AdClarity vs Foreplay in 2026: competitor media intelligence vs paid-social creative workflow
AdClarity estimates where competitors allocate paid media across display, video, social, and native. Foreplay helps a creative team find ads, organise references, monitor selected competitors, analyse connected accounts, and turn the evidence into a brief.
AdClarity
Foreplay- AdClarity covers display, video, social including Facebook and Instagram, and native channels in one competitive-intelligence dashboard.
- Foreplay combines Discovery, Swipe File, competitor monitoring, connected-account creative analysis, and Briefs rather than estimating a competitor's media budget.
- AdClarity Basic is $129 per month, while Advanced at $289 per month is the first published tier with all-channel coverage and share of voice.
- Foreplay Basic is $49 per month billed annually, but Workflow at $149 per month billed annually adds Spyder, one Lens brand, MCP, API, and AI-tool connections.
- AdClarity describes spend as modeled estimates, so it is useful for directional shifts rather than audited competitor financial data.
- Foreplay says its Discovery database contains more than 200 million ads and supports saving, filtering, transcription, and AI-assisted creative analysis.
- Neither product is an unattended campaign-management replacement: AdClarity is research, while Foreplay is creative research and briefing.
These products look adjacent because both expose competitor creative, but they answer different questions. AdClarity is the stronger choice when a media lead needs to understand a rival's channel mix, estimated budget trajectory, publisher relationships, and share of voice. Foreplay is the stronger choice when a paid-social strategist needs to collect examples, keep them in a shared swipe file, watch chosen competitors, connect account-level creative patterns, and hand a production team a usable brief. Do not buy Foreplay expecting cross-channel spend intelligence, and do not buy AdClarity expecting a production workflow. AdClarity starts at $129 per month, although its broadest channel view begins on Advanced at $289 per month. Foreplay Basic starts at $49 per month billed annually, but Spyder monitoring, Lens account analysis, MCP, and API connections begin on Workflow at $149 per month billed annually. The deciding factor is whether the bottleneck is media intelligence or making better creative decisions every week.
The tools at a glance
AdClarity
Cross-channel competitor ad intelligence for media mix, modeled spend, creative, publishers, and share of voice
AdClarity is for the question that arrives before a creative brief: where is a competitor putting its media money, which formats and publishers appear important, and how has that mix changed? It brings display, video, social including Facebook and Instagram, and native advertising into one competitive view. Its spend figures are modeled estimates, not audited accounts, but that distinction does not make them useless. They can still show a directional budget shift, an expanding channel, or a campaign that has moved from a local test to a more visible media presence.
The platform also collects creative, lets a team examine run time and format, and presents publisher relationships and geographic targeting context. Share of voice is the differentiator for a brand lead or agency that needs a category-level number in a planning conversation. It is available from Advanced, alongside the all-channel view. That makes AdClarity more useful for deciding where to investigate than for deciding which exact angle a designer should make next.
Basic starts at $129 per month with limited competitor tracking and display plus social coverage. Advanced is $289 per month with expanded tracking, all channels, and share of voice; Team is $349 per month and adds API access, five or more seats, and full tracking. There is no prominently advertised free trial. A team should therefore be clear about the competitors and reporting decision it needs before committing, rather than treating AdClarity as a low-cost swipe-file subscription.
| Feature | Basic $129/mo | Advanced $289/mo | Team $349/mo | Enterprise Contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor tracking | Limited | Expanded | Full | Custom |
| Channel coverage | Display + Social | All channels | All channels | All channels |
| Creative library access | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Share of voice analysis | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| API access | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Team seats | 1 | 3 | 5+ | Unlimited |
Foreplay
Paid-social creative workflow for discovering, saving, analysing, monitoring, and briefing ad ideas
Foreplay is built around the work between seeing an ad and shipping an original test. Discovery searches a database the company describes as having more than 200 million ads, with filters, transcription, AI-assisted creative analysis, and sorting that helps a strategist find material worth saving. Swipe File then keeps the evidence in shareable boards, while the Chrome extension and mobile app make it easier to capture a reference from the sources a strategist already uses. It is closer to a creative operating system than an ad-spend research database.
Workflow is where the product becomes more consequential for an active team. Spyder monitors competitor brands and exposes history, tests, timelines, media mix, landing pages, and recurring hooks. Lens analyses a team's connected Meta and TikTok account creative. Briefs packages selected examples into scripts, storyboards, modular sections, and shareable production direction. Those layers give a team a line from inspiration to decision, but they do not reveal a competitor's verified spend, conversion rate, or profitability.
