Competitor ad tracking software, compared
Six tools that read what other companies are advertising. They are not substitutes for each other: one is built for creative teams, one for ecommerce, one for enterprise research, and one for finding companies that just started spending. Below is what each is for, what it costs, and where it stops.
Prices as published on 20 October 2026. We make one of these, and the entry for it says what it cannot do.
SaaSpy
getsaaspy.com$59/mo, €299/mo for the agency planAgencies and teams selling to SaaS
The only one that tracks when a SaaS starts buying ads. Every company carries twenty-six weekly ad counts and the date we counted, across Meta, Google and LinkedIn, and the agency plan turns that into a weekly list of companies that just started, plus a competitor report with your name on it.
Where it stops. SaaS and subscription apps only, so an ecommerce or local client is out of scope. Spend and revenue are models built on public EU ad reach, never figures a company gave us.
Foreplay
foreplay.co$175/mo Workflow, $389/mo AgencyCreative teams and agencies building ads
The strongest creative workflow of the group: save competitor ads into boards, brief from them, and hand them to an editor. Years of creative history and a large swipe file.
Where it stops. Built around creative, not around finding which companies to approach.
Pathmatics (Sensor Tower)
sensortower.comAround $1,000 to $2,000/mo, quotedBrands and large agencies
The broadest channel coverage here, with spend and impression estimates across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest and more. The reference in the category.
Where it stops. Enterprise pricing and a sales cycle to match. Not aimed at a five-person agency.
Minea
minea.comPublished plans from about $49/moEcommerce and dropshipping
A very large library of ecommerce ads with product discovery built on top. Good at what it is for.
Where it stops. Its index is product ads. A B2B SaaS client will barely appear in it.
Similarweb
similarweb.comFree tier, paid plans quotedMarket and competitive research teams
Traffic, channels, keywords and audience in one place, which no ad library gives you.
Where it stops. Advertising is one slice of a much wider product, and the ad-level detail is thinner than a library's.
Meta Ad Library
facebook.com/ads/libraryFreeAnybody, free
The source most of these tools read, Meta's own, complete and official.
Where it stops. One advertiser at a time, no history you can rank, no way to compare, and it shows what is live today rather than what ran and stopped.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest way to track a competitor's ads?
The ad libraries of Meta, Google and LinkedIn are free and are where every tool here gets its data. Searching one advertiser at a time is fine for one competitor; paying starts to make sense when you need to compare many, keep a history, or be told when something changes.
Which one finds new clients rather than watching existing ones?
That is the split worth knowing. Most of these answer 'what is this company running'. SaaSpy's agency plan answers 'which companies just started running ads', which is the behaviour that comes before hiring an agency. If you only need the first question answered, a cheaper tool does it.
Can any of them tell me a competitor's real ad spend?
No, and treat a flat number as a warning. The libraries publish reach and dates, not budgets, so every spend figure in this category is a model. Ours shows a range with the date we counted it, and says when the data cannot support one.
Do these cover Google and LinkedIn or just Meta?
Meta is where coverage is deepest for all of them, because its library is the most open. Google's Transparency Center and LinkedIn's ad library are thinner and harder to read, so tools differ a lot here. SaaSpy reads all three and says on each company where it found nothing, rather than showing a zero.
If you sell to SaaS companies
SaaSpy's agency plan sends the SaaS that just started running ads every Monday, with a competitor report carrying your name. A company that just started buying ads is already doing the thing it would hire you for.
See the agency plan →