Woovit shut down at 6 AM Eastern on December 20, 2024, after 7 years of connecting publishers with creators. If you were one of the studios that relied on it, you have spent the last year and a half either crawling back to spreadsheets or shopping for a new home for your Steam keys.
You are not alone. The key distribution landscape in 2026 looks very different from the one most indie marketing guides were written for. One major platform is gone, the survivors have repositioned, and a new generation of tools has shown up with different ideas about what key distribution should cost.
So let's do the honest version of this comparison. 4 realistic options for an indie dev in 2026: Keymailer, Lurkit, doing it yourself, and Gamosy KeyVault. What each one is, what it costs, how it protects your keys, and - because a one-sided shill post helps nobody - when each one is the better choice.
Option 1: Keymailer
What it is: the incumbent. Keymailer has been matching games with creators longer than anyone still standing, and its network of registered creators is the largest in the space. Creators request keys, developers approve or decline, and the platform verifies connected channels so you are not handing keys to a fresh account with 12 subscribers and big dreams.
Pricing: as of mid-2026, Keymailer runs a free plan capped at 10 campaign requests per month, paid tiers at roughly $25 and $99 per month (with yearly discounts), and promoted campaign products that start around $249 and climb to $999+ for managed bundles. If you cannot approve enough requests on the free cap, you are in paid territory fast.
Verification and fraud protection: channel verification is solid - creators connect real accounts, and you can see real stats before approving. It is one of the reasons the platform survived while others did not.
When Keymailer is the better choice: if raw network size is your top priority, Keymailer wins. It has more registered creators than Gamosy, full stop, and it has been accumulating them for years. If you need to cast the widest possible net, the incumbent's age is a genuine asset - weigh it honestly against the monthly cost.
Option 2: Lurkit
What it is: a creator marketing platform built around campaigns, with a network the company states at 100,000+ verified creators. The center of gravity is different from Keymailer's: Lurkit is strongest at paid creator campaigns - sponsored content, paid quests where creators earn money for hitting deliverables - alongside free key distribution.
Pricing: Lurkit does not publish official prices. Plans for indies, studios, and publishers are quote-based, indie teams can apply for discounts reportedly up to 70%, and paid quests carry a 20% commission. Third-party roundups put the entry tier somewhere near $89 per month, but treat every number that is not on their pricing page as an estimate.
Verification and fraud protection: creators are verified, and campaign performance is tracked through the platform's own dashboard. The data side is genuinely one of Lurkit's selling points.
When Lurkit is the better choice: if you have a real influencer budget - not "maybe $200", but publisher-scale money for sponsored content - Lurkit brokers paid deals in a way Gamosy simply does not offer. Gamosy KeyVault handles free key campaigns; it will not negotiate a $3,000 sponsorship with a mid-size streamer for you. Lurkit will. If paid creator campaigns are the core of your launch plan, that is Lurkit's home turf.
Option 3: Manual Outreach (Email and Forms)
What it is: you, a spreadsheet, a mail client, and willpower. Find creators yourself, write personal pitches, paste keys into emails, track everything by hand.
Pricing: $0 in tooling. Somewhere between 10 and 40 hours of your time per 100 keys, once you count research, writing, follow-ups, and bookkeeping.
Verification and fraud protection: whatever you personally do. And this is where manual distribution quietly bleeds money. Key scrapers run inboxes and public forms at industrial scale, "creators" with recycled channel links harvest keys for resale, and a key that lands on a grey market site is a lost sale plus a chargeback risk. We wrote up how stolen keys end up on G2A if you want the full horror show.
When manual is the better choice: honestly, sometimes it is. If you are sending 15 keys to creators you already know by name, no platform beats a personal email. Relationships you build by hand are stronger than any marketplace match, and at very small scale the fraud surface is manageable because you personally vet every recipient. The problem is not manual outreach at 15 keys. It is manual outreach at 300.
Option 4: Gamosy KeyVault
What it is: KeyVault is Gamosy's key distribution system. You import encrypted Steam keys, create a campaign, and verified creators apply. Verification runs through YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok OAuth - creators connect their real accounts, and you see real channel stats, not screenshots.
Pricing: key campaigns are free. Not free-with-a-10-request-cap, not free-for-90-days. The core of Gamosy - KeyVault campaigns, creator applications, coverage tracking - costs nothing for any studio size, and creators never pay anything. Gamosy PRO at $49 per month per game (or $490 per year) unlocks the licensed-game features around it, like Steam and Twitch sources in Media Monitoring. Every new studio gets 60 days of Gamosy PRO free - no card required. But you can run key campaigns on the free tier indefinitely.
