Every Facebook ad spy tool shows you the ads other brands run on Facebook and Instagram. What you pay for is everything around that: ads kept after they stop, search across brands, saved boards, alerts when a rival launches, and in a few tools, a way to turn what you found into your own ad. On October 31, 2026, the cheapest paid plans ran from $10 to $159 a month, and only two tools could send ads into your Meta account: AdRiseLab from $39 and Atria from $129 billed yearly.
AdRiseLab is our product, and it is in this comparison. Every price and feature below was read from each vendor's own website on October 31, 2026, not from third-party reviews. Where a vendor does not say whether it offers something, we say so instead of guessing. Prices change often, so check the vendor's page before you buy.
The short answer: which tool for which job
If you only check a few rivals now and then, the free Meta Ad Library is enough. If you want to turn what you find into your own Meta ads and launch them, AdRiseLab does that from $39 a month. If you need years of history across TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube, Foreplay's tracking plans are built for it, and Panoramata also follows rivals' emails, SMS and landing pages.
What every spy tool starts from: Meta's Ad Library
Meta's Ad Library is free and searchable by any keyword, name or Page. What it shows depends on where an ad ran. For ordinary commercial ads in the US, it shows active ads and drops them once they stop. Ads delivered in the EU or UK stay for one year after their last impression, with the targeting the advertiser chose and the reach by age and gender. Spend appears only for ads about social issues, elections or politics, which stay for seven years.
The Ad Library API is narrower still: for commercial ads it returns only ads delivered in the UK and EU during the past year. That gap is why paid tools exist. A few say how they collect ads: Foreplay describes its brand tracker as an Ad Library scraper that runs around the clock, AdSpyder credits its own scraping technology, and GetHookd says its data comes from the ad library. Most others do not say. For everything the Library leaves out, see what the Meta Ad Library shows and the 9 things it can't.
Facebook ad spy tools compared
| Tool | Cheapest paid plan, monthly | Billed yearly | Networks covered | Ads after they stop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta Ad Library | Free | Free | Meta's apps | US: no. EU and UK: 1 year |
| AdRiseLab | $39 | $31/mo | Facebook, Instagram | Active ads only |
| Atria | $159 | $129/mo | Meta, TikTok | Shows active and inactive status |
| Foreplay | $59 | $49/mo | Meta, Instagram organic, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube Shorts | Up to 3 years for tracked brands, from $175 |
| GetHookd | $29 | $19/mo | Facebook, Instagram | Live ads only |
| Panoramata | $99 | $990/yr | Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Google Display, YouTube, LinkedIn | 6 months on the first plan |
| Minea | $49 | $34/mo | Facebook, others listed inconsistently | Historical data, depth not stated |
| PowerAdSpy | $69 | $27/mo | Facebook and Instagram on Basic; 11 networks in all | Ad timelines, depth not stated |
| BigSpy | $69 | $49/mo | Facebook and Instagram on Starter; 11 networks in all | Running days and last seen |
| AdSpy | $149 | Not offered | Facebook, Instagram | Last seen filter |
| AdSpyder | $10 | $100/yr | Nine networks, including Google and TikTok | First and last seen dates |
What each tool costs
Read the entry price with its limits. Foreplay's $59 Basic plan has no brand tracking; that starts on Workflow at $175 a month. PowerAdSpy's $69 Basic covers Facebook and Instagram only, and its budget estimates start on Platinum at $279. AdSpy sells a single $149 plan it calls an introductory offer. Atria's $159 was shown next to a struck-through $219 under a Black Friday banner, so the price after the promotion is unclear. AdRiseLab's $39 Starter plan includes 100 credits for making ads and 20 Ad Library searches, up to 1,200 ads, a month.
Tool by tool
Meta Ad Library
Best for checking a few rivals now and then. It is free, official and searchable by keyword or Page. The catch: in the US you see only ads that are live today, with no spend and no results, and nothing to save, track or alert.
AdRiseLab
Best for Meta advertisers who want to act on what they find. AdRiseLab searches the Meta Ad Library by brand or keyword, tracks rival brands, flags the ads that are new since your last check and shows how long each ad has run. Clone this ad turns a layout you like into your own image ad, and the same workspace makes video and creator-style ads, then creates the campaign in your Meta account when you confirm. It also reads your own connected ad account, so the ads you make from a rival's idea are judged on your results, not theirs.
The catch: it is Meta only, it works with active ads rather than an archive, and it gives no spend estimates. Starter is $39 a month, or $31 billed yearly.
Atria
Best for creative teams that want research, creation and upload in one place and can pay more for it. Atria covers Meta and TikTok, follows 50 brands on its Core plan with weekly email updates, makes image ads, scripts and copy, and uploads creatives to Meta in batches. Core is $159 a month, or $129 billed yearly. Next to AdRiseLab, Atria adds TikTok and the status of inactive ads; AdRiseLab costs about a quarter as much per month and adds video and creator-style ads to the same plan.
