The best ad spy & ad research tools, compared.
ViralMojo makes this page, so read it knowing that. ViralMojo is one of the tools on it. We've tried to be straight about where each of the others is the better pick.
Every major ad spy tool, ad library, and AI creative platform DTC and ecommerce creative teams use to find winning ads — and how each one stacks up against ViralMojo. Paste your product link, see the ads winning in your niche and why they win, and turn them into your own — static ads, AI video, a winning ad with your product in it, or a real creator who shoots it for you.
See what's winning in your nicheTool prices and facts on this page last verified October 30, 2026against each vendor's public pricing page — per-tool dates in the table below.
If you want to remake, not just spy
ViralMojo fits DTC merchants who want to turn a winning ad into their own version; Foreplay and Atria fit teams building a shared swipe file and brand library.
Pick ViralMojo if you see a winner and want to make yours
You run a DTC brand and the question after spotting a good ad is “how do I make that for my product?” Paste your product link, see what's winning in your niche and why it works, then make it yours: a static ad, an AI video, your product in their ad, or a real creator who shoots it for you. From $99/mo, from just your URL.
Turns winning ads into yours — static · AI video · your product in their ad · real creators
Pick Foreplay, Atria or Canva Grow if your team runs a swipe file
Your creative team needs a team-level swipe file and brand library: saved ads on shared boards, competitor brands followed over time, briefs handed to designers. Foreplay (from $59/mo; 4.8/5 from 124 G2 reviews) is the deepest swipe file; Atria (free plan, paid from $129/mo; 5.0/5 from 22 G2 reviews) adds analytics on your own ad account; and MagicBrief's library now lives inside Canva Grow.
G2 figures as of October 30, 2026.
Seeing the ads is free now. Reading them isn't.
Ad spy tools earned their name when seeing a competitor's ads was the hard part. In 2026 that part is over: Meta's Ad Library, TikTok's creative tools, and Google's Ads Transparency Center show every running ad, for free. If a tool's core promise is access, you're paying for a window that's already open.
What still separates winning teams is what happens after the ads are on screen: knowing which of the hundreds of creatives in your niche is actually scaling, why it's winning — the hook, the angle, the audience it lands with — and what that means for your next brief. That's why most of the tools below have evolved from spy databases into creative-research workspaces for DTC and ecommerce teams: they help you save what you find, analyse what's working, or generate the next variant.
This page is grouped accordingly: the shortlist for creative teams — swipe files, creative analytics, and AI creative platforms — comes first, and the classic ad-spy databases, built for affiliate and dropship-style ad mining, sit at the end.
How to choose the best ad spy tool for a DTC creative team
The best ad spy tool is the one built for the job you need done, not the one with the biggest database. For a DTC or ecommerce creative team, the shortlist is Foreplay (from $59/mo) for saving competitor ads into a shared swipe file and briefs, Atria (free plan; paid from $129/mo billed yearly) or Motion (from $750/mo) for grading the creative in your own connected ad accounts, and ViralMojo (from $99/mo) for deciding what to make next: it finds the winning ads in your niche across organic and paid, works out why each one wins, and turns them into your own ads, from just your URL. If you are hunting for a product to sell rather than a creative angle, Minea (from $49/mo) is built for dropshipping research and PiPiADS for TikTok ads and TikTok Shop products. For the largest raw Facebook and Instagram archive, AdSpy ($149/mo flat) indexes 211M ads. On a tight budget, start with Meta's free Ad Library and BigSpy's free tier.
