AdSpy Alternatives for Dropshippers and Media Buyers (2026)

The best AdSpy alternatives cover more than Meta, because AdSpy charges about $149 a month for a Facebook and Instagram archive while your winners now launch on TikTok, Google, and Pinterest too. Below are seven alternatives for dropshippers, affiliates, and ecommerce media buyers, with prices, coverage, and where each one beats AdSpy.

(Proxy publishes this blog and is one of the alternatives below. Competitor prices and features come from the sources linked inline, checked October 2026. Most vendor pricing pages couldn't be loaded directly, so treat third-party figures as approximate and confirm before you buy.)

What does AdSpy cost and what does it cover?

AdSpy costs about $149 a month on a single plan, with no free plan and no reliable free trial, and it covers Facebook and Instagram ads only. It's a searchable archive of roughly 200 million Meta ads (figures range from 197.7 million to 208 million depending on the review) with unlimited searches, according to Copyfy, Winning Hunter, and AdLibrary (Copyfy review, Winning Hunter review, AdLibrary review).

Its real strength is the affiliate toolkit. You can filter by affiliate network, search inside ad comments, and dig through years of ads that have stopped running. There are no tiers to compare, per Affninja's pricing guide: it's $149 or nothing (Affninja). One comparison site claims broader network coverage (Adligator), but most 2026 reviews describe AdSpy as Meta-only, so that's how we treat it here.

Why do dropshippers and affiliates look for AdSpy alternatives?

Dropshippers and affiliates usually leave AdSpy because it's expensive for one platform, not because the archive is bad. Four reasons come up again and again:

• Coverage. A product that's scaling on TikTok or Google Shopping won't show up in a Meta-only archive. One 2026 review found that AdSpy is hard to defend for a dropshipping store that also sells on TikTok.
• Price. $149 a month is steep if you research twice a week. Several alternatives start under $50, and some are free.
• History is not proof. An ad that ran in 2023 doesn't tell you what's profitable today. One review reported that archived ads shouldn't be treated as evidence an angle still works.
• Analysis. AdSpy shows you ads. It doesn't transcribe a video, summarise the hooks, or compare ten competitors for you.

Which AdSpy alternatives are worth trying?

The AdSpy alternatives worth trying in 2026 are Proxy, the free ad libraries, BigSpy, TrendTrack, Minea, Foreplay, and GetHookd. Here's how they compare on the points AdSpy buyers care about.

Tool	Starting price	Platforms	Free tier	AI assistant (MCP)	Best for
AdSpy (baseline)	about $149/mo	Facebook, Instagram	No	No	Affiliate deep dives on Meta
Proxy	Free, then $50/mo	Meta, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok (EU)	20 credits/day	Yes, built in	Answers inside ChatGPT or Claude
Free ad libraries	Free	One per library	Yes	No	Quick spot checks
BigSpy	about $9/mo, Pro about $99/mo	9 networks incl. TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest	Limited, Facebook only	No	Cheap multi-network browsing
TrendTrack	about $49 to $59/mo	Meta, TikTok	Limited free account	Pro plan and up	Shopify stores plus their ads
Minea	about $49/mo	Meta; TikTok, Pinterest on Premium	About 200 credits	No	Dropshipping product research
Foreplay	about $59/mo	Meta, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn	7-day trial	Paid plans	Creative teams and swipe files
GetHookd	about $29/mo	Meta-first	7-day trial	Paid plans	Turning found ads into new ones

1. Proxy: best for answers inside ChatGPT or Claude

Proxy is a free MCP server that lets ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and Codex pull live ads from the Meta Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency Center, LinkedIn Ad Library, and TikTok's EU ad library. Instead of scrolling an archive, you ask: "Search Meta for posture corrector ads and tell me which ones have run longest." You get the ads, run dates, and a read on the angles in the chat.

For a media buyer, the useful part is the analysis. Proxy transcribes video ads, so you can ask for the first three seconds of every hook a competitor is testing. It can also find competitors from a description like "pet supplements sold on Shopify." Proxy's own usage data shows that between February and October 2026 it returned about 179,000 live ads to marketers' AI assistants, and about a third of the Meta ads came from searching a topic, not a named competitor. That's the dropshipper workflow: search the niche, not the brand.

• Price: free for 20 credits a day, no card. Pro is $50/mo for 100 credits a day (pricing).
• Better than AdSpy for: Google and TikTok coverage, video transcripts, a free tier, and no new dashboard.
• Worse than AdSpy for: history and affiliate filters. Proxy reads what the libraries show today, so there's no years-deep archive, no affiliate network filter, and no comment search. TikTok is EU-delivered ads only, searched by exact advertiser name.

2. The free ad libraries: best for quick spot checks

The Meta Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency Center, and TikTok's Commercial Content Library (EU ads only) are free. They show what any advertiser is running right now, which is often all a dropshipper needs to check a competitor before testing a product.

