Is Social Envy Legit?
Social Envy was a real business that took payments, but Facebook's 2019 complaint says it sold fake Instagram engagement, and today's site names no owner.
Our Social Envy review finds an Instagram growth service whose original owners Facebook sued in 2019, and whose site still loads without prices, Terms or an owner. When it ran, buyers reported emailing their password, follow-backs that faded and PayPal charges after cancelling. Paying any site under this name today means paying someone you cannot identify.
Social Envy is not a legit choice in 2026 and was never safe for your login, because its owners were sued by Facebook and it reportedly took passwords.
Social Envy was a real business that took payments, but Facebook's 2019 complaint says it sold fake Instagram engagement, and today's site names no owner.
Social Envy's original owners stopped in February 2018. A homepage still loads at socialenvy.co, but it shows no prices, Terms, company or contact details.
Social Envy reportedly needed your password: a 2018 account says it asked buyers to email it, and Facebook's letter listed "collecting user credentials".
Social Envy was not safe for your account: sharing your login and automated follows both break Instagram's rules, and Instagram disabled accounts linked to it.
Social Envy refunds are unlikely now: buyers report silence after cancelling, and today's site lists no email, phone number or refund policy to use.
Social Envy is not worth it, because you cannot see what you would buy, who runs it, or how to cancel before you pay.
Social Envy is not a service to pay in 2026: its original owners were sued by Facebook, and the site that still loads shows no prices, Terms or owner. When it ran, buyers reported password requests, follow-backs that faded and charges they could not stop.
Our bottom line
Social Envy
socialenvy.co · Former managed Instagram growth service, sued by Facebook in 2019
A former Instagram automation service whose name outlived its owners.
Facebook's April 2019 complaint says SocialEnvy.co sold fake Instagram engagement from July 2015 to February 2018, and that a February 2018 cease-and-desist told its owners to stop collecting user credentials. The complaint adds that people unconnected to those owners now run the site, and nothing on it says who they are.
Social Envy pricing was reportedly billed weekly, from $15 to $33 a week depending on the plan, and no price can be read on socialenvy.co today.
Plans as reported by third-party articles from 2020 to 2024, because Social Envy's own pricing page could not be read on Oct 15, 2026. Monthly figures are our arithmetic (weekly price x 52 / 12).
Check these six things before paying any site called Social Envy, because the name no longer belongs to the company this review describes.
Social Envy reviews on Quora are mostly negative and years old, citing unanswered emails and PayPal charges. ChatGPT says avoid it, while Gemini and Grok say it shut down.
Swipe or scroll sideways to see every screenshot. These are individual opinions we could not verify, most several years old; usernames, other sellers and review-site citations are blurred. The Reddit thread is about buying Instagram followers in general, not Social Envy; it is shown because it answers the same question Social Envy buyers asked.
This full Social Envy review checks the 2019 court complaint, reported plans, buyer complaints and the live socialenvy.co homepage, using sources from 2017 to October 2026. Jump to the part you need.
Social Envy was an Instagram growth service at socialenvy.co that sold weekly plans to like, follow and unfollow accounts in your niche for you, hoping some would follow back.
It marketed itself as "organic" growth with targeting and, in later descriptions, a dedicated account manager. A 2018 first-person account describes the same service following up to a thousand accounts by hashtag on Twitter and liking thousands of photos on Instagram, then unfollowing several days later.
The clearest record of who ran it comes from a court filing, not from Social Envy. Facebook's April 2019 complaint says Arend Nollen and Leon Hedges ran SocialEnvy.co through a company called "Social Envy Limited" from July 23, 2015 to February 2018, and that the site "sold artificial Instagram views and other fake engagement services". These are allegations, but they are the only named owners in any source we found.
Social Envy shut down under its original owners in February 2018, after a Facebook and Instagram cease-and-desist, but a homepage still loads at socialenvy.co in October 2026. That page names no company, lists no prices and shows no Terms.
On October 15, 2026 the socialenvy.co homepage read "Social Envy is a powerful Social Media growth service", with lines such as "Genuine Social Media Followers" and "Real results, real people." It offered "Get Started", "How it Works" and "Call or E-Mail Us" buttons, but no phone number, no email address, no company name and no footer. Every other page we requested, including the Terms, FAQ and pricing paths, refused automated reading. We could not confirm whether the site takes orders today.