Quick picks by use case
| If you need… | Start with | Why it fits | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|
| The largest ad archive to search yourself | AdSpy; BigSpy for cross-platform | AdSpy: 211M Facebook/Instagram ads, filtered by text, advertiser and engagement. BigSpy: a 1B+ ad library across 11 ad channels. | AdSpy $149/mo flat; BigSpy free tier, Starter $69/mo |
| A shared swipe file and briefs for your creative team | Foreplay; SwipeWell for a lighter save-and-tag file | Foreplay: search and save ads, organize boards and tags, AI briefs from your saves. SwipeWell: Chrome-extension saving, unlimited swipes and collections on Pro. | Foreplay from $59/mo; SwipeWell free, Pro $12/mo |
| Creative analytics on your own ad accounts | Motion; Atria to start free | Motion ranks the creative you already ran across connected accounts. Atria grades your connected account, with a free plan and paid tiers priced by your Meta spend. | Motion from $750/mo; Atria free plan, paid from $129/mo billed yearly |
| Shopify / dropshipping product research | Minea; Dropispy on a budget | Minea: 10M+ ads, shop traffic and revenue tracking, AliExpress supplier match. Dropispy: 50M+ ads plus Shop Spy store rankings. | Minea from $49/mo; Dropispy free, Premium $29.90/mo |
| TikTok ads and TikTok Shop products | PiPiADS | Searches TikTok and Facebook ads, products and stores, and ranks winning TikTok Shop products. | Free trial; from $49/mo |
| A budget under $50/mo | Meta Ad Library, BigSpy, Adspo | Meta's Ad Library shows every running Meta ad for free; BigSpy has a free tier; Adspo is a curated gallery of winning Meta creatives. | Free; free; $29/mo |
| Research before the ad exists — what to make next | ViralMojo; Hey Parker if your Meta account is the center | Paste your product link: ViralMojo finds the ads winning in your niche across organic and paid, works out why they win, and turns them into your own — static ads, AI video, a winning ad with your product in it, or a real creator who shoots it for you. Hey Parker is an AI strategy layer built around your Meta ad account. | ViralMojo from $99/mo; Hey Parker from $299/mo |
Where ViralMojo fits: ViralMojo is for the DTC team deciding what to make next. Paste your product link: it finds the ads winning in your niche, works out why each one wins (hook, angle, structure), and turns them into your own — static ads, AI video, a winning ad with your product in it, or a real creator who shoots it for you. It runs from just your URL (connecting Meta is optional and read-only, to read how your own ads perform). Plans are $99, $199 or $399 a month with every feature on every tier.
Note: MagicBrief, still recommended in many 2025 roundups, closed on July 31, 2026, and its workflow now lives inside Canva Grow.
Which ad spy tool does what, and what it costs?
39tools, three categories. Starting prices are the lowest published tier on each vendor's pricing page; “facts checked” is the date ViralMojo last verified that tool's page. Click a tool for the full comparison.
| Tool | Category | What it is | Starting price | Facts checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ViralMojo | Creative research & strategy | Agent for what to make next: finds what's winning in your niche (organic + paid), works out why, and turns it into your own ads — from your URL, no ad account | From $99/mo | October 30, 2026 |
| Foreplay | Creative research & strategy | Ad-library research & swipe file | From $59/mo | September 27, 2026 |
| Atria | Creative research & strategy | Creative intelligence + Meta ad engine, priced by ad spend | Free plan; paid from $129/mo | October 1, 2026 |
| GetCrux | Creative research & strategy | AI agents for paid media — demo-only; last listed from $999/mo (checked 2026-09-28) | Pricing not public | September 28, 2026 |
| Hey Parker | Creative research & strategy | AI strategy layer, tiered $299–$699/mo by monthly Meta ad spend | From $299/mo | September 28, 2026 |
