If You Use Upvote Bots or Services, Which Ones Are Your Favorites and Why?

From the time I arrived on Steemit, I've heard several arguments both for and against the use of upvote bots. A lot of people overuse the bots and end up filling the "Trending" page with posts that probably shouldn't be "trending" at all, but there are also those who use bots in a balanced way and with common sense, as a way to give a little visibility boost to their posts since the bots give better results than the "Promoted" page. I considered both sides and for a long while I debated on whether or not to use bots. In the end, my conclusion is that I don't see a problen with being in this second category, and maybe even earn a few extra cents if the situation permits.

Image source: Pixabay

I've heard that bots were very profitable in the past, but they can also result in losses, especially with SBD and STEEM prices dropping. If the goal is just to pay to promote posts and not to earn profits, the profit or loss aspect may not matter much. But to me it matters, since I don't have much SBD to go throwing around. So, I decided not to take a risk with the bid bots, and chose to go for services that aim to give positive returns. So far, the only two services I handpicked and tried are:

Qustodian

@qustodian is a bot only for @qurator members. It currently gives an upvote worth at least 235% of the amount you send it, or if you send too much SBD in relation to its upvote value, it gives the maximum upvote it can manage at the moment and refunds the difference. For example, I sent $0.5 SBD, and as it could only guarantee a maximum vote of $1.08 at the time, it refunded $0.049 and considered the amount I sent as $0.451 (235% of 0.451 is 1.059, so it gave a bit more than 235%. Actually, it was around 240%).

To use the service, as long as you are a @qurator member, just send SBD to @qustodian with the post link in the memo. There is no minimum value, but Qustodian's maximum upvote at the moment is around $1.28, so it's no use sending much more than $0.5 SBD (others may find it too little, but for me it's good enough, as I wouldn't send much more than that anyway). .

It's also possible to leave SBD deposited for Qustodian to automatically upvote the posts you publish, so that you don't have to keep sending SBD with the post link every time. To make a deposit, just send SBD to @qustodian with the word "credit" (without quotes) in the memo.

In case of any problem like very old posts or inability to vote, Qustodian refunds the SBD. Each user can only receive one vote every 24 hours. The bot only votes posts (doesn't vote comments), and doesn't leave comments on the posts it voted.

Those who have extra SP to spare can delegate SP and receive payments for helping increase the bot's vote value (minimum of 50 SP to invest). For those who are not able to delegate, they have introduced the "upvote delegation" option, as announced in this post. Basically, Qustodian maintains a list of who votes on its daily report posts, and whoever accumulates the equivalent of at least 50 SP in upvotes, begins receiving payments as though he/she had delegated SP. It'll take forever for us who have tiny upvotes, but either way it's an option.

Qustodian is an exclusive bot for members of the @qurator community. If you still aren't a member and are interested in joining, check out the rules here.

Thundercurator

@thundercurator receives payments of $0.12 SBD (or $0.121 if you don't want it to leave a comment on your post) and gives an upvote worth two to three times the amount. It is not a bot! It's a curation service that checks each post manually to make sure it isn't plagiarism or spam and if the picture sources are properly cited. As it's all done manually, the upvote may take some time to arrive. They tell us to wait for up to 72 hours, but the amount of posts for them to check is growing lately, and it may take longer (in my case, the upvote took about 5 days to arrive last time I used the service). If they can't vote the post on time and the post expires, they return the SBD. Thundercurator only upvotes posts (doesn't vote comments).

To use the service:

• First you need to follow the @thundercurator account.
• Send $0.120 SBD (or $0.121 if you don't want it to leave a comment when it votes on your post) and the post link in the memo. Attention! Unless you want to make a donation, it's no use sending more than $0.121 SBD to get an upvote on your post, because Thundercurator will consider it as a donation and won't return the difference.

Doing the above puts you in the Bronze tier and guarantees upvotes worth 200% of $0.120 SBD (which is $0.240 SBD). If, in addition, you set up your Steemit account to automatically upvote @thundercurator's posts through your fanbase on Steemauto with a vote of $0.02 (or 100% weight if your vote is still not worth $0.02), you'll move to the Silver tier and will be able to receive upvotes worth 250% of $0.120 SBD (which is $0.300). And if you delegate 50 SP in addition to these two things, you'll get to the Gold tier and will be able to receive upvotes worth 300% of $0.120 SBD (which is $0.360 SBD).

And if you have extra SP to spare, you can also delegate to receive weekly payments.

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The two services above were the only ones I tried, and so far are my favorites because they delivered on their promises. I really liked both and I plan to use them more often.

Another service I still haven't used but am following with interest is @tipU:

• It gives upvotes worth between 150% to 300% of the value sent (and also refunds the "excess" SBD when it can't guarantee the 150% because the value is too high for it's current upvote).
• It's possible to deposit SBD to be used as needed, similar to what Qustodian does (although tipU did it first :P ).
• Everyone who used the upvote service in the day enters a draw with a chance to win a @steembasicincome share.
• Part of the deposited SBD can be used to tip other users without needing to open the wallet to make transfers. Seems useful for those situations where you want to give someone a little something but your voting power is too low, or your vote value is too low.
• The credit can also be used to have tipU upvote other people's posts and comments (also for the situations when you want to support the person but the value of your upvote is too low).
• There's the option to delegate SP to receive daily payments. Alternatively, people who can't delegate can invest STEEM and SBD.

The service seems to be very interesting, and I'll be keeping an eye on it.

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And then we go back to this post's title. If you use upvote bots or services, which ones are your favorites and why? I'm curious to know about other services. Advantages, disadvantages, user experiences etc..