Yes, Facebook and Instagram sued the people behind Social Envy: on April 25, 2019 they filed a complaint in the US District Court for the Northern District of California against Social Media Series Limited and its three directors. The complaint names SocialEnvy.co, IGFamous.net and the later Likesocial.co as their sites, and alleges about $9,430,000 in unjust enrichment from the Likesocial era alone. In October 2019 the case settled, with the three individuals banned from Facebook's services and required to pay $500,000, according to reports citing court documents.
The February 20, 2018 letter told Social Envy's owners to stop five things, according to the complaint: misleading Instagram users, creating false or duplicate profiles, collecting user credentials, automating interactions between profiles with no prior relationship, and helping others break Instagram's Terms of Use. Instagram disabled multiple accounts linked to SocialEnvy.co at the same time.
Nobody publicly owns Social Envy today: the live homepage names no company, and Facebook's 2019 complaint says "Socialenvy.co is presently operated by individuals unassociated with Defendants". Treat any socialenvy.co checkout as a payment to an unknown party.
Social Envy and Social Steeze are linked only by the same original owners, as far as the record shows. Facebook's December 2018 letter, quoted in the complaint, lists SocialSteeze.net among the defendants' sites. Grok and two review blogs call it a rebrand, but nothing confirms Social Steeze took over Social Envy's customers, so treat that as unverified.
Social Envy sold one core product, automated Instagram engagement on a weekly plan, with targeting filters and a so-called account manager, and never sold fixed follower packs in any source we found.
| Feature | What sources describe | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Automated likes and follows | Liking thousands of photos and following accounts by hashtag, then unfollowing days later | 2018 first-person account |
| Targeting | Competitor usernames, hashtags, location and gender, plus a blacklist | 2017 promotional article, 2020 review |
| Automated comments | Templated comments on target posts | 2020 review |
| Account manager | Marketed as a person; Trustpilot reviewers called it "bot-like" | Review blogs, buyer reports |
Social Envy pricing was reported at $15 to $33 a week across its plans, which works out to about $65 to $143 a month. None of these prices could be read on socialenvy.co, so treat every figure below as reported, not confirmed.
| Social Envy plan | Price | Term | About per month | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freedom | $33 / week | Cancel anytime | $143 | 2020 review |
| Standard | $30 / week | 3-week minimum | $130 | 2020 review |
| Premium | $27 / week | 5-week minimum | $117 | 2020 review |
| Executive | $20 / week | 10-week minimum | $87 | 2020 review |
| Pro | $25 / week | Cancel anytime | $108 | Later blogs, 2024 |
| Regular | $15 / week | Cancel anytime | $65 | Later blogs, 2024 |
Reported by third parties; monthly figures are weekly price x 52 / 12, rounded.
A Quora user recalls Social Envy's "promise of 2500 followers per month", which, if accurate, put the Freedom plan at roughly 6 cents per promised follower. Buyers on Trustpilot describe paying for weeks with few or no results, so the promise and the outcome rarely matched. Compare that with one-off packages on our best sites to buy Instagram followers page, which list a fixed price before you pay.
Weekly billing made Social Envy look cheap, but the Executive plan's 10-week minimum committed about $200, and Freedom at $33 a week cost about $1,716 a year.
Social Envy worked as a weekly subscription: you paid, handed over your login, set targets, and its automation liked, followed and unfollowed accounts as you. Today the socialenvy.co homepage shows a "How it Works" button but no readable steps.
Social Envy was a real business, so not a fake storefront, but it is not legit in any useful sense: Facebook sued its owners for selling fake engagement. Many buyers called it a scam over billing, and today's site names nobody.
| Evidence | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Court record | A federal complaint filed April 25, 2019 names SocialEnvy.co, its owners and a February 2018 cease-and-desist. Allegations, settled in October 2019 per press reports. |
| Buyer reports | Trustpilot: 1.8 from 17 reviews, 94% one-star, January 2018 to April 2019, with unauthorized PayPal charges, double billing and fake followers. |
| Company claims | "Real results, real people." and "Genuine Social Media Followers" on today's homepage, with no evidence shown. |
| Can't confirm | Who runs socialenvy.co now, whether it takes orders, its current prices, Terms and refund policy. |
One balanced data point: the 2018 first-person account says that when the author refused to send a password, Social Envy "immediately offered me a full refund without any issue", paid the same day. That is one case. Most published reports run the other way.