| Hawky | Creative research & strategy | Per brand, scales with usage — three tiers, all "Talk to sales" (checked 2026-09-28) | Pricing not public | September 28, 2026 |
| Virlo | Creative research & strategy | Social listening & trend analytics | From $49/mo | September 27, 2026 |
| Lightreel | Creative research & strategy | Single Pro plan · 3-day trial · 7-day money-back guarantee | $199/mo | October 1, 2026 |
| Tempo | Creative research & strategy | Autonomous Meta-ad autopilot for Shopify | From $99/mo | September 27, 2026 |
| PlayAd | Creative research & strategy | Managed AI marketing team — Intern $39 / Part Time $99 / Full Time $499 / CMO $1,799 per month, yearly saves 20% (checked 2026-09-28) | From $39/mo | September 28, 2026 |
| QuickAds | Creative research & strategy | Ad library + generation; managed tiers are custom-quoted | Free tier; DIY from $99/mo | September 20, 2026 |
| Motion | Creative research & strategy | Creative analytics for your own ad accounts | From $750/mo | September 27, 2026 |
| MagicBrief | Creative research & strategy | Ad-research suite & swipe library — closed July 31, 2026 | Retired (was from ~$29/mo) | September 21, 2026 |
| marketfunkers | Creative research & strategy | Creative Explorer $29 / Performance Strategist $39 / FunkLab $199 per month; annual billing saves 25% (checked 2026-10-13) | From $29/mo | October 13, 2026 |
| Bestever | Creative research & strategy | Competitor ad analysis + AI image & video generation — self-serve closed Aug 31, 2026, per AppSumo's notice | Self-serve closed (site still lists from $39/mo) | October 18, 2026 |
| Brandsearch | Ad spy & ad libraries | Brand intelligence & ad tracking — three tiers, prices on signup (checked 2026-09-28) | Pricing not public | September 28, 2026 |
| Adspo | Ad spy & ad libraries | Ad-inspiration library — $19/mo billed yearly, +$10/mo per seat billed yearly, 7–14-day trial (site copy varies) | $29/mo | September 28, 2026 |
| BigSpy | Ad spy & ad libraries | A 1B+ cross-platform ad library you search | Free tier; Starter $69/mo | October 4, 2026 |
| AdSpy | Ad spy & ad libraries | The largest FB/IG ad-intelligence database | $149/mo, flat | October 1, 2026 |
| PowerAdSpy | Ad spy & ad libraries | Multi-network ad-intelligence database | From $69/mo | September 27, 2026 |
| PiPiADS | Ad spy & ad libraries | The #1 TikTok/FB adspy & product-research database | Free trial; from $49/mo | October 1, 2026 |
| Minea | Ad spy & ad libraries | Adspy + product research to find a product to sell | From $49/mo | September 27, 2026 |
| SocialPeta | Ad spy & ad libraries | Enterprise ad-intelligence database | Quote only (book a demo) | September 20, 2026 |
| Dropispy | Ad spy & ad libraries | Ad-spy database to find products to copy | Free; Premium $29.90/mo ($14.90 annual) | September 20, 2026 |
| SwipeWell | Ad spy & ad libraries | Swipe-file software — Pro $10/mo billed yearly, Team $12 per user/mo (checked 2026-10-01) | Free; Pro $12/mo | October 1, 2026 |
| AdWhispr | Ad spy & ad libraries | AI marketing agent — Pro $39 / Plus $69 / Agency $149 per month, annual saves up to 20% (checked 2026-09-28) | Free, then from $39/mo | September 28, 2026 |
| Hermoso AI | Ad spy & ad libraries | Credit-based marketing MCP and studio — Starter $19 / Pro $49 / Studio $149 per month, 250+ free credits to start (checked 2026-10-01) | Free, then from $19/mo | October 13, 2026 |
| Spresh | Ad spy & ad libraries | Ad spy & swipe file — Solo $19 / Growth $49 / Agency $99 per month, or $17 / $42 / $83 per month billed yearly (checked 2026-10-18) | From $19/mo | October 18, 2026 |
| Rival Ads | Ad spy & ad libraries | Starter $29 / Growth $49 / Scale $79 / Agency $99 / Max $199 / Ultra $349 per month; annual billing = 2 months free; first month free, card required (checked 2026-10-18) | From $29/mo | October 18, 2026 |
