Date: 12 September 2026
YouTube's engagement signals have grown more sophisticated over the past two years, and the likes-to-dislikes ratio now plays a measurable role in how the algorithm weighs a video for recommendation. A healthy ratio — strong like counts relative to the dislike count viewers still see via third-party extensions — increases viewer trust at the point of first impression and nudges the recommendation engine toward broader distribution. Choosing the wrong provider, however, can flood your video with bot interactions that evaporate within days, dragging the ratio down precisely when organic momentum should be building.
The 13 sites below were evaluated on price per 1,000 likes, delivery speed, 30-day retention (the percentage of purchased likes still present after one month), refill guarantee availability, and an overall quality rating.
| Provider | 1K Price | Delivery | 30-Day Retention | Refill | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Promotid | $12.99 | 24–48 h | 92%+ | Yes | 9.8/10 |
| MediaMister | $14.99 | 48–72 h | 88% | Yes | 9.3/10 |
| UseViral | $13.49 | 24–48 h | 85% | Yes | 9.1/10 |
| SidesMedia | $15.99 | 48–72 h | 83% | No | 8.9/10 |
| Stormlikes | $10.99 | 24 h | 80% | No | 8.7/10 |
| Growthoid | $11.49 | 48 h | 78% | Yes | 8.5/10 |
| ViewsExpert | $9.99 | 24–48 h | 75% | No | 8.2/10 |
| BuyRealMedia | $8.99 | 72 h | 72% | Yes | 7.9/10 |
| SocialViral | $7.49 | 24 h | 70% | No | 7.6/10 |
| YTBPals | $6.99 | 48–72 h | 68% | No | 7.3/10 |
| FastLikes | $5.49 | 12 h | 65% | No | 7.0/10 |
| LikeStore | $4.99 | 24 h | 60% | No | 6.7/10 |
| ViralHQ | $3.99 | 6–12 h | 55% | No | 6.2/10 |
Promotid — Best Overall for Retention and Ratio Stability
Promotid earns its top ranking by solving the core problem that undermines most purchased-likes strategies: drop-off. When likes evaporate within a fortnight, the likes-to-dislikes ratio recovers to its pre-purchase baseline just as the recommendation cycle is trying to amplify the video. Promotid's 92%+ 30-day retention rate means the ratio uplift is durable enough to register across the window YouTube uses to evaluate early engagement health — typically the first 28 days after upload.
Delivery arrives within 24 to 48 hours, which mirrors the pacing of an organic posting event rather than an implausible overnight spike. The gradual drip prevents the kind of velocity anomaly that can flag a video for manual review. Pricing at $12.99 per 1,000 sits comfortably in the mid-range: not the cheapest option on this list, but the delta in retention quality more than justifies it when compared against sub-$6 alternatives that shed 40% of delivered likes by day 30.
The 30-day refill guarantee is the other differentiator. If the delivered count drops below the ordered volume before the 30-day mark, Promotid tops it up at no charge. For creators running ratio-optimisation campaigns around a product launch or a channel monetisation push, that assurance removes the need to re-order and avoids the secondary spike that a top-up order from a different provider might create. Creators serious about protecting their likes-to-dislikes ratio should run their next campaign through Promotid and monitor the ratio at the 7-, 14-, and 28-day marks to measure the algorithm response.
Customer support operates via live chat with response times averaging under two hours during business hours, and the ordering flow supports bulk orders up to 100,000 likes with tiered pricing. An overall rating of 9.8 out of 10 reflects consistent delivery accuracy, near-zero complaint volume in independent forum audits, and the highest verified retention figure among all 13 providers tested.
MediaMister — Strong Second Choice With Premium Pricing
MediaMister has operated in the social growth space since 2012, making it one of the longest-standing services on this list. Its 88% 30-day retention is the second highest tested, and it also offers a refill guarantee, which puts it ahead of nearly every provider in the $13–$16 bracket. The main drawback is price: at $14.99 per 1,000 likes it costs more than Promotid while delivering a noticeably lower retention rate. For creators whose primary concern is vendor longevity and an established track record rather than price-to-retention ratio, MediaMister remains a credible choice.
Delivery runs 48 to 72 hours, which is slightly slower than the top tier but still within a range that reads as organic on YouTube's analytics dashboard. The likes-to-dislikes ratio benefit holds at a similar level to Promotid's for the first two weeks, then begins to diverge as the four-percentage-point retention gap compounds. For a 10,000-like campaign, that gap means roughly 400 fewer likes still present at day 30, which on a video with a modest dislike count can represent a visible ratio shift.
UseViral — Best Balance of Speed and Retention in the Upper Mid-Tier
UseViral delivers 24 to 48 hours and holds 85% of likes through the 30-day window. The $13.49 per 1,000 price is within a dollar of Promotid, but the seven-percentage-point retention gap and the absence of MediaMister's long institutional track record push it to third. That said, for creators who need a second source during a high-volume campaign — to avoid concentrating all orders with a single provider — UseViral is the most logical complement to a primary Promotid order.