Early Social Envy reviews were positive because some were promotional: a glowing 2017 article was written after Social Envy let the site "demo their product for free", and it carried no figures. A reader comment under that same article, from December 2017, says people they knew called Social Envy "a scam" or reported terrible customer service.
Social Envy was not safe for your Instagram account: it reportedly needed your password, its automation broke Instagram's rules, and Instagram disabled accounts linked to it in 2018.
| Risk | Level | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your login | High | Password reportedly requested by email; Facebook's letter listed "collecting user credentials". |
| Your money | High | Weekly recurring charges; buyers report billing after cancelling, double billing and a $700 PayPal charge they call unauthorized. |
| Your account | Real | Mass automated follows and likes are inauthentic activity under Meta's policies, and can bring action blocks or flags. |
| Today's site | Unknown | No owner, Terms or privacy policy shown, so there is no stated rule for how your data would be used. |
Instagram's terms bar accessing accounts through unauthorised automated means and sharing your login, and Meta's policies treat mass automated follows, likes and comments as inauthentic behaviour.
Yes, Social Envy reportedly needed your Instagram password so its automation could act as you. A January 2018 account says Social Envy asked the author to email the password for their Twitter account, and the same for Instagram. Review blogs say it was persistent about passwords and phone numbers, and Gemini repeats the claim. Anyone with your password can post, message and follow as you.
If you ever gave Social Envy your password, change it now. Turn on two-factor authentication, then review logged-in devices and connected apps in Instagram's settings. An "organic" label does not make shared logins safe: Facebook's own letter named collecting credentials as a violation.
Social Envy does not work in 2026, because nothing on its site can be checked or bought, and when it ran the evidence says follow-backs were few and faded. No source offers a measured, independent result.
| Social Envy's promise | What the evidence shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| "Real results, real people." | Trustpilot: "The 12 followers in 4 weeks were fake" (April 2018). | Contradicted |
| 2,500 followers a month | Recalled by one Quora user; a 2018 buyer reports two months of fees and "zero results". | Unsupported |
| Lasting growth | "All the followers unfollow after a few days" (January 2018); a 2018 opinion piece describes a spike that leveled off. | Contradicted |
| Engaged, targeted followers | The same 2018 piece found organic followers liked posts at least twice as often as Social Envy followers. | Weak |
Follow-back services can bring some real people, but thousands of automated actions produce few follow-backs, and many leave when the follow is withdrawn. If you are weighing a similar service, our cost per retained follower calculator shows what each follower that stays really costs.
Follow-backs lower your engagement rate when they never interact: 50 likes on 1,000 followers is a 5% rate, but on 3,000 followers it drops to 1.7%. Brands and audit tools read that as a weaker account. Check your own numbers with our Instagram engagement rate calculator.
Social Envy's refund policy cannot be read anywhere today, and buyers from 2018 and 2019 report refunds refused, charges after cancelling and double billing through PayPal. One 2018 account describes a same-day full refund.
| Policy | What was reported | What buyers say happened |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | Weekly plans, often paid through PayPal recurring payments. | "continued to double bill me" (August 2018). |
| Minimum terms | 3, 5 or 10 weeks on some plans, per a 2020 review. | Not described by buyers. |
| Cancellation | "Cancel anytime" on Freedom and later plans. | "When I cancelled my plan and asked for a full refund, they stopped responding to me." (November 2018) |
| Refunds | No written policy found; review blogs say there was none. | A same-day refund in one 2018 account; refusals and silence in others. |
| Unauthorized charges | No rule found. | "They took $700. Unauthorized from my PayPal account" (April 2019). |
You cancel Social Envy by stopping the payment yourself, because the live site lists no email, phone number or account page. In PayPal, open Settings, then Payments, then "Manage automatic payments", find the merchant and cancel it. For a card, ask your issuer to block future charges from that merchant. Keep screenshots of the cancellation, since one Quora buyer asked whether Social Envy could still charge them after they cancelled.