| Creatify | AI creative generation | AI video-ad generator, priced for volume | Free, or from $15/mo | October 30, 2026 |
| AdCreative.ai | AI creative generation | AI ad-creative generator + performance scoring, priced per credit | From $39/mo (7-day trial) | September 27, 2026 |
| TopView | AI creative generation | All-in-one AI video agent, priced per credit | From $29/mo ($16/mo annual) | September 27, 2026 |
| Pencil | AI creative generation | Multi-model creative OS + governance + launch | From $14/mo | September 27, 2026 |
| CreativeOS | AI creative generation | Template library + AI copy/scoring, priced by credits & seats | From $29/mo | September 27, 2026 |
| Arcads | AI creative generation | Credits per Arcads' help center; dollar prices not published (checked 2026-10-01) | Reported from ~$110/mo | October 1, 2026 |
| Airpost | AI creative generation | Managed AI video-ad service — single published plan (checked 2026-09-28) | $6,000/mo | September 28, 2026 |
| AdAnt AI | AI creative generation | Credit-based social video agents — Standard $15 / Pro $39 / Max $99–$999 per month, 25 free credits on sign-up (checked 2026-09-28) | From $15/mo | September 28, 2026 |
| Wisry AI | AI creative generation | Wisry Ads Studio plan: $99/mo introductory, $199 regular, 2,000 credits a month; Creators by Wisry priced separately (checked 2026-10-13) | $99/mo (intro) | October 13, 2026 |
| Adomate | AI creative generation | Credit-based ad generation — Starter $119 / Growth $349 / Agency $1,799 / Scale $2,999 per month, or $99 / $291 / $1,499 / $2,499 billed yearly; up to 40 free ads, no credit card required (checked 2026-10-18) | From $119/mo | October 18, 2026 |
| Maxfusion AI | AI creative generation | Credit-based AI ad generation — Starter $99 / Pro $199 / Max from $400 per month, or $87 / $175 / $352 a month billed annually (save 12%); no free plan or trial (checked 2026-10-18) | From $99/mo | October 18, 2026 |
Best Instagram ad spy tools, and how to pick one
Instagram has no ad library of its own. Its ads are Meta ads, so they show up in Meta's free Ad Library next to Facebook's, and any tool built on Ad Library data covers Instagram too. What differs is the layer on top: how you filter, how you save, and whether the tool tells you why an ad works. Pick by that layer:
| Tool | What it covers | Starting price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| AdSpy | Facebook and Instagram ads only, 211M+ of them | $149/mo flat | Searching the largest Facebook/Instagram archive yourself |
| PowerAdSpy | Facebook, Instagram and up to nine more networks, unlocked by tier | From $69/mo | Filtering by country, ad position, CTA, device, gender and age at once |
| Adspo | A curated gallery of winning Meta ads, plus tracking of any brand's account | $29/mo | Cheap, well-organized Meta ad inspiration |
| SwipeWell | Ad Finder pulls a brand's Facebook and Instagram ads into your swipe file | Free; Pro $12/mo | A light save-and-tag swipe file |
| Brandsearch | Meta and TikTok ads, plus Instagram organic posts | Pricing not public | Ecommerce teams who also want brand revenue and traffic estimates |
| ViralMojo | Tracked competitors' active Meta ads, Instagram placements included, plus Instagram Reels and TikTok organic | From $99/mo | Seeing why winners work and turning them into your own ads |
How to see competitors' Facebook ads for free, and when a tool is worth it
Meta's Ad Library shows every Facebook and Instagram ad a competitor is running right now, for free. What it won't do is keep their ads after they stop (outside the EU and UK), tell you which ones are working, or watch competitors for you. Those gaps are what paid Facebook ad spy tools sell: AdSpy ($149/mo flat) and PowerAdSpy (from $69/mo) keep large searchable archives, BigSpy has a free tier, and Foreplay (from $59/mo) and Adspo ($29/mo) save and track brands for creative teams. If you check a handful of competitors now and then, the free library is enough.
