Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about SwayQ, the Q-Score, matching, and payments. If you cannot find what you need, reach us through the support page.
What is SwayQ?
SwayQ is a creator marketplace built around a ranking system. Every creator on the platform has a Q-Score, a single position in their category. Lower is better, and number 1 is the top, like a ranking in tennis or chess. Brands use SwayQ to find verified, ranked creators for paid campaigns. Creators use it to track their position, prove their value with verified platform data, and get matched with funded campaigns. SwayQ is built by SwayQ ApS in Copenhagen, Denmark, by people from inside the creator industry. The platform replaces guesswork with hard numbers: verified follower counts, real engagement data, and one transparent ranking instead of scattered vanity metrics. SwayQ launched in the Nordics and is designed for creators and brands worldwide.
What is the Q-Score?
The Q-Score is your position in the queue. The Q in SwayQ literally stands for queue: every creator gets one ordinal position in their category, and lower is better. Number 1 is the best. It works like an Elo rating in chess, except we show the position, not the underlying number. The ranking weighs engagement quality, audience authenticity, cross-platform consistency, content velocity, and category relevance. We publish what the algorithm considers, but never the weights or thresholds, so the ranking stays fair and hard to game. Positions update monthly, and you can see how far you moved. Read the full explainer on the Q-Score page.
How does matching work?
Brands do not browse and cold-message creators on SwayQ. Matching starts with a campaign brief: the brand describes the campaign, the audience, and the budget. SwayQ then matches creators based on category, verified platform signals, and ranking. Today the SwayQ team curates every match by hand, assisted by the ranking; automated matching is on the roadmap. Matched creators receive a campaign invitation in their workspace and decide whether to accept. Three rules protect creators throughout: brands never see creator contact details, brands cannot message creators outside a matched campaign, and brands cannot bypass the matching to handpick around the ranking. The result is fewer, better matches on both sides, with no spam. Read more on the matching page.
Is SwayQ free? What does it cost?
Signing up is free for both creators and brands, and there is no subscription. SwayQ earns a transparent platform fee on funded campaigns. The fee is shown before any agreement is confirmed, so both sides see the same numbers upfront, with nothing hidden in the middle. The fee is paid by the brand on top of the agreed creator rate, which means the amount a creator agrees to is the amount the creator receives. Creators never pay to join, to build a profile, to connect their platforms, or to receive campaign invitations. Brands never pay to create a workspace or submit a campaign brief; costs only arise when a campaign is funded.
How do payments and held release work?
Campaigns on SwayQ are funded before they go live. The brand pays the full campaign budget upfront through Stripe, our payment partner. The money is then held by Stripe, not by SwayQ, until the work is done. We call this held release. When a creator submits a deliverable and the brand approves it, the matching milestone is released and Stripe transfers the money to the creator. One creator-protective safeguard is built in: if a brand neither approves nor disputes a submitted deliverable within 7 calendar days, the payment releases automatically. No chasing invoices, no 60-day payment terms. Creators complete a one-time Stripe onboarding to verify their identity and connect a bank account; after that, payouts happen per milestone. Read the full flow on the payments page.
How do I join as a creator?
Create an account at swayq.com/auth/signup, connect your social platforms, and complete your profile. Connecting platforms (Instagram and TikTok today, with more on the way) verifies your follower counts and engagement directly at the source, so brands see real numbers, not screenshots. Your profile and the themes you choose tell the matching which categories you belong in. From there you are part of the ranking and eligible for campaign invitations that fit your category and audience. Joining is free. You own your data: you can delete your account at any time, and deletion removes everything SwayQ holds about you. That is a product feature, not a compliance checkbox.
How do I get started as a brand?
Sign up at swayq.com/auth/signup and choose the brand option. You set up a brand workspace, answer a few questions about your company and goals, and from there you can submit a campaign brief. The brief describes what you want: campaign goals, audience, deliverables, and budget. SwayQ matches your brief with ranked, verified creators in the right categories, and you confirm the collaborations you want to fund. Campaigns are funded upfront through Stripe and released per milestone as you approve deliverables. You always see the full economics, including the platform fee, before you commit to anything.
How are creators vetted?
Every creator on SwayQ connects their social platforms through the official platform login, so follower counts and engagement come straight from the source rather than from screenshots a creator could edit. That verified data feeds the Q-Score ranking, and it also exposes fake-follower laundering: bought followers and engagement pods show up as low audience authenticity and drag a creator down the queue. Brands only ever see ranked, verified creators, never unverified profiles. Creators also build a reputation over time through completed campaigns, which feeds back into the ranking, so reliability and quality compound rather than reset with every new brief.
What kinds of campaigns can run on SwayQ?
SwayQ supports single-creator collaborations and multi-creator campaigns under one brief. A campaign can be one creator producing a set of deliverables, or many creators each producing the same deliverable, for example a launch where dozens of creators post one reel each. Every collaboration is structured as line items with their own deliverable, deadline, and rate, so a brand can fund and approve each piece independently. The brand describes goals, audience, deliverables, and budget in the brief, and SwayQ matches ranked creators in the right categories. The format stays the same whether the campaign is one creator or a coordinated group.
How does SwayQ handle my data and GDPR?
SwayQ is built in the EU and treats data protection as a product feature, not a compliance checkbox. You own your data. You can delete your account at any time from your settings, and deletion removes everything SwayQ holds about you, including connected-platform data, across every linked record. Connected social platforms are read through official logins with the minimum scope needed to verify your numbers, and SwayQ never posts on your behalf or sells your data. Payment details are held by Stripe, our regulated payment partner, not by SwayQ. Brands never see a creator's contact details through the platform.
What results can brands and creators expect?
The honest answer is that SwayQ removes the friction that usually breaks creator marketing, rather than promising a fixed return. Brands get matched with verified, ranked creators in the right category instead of guessing from vanity metrics, and they see the full economics, including the platform fee, before committing. Creators get matched with funded campaigns, get paid per milestone through held release with a 7-day auto-release safeguard, and can track their position in the queue month over month. Because every campaign is funded upfront and every creator is verified, both sides start from real numbers and real money rather than promises.
Who is behind SwayQ?
SwayQ is built by SwayQ ApS, a Danish company registered in Copenhagen. The team comes from inside the creator and influencer industry and has lived the problems the platform is designed to fix: payment delays, opaque contracts, and fake-follower laundering. SwayQ is not an agency. We do not take a roster cut, we do not represent creators, and we do not sell placements. We run the ranking, the matching, and the payment rails, and we earn a visible platform fee on funded campaigns. For partnership, press, or investment conversations, see the about page or reach us through the support page.