Social Envy customer support has no visible channel in 2026: the homepage shows a "Call or E-Mail Us" button but no phone number or email address. When it ran, buyers report unanswered emails, though one Quora user praised its support.
The record leans negative. Against one Quora answer praising its "really helpful support team", Trustpilot buyers describe silence after cancellation requests, a blue-tick verification order with no reply for over two weeks, and paid web software with no download link.
Social Envy's pros and cons come down to targeted, hands-off follow-back growth on paper, against a lawsuit, password requests, billing complaints and a site with no owner today. This Social Envy review weighs each point against the court record, buyer reports and the live homepage, so you can judge similar services before paying for one.
Social Envy's biggest advantage was its pitch: engagement aimed at real accounts in your niche, rather than a package of supplied followers. People who followed back chose to, which is different from a follower pack.
Social Envy's main drawback is that its original owners were sued by Facebook and Instagram, and the site under its name today shows no owner at all. The other drawbacks describe how the service went for the buyers who wrote about it.
Social Envy's pros never outweighed the cons, because every advantage depended on giving a stranger your login and trusting billing that buyers say they could not stop. In 2026 the question is settled for a simpler reason: you cannot see what a socialenvy.co checkout would sell, who would charge you, or how to cancel. Use Social Envy's cons as a checklist for any growth service: no password sharing, a named company, written cancellation and prices you can read first.
The best Social Envy alternatives are Kicksta for the closest follow-back model, Buzzoid, Likes.io and Twicsy for password-free packages, and StormLikes and Goread.io for low prices. None is managed growth with a named team, and Instagram's rules on bought or automated engagement apply to all of them.
| Service | Entry price | How it works | Refill as stated | BSTB rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social Envy | Reported $15 to $33 / week | Automated engagement, password reportedly needed | Not applicable | Poor |
| Kicksta | $69 / month ($39 yearly) | Follow and unfollow automation, password required | Not applicable | Mixed |
| Buzzoid | $3.49 / 100 followers | Packages, username only | 30 days (stated three ways) | Fair |
| Likes.io | $3.38 / 100 followers | Packages, username only | Offered, eligibility undefined | Fair |
| Twicsy | $3.49 / 100 followers | Packages, username only | Active and VIP tiers only | Fair |
| StormLikes | $2.99 / 100 followers | Packages, username only | 30 days on product pages, not in Terms | Fair |
| Goread.io | $1.89 / 100 followers | Packages, username only | 6 months on page, 30 days in replies | Mixed |
Social Envy row from third-party sources. Other prices and policies read from each seller's own site in October 2026 for our individual reviews. Self-reported and subject to change.
Kicksta is the closest Social Envy alternative: from $69 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly, it follows people in your niche from your account to win follow-backs. It needs your password, its 7-day trial needs a card, and it names a company in its Terms. Best for: creators who want follow-backs and accept login risk.
Read our Kicksta review
Buzzoid sells one-time Instagram packages from $3.49 for 100 followers and likes from $1.99, and never asks for your password. Its refill period is stated three different ways. Best for: a small test without sharing your login or starting a subscription.
Read our Buzzoid review
Likes.io charges $3.38 for 100 Instagram followers, about $9.22 per 1,000 on large packs, across six platforms, using your username only. Its refill eligibility is undefined. Best for: a one-off Instagram boost from an open, priced store.
Read our Likes.io review
Twicsy charges $3.49 for 100 Instagram followers with no password needed, and sells named follower tiers. Refills apply only on its Active and VIP tiers. Best for: buyers who want to choose a follower tier up front.
Read our Twicsy review
StormLikes starts at $2.99 for 100 Instagram followers, with no password and no subscription. Its 30-day refill appears on product pages only, not in its Terms. Best for: a cheap one-off Instagram or TikTok test instead of a weekly bill.
Read our StormLikes review
Goread.io has the lowest follower prices we have reviewed, $1.89 for 100 and $8.59 for 1,000, but its site names no company and its guarantees disagree. Best for: price-first buyers who accept more risk.