The free route takes a few minutes per competitor: pick the brand's Page in the Ad Library rather than running a keyword search, read each ad's start date, and treat the long-running and most-duplicated creatives as the likely winners. Our step-by-step guide, how to find competitor ads for free, covers Meta, Google, TikTok and LinkedIn, how to find which competitors are actually advertising, and the signals that show which of their ads are working.
Competitor ad tracking: who watches the Ad Library for you
Checking the Ad Library by hand works until you care about the timeline. There's no built-in alert when a competitor launches something new, and outside the EU and UK stopped ads disappear, so between visits you miss the tests a competitor ran and killed, and when their winners first went live. Tracking tools check the brands you choose on a schedule and keep what they find. They differ in how many brands they watch, whether they alert you, and whether they tell you anything about why an ad is working:
| Tool | What it tracks | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brandsearch | Daily updates and real-time alerts on 5, 50 or 100 tracked brands, by tier | Pricing not public | Watching dozens of brands with alerts |
| Foreplay | Spyder tracks chosen competitor brands and saves their ads | Spyder from the Workflow plan ($175/mo) | Creative teams who already keep a Foreplay swipe file |
| Adspo | Any brand's Meta account: formats, hooks, landing pages, impression momentum | $29/mo | Cheap creative-level tracking of a few brands |
| Atria | Followed competitor brands (50 on Core), with AI insights | Free plan; paid from $129/mo | Teams who also want analytics on their own ad account |
| ViralMojo | Tracked competitors' active Meta ads with days running (3, 10 or 20 competitors by tier), plus your niche's organic winners | From $99/mo | Seeing why the long-runners work and turning them into your own ads |
Ad spy tool price changes in 2026, updated monthly
Among the ad spy and creative tools on this page, the largest 2026 price change ViralMojo has logged is Motion's (motionapp.com, the creative-analytics platform, not the calendar app): its Starter plan went from $250/mo to $750/mo between June 1 and August 10, 2026, and its Pro plan, unpriced in June, was listed at $1,050/mo in August and $1,200/mo by September 17. This log was last checked on October 4, 2026.
| Tool | What changed | Before → after | Vendor changed it | We detected it | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GetCrux | GetCrux, now branded Crux ("AI agents for paid media"), no longer publishes pricing; it last listed plans from $999/mo billed annually.No archive snapshot after June 16, so the window closes on the day we detected it. | From $999/mo (annual, under $1M spend) → Pricing not public (book a demo) | Between Jun 16 and Sep 28, 2026 | September 28, 2026 | getcrux.aiArchive, Jun 16 |
| BigSpyPaid tiers | BigSpy replaced its single $149/mo Pro plan with Starter $69, Growth $159 and Ultimate $499 per month; the free tier remains. | Pro $149/mo† → Starter $69 / Growth $159 / Ultimate $499 per month | Unknown (no public archive) | September 27, 2026 | bigspy.com/pricing |
| MineaBusiness | Minea's Business plan changed from $399/mo to $199/mo; Starter ($49) and Premium ($99) were unchanged and quarterly billing was added.No archive snapshot after June 15, so the window closes on the day we detected it. | $399/mo → $199/mo−50% | Between Jun 15 and Sep 27, 2026 | September 27, 2026 | minea.com/pricingArchive, Jun 15 |
| MotionPro | Motion's Pro plan changed from $1,050/mo to $1,200/mo. | $1,050/mo → $1,200/mo+14% | Between Aug 10 and Sep 17, 2026 | September 27, 2026 | motionapp.com/pricingArchive, Aug 10Archive, Sep 17 |
| PlayAdEntry plan | PlayAd's entry price changed from $59/mo to $39/mo under new tiers: Intern $39, Part Time $99, Full Time $499 and CMO $1,799 per month.The vendor page title still says "Plans starting at $59/mo"; the plan cards show $39. | From $59/mo → From $39/mo (Intern)−34% | Between Jun 18 and Sep 4, 2026 | September 28, 2026 | playad.ai/pricingArchive, Jun 18Archive, Sep 4 |
