TikTok or Instagram Reels for a local business? We split 240 viral videos by platform to find out

Every week a business owner asks us which platform to bet on, TikTok or Instagram Reels. We had the data to answer properly, so we split our open dataset of 240 viral videos down the middle and compared them industry by industry. The honest answer is that it depends on what you sell, and the pattern is clear enough to act on.

The short answer

If you sell a treatment, a renovation, a home or a transformation, start on TikTok. If you run a dental practice, a barbershop or a restaurant, start on Instagram Reels. Either way, post the same shoot to both, because the gap between the platforms is smaller than the gap between a good idea and a weak one.

That is what 240 videos told us. Here is how we got there, and where the data stops.

How we compared the two platforms

Every month we pull the short-form videos in one industry that beat their own account's median by the widest margin. We call that number the outlier multiplier: views divided by the median views of the account that posted it. A video at 50x did fifty times what that account normally does. It is the fairest way we know to compare a barber with 900 followers to a creator with a million. You can work out your own with the outlier calculator.

The dataset behind this post is the same one on our short-form video statistics page, and you can download it as a CSV:

• 240 videos posted in September and October 2026
• 8 industries: real estate, car dealerships, barbershops, med spas, restaurants, gyms and trainers, dentists, home renovation
• exactly 15 Instagram Reels and 15 TikToks per industry, so 120 on each platform
• English captions, at least 10,000 views, one video per creator

That even split is what makes the comparison fair. Each platform had the same number of chances in every industry.

Overall, it is a tie

Instagram's typical outlier sat a little higher, 44.3x against 35.5x. But count the true breakouts, the videos that did at least a hundred times their account's normal, and it is 40 each. Same number, out of the same 120.

So if anyone tells you one platform is simply better for business video, ask them what they are measuring. On this evidence neither one is.

Industry by industry, it is not a tie at all

This is where the decision gets made.

Each cell is the median of 15 videos, so treat small gaps (car dealerships, for one) as a lean, not a verdict. The big ones are hard to ignore.

Med spas are a TikTok story. A median of 372x is the highest number in the whole dataset. The winning TikToks were long, talky and specific: an aesthetician narrating a green sea peel at 96 seconds did 1,779 times her normal, and a 55-second toner review promising ten years off a face did 1,657x. People on TikTok will sit through a procedure explained by someone who does it all day. Our med spa report has the full list.

Dentists are an Instagram story. The dental Reels median was 123.3x, four times the TikTok figure. The top one, a film clip that cut to a clinic promo, did 11.9 million views at 2,168x from an account with about 1,000 followers. Instagram's dental winners were short, visual and a little absurd. More in the dentist report.

Restaurants and barbershops lean Instagram, and both are businesses where the result is a picture: the plate, the fade. That makes sense on a platform built on images.

Real estate, renovation and gyms lean TikTok, and all three run on a before and after, a reveal or a walk-through. Those are formats people stay to the end of, which is our best guess at why they travel there.

Who breaks out on each platform

The follower counts behind the winners tell their own story.

On Instagram, the small accounts did the most damage. Accounts with 1,000 to 10,000 followers had a median of 140.9x, and 41 of the 120 Instagram outliers came from accounts under 10,000. Some of the most extreme results in the whole set were Instagram Reels from accounts with fewer than a thousand followers: a deadpan car POV at 1,361x, a med spa provider in the hot seat at 1,623x.

TikTok's sweet spot sat higher, between 10,000 and 100,000 followers, where the median was 72.6x against Instagram's 40.9x. There were only four TikToks from accounts under 1,000 followers, so ignore that 1,016x figure. Four videos prove nothing.

What we take from it: if your account is tiny, do not assume TikTok is your only shot at reach. Instagram Reels pushed small accounts to strangers just as hard in this sample.

What this does not tell you

We would rather you trust these numbers for the right reasons, so here is where they stop.

• These are winners, not averages. Every video here already beat its account by a wide margin. The data says what breakouts look like on each platform. It does not say what a typical post earns.
• Two months, eight industries. Your industry may not be on the list, and platforms change how they distribute video all the time.
• English captions only. We did not measure Farsi, French or Spanish content, which can behave very differently.
• Multipliers are relative. A 40x for a barber with 900 followers and a 40x for a creator with 500,000 are both great, and very different in raw views.

What we would do in your position

This is how we set it up for clients, and it is what we would tell a friend.

1. Film once, post to both. One shoot day can feed Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. The idea and the footage carry over; the cut changes. Choosing one platform throws away reach you already paid for.
2. Pick a lead platform by industry. It decides where you post first, which version gets the extra edit, and whose comments you answer first. Use the table above.
3. Cut for the platform, not just the ratio. The med spa winners on TikTok were spoken explainers running close to a minute or longer. The top dental Reels were quick visual gags. Same kind of shoot, very different edits.
4. Judge each platform against itself. Compare every video with that account's own median on that platform. A Reel at 5x your normal is a strong result even if the TikTok version did more raw views.
5. Give it a quarter. Breakouts are uneven. Twenty-five videos on each platform is where a pattern starts to show.

If you want to see which openings worked in your industry, our viral hook library breaks all 240 down by hook.

Frequently asked questions

Is TikTok or Instagram Reels better for a small business?

Neither is better across the board. In our dataset of 240 viral videos, each platform produced exactly 40 videos that beat their account's median by 100 times or more. TikTok led in five of eight industries and Instagram in three, so the right lead platform depends on what you sell.

Which platform is better for med spas and aesthetic clinics?

TikTok, by a wide margin in our data. Med spa TikToks had a median outlier multiplier of 372x against 44.6x on Instagram. The winners were spoken, specific explainers, often a provider narrating a treatment for a minute or more.

Which platform is better for dentists?

Instagram Reels, in our sample. Dental Reels had a median multiplier of 123.3x, compared with 29.9x on TikTok. The top dental Reel reached 11.9 million views from an account with about 1,000 followers.

Can a small account get reach on Instagram, or only on TikTok?

Both. On Instagram, accounts with 1,000 to 10,000 followers had the highest median multiplier in our data, 140.9x, and 41 of the 120 Instagram outliers came from accounts under 10,000 followers. Reels distribute to non-followers too.

Should a business post the same video on TikTok and Instagram?

Post the same shoot, not always the same cut. The idea and the footage carry over, but the winners looked different by platform: med spa TikToks that won were spoken explainers of a minute or more, while the top dental Reels were quick visual gags. Editing each version for its platform costs little and keeps both accounts strong.