Read our Goread.io reviewKicksta is the closest match to Social Envy: both win follow-backs by engaging from your account, and both need your login. The differences are in the paperwork. Kicksta is still running, publishes its prices, names a company and address in its Terms and has operated since 2015. Social Envy's original owners stopped in 2018 after a cease-and-desist, and today's site names nobody.
The right Social Envy alternative depends on what you wanted from it: follow-backs from your own account, a quick number, or real reach.
You can grow on Instagram naturally without Social Envy by using ads, creator partnerships, agencies and AI scheduling tools, none of which need your password.
Instagram ads reach real people by location and interest, within Instagram's rules and without sharing your login. They cost more per follower and need good creative. Best for: businesses that need measurable reach.
Compare ad and analytics tools
Creator partnerships lend you trust from audiences that already engage. Vet each creator, because some inflate their own numbers. Best for: brands that need social proof that converts.
Browse verified creators
Social media agencies run strategy, content and community with a team you can name and contact, which is managed growth with a contract. Retainers usually cost more than Social Envy's weekly plans. Best for: busy teams.
See vetted agencies
AI and scheduling tools help you post consistently and plan your own targeted engagement, often from a free plan. Best for: creators on a budget who want engagement rate to rise.
Explore AI toolsOrganic Instagram growth uses the same tactics Social Envy automated, done by you: engaging with the right people and posting content worth following.
Social Envy sold an automated version of organic growth, while doing it yourself is slower but keeps your login, your money and your account under your control. Social Envy reportedly cost $65 to $143 a month for follow-backs from strangers, with automation logged in as you; organic growth costs mostly time, builds people who chose your content and stays within Instagram's rules.
No one should pay Social Envy in 2026, and a service like it suits only personal accounts that want slow growth, will not share a password and can watch every charge. Anyone whose income or brand depends on their profile should avoid the model entirely.
A growth service like Social Envy is a reasonable choice only if you answer yes to all five questions below, and a single no points to a better alternative.
Social Envy suited small personal accounts at best, and its login and billing problems made it a poor fit for anyone with more at stake.
No, businesses and agencies should not use a service like Social Envy, because Facebook sued its owners for selling fake engagement and a Quora answer from a self-described business owner says its followers were not in a specific niche. In the US, the FTC's 2024 rule bars buying fake followers or views to misrepresent influence for a commercial purpose. Ads, creators or a named agency reach real customers without handing over the keys. This is general information, not legal advice.
Everyone should avoid paying socialenvy.co today, because the site shows no owner, prices or Terms, and the business it once was ended in a lawsuit.
Our Social Envy review rates it Poor: its original owners were sued by Facebook and Instagram for selling fake engagement, and the site under its name today shows no owner, prices or Terms. When it ran, buyers reported password requests, fading follow-backs and charges after cancelling.
The idea behind Social Envy, automated engagement that wins real follow-backs, is better tried openly through Kicksta with its trade-offs in view, or bought as managed growth from a named agency that never asks for your password. Our rating: Poor.
We reviewed Social Envy by reading the socialenvy.co homepage on October 15, 2026, then Facebook and Instagram's April 2019 federal complaint and press reports on the October 2019 settlement. We compared plans, promises and complaints published from 2017 to 2026, including Trustpilot, buyer accounts, review blogs, Quora, Reddit and three AI assistants. Other socialenvy.co pages refused automated reading, so plan and policy details rely on third-party reports. Read how we test every provider.
These 20 Social Envy review FAQs answer whether Social Envy is legit, safe or a scam, why Facebook sued its owners, what it cost and what to use instead, as of October 15, 2026.
No, Social Envy is not a legit choice today: Facebook sued its original owners in 2019 for selling fake Instagram engagement, and the current site names no owner.
Social Envy was a real business that took payments from 2015, but see how we review sellers for the checks it fails.
Do not pay any site called Social Envy until it names a company and shows Terms you can read.
Social Envy is widely called a scam by former buyers, who report charges after cancelling, fake followers and unanswered emails, though it did deliver some activity.