| PowerAdSpyPremium / Basic annual | PowerAdSpy dropped its $179/mo Premium tier (TikTok moved to the $399/mo Palladium tier) and cut Basic's annual price from $349 to $331 a year. | Six tiers incl. Premium $179/mo; Basic $349/yr → Four tiers, $69–$399/mo; Basic $331/yr | Between Jul 28 and Sep 1, 2026 | September 27, 2026 | poweradspy.com/pricingArchive, Jul 28Archive, Sep 1 |
| MotionPro | Motion's Pro plan (over $50k/mo ad spend) went from "Let's chat" to a listed $1,050/mo.Found retroactively in the Internet Archive; we never listed the $1,050 price ourselves. | No listed price ("Let's chat") → $1,050/mo | Between Jun 1 and Aug 10, 2026 | October 1, 2026 | Archive, Jun 1Archive, Aug 10 |
| MotionStarter | Motion's Starter plan (up to $50k/mo ad spend) changed from $250/mo to $750/mo. | $250/mo → $750/mo+200% | Between Jun 1 and Aug 10, 2026 | September 27, 2026 | motionapp.com/pricingArchive, Jun 1Archive, Aug 10 |
| MagicBrief | MagicBrief closed on July 31, 2026 after its team joined Canva; its plans (from about $29/mo) were retired and the workflow moved into Canva Grow.Detected as an announced shutdown on June 17; the closing date is the vendor's own. | From ~$29/mo → Closed | July 31, 2026 (vendor date) | June 17, 2026 | MagicBrief–Canva FAQArchive, Jul 27 |
| AtriaEntry | Atria replaced its 7-day free trial with a free plan that needs no credit card; paid plans still start at $129/mo billed annually.Atria's help center dates the change to June 2026; we caught it on Oct 1. | 7-day free trial → Free plan (no card) | Between Apr 20 and Jul 11, 2026 | October 1, 2026 | tryatria.com/pricingAtria help: free planArchive, Apr 20Archive, Jul 11 |
How we check:once a month ViralMojo re-reads every tool's public pricing page (USD, monthly billing unless noted) and logs any change here; a month with no change is recorded too. “We detected it” is the date we caught the change; “vendor changed it” is the range between two Internet Archive snapshots that bracket it, or the vendor's own announced date. We don't track enterprise quotes, coupons, or what existing customers pay.
† BigSpy renders its pricing page with JavaScript, so the Internet Archive holds no readable copy: its previous price is as listed on ViralMojo's pages since June 17, 2026 and is not independently archived.
Our own corrections
- October 4, 2026, BigSpy: Our BigSpy pages didn't list its Scale plan, which BigSpy's pricing page shows at $399/mo with 5 seats, between Growth ($159) and Ultimate ($499). (bigspy.com/pricing)
- October 1, 2026, Arcads: We had said Arcads publishes no pricing and sized its plans as about 10 and 20 videos; Arcads' help center publishes each plan's monthly credits (Starter 8,000, Creator 16,000) and bills talking-actor video at 800 credits per minute per actor. Dollar prices are still unpublished. (Arcads help: plan credits, Arcads help: credits per feature, Arcads help: trial and refunds)
- October 1, 2026, PiPiADS: Our PiPiADS page left out its Flexible team plan, which starts at $180/mo (2 users) and has been in PiPiADS's pricing data since July 2025. (pipiads.com/pricing, PiPiADS pricing data)
- October 1, 2026, SwipeWell: We listed SwipeWell Pro at $10/mo and Team at $10 per user/mo, which are the annual-billing rates; billed monthly, both are $12. (swipewell.app/pricing)
- September 28, 2026, Adspo: We had listed a 14-day Adspo trial; the vendor's pages disagree (pricing page 14 days, homepage 7), so we now say 7–14 days. (adspo.co/pricing, adspo.co)
- September 27, 2026, PiPiADS: We listed PiPiADS's Advanced plan at $159/mo, the price its page shows struck through; the price charged is $99/mo, unchanged in PiPiADS's own pricing data since July 2025. (pipiads.com/pricing, PiPiADS pricing data)
- September 27, 2026, TopView: We had listed TopView Pro as $29/mo billed annually; $29 is the monthly price and the annual rate is $16/mo. (topview.ai/pricing)
- September 20, 2026, Dropispy: We had listed Dropispy as "Free, or from $14.90/mo", quoting the annual rate as the starting price; the monthly Premium price is $29.90. (dropispy.com/pricing)
Check log
- October 4, 2026: BigSpy and Foreplay pricing pages re-read; BigSpy Scale tier found (see correction); Foreplay unchanged. No vendor price changes found.
