We have written ten comparisons against Nigerian panels and none against the large international ones, which is a strange gap given they are who we are actually measured against. So here it is, written to be useful rather than flattering.
Where the international panels genuinely win
Raw catalogue size. The biggest global panels list tens of thousands of services. We list far fewer. Some of that gap is real breadth — obscure platforms, niche geographies, service types nobody in Nigeria asks for. If you want views on a platform nobody here has heard of, they will have it and we will not.
Price at the very bottom. For the cheapest possible unit of the most commoditised service, a large global panel bidding for volume will sometimes beat us. Not usually by much, and not once payment costs are counted, but sometimes.
Scale for very large buyers. If you are placing millions of units a month, the biggest panels have depth we do not.
That is a real list and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Where we win
Payment. You can pay in naira, cedis, shillings or pounds without a dollar card. For most people reading this, that is not a convenience, it is the difference between ordering and not ordering. The full arithmetic on workarounds.
Support that answers. Ours is WhatsApp and a person replies. Most large panels run ticket systems measured in days, in a timezone that is not yours.
Curation. Our main catalogue is a tested subset rather than everything our suppliers list. That is a smaller number and a deliberate one — the services in it are the ones we have watched behave. The full list is there if you want the breadth, clearly marked as sold-as-listed.
African platforms. Audiomack, Boomplay, and the music platforms that matter here are first-class for us and an afterthought for them. If your audience is Nigerian, that is the whole catalogue that matters.
The catalogue-size argument, honestly
Panels compete on service counts and the number is close to meaningless.
A list of 20,000 services is usually the same forty things repeated across suppliers, plus a long tail that has not been checked in a year. Counting them flatters the list. What you actually want to know is how many work, and no panel publishes that.
Our view, which is self-serving but also true: a curated list you can trust beats a long list you cannot, and both should be available so you can choose. That is why we run two — a tested list and a full one.
How to decide
Use an international panel if: you have a reliable dollar card, you are buying at very large volume, you need a platform nobody in Africa covers, and you are comfortable with slow support.
Use us if: you want to pay in your own currency, your audience is African, you want somebody to answer when an order stalls, or you are new enough that you want a tested list rather than everything.
Use both if: you are running a panel yourself. Plenty of resellers do, sourcing where each is strongest. We are fine with that and we publish wholesale rates for it.
The test that settles it
Put ₦2,000 into each. Order the same thing. Watch which arrives, how it arrives, and what happens when you ask a question.
That afternoon will tell you more than this post, or any comparison written by anybody selling something. Including this one.