Verification and fraud protection: this is where KeyVault earns its keep. Every application is scored by a 5-signal fraud scoring system, and every creator carries a Trust Score plus a CCR (Campaign Completion Rate) - the percentage of received keys that actually turned into published content. A creator who took 20 keys and covered 2 games wears that number on every future application. Coverage tracking is submission-based: creators submit their published video or stream, and it is attached to the campaign record.
When KeyVault is NOT the better choice: 2 honest concessions. First, Gamosy's creator network is younger and smaller than Keymailer's - we are growing, but we will not pretend a platform launched years after the incumbent has a bigger address book. Second, as covered above, Gamosy does not broker paid sponsorships. If either of those is your deciding factor, pick accordingly.
What to Demand From Any Key Tool in 2026
Whichever way you go - including a platform we did not list - hold it to this standard:
- Verified channel stats via OAuth. Screenshots and self-reported numbers are worthless. If the platform cannot show you data pulled directly from YouTube or Twitch, it is a form with extra steps.
- Fraud scoring, not just verification. A real account with real subscribers can still be a key harvester. You want behavioral signals: application patterns, coverage history, account age, request volume.
- Completion tracking. The metric that matters is not "keys sent" but "keys that became content". If the tool cannot tell you a creator's historical completion rate, you are approving blind.
- No key reselling exposure. Keys should be encrypted at rest, revealed only to the approved creator, and never sit in a public spreadsheet or an email thread.
If a tool misses 2 or more of these, a spreadsheet plus discipline is genuinely competitive with it.
The Uncomfortable Steam Fact Nobody Puts in Their Pitch Deck
One thing every option on this list shares: reviews written from key-activated copies do not count toward your Steam review score. Valve only counts reviews from purchased copies. So if you are running key campaigns hoping to pump your review score, stop - that is not what they do.
What key campaigns actually buy you is coverage and wishlists. A creator's video puts your game in front of an audience, some of that audience wishlists it, and wishlists convert to purchases at launch - purchases that DO generate score-counting reviews. If you want to see what that chain is worth in units, run your numbers through the wishlist calculator, and read our breakdown of why the first 10 reviews matter so much.
Campaigns are a top-of-funnel tool. Judge them on reach and wishlists, not on review count.
The Bottom Line
Here is the 2026 decision tree, compressed:
- Maximum network size, budget available: Keymailer. Oldest network, most registered creators, roughly $25 to $99 per month once you outgrow the free cap.
- Publisher-scale budget for paid sponsorships: Lurkit. Quote-based pricing, a commission of around 20% on paid quests, and deal-brokering Gamosy does not do.
- Under 20 keys to people you know: email. Sincerely. Just encrypt nothing in public and vet everyone.
- Free campaigns with serious fraud protection at any scale: Gamosy KeyVault. OAuth-verified creators, 5-signal fraud scoring, Trust Score and CCR on every applicant, and $0 for the core - for a 1-person studio or a 50-person one.
Woovit's shutdown was a reminder that platforms are mortal. Whatever you pick, make sure your creator relationships and your coverage records can outlive the tool that hosts them. Gamosy was built for exactly this kind of developer - small team, no budget line for "influencer platform subscription", and zero tolerance for keys vanishing into the grey market.
GG. May your keys land on channels that actually press record.
More reading: How stolen keys end up on G2A | Your first 10 Steam reviews | KeyVault explained
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened to Woovit?
Woovit shut down on December 20, 2024, after 7 years of operation. Publisher records were archived and remain retrievable by email, but the platform no longer distributes keys. Former Woovit users typically moved to Keymailer, Lurkit, Gamosy KeyVault, or back to manual outreach.
What is the best Keymailer alternative for indie developers?
It depends on your constraint. If you have a paid sponsorship budget, Lurkit brokers those deals. If you want free key campaigns with OAuth creator verification and fraud scoring at any studio size, Gamosy KeyVault covers that on its free tier.
Do Steam keys sent to creators affect my review score?
No. Reviews written from key-activated copies do not count toward your Steam review score - Valve only counts reviews from purchased copies. Key campaigns are for coverage and wishlists, which convert into purchases at launch, and those purchases generate score-counting reviews.
How does Gamosy KeyVault prevent key fraud?
Every creator application passes through a 5-signal fraud scoring system, and every creator carries a Trust Score plus a CCR (Coverage Completion Rate) showing what percentage of received keys turned into published content. Creators verify their YouTube, Twitch, or TikTok channels via OAuth, so channel stats come from the platforms directly, not from screenshots.
Is Gamosy KeyVault really free?
Yes. Key campaigns, creator applications, and coverage tracking are free for studios of any size, and creators never pay. Gamosy PRO at $49 per month per game adds licensed-game features such as Steam and Twitch sources in Media Monitoring. Every new studio gets 60 days of Gamosy PRO free - no card required.