- October 3, 2026: Hey Parker, Hawky and Adspo pricing pages re-checked; no drift. No vendor price changes found.
- October 1, 2026: Live pricing pages of Foreplay, Motion, Minea, PowerAdSpy, PlayAd, Atria and SwipeWell re-read, plus PiPiADS's own pricing data; every Internet Archive window in this log re-opened (BigSpy's pricing page timed out again, so its prices were last verified Sep 27); Arcads help center (3 articles) and pricing URL re-read. 2 vendor price changes found.
- September 28, 2026: 12 tools incl. GetCrux, PlayAd, Adspo, Arcads, Atria, Hey Parker. 2 vendor price changes found.
- September 27, 2026: 12 tools incl. Motion, Minea, PiPiADS, BigSpy, PowerAdSpy, TopView, Foreplay. 5 vendor price changes found.
- September 20, 2026: AdSpy, SocialPeta, QuickAds, Dropispy pricing pages. No vendor price changes found.
Compare the tools marketers shortlist before they switch workflows.
If you are replacing a swipe-file or ad-intelligence workflow, start with Foreplay, GetCrux, Hey Parker, Hawky, Lightreel, Brandsearch, Adspo, Arcads, Virlo, Tempo, PlayAd, QuickAds, PowerAdSpy, Dropispy, SwipeWell, Creatify, TopView, Airpost, AdWhispr, AdAnt AI, Wisry AI, Hermoso AI, marketfunkers, Adomate, Spresh, Maxfusion AI, Bestever, or Rival Ads to see where each product helps, where it stops, and when ViralMojo is the better fit for turning research into ready-to-test creative.
The tools DTC and ecommerce creative teams shortlist — swipe files, creative analytics, and AI creative platforms.
Built for affiliate & dropship-style ad mining — a different job.
A tool finds the ads. You still pick the angle.
Ad research is step one. These guides cover what to do with what you find — the strategy, the system, and the role behind ads that actually perform.
Ad spy tool questions.
There is no single best ad spy tool, because the tools do different jobs. If you need to mine Facebook and Instagram ads at volume — the classic affiliate and dropship use case — AdSpy is the largest database ($149/mo, flat) and BigSpy has a free tier. If you run creative for a brand, the shortlist changes: Foreplay (from $59/mo) is the deepest swipe file, Motion (from $750/mo) is creative analytics for your own ad accounts, and Atria (free plan; paid from $129/mo billed yearly) grades a connected account and pattern-matches your spend. ViralMojo sits after the spying: it finds the ads winning in your niche across organic and paid, works out why they win, and turns them into your own — static ads, AI video, a winning ad with your product in it, or a real creator who shoots it for you — from $99/mo with no ad account required. Pick by the job — seeing ads, saving ads, grading your own ads, or turning winners into your next brief.
