BigSpy vs Use Poach in 2026
BigSpy discovers and analyses advertising creative across a published multi-platform database. Use Poach captures ads you have already found in Facebook Ad Library, storing them locally or in your own Notion workspace for a one-time fee.
BigSpy
Use Poach- BigSpy lists 11 ad platforms, 80-plus countries, and 26 languages; Use Poach works only from the public Facebook Ad Library.
- Use Poach Free saves selected ad media and a metadata screenshot card to local disk, without requiring a hosted swipe-file account.
- Use Poach Pro costs $67 once and creates a 13-column database in the user’s own Notion workspace.
- BigSpy Free is a Facebook preview with 10 total searches per day, while Growth at $119/month billed annually unlocks broader research surfaces.
- BigSpy Growth adds ad pages, domain analysis, followed pages and domains, TikTok research tools, and 500 tracked creatives.
- Use Poach does not publish a proprietary ad database, competitor monitoring, TikTok support, Google Ads support, alerts, or a shared hosted dashboard.
- Use Poach says captured ads, screenshots, Notion content, and Notion tokens are not sent to its licensing service.
These tools sit next to each other in a creative-research workflow, but they are not substitutes. BigSpy helps a researcher find ideas across 11 listed advertising platforms, filter a large database, inspect competitor pages and domains on higher plans, and track creative over time. Use Poach starts only after the researcher has manually found a Facebook Ad Library ad. Its Free extension saves the selected media and a metadata screenshot card to local disk; its $67 lifetime Pro license adds a 13-column Notion database in the customer’s own workspace. Choose BigSpy when discovery and cross-platform research are the bottleneck. Choose Use Poach when Facebook Ad Library is already your discovery source and the missing piece is an owned, small, well-tagged reference collection. A lean researcher may use both: BigSpy to find patterns elsewhere and Use Poach to retain particularly useful Meta examples.
The tools at a glance
BigSpy
Multi-platform ad library for creative discovery, competitor research, and ecommerce product signals
BigSpy is for discovery. It lists Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, YouTube, TikTok, X, Yahoo, Pinterest, Unity, Pangle, and AppLovin, then lets a researcher use keyword, feature, or visual search before filtering and deduplicating results. It is useful when a brief starts with a product, market, message, or competitor rather than one known Meta ad.
Growth adds Google Ads, YouTube, TikTok, X, Pangle, ad pages, domain analysis, TikTok Picks, TikTok Shop ads, charts, 500 tracked creatives, and 100 followed pages and domains. The resulting watchlist is more useful than revisiting one source manually. Its product-research reports should guide investigation, not be read as verified demand, sales, or profitability.
Free is a Facebook preview and Starter remains Facebook and Instagram only. BigSpy does not document a public API or integrations directory. Choose it when discovery volume and cross-platform context matter; do not buy it merely to save a handful of ads into a personal swipe file.
| Feature | Free $0 | Starter $49/mo billed annually | Growth $119/mo billed annually | Scale $299/mo billed annually | Ultimate $399/mo billed annually |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform coverage | Facebook, Instagram | Meta, Google Ads, YouTube, TikTok, X, Pangle, AppLovin ecommerce only | Growth coverage, five seats | All 11 listed platforms | |
| Searches | 10/day | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Creative downloads | Not included | 50/day | 300/day | 300/day per seat | 3,000/day |
| Tracked creatives | 20 | 100 | 500 | 500 per seat | 1,000 |
| Ad pages and domain analysis | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Use Poach
Chrome extension for saving Facebook Ad Library ads to local files and, with Pro, a Notion database you control
Use Poach runs from the public Facebook Ad Library after you have found an ad worth retaining. Free saves the selected image or video and a screenshot card to local disk. That card can include headline, primary copy, CTA, advertiser, landing-page URL, dates, and tags, with metadata embedded in the PNG for ExifTool reading.
The $67 lifetime Pro license creates a 13-column database in the customer’s Notion workspace and saves selected captures as native rows with screenshots. It supports niche, awareness-stage, and lead-type tags, and says Notion records are deduplicated. Its privacy policy says captured ads, screenshots, Notion content, and Notion tokens are not sent to the licensing service.
