, hooks and a caption. In our blind test, eight tools that write got the same five viral reels, and six reviewers scored every script without knowing which tool wrote it.
Aubrium came first in both rounds, and no reviewer scored another tool above it, and wrote the most "best hook of the reel" picks, 8 of 15. For the sunscreen launch, the reviewers' favourite opener was Aubrium's: "Five shades on one cheek, watch which one disappears."
laugh…
youFound one you love? Turn it into your own script and hooks or a carousel, or swap its text for yours and download it, ready to post.
Which should you pick?
It comes down to whether you want to find posts, or find ideas you can use.
| If you… | Pick |
|---|---|
| want ideasfrom accounts your size that already went viral | Aubrium |
| want to knowwhy a reel worked: its hook and how it was made | Aubrium |
| want a script, hooks and a caption from a reel you like | Aubrium |
| want to filterby country, format or hook type | Aubrium |
| want to look upany public account's latest posts, today | ViralFindr |
| want to downloadposts or export a search to a spreadsheet | ViralFindr |
| want to spendnothing and only need a few searches | ViralFindr |
Questions people ask
Is Aubrium better than ViralFindr?
For finding ideas from accounts your size, yes, and we make it, so weigh that. Aubrium shows which posts beat their account and writes your own version. ViralFindr costs less, and it's better for looking up any one account's latest posts.
Is ViralFindr free?
It has a free plan with 3 searches. Its paid plans are $14.95 and $29.95 a month on its site, and the top one has unlimited searches.1
Does ViralFindr show which posts went viral?
No. It has no viral score, so it can't tell you which posts beat their account. It lists likes, comments and views, and you sort them yourself.
Does ViralFindr write hooks or scripts?
No. It finds and downloads posts. Aubrium's Make my version writes a script, hooks and a caption from any reel.
Do I need to log in with Instagram?
Not for either one. ViralFindr says the login is optional, and it never asked us for one.1 Aubrium never asks for your Instagram password.
Does ViralFindr offer refunds?
Can ViralFindr filter by country or account size?
No. Its word and hashtag results carry no follower counts, and it shows no country. In Aubrium, every account has 1,000 to 100,000 followers, and you can filter by country.
Read next in Tools & Comparisons
Each of these takes one question from this page further:
- The best tools to find viral reels: all ten tools we compared, ranked.
- The best ViralFindr alternatives: seven tools to try if you're moving on.
- Reel idea tools for small accounts: which tools show you reels from accounts your size.
- Our search study of 8 viral reel finders: more than 1,300 searches, and whose reels each tool shows.
- The best hook generators for Instagram: if you want the hook as well as the reel.
How we did this
Our team studied both apps hands-on in October 2026, using them the way a creator would. In ViralFindr we searched an account, a word and a hashtag, all for skincare, and saved every result: the account, the likes, comments and views, the date and the caption. We also went through its feed of popular posts and its four popular niches. We ran the same searches on Aubrium's library and matched the posts the two had in common. Where a plan capped a step, we used what it allowed and counted only what it produced.
ViralFindr doesn't write, so the blind script test covers Aubrium and seven other tools: the same five reels for every tool, scored blind by AI reviewers with one scorecard and no tool names, in two rounds of three. ViralFindr's plans are from its own site, read on 22 October 2026. Aubrium's numbers come from its own database, read on 23 October 2026. Apps change. If something here is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it and move the date. And yes, Aubrium makes this page.
Sources
- ViralFindrviralfindr.com · Plans, the free plan, search, downloads, the Instagram login and cancelling. Read 22 October 2026.
- ViralFindr terms of serviceviralfindr.com · Read for refund terms; none are given. Read 22 October 2026.
- Aubrium pricingaubrium.com · Plans. Read 22 October 2026.
- Aubrium refund policyaubrium.com · The 15-day refund on a first subscription. Read 22 October 2026.
Changelog
- First version.
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