A Quora question titled "Is the Social Envy Instagram growth service a scam?" collected many negative answers, and one reply simply says "definitely a scam". Compare it with other BSTB seller reviews before paying any growth service.
Buyer reports are unverified, so weigh them together with the 2019 court complaint.
Social Envy is not running under its original owners, who stopped in February 2018, but a homepage still loads at socialenvy.co in October 2026.
That homepage says "Social Envy is a powerful Social Media growth service" and offers a Get Started button, but every other page refused automated reading on October 15, 2026, so we could not confirm whether it takes orders.
If a site under this name asks for payment, treat it as an unknown seller, not the Social Envy described in old reviews.
Yes, Facebook and Instagram sued the people behind Social Envy on April 25, 2019, in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
The defendants were Social Media Series Limited, a New Zealand company, and its three directors. The complaint names SocialEnvy.co, IGFamous.net and Likesocial.co as their sites. These are allegations, and the case later settled.
AI answers that say Meta took action against Social Envy are describing this case.
No, Social Envy was not safe for your Instagram account: it reportedly needed your password, and its automated follows and likes break Instagram's rules.
Instagram disabled multiple accounts linked to SocialEnvy.co in February 2018, according to the complaint. Customers' accounts carried the same automation risk, because the activity ran from their own profiles.
If you ever shared your login with Social Envy, change your password and turn on two-factor authentication.
Yes, Social Envy reportedly needed your Instagram password so its automation could like, follow and unfollow as you, and some reports say it asked by email.
Facebook's February 2018 letter told its owners to stop "collecting user credentials". Kicksta, the closest running service, also needs your password; see our Kicksta review for how it handles it.
Never email a password to any growth service; a username is all a package seller should need.
Social Envy followers were mixed at best: follow-backs could be real people, but buyers describe fake accounts and unfollows within days.
Follow-back services engage real accounts, so some people do follow back. The problem is quality and staying power. Test any growth with our Instagram engagement rate calculator.
Count likes per post before and after any growth service; flat likes on a bigger count is a warning sign.
Yes, Social Envy-style automation can get your Instagram account restricted, because Instagram treats mass automated follows and likes from your profile as inauthentic activity.
Instagram disabled accounts linked to SocialEnvy.co in February 2018, and Facebook's letter listed automating interactions between profiles with no prior relationship as a violation. Action blocks and flags are the usual first step.
Accounts that already have a warning should avoid any automation service entirely.
Social Envy cost about $15 to $33 a week by third-party reports, roughly $65 to $143 a month, and no price can be read on socialenvy.co today.
Its own pricing page refused automated reading on October 15, 2026, so every figure is reported, not confirmed. Our cost per retained follower calculator shows what such plans cost per follower that stays.
Weekly billing means four or five charges a month, so check your statement closely.
Social Envy has no refund policy that can be read today, and buyers from 2018 and 2019 mostly report refunds refused or ignored, with one same-day exception.
Review blogs say Social Envy offered no refunds on any plan. A January 2018 first-person account is the exception: when the author refused to send a password, Social Envy "immediately offered me a full refund", paid by PayPal the same day.
Keep every receipt and email as evidence for a dispute.
You cancel Social Envy by stopping the payment yourself in PayPal or with your card issuer, because the site lists no email, phone number or account page.
Buyers report charges continuing after they cancelled, and one Quora buyer asked whether Social Envy could still charge them after cancelling PayPal recurring payments. Cancelling at the payment source is the only step you control.
Check your statement for a few weeks after cancelling, since Social Envy billed weekly.
You cannot reliably contact Social Envy customer support in 2026: the homepage shows a "Call or E-Mail Us" button but no phone number or email address.
When it ran, buyers report unanswered emails, though one Quora answer praised its "really helpful support team". If you find a working contact, contact BSTB and we will re-check this review.
Be wary of any phone number or social account claiming to be Social Envy support.
Nobody publicly owns Social Envy today; Facebook's 2019 complaint says its original owners ran it through "Social Envy Limited" until February 2018.
The complaint names Arend Nollen and Leon Hedges as running SocialEnvy.co, and says the site is now "operated by individuals unassociated with Defendants", without naming them. The homepage names no one.