Foreplay
Best for teams that save and brief a lot of ads. Basic is $59 a month, or $49 billed yearly, for one user plus $20 for each extra user, with boards and a discovery library in which every ad was saved by a person. Brand tracking starts on Workflow at $175 a month, keeps tracked ads for up to three years and sends Slack and email updates. Its briefs include scripts and storyboards rather than finished ads, and its site does not mention publishing to Meta.
GetHookd
Best for the lowest price on live Meta ads. Starter is $29 a month, or $19 billed yearly, for Facebook and Instagram. It offers brand alerts and boards, shows live ads only, not an archive, and says plainly that it does not make up spend figures. Its $49 Pro plan adds clones of static ads.
Panoramata
Best for following a rival's whole marketing, not only ads. Startup is $99 a month, or $990 a year, for 20 competitors with six months of history, across Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Google Display, YouTube and LinkedIn, plus emails, SMS and landing pages. Alerts and media generation start on Professional at $179.
Minea
Best for dropshippers hunting for products. Starter is $49 a month, or $34 billed yearly, with historical ad data, estimated budgets, brand tracking and alerts. Its own pricing page is inconsistent about which networks beyond Facebook it covers today, so check before you buy.
PowerAdSpy and BigSpy
Best for large ad databases across many networks. PowerAdSpy's Basic plan is $69 a month for Facebook and Instagram, or $27 a month billed yearly, with alerts when a watched advertiser launches. BigSpy's Starter is $69 a month, or $49 billed yearly, for Facebook and Instagram, with estimated impressions and 100 tracked creatives; following pages starts on Growth at $159. Neither says how it collects ads.
AdSpy
Best for deep search of Facebook and Instagram ads by text, comments and engagement. It has one plan at $149 a month and no yearly option. It shows when an ad was last seen; its site does not mention brand alerts.
AdSpyder
Best for the cheapest search across many networks. The first plan is $10 a month, or $100 a year, covering nine networks including Google, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn, with first and last seen dates. Ad generation starts on the $20 plan.
What a free check can already tell you
You can learn a lot before paying for anything. On October 26, 2026, we pulled the active US ads of ten skincare brands that sell direct from the Meta Ad Library. Between them they ran 1,915 live ads, a median of 119 per brand. Nine of the ten created 12 or more ads within a single ten-minute window, and one brand created 22 holiday ads in four minutes on October 23.
What a free check cannot tell you is which of those ads made money. Counts and start dates show how a rival works and when its holiday push begins; your own results show what works for you. The full method is in our post on how many Meta ads brands run.
Before Black Friday: a 15-minute weekly rival check
Black Friday falls on November 27, 2026. Until then, this check takes about 15 minutes every Monday:
- 1.Pick five rivals and open each Page in the Ad Library, set to the US and active ads.
- 2.Count the ads that started since last Monday.
- 3.Note the offer: percent off, bundle, gift or shipping.
- 4.Note the format and the first line of each new ad.
- 5.Save the ads you want to keep, because in the US they disappear once they stop.
A jump in new ads together with a new offer is the signal that a rival's sale has started. Tools that keep stopped ads, marked in the table above, handle step 5 for you, and AdRiseLab's tracked brands flag the new ads for step 2. To plan your own launch around the same dates, use the 28-day BFCM calendar.
Where AdRiseLab fits
Most spy tools stop at the swipe file: you find an ad, save it, and the rest happens somewhere else. AdRiseLab is built for the rest. Competitor research finds and tracks rivals' Meta ads. Creative generation turns a layout you like, or your own product URL, into image, video and creator-style ads. When you confirm, AdRiseLab creates the campaign, ad set and ads in your Meta account, and nothing goes live without your approval. Its reports then show how your versions did in your own account, which no spy tool can show you about a rival's.
It is not the right pick if you advertise mainly on TikTok, Google or LinkedIn, need an archive of ads that stopped running, or want spend estimates. AdRiseLab is Meta-only and works with active ads. Plans start at $39 a month with 100 credits and 20 Ad Library searches; see pricing.
Method and limits
Prices and features come from each vendor's own pricing, feature and help pages, read on October 31, 2026. We did not buy every plan. Where a vendor's site does not say whether it offers something, the chart shows a dash rather than a no. Several pages contradicted themselves, for example Minea on which networks it covers, Foreplay on how many brands its tracker follows and AdSpyder on its yearly price, so treat this as a dated snapshot. MagicBrief, which used to appear in lists like this one, shut down on July 31, 2026. Meta Ad Library details come from Meta's own help and API pages. The ten-brand figures come from our October 26, 2026 pull.
Sources
Meta Business Help Center: About Ad Library, Meta Ad Library API, Foreplay pricing, Foreplay Spyder, Atria pricing, PowerAdSpy pricing, BigSpy pricing, AdSpy, Minea pricing, Panoramata pricing, GetHookd, AdSpyder pricing and AdRiseLab pricing, all read on October 31, 2026. Ten-brand data: Meta Ad Library, US, active ads, pulled October 26, 2026 at 14:46 UTC.
Related reading
Competitor ad analysis with the Ad Library, what the Meta Ad Library shows and the 9 things it can't, how many Meta ads brands run and the BFCM 2026 calendar.