Foreplay Basic costs $49 per month billed annually for one user, Discovery, and Swipe File. Workflow costs $149 per month billed annually for five users, Spyder, one Lens brand, reports, MCP, API, and AI-tool connections. Agency costs $389 per month billed annually for ten users and larger competitor and Lens allowances. Every listed paid tier has a seven-day trial. That makes Foreplay easier to test than AdClarity, provided a team evaluates it on the actual research-to-brief workflow it intends to improve.
| Feature | Basic $49/mo billed annually | Workflow $149/mo billed annually | Agency $389/mo billed annually | Enterprise Custom pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Included users | 1 | 5 | 10 | Unlimited |
| Discovery and Swipe File | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Spyder competitor brands | Not included | 10+ annually unlimited | 50+ annually unlimited | Unlimited |
| Lens connected brands | Not included | 1 | 10+ | Unlimited |
| MCP, API, and AI-tool connections | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Trial | 7 days | 7 days | 7 days | Talk to sales |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | AdClarity | Foreplay |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Cross-channel competitor media intelligence | Creative research and briefing workflow |
| Competitive channel view | Display, video, social, native | Broad Discovery database, specific network scope not published here |
| Modeled spend and budget trajectory | Yes, directional estimates | Not published |
| Creative discovery and saved boards | Creative library, not a published swipe-file workflow | Yes, Discovery and Swipe File |
| Competitor monitoring | Competitor tracking by plan | Spyder from Workflow |
| Connected-account creative analysis | Not published | Lens from Workflow for Meta and TikTok |
| Brief-building | Not published | Yes |
| Share of voice | From Advanced | Not published |
| Trial and entry price | No public trial stated; $129/mo Basic | 7 days; $49/mo annually Basic |
Which should you choose?
AdClarityForeplayAdClarityForeplayForeplayAdClarityThe overlap is real but small. Both can expose a competitor's visible creative, yet AdClarity treats that creative as evidence within a media-intelligence model and Foreplay treats it as raw material for a creative workflow. A strategic planning team can use AdClarity to decide where a competitor is active and whether its media mix is moving. A creative team can use Foreplay to preserve examples, monitor chosen brands, connect performance patterns from its own accounts, and make a brief someone can act on.
Bottom line
Choose AdClarity when the unanswered question is about a competitor's paid-media footprint across display, video, social, and native, particularly when modeled spend, publisher context, or share of voice belongs in the answer. Choose Foreplay when the team already knows paid social is the work and needs a better research-to-brief system. Foreplay is cheaper to enter and has a published seven-day trial, but Workflow is the meaningful comparison tier if Spyder, Lens, and integrations are the reasons to buy it.
Frequently asked questions
Is AdClarity or Foreplay better for finding a competitor's Facebook and Instagram strategy?
AdClarity is the better choice for a cross-channel view of a competitor's Facebook and Instagram activity because it includes social alongside display, video, and native intelligence. Foreplay is better when the next job is saving creative references, monitoring selected brands through Spyder, and turning the findings into a production brief.
Can Foreplay show competitor ad spend the way AdClarity does?
Foreplay does not publish a competitor-spend or budget-trajectory feature comparable to AdClarity's modeled estimates. Foreplay supplies creative research, saved boards, monitoring, and briefing tools, while AdClarity is the appropriate product when directional media-allocation evidence is required.
Which option is better for an agency making paid-social creative briefs every week?
Foreplay is the better option for an agency making paid-social creative briefs every week because Briefs, Swipe File, Spyder, Lens, and shareable boards are designed around that production path. AdClarity can improve the competitive context of a brief, but it does not publish the same research-to-storyboard workflow.
Do I need Foreplay Workflow instead of Basic for competitor monitoring?
Foreplay Workflow is required for the published Spyder competitor-monitoring layer because Basic includes Discovery and Swipe File but not Spyder or Lens. Workflow costs $149 per month billed annually, includes five users and one Lens brand, and is the relevant tier to evaluate for an active creative team.
Which tool has a trial for a small paid-media team?
Foreplay has a published seven-day trial on Basic, Workflow, and Agency, while AdClarity does not prominently advertise a public trial. A small team should use Foreplay's trial to test its actual capture, organisation, and briefing process rather than judging the product from the search interface alone.
Reviewed by Filipe Lins DuarteCo-Founder & CEOVast experience talking to customers and users to understand what good software looks like. Background spans commercial and product roles.
Checked by John RiceCo-Founder & CTO15+ years building tech products and web applications. Conducted hundreds of user interviews to know what a good product looks like.
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