Post Shoutout
They mention your channel in a Post, which lands in their subscribers' Home and Shorts feeds. It is the type creators reach for when they want to be seen quickly.
Best for being seen fast
Real Creator Shoutouts
Free YouTube shoutouts from real creators
Give a shoutout, earn credits, then spend those credits on a shoutout of your own. Creators in your niche mention your channel to their subscribers on YouTube itself. Nothing here costs money to start, and nothing here breaks YouTube's rules.
Get my free shoutout
Free to join Real creators, never bots Read-only, we never post
Real creators, promoting each other every day
331,747+Creators Growing
38,026+Shoutouts Delivered
1,145This Week
100%Human-Reviewed
What Is a YouTube Shoutout and Does It Still Work?
A shoutout puts your channel in front of an audience that already trusts the person recommending you. That trust is the entire mechanism.
The short answer
What is a YouTube shoutout?
A recommendation. Another creator tells their subscribers about your channel, and some of them go and look. It happens on YouTube itself, as a Post, a comment on one of their videos, or a link in a description. It works for the same reason a friend's recommendation beats an advertisement: you are borrowing trust that someone else already earned.
Is it allowed
Do YouTube shoutouts break the rules?
No. Cross-promotion between creators is normal on YouTube and is not against the Terms of Service. It is one of the oldest things creators do for each other. What does break the rules is buying fake subscribers, views or engagement from bot services, which is a completely different thing.
The catch
Why does the right creator matter so much?
A shoutout from the wrong channel does very little. If a cooking channel recommends your gaming channel, the audience has no reason to care. That is why we match on niche rather than on subscriber count. A smaller channel in your exact niche will usually do more for you than a large one in an unrelated niche.
Free, really
Are free YouTube shoutouts real?
Real ones are, when the creator giving the shoutout gets something back. On CollabPals that exchange is explicit: you earn credits by giving shoutouts, and spend credits to receive one. Nobody is giving anything away, which is exactly why the creators here actually deliver. Sites offering shoutouts for nothing are almost always bot services.
The Three Kinds of Shoutout We Deliver
Each one reaches people differently. You choose which one you want when you set up your campaign.
Video Comment Shoutout
They comment on one of their own videos, in front of the people already engaged enough to be reading along. That traffic tends to be more deliberate.
Best for engaged viewersVideo Description Shoutout
A link under their video that stays there for as long as the video does, so it keeps working quietly long after the other two have finished.
Best for a slow, lasting dripHow to Get a Free YouTube Shoutout, Step by Step
The whole system runs on credits you earn rather than money you spend. Giving a shoutout is what pays for receiving one.
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1
Connect your channel
Sign in with the Google account that owns your YouTube channel. We read your public channel details so creators can see who they would be promoting. We never post anything on your behalf.
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2
Give a shoutout, earn credits
Open the Collaboration Board and pick a creator whose channel you are happy to recommend. Post the shoutout on your own channel, submit the link as proof, and the credits land once our team confirms it went live.
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3
Spend those credits on your own
Set up a shoutout campaign for your channel and pay for it with the credits you earned. Free accounts can run one campaign at a time, so it stays fair for everyone earning their way in.
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4
A real creator delivers it
A creator picks up your campaign and posts the shoutout on YouTube. They submit the live link, our team checks it is genuinely there, and you can open it and see it for yourself.
Why Do Most Free Shoutout Methods Go Nowhere?
Nearly everything that turns up when you search for free shoutouts is either a dead end or a bot service wearing a friendlier name.
Asking in the comments
Yours is one of hundreds under the same video. The creator has no reason to answer any of them, and usually never sees it at all.
Shoutout swap groups
Everyone in the room is another promoter, so the recommendation reaches almost nobody who was ever going to watch.
Anything promising instant results
Fake engagement spikes, then YouTube removes it. Channels that lean on it risk strikes or termination.
How Does This Compare to the Other Options?
| CollabPals | Swap groups | Freelance sellers | Bot services | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free to start | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Matched to your niche | Yes | Rarely | Rarely | No |
| Real creator with a real audience | Yes | Mixed | Unverified | No |
| Proof link that it went live | Yes | No | Sometimes | No |
| Safe under YouTube's rules | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column
What Creators Say After a Collaboration
Their words, exactly as they wrote them.
CollabPals connected me with real creators who helped promote my channel, and I noticed increased visibility and engagement from the collaboration.
