The best ad spy tool depends on the job, so the ten here are sorted by job rather than ranked. For new Facebook ads, Spytrend held 19 of 20 in our test; on a zero budget, BigSpy; for advertisers across 225 countries, AdSpy. Entry runs from $0 to $149.
SpytrendNew Facebook ads · held 19 of 20 launch-week ads in our test; archive since 2018
Free–$79per user/mo
Read ranking → Visit
AdSpyAdvertisers worldwide · 225 countries, 88 languages, comment search; Facebook and Instagram only
$149one plan only
Read comparison →Visit
BigSpyZero budget · a free Facebook plan, about ten searches a day on our account; paid from $69
Free–$499four plans
Read comparison →Visit
Nine articles: two tools at a time, or one question across the ten.
Best Facebook ad spy toolRanked by one test: how many of 20 new Meta ads each tool held a week later.Read ranking →
Best free Facebook ad spy toolRanked by how recent the newest ads on a free account are.Read ranking →
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AdPlexity vs AnstrexNative and push spy tools sold per module: one channel, two channels, and what each costs.Read comparison →vsMeta Ad Library vs BigSpyMeta’s own record of live ads, or BigSpy’s free plan: 20 new ads searched in BigSpy.Read comparison →vsAdSpy vs BigSpyThe same 20 launch-week Meta ads searched in both, with a screenshot per result.Read comparison →vs
BigSpy vs PowerAdSpyWhat each entry plan opened on our accounts, and where TikTok and Reddit start.Read comparison →vs
BigSpy vs MineaFree Facebook ad search with advertisers masked, or the product behind the ad from $49.Read comparison →vs
Minea vs DropispySame servers, different ads: which held the newer ads for the same brands.Read comparison →vs
Minea vs PiPiADSA paid Minea Starter account against the free PiPiADS trial, one product in both.Read comparison →| Tool | Best for | Entry price |
|---|---|---|
| Spytrend | Archive depthReconstructing everything one known competitor has run — ads joined by pixel, domain, Page ID and IP | Free tier · $79/mo |
| AdSpy | Country reachFinding advertisers by country, language or the comments under an ad | $149/mo |
| BigSpy | Free accessStarting at zero cost on Facebook | Free plan · $69/mo |
| TrendTrack | Shop-level intelligenceStudying the store behind the ads, not just the creative | €49 / $49 per mo |
| Minea | Product researchHunting products to sell rather than studying a rival's buying | $49/mo |
| PiPiADS | TikTok coverageBuyers whose primary channel is TikTok | $49/mo |
| PowerAdSpy | Channel spreadB2B buyers on Quora, Reddit or LinkedIn, on its $399 plan | from $69/mo |
| AdPlexity | Native and push trafficBuyers on native, push and pop traffic | $149/mo per module |
| Anstrex | Lowest paid entry priceOne single channel on the smallest budget | $39.99/mo per module |
| Meta Ad Library | Free and first-partyA free first look at ads running right now | Free |
Vendor figures are as each vendor publishes them; a blank means the vendor does not state it. Where we have tested a tool ourselves, the card links to the page with the screenshots, and the Facebook tools are ranked on one test on the best Facebook ad spy tool page.
Each card names the job the tool is built for and what its vendor publishes. The order follows how often each job comes up, not a score.
Spytrend publishes 1.4 billion ads and adds 166 million new Meta ads a month, and joins every ad of one owner by pixel, domain, Page ID and IP, which is why it leads on archive depth.
AdSpy holds 30.4 million advertiser profiles across 225 countries and 88 languages — the widest country reach any tool here publishes — and is the only tool here that searches the comments left on an ad, which is how buyers check complaints before copying an angle.
BigSpy claims over 1 billion creatives across 11 ad channels and products from 40 e-commerce sites, but opens them plan by plan: its free plan covers Facebook only, Starter at $69 adds Instagram, TikTok starts on Growth at $159 and all 11 channels need Ultimate at $499.
TrendTrack publishes 5 million top-selling stores and over 250 million ads, adding 2 to 3 million a day, and is the only tool here that carries a store's traffic, products, reviews and email flows alongside its ads.
Minea adds Shopify product data and, from $99, shop listings that no other tool here carries; it publishes more than 10 million ads, with TikTok and Pinterest marked coming soon.
PiPiADS is TikTok-first where the rest of this category is Meta-first, and it sells credits rather than flat access: its Basic tier lists at $69 and runs at $49 on a standing discount, and a heavy research month costs more than either, because 30,000 credits are spent one per record and twenty per detail view.
PowerAdSpy reaches Quora, Reddit and LinkedIn, which no other tool in this ranking covers, but those sit on its top plan at $399 a month: the $69 entry buys Facebook and Instagram only.
AdPlexity covers native and push traffic that the Meta-focused tools ignore, but it prices per channel rather than per account, so two traffic sources mean two subscriptions of $149 to $249 each.
Anstrex has the lowest paid entry price of the ten at $39.99, but the saving holds for one channel only: Native at $79.99 plus InStream at $39.99 comes to $119.98 a month.
The Meta Ad Library is free and first-party, but it drops ordinary ads shown outside the EU and UK once they stop, so it cannot tell a three-day test from a ninety-day winner and carries no spend, run length or targeting.
Three of the ten cost nothing to open, and each limits something different. BigSpy’s free plan opens Facebook only, five searches and twenty creative downloads a day as published; on our own account it ran out after about ten searches. Spytrend’s free Starter tier shows only ads at least three months old. The Meta Ad Library is free and first-party, but outside the EU and UK an ordinary ad leaves it once it stops. PiPiADS gives 500 trial credits instead, which run out and do not renew.
Free is enough to see what runs today; history and launch-week ads take a paid plan. The free options are ranked against each other, on our own free accounts, on best free Facebook ad spy tool.
It depends on the job. For new Facebook ads, Spytrend held 19 of 20 launch-week Meta ads in our test. For advertisers you do not know yet, AdSpy publishes 30.4 million profiles across 225 countries. On a zero budget, BigSpy’s free plan covers Facebook within about ten searches a day.
Yes, for what runs today. BigSpy has a free Facebook plan, Spytrend a free Starter tier limited to ads at least three months old, and the Meta Ad Library is free but drops ordinary ads outside the EU and UK once they stop, so it cannot show how long an ad ran.
Entry runs from $0 to $149 a month. The Meta Ad Library is free, BigSpy has a free plan with paid access from $69, Anstrex starts at $39.99 per module, Minea, PiPiADS and TrendTrack at $49, PowerAdSpy at $69 on its pricing page and AdSpy at $149. Modular vendors charge per traffic source, so two channels mean two subscriptions.
Each tool’s figures were read on its vendor’s own public pages on 31 October 2026; the page read for every one of the ten is listed on the methodology page.