Use Poach does not discover ads, monitor competitors, search TikTok or Google Ads, publish alerts, or offer a hosted team workspace. It relies on Facebook Ad Library and the user’s own Notion connection. It is a companion to discovery, not an intelligence database.
| Feature | Free $0 | Pro $67 lifetime |
|---|---|---|
| Capture Facebook Ad Library ads to disk | ✓ | ✓ |
| Save image or video | ✓ | ✓ |
| Metadata-embedded screenshot card | ✓ | ✓ |
| Niche, awareness-stage, and lead-type tags | ✓ | ✓ |
| Notion database sync | ✗ | ✓ |
| 13-column Notion database creation | ✗ | ✓ |
| Recurring subscription | ✗ | ✗ |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | BigSpy | Use Poach |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Cross-platform ad and creative research | Capture and retain selected Facebook Ad Library ads |
| Ad discovery database | Yes | No, starts after manual discovery |
| Published platform coverage | 11 listed platforms, plan-dependent | Facebook Ad Library only |
| Facebook Ad Library capture | Not published as a capture extension | Yes |
| Local file ownership | Creative downloads on paid plans, not a local-first archive | Yes, Free saves to local disk |
| Notion sync | Not published | Yes, Pro to the customer’s workspace |
| Competitor monitoring | Followed pages and domains from Growth | Not published |
| Tracked creative allowance | 20 Free, 100 Starter, 500 Growth, 1,000 Ultimate | Not published as monitoring |
| Published starting cost | $0 Free; $49/mo annually Starter | $0 Free; $67 lifetime Pro |
Which should you choose?
BigSpyBigSpyThe deciding factor is where the workflow starts. BigSpy starts with a research question and helps discover a field of relevant ads. Use Poach starts with one ad already located in Facebook Ad Library and makes it easier to retain, tag, and reuse it. BigSpy has ongoing research cost because it maintains a platform database and tracking surface. Use Poach has a low fixed price because the user supplies discovery and storage. That difference is more important than either product’s headline feature list.
Bottom line
Choose BigSpy if creative discovery takes too long, if research crosses channels, or if a team needs repeatable competitor and domain context. Growth is the useful plan once the work includes TikTok, Google Ads, YouTube, and tracking. Choose Use Poach if Facebook Ad Library is already the source of truth and you need a personal or Notion-based archive of the few examples worth keeping. The strongest low-overhead workflow may be both tools, but only when each is solving its own job: BigSpy finds, Use Poach preserves.
Frequently asked questions
Should a Meta creative strategist buy BigSpy or Use Poach for a Notion swipe file?
Use Poach Pro is the better purchase for a Notion swipe file because it creates a 13-column database in your own Notion workspace and saves each selected Facebook Ad Library capture as a native row. BigSpy is the better companion when you first need to discover a wider set of ads and creative patterns.
Can Use Poach find competitor ads on TikTok, Google Ads, or Instagram?
No, Use Poach is documented as a capture extension for ads found in the public Facebook Ad Library. It does not publish a proprietary discovery database, TikTok support, Google Ads support, or automatic competitor monitoring, so use BigSpy or another research product when cross-platform discovery is the requirement.
What does the free version of Use Poach save from Facebook Ad Library?
Use Poach Free saves the chosen ad’s image or video and a screenshot card to local disk. The vendor says the card can include the headline, primary copy, CTA, advertiser, landing URL, dates, and user-applied tags, with the metadata embedded in the PNG.
Which BigSpy plan is needed for broader ad research than Facebook and Instagram?
BigSpy Growth is the first listed tier for research across Google Ads, YouTube, TikTok, X, and Pangle, in addition to Facebook and Instagram. It costs $119 per month billed annually and also includes ad pages, domain analysis, chart discovery, and tracked-creative allowances that are not part of Use Poach’s capture workflow.
Does Use Poach send my captured ads and Notion database to its own servers?
Use Poach says its licensing service does not receive captured ads, screenshots, Notion content, or Notion tokens. The company says the Notion token is stored in Chrome extension storage and sent to Notion’s API only for actions the user triggers, such as database creation, ad saving, and screenshot uploads.
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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