ARIFHOSSAIN786
Creator on CollabPals
The collaboration went smoothly from start to finish, and I gained the right exposure to my target audience. CollabPals makes it easy to find creators for quality collaborations without a complicated process.
Farrey Channel
I used CollabPals to collaborate with real creators, and it helped promote my channel with genuine traffic and increased visibility.
ISLAMIC POST
CollabPals helped me reach a wider audience and brought real engagement to my channel. The campaign was easy to set up, and I’m happy with the results.
Uncle Bucks
Collabpals has made the struggle of starting and maintaining a YouTube channel more like a fast errand.
K!wi
I'm so glad this app exists It's a place where content creators can actually collab with one another. It's worth it, especially when you're new and trying to support each other not just outshine each other talent.
Mia Ba world
Frequently Asked Questions About Free YouTube Shoutouts
The questions creators ask before they give their first shoutout
How do I get a free YouTube shoutout?
On CollabPals you get a free shoutout by giving one first. Pick a creator from the Collaboration Board, post a shoutout for them on your own channel, and submit the link as proof. That earns you credits, and you spend those credits on a shoutout for your own channel. No money changes hands at any point.
What is a YouTube shoutout?
A YouTube shoutout is when one creator publicly recommends another creator's channel to their audience. On CollabPals that happens in one of three ways: a Post on YouTube, a comment on one of their videos, or a link in a video description. The recommendation is posted on YouTube itself, in front of real subscribers.
Are free YouTube shoutouts safe for my channel?
Yes. Creators recommending each other is normal on YouTube and does not break the Terms of Service. What does break the rules is buying fake subscribers, views or engagement from bot services. CollabPals never uses bots, and every creator on the platform signed up with their own real YouTube channel.
How long does it take to get a shoutout?
You can earn your first credits within minutes by completing a shoutout for another creator. After that, how quickly a creator picks up your own campaign depends on how many creators are active in your niche at that moment. Our team checks every completed shoutout before it is marked as delivered.
Do I need to pay for anything?
No. Credits can be earned by giving shoutouts to other creators, and earned credits work exactly the same as purchased ones. Paid plans exist for creators who want to promote a specific video, choose the audience they reach, run more campaigns at once, or keep campaigns running automatically, but the core exchange is free.
Which type of shoutout should I choose?
A Post Shoutout reaches a creator's subscribers through their Home and Shorts feeds, so it tends to be the fastest to be seen. A Video Comment Shoutout reaches people already engaged enough to read the comments. A Video Description Shoutout stays in place for as long as the video exists, so it works slowly but keeps working.
Can a small channel get a shoutout here?
Yes, and small channels are most of the platform. Because you earn your way in by giving a shoutout rather than paying, subscriber count is not a barrier. Matching is based on niche rather than size, since a recommendation only works if it reaches people who like the kind of content you make.
How is this different from a shoutout swap group?
In most Discord and Instagram swap groups everyone promoting is another promoter, so the recommendations reach almost nobody who was genuinely going to watch. On CollabPals shoutouts are matched by niche, delivered on real channels, and every one is verified with a live link before it counts as complete.
What stops someone taking the credits and not posting?
Every shoutout has to be submitted with a link to the live post, comment or description, and our team checks it is genuinely there before the credits are released. If the shoutout is not live, it does not count.
How many creators are on CollabPals?
Over 331,747 YouTube creators have joined CollabPals, and 38,026 shoutouts have been completed on the platform to date.
Can I promote one specific video with a shoutout?
Promoting a specific video is part of the paid plans. On a free account you can run a shoutout for your channel as a whole, which is what most creators want when they are starting out. If you later want to push one particular upload, or choose exactly which audience it reaches, that is available on the paid plans.
What happens after the shoutout goes live?
You get the link, so you can open it and see the recommendation on YouTube for yourself. What happens next depends on your content: the shoutout puts your channel in front of a new audience, and whether they subscribe or keep watching comes down to what they find when they get there.
Skip the Wait
Do not want to earn the credits first?
You can buy a shoutout outright instead. We match you with a verified creator in your niche, and you get the link to the live shoutout as proof. Promoting one specific video, choosing the exact audience, and keeping campaigns running automatically are all part of the paid plans.
Real Creator Shoutouts
Give a shoutout. Get a shoutout.
Join 331,747+ creators promoting each other on YouTube. No bots, no fake engagement, and nothing to pay to get started.