The catch is time. There's no saved board, no transcript, and no cross-platform view; you're clicking one ad at a time. Outside the EU, Meta mainly shows ads that are active now; ads shown in the EU stay listed for a year after their last impression (Meta). Our Facebook Ad Library guide covers the filters worth knowing.

3. BigSpy: best cheap multi-network option

BigSpy is the closest like-for-like swap for AdSpy: still an archive, just with more networks. It covers nine platforms according to BigSpy's parent company: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, AdMob, TikTok, Unity, Pinterest, and Yahoo (BigSpy FAQ). That breadth matters for mobile app and affiliate buyers who run in-app inventory.

Pricing starts around $9/mo for a Facebook and Instagram plan, with Pro at about $99/mo, or about $69/mo billed annually, for all platforms (Affninja). The free plan is limited to a handful of Facebook queries a day. Capterra reviewers found that the coverage is broad but the free plan is thin (Capterra).

4. TrendTrack: best for ecommerce stores plus their ads

TrendTrack pairs Meta and TikTok ads with Shopify store data, so you can see a store's products and the ads driving them together. That's a better fit than AdSpy for dropshippers who care about the product, not just the creative.

Entry pricing is about $49 to $59/mo, but ad research and the MCP connector sit on Pro at about $89/mo (pricing breakdown, MCP). There's no free trial, according to TrendTrack's own FAQ. Note that TrendTrack also publishes its own AdSpy alternatives list, where it ranks itself first.

5. Minea: best for dropshipping product research

Minea is built around finding winning products. Minea starts at about $49/mo for Meta only, and Premium at about $99/mo adds TikTok and Pinterest, according to TrendTrack's review of its pricing (TrendTrack's Minea pricing review). A free plan gives roughly 200 credits to test with (Copyfy).

Watch the credit maths. A basic ad search costs around 10 credits per TrendTrack's breakdown and a full product report can cost 100, and unused credits don't roll over. If you only need ads, not product reports, the Starter plan's Meta-only coverage puts you back where AdSpy left you.

6. Foreplay: best for creative teams who save ads

Foreplay is a swipe-file tool: save ads from Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn into boards and turn them into briefs. Plans start around $59/mo (pricing breakdown), and its MCP opens your boards to Claude and ChatGPT on paid plans.

It suits an in-house creative team more than a solo affiliate. We compare it with its own rivals in Foreplay alternatives.

7. GetHookd: best for turning found ads into new ones

GetHookd combines an ad library of more than 65 million Meta, TikTok, and Google ads with production tools like script writing and ad cloning, according to GetHookd's July 2026 press release. Its entry plan is reported at $29/mo with a 7-day trial (Capterra, ColdIQ), and its read-only MCP needs a paid plan and an API token.

Is AdSpy worth it in 2026?

AdSpy is worth it in 2026 only if Facebook and Instagram drive most of your revenue and you use its affiliate network filters and comment search every week. For that buyer, a deep Meta archive with unlimited searches still earns its $149.

For everyone else, the maths has shifted. Two 2026 reviews scored it about 6.6 and 6.8 out of 10, and one reported that its support holds a 2.4 out of 5 score on Trustpilot. If your products also sell on TikTok, or you mainly need to know what's running today, a cheaper multi-network tool or a free tier will cover more ground.

Which is the best BigSpy alternative?

The best BigSpy alternative depends on why you're leaving. For deeper ecommerce data on fewer networks, TrendTrack or Minea fit better. For answers rather than another archive to browse, Proxy brings four ad libraries into ChatGPT or Claude for free.

And if it's the archive you love? Stay. BigSpy's Pro plan is still one of the cheapest ways to cover nine networks.

How do you choose the right AdSpy alternative?

Choose by the job you used AdSpy for, then check it against your platforms and budget.

• You run affiliate offers on Meta and live in the archive: stay on AdSpy, or try BigSpy Pro for more networks at a lower price.
• You dropship and need product signals: try Minea or TrendTrack.
• You research competitors weekly inside ChatGPT or Claude: use Proxy free, and keep the free libraries for spot checks.
• Your team saves ads for creative briefs: look at Foreplay or GetHookd.

Whichever you pick, run length is the best free signal of a working ad. No tool can show you a competitor's real spend or ROAS for ordinary commercial ads; per Meta and Google, the public libraries don't publish it. For a wider roundup, see our guide to the best ad spy tools.

How do you try Proxy free in two minutes?

You try Proxy by pasting https://mcp.useproxy.dev/mcp as a custom connector in ChatGPT or Claude and signing in. Then ask "What ads is [competitor] running on Meta and TikTok?" Step-by-step setup for every client is on the install page. Comparing MCP options first? See the best ad library MCP servers.