Only for what the free library cannot do. Meta's Ad Library, TikTok's creative tools and Google's Ads Transparency Center already show every running ad at no cost, so a tool whose core promise is access is charging for an open window. Paid tools earn their fee in three places. Scale: databases like AdSpy or PowerAdSpy index hundreds of millions of ads with filters the Ad Library lacks — by landing page, engagement or run time. Organisation: swipe-file tools like Foreplay or SwipeWell save, tag and share what you find. Reading: analytics and research tools tell you which creative is actually scaling and why — hook, angle, audience — which no library shows. If your team only browses competitor ads occasionally, the free tools are enough. If you ship creative every week, the reading layer is where the money is, because the ads are already visible to everyone.
They sit at three stages of the same workflow. An ad spy tool is a searchable database of other people's ads — AdSpy, BigSpy, PowerAdSpy, Minea, PiPiADS — built to find ads and products by filter, originally for affiliate and dropship marketers. A swipe file is where a creative team saves and organises the ads it likes; Foreplay and SwipeWell are swipe-file software, with boards, tags and AI briefs from your saves. Creative analytics reads your own ad account: Motion and Atria connect to Meta, grade which of your creatives win and surface the patterns. ViralMojo is a fourth type, an agent that does the reading on the market instead of on your account — it finds the winning ads in your niche, works out the hook, structure and audience behind each, and turns them into your own ads. Most brand teams end up pairing one tool from two or three of these stages.
Prices cluster by tool type. Classic ad-spy databases start cheap: Dropispy and BigSpy have free tiers, Adspo is $29/mo, Minea and PiPiADS start at $49/mo, PowerAdSpy at $69/mo, and AdSpy is $149/mo flat; SocialPeta is enterprise, quote only. Swipe-file software is the cheapest category — SwipeWell Pro is $12/mo ($10 billed yearly) and Foreplay starts at $59/mo. Creative analytics and AI strategist platforms are priced for teams with spend: Atria has a free plan with paid tiers from $129/mo billed yearly, Motion from $750/mo, Hey Parker from $299/mo scaling with your Meta budget, and GetCrux no longer publishes pricing (last listed $999/mo). AI creative generators run from free tiers to about $39/mo (Creatify, AdCreative.ai) up to managed services like Airpost at $6,000/mo. ViralMojo is $99, $199 or $399 per month with the same features on every tier; higher tiers add credits plus more tracked competitors and saved queries. Every price on this page is checked against the vendor's public pricing page on the date shown in the table.
Yes. Instagram ads are Meta ads, so Meta's free Ad Library shows them alongside Facebook ads, and each ad lists the platforms it runs on, Instagram included. That means any tool built on Ad Library data covers Instagram too; what you pay for is the layer on top. Ad spy databases add search and filters: AdSpy indexes Facebook and Instagram ads only ($149/mo flat), and PowerAdSpy covers Instagram among up to 11 networks (from $69/mo). Swipe-file tools add saving and organizing, and analysis tools add a read on why an ad works. ViralMojo sits in that last group: it pulls each tracked competitor's active ads from the Ad Library by their Facebook page, records which platforms every ad runs on, and works out why the winners win. Its saved queries also search organic Instagram Reels and TikTok, so what's working organically sits next to the paid ads.
Search Meta's free Ad Library. Go to facebook.com/ads/library, set the country and the All ads category, type the brand name and pick its Page from the dropdown rather than running a keyword search. You'll see every Facebook and Instagram ad the brand is running now, each with the date it started and the platforms it runs on. Sort out the winners by run time: ads live for months, and creatives the brand has duplicated across many ads, are the ones it keeps paying for. The library has limits. Outside the EU and UK it drops ads once they stop, it shows no spend or results for ordinary ads, and it won't alert you to new launches. If you need history or alerts, a tracking tool such as Brandsearch, Foreplay's Spyder, Adspo or Atria checks your chosen brands on a schedule. ViralMojo tracks competitors' active Meta ads with days running, works out why the long-runners win, and turns them into your own.
Related comparisons: static ad generators · tools to remake competitor ads · competitor ad finders · tools to find UGC creators