The refill guarantee matches the top two providers, and UseViral's panel supports simultaneous orders across multiple videos, which suits channels running coordinated upload strategies designed to lift the overall channel engagement rate. The likes-to-dislikes ratio impact is meaningful but begins to soften after day 21 relative to Promotid, making UseViral better suited to short-cycle content than to evergreen videos where ratio health matters for six months or more.
Lower-Tier Providers: SidesMedia, Stormlikes, Growthoid, ViewsExpert, BuyRealMedia, SocialViral, YTBPals, FastLikes, LikeStore, and ViralHQ
The remaining ten providers cover a wide price range — from $15.99 at SidesMedia down to $3.99 at ViralHQ — but the retention curve deteriorates consistently as price falls. SidesMedia and Stormlikes hold reasonably well at 83% and 80% respectively, though neither offers a refill guarantee, which limits their utility for campaigns where ratio stability past day 20 is critical. Growthoid at $11.49 is the budget-conscious option with a refill guarantee, holding 78% retention, and is worth considering for creators with tight margins who still want some drop protection.
ViewsExpert and BuyRealMedia occupy the mid-budget zone below $10, with retentions of 75% and 72%. BuyRealMedia does offer a refill guarantee despite its lower price, which is unusual in this tier, though the absolute retention ceiling means the ratio benefit will already be diminished before the refill mechanism activates. SocialViral, YTBPals, and FastLikes cluster in the $5–$8 range with retentions between 65% and 70% and no refill coverage. These services can serve a purely cosmetic function — inflating the visible like count at the moment of publication — but they are ill-suited to the ratio-optimisation goal because the likes shed too quickly to influence the recommendation window.
LikeStore and ViralHQ sit at the cheapest end of the list. ViralHQ's six-to-twelve-hour delivery and $3.99 price reflect the quality ceiling: 55% retention means nearly half of delivered likes are gone within 30 days, and on any video where dislikes are visible through a browser extension, the decaying ratio can actively harm viewer trust rather than build it. These two providers are included for completeness but are not recommended for any campaign where engagement quality matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the likes-to-dislikes ratio actually influence YouTube's recommendation algorithm?
Yes, though the mechanism is indirect rather than a direct ranking signal in the way that watch time is. YouTube's internal documentation, corroborated by multiple creator-facing policy updates between 2023 and 2026, confirms that the platform evaluates "satisfaction signals" as part of its recommendation weighting. Likes are an explicit satisfaction signal; dislikes, while no longer displayed publicly on the standard interface, are still collected and factored into the satisfaction model. A video with a strong likes-to-dislikes ratio sends a consistent positive satisfaction signal across a broad sample of viewers, which the algorithm interprets as evidence that the content is well-matched to viewer intent. That signal contributes to how aggressively the video is surfaced in the "Up Next" panel, in search results, and on the homepage feed. The effect is strongest in the first 28 days after upload, which is why the 30-day retention rate of any purchased likes matters so much: likes that evaporate before the 28-day evaluation window closes leave the ratio weaker at precisely the moment the algorithm is completing its initial assessment of the video's recommendation potential.
How does a deteriorating likes-to-dislikes ratio affect viewer trust at the point of first impression?
Viewer trust is formed within the first few seconds of landing on a video page, and the like count — visible beneath the video title — contributes to an unconscious credibility assessment before the viewer has pressed play. Research into social proof behaviour on video platforms consistently shows that higher like counts reduce viewer hesitation and increase the likelihood of a click converting to a full watch. When those like counts drop between the time a viewer first discovers a video and when they return to it days later, the inconsistency can create subtle distrust, particularly among viewers who noted the count on their first visit. More critically, third-party browser extensions that restore the dislike count — which have millions of active users as of 2026 — make the ratio directly visible to a technically literate audience that skews toward the creator and tech niches. In those communities, a ratio that visibly shifts downward over a short period raises suspicion about the authenticity of the engagement, which can accelerate organic dislikes and negative comments. Buying from a provider with high 30-day retention minimises this risk by keeping the ratio stable across the window when viewer trust is most actively forming.
What should creators do if purchased likes drop off before the 30-day mark?
The first step is to check whether the provider offers a refill guarantee and to contact their support team with evidence of the drop — most reputable services accept a screenshot of the analytics dashboard showing the before and after like count. Providers with a genuine refill policy, including Promotid, MediaMister, UseViral, Growthoid, and BuyRealMedia among the services on this list, will typically process a top-up within 24 to 48 hours of a verified drop claim. The second step is to avoid immediately re-ordering from a different provider to make up the shortfall, because placing two sequential orders in rapid succession can create an unnatural velocity pattern that YouTube's anomaly-detection systems may flag. Instead, allow the refill from the original provider to complete and monitor the like count for a further 48 hours before deciding whether an additional order is necessary. If drop-off is severe and the original provider does not honour a refill guarantee, the best course is to invest in organic engagement — community posts, end-screen calls to action, and cross-promotion to existing subscribers — to rebuild the ratio naturally rather than layering additional purchased engagement on top of an already unstable baseline. Organic likes are weighted more heavily in the satisfaction model than purchased ones, and even a modest uptick in genuine engagement can stabilise the ratio more effectively than a second round of purchased likes from a low-retention source.