A growth service that will not say who runs it gives you nowhere to take a complaint.
Social Envy and Social Steeze share the same original owners in the court record, but we found nothing confirming Social Steeze took over Social Envy's service.
Facebook's December 2018 letter, quoted in the 2019 complaint, lists SocialSteeze.net among the defendants' sites. Grok and two review blogs call it a rebrand; that part is unverified.
Treat any site that claims to be the new Social Envy as a separate seller and check it from scratch.
Social Envy marketed a dedicated account manager, but Trustpilot reviewers described the manager as bot-like, and the service itself ran on automation.
Later sources say both its Regular and Pro plans included "a dedicated Account Manager". Growthoid made the same promise and ended badly too; see our Growthoid review.
Ask any managed service exactly who does the work and whether they need your password.
Social Envy showed an early spike for some buyers that leveled off, while others report weeks or months of fees with no growth at all.
No source offers a measured, independent timeline. A January 2018 opinion piece describes a spike that fell to almost nothing while organic growth kept rising. Track your own engagement with our engagement rate calculator.
Measure followers and likes weekly; a service that cannot show steady, engaged growth is not working.
The best Social Envy alternatives are Kicksta for follow-backs, Buzzoid, Likes.io and Twicsy for password-free packages, and StormLikes or Goread.io for low prices.
None of these is managed growth with a named team, and Instagram's rules apply to all of them. Compare more sellers on our best sites to buy Instagram followers page.
For growth within the rules, use Instagram ads, creators or a named agency instead.
Kicksta is better than Social Envy because it is still running, publishes its prices and names a company, though both rely on your Instagram password.
Both win follow-backs by engaging from your account. Kicksta carries real password and automation risk, which is why our Kicksta review rates it Mixed rather than Fair.
If you try Kicksta, start monthly, use a unique password and watch the trial end date.
No, Social Envy is not worth it in 2026, because you cannot see what you would buy, who would charge you, or how to cancel.
Even when it ran, buyers reported weak results and billing they could not stop. Your time is better spent on tools that help you post and engage yourself; explore AI social media tools for a budget-friendly start.
A slow, steady posting habit beats any weekly plan you cannot verify.
No, businesses should not use Social Envy, because Facebook sued its owners for selling fake engagement, and buying fake indicators for commercial use is risky in the US.
The FTC's 2024 rule bars buying fake followers or views to misrepresent influence for a commercial purpose. A self-described business owner on Quora also says Social Envy's followers were not in a specific niche. This is general information, not legal advice.
Keep business growth inside Instagram's rules, where you can measure and defend the results.
BestSitesToBuy Editorial Team. Researched and fact-checked against the socialenvy.co homepage, Facebook and Instagram's 2019 court complaint, published sources and platform policies. Spotted something outdated? Tell us and we'll re-check it.
Disclosure: BestSitesToBuy is independent and not affiliated with Social Envy, Instagram, Facebook or Meta. We may earn a commission from some links; this never affects our ratings. General information, not legal or financial advice. Details were accurate on October 15, 2026 and may have changed.
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Social Envy Review Score: How We Rated Each Factor
Social Envy scores least badly on customer support, which is only Unclear, and weakest on account safety and billing, where buyers report password requests and charges after cancelling. Here is each factor in one line.
Follower Quality
25% of the scoreSocial Envy buyers on Trustpilot describe fake followers and unfollows within days, and a 2018 report found its followers rarely liked posts.
Results Over Time
20% of the scoreSocial Envy growth spiked then leveled off in a 2018 account, and one 2018 buyer reports two months of fees with zero results.
Account Safety (Password)
20% of the scoreSocial Envy reportedly asked buyers to email their password, and Facebook's 2018 cease-and-desist listed collecting user credentials.
Billing and Cancellation
15% of the scoreSocial Envy buyers report PayPal charges after cancelling, double billing and one $700 charge they say was unauthorized.
Customer Support
10% of the scoreSocial Envy issued one same-day refund in a 2018 account, but other buyers report silence, and today no contact details are shown.
Value for Money
10% of the scoreSocial Envy plans were reportedly $15 to $33 a week, about $65 to $143 a month, and no price can be read today.