The short Foreplay review: it is a well-built swipe file and ad library for creative teams that save, sort and brief a lot of ads, and it starts at $49 a month billed annually.
It is worth it if your bottleneck is organizing inspiration and writing briefs.
It is not worth it if you expect it to tell you which competitor ads actually make money, because it can't see their numbers.
We have not used Foreplay ourselves. This review is based on Foreplay's own product and pricing pages (checked November 2026) and on real ad results in our database.
Foreplay has an affiliate program with us, so we may earn a commission if you sign up through our links (disclosure).
What Foreplay does
Foreplay (foreplay.co) is a set of five tools for people who make ads. On its homepage it lists them as:
- Swipe File: save ads into boards, tag them, auto-transcribe video, and share boards with your team or clients.
- Discovery: a searchable ad library that Foreplay says covers "over 100M ads," with filters and AI search.
- Spyder: tracks chosen competitor brands around the clock, keeps their ads after they stop running, and shows formats, landing pages, ad lifespans and ads launched together (Spyder page).
- Lens: creative reporting on your own ads, with benchmarks Foreplay says come from "over 20,000+ advertisers" (Lens page).
- Briefs: turns saved ads into scripts, storyboards and briefs tied to a brand profile.
The Chrome extension saves ads from the Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn ad libraries.
There is also a mobile app, an API and an MCP integration for AI tools.
The core idea is simple: the free Meta Ad Library loses ads once they stop running, and screenshots in a shared folder fall apart fast.
Foreplay keeps saved ads permanently and puts them where the writer and editor already work.
Foreplay pricing
As of November 2026, Foreplay lists four plans on its pricing page.
Every paid plan has a 7-day free trial, and annual billing saves about 15%.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing | Users included | Main additions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $59/mo | $49/mo ($588/yr) | 1 | Swipe File, Discovery, Briefs, Chrome extension, mobile app |
| Workflow | $175/mo | $149/mo ($1,788/yr) | 5 | Spyder, Lens for 1 brand, AI search, AI tool integrations |
| Agency | $459/mo | $389/mo ($4,668/yr) | 10 | More Spyder and Lens brands, white-label sharing |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Unlimited | Priority support, early feature access |
Extra users cost $20 each on every plan.
The brand limits for Spyder differ between monthly and annual billing on the pricing page (for example, Workflow lists 10+ tracked brands monthly and unlimited annually), so check the current terms before you pick a cycle.
The jump that matters is Basic to Workflow.
Basic is a swipe file plus briefs. Competitor tracking (Spyder) and your own creative reporting (Lens) only start at Workflow, so a team that wants to watch rivals is really looking at $149 to $175 a month.
Who Foreplay fits
Foreplay fits teams whose real job is producing a steady flow of new ads.
That matters because creative volume and fresh angles show up again and again in our results.
@SamPiliero brought 20 new angles into a tired account and CPA fell from $101.29 to $60.50 (−40%).
In another account, better ads at a flat budget took cost per order from €84.38 to €58.63 (−30.5%).
A tool that makes it faster to find, sort and brief new angles supports exactly that kind of work.
Hooks are the other big use. @alexgoughcooper's makeup teacher hook video ran at a CPA of $47.13 with a 45.9% hook rate, and a brand in the Janky Patel newsletter cut CAC 10.5% and lifted ROAS 20.5% over 75 days after testing problem-led hooks.
Foreplay's transcripts and hook views make it easier to collect openers like these and hand them to an editor.
Good fits:
- In-house creative teams of 2-10 people who brief ads every week.
- Agencies and creative strategists who share boards with clients (white-label sharing is on Agency).
- UGC and video teams who want transcripts of every saved ad.
Not a good fit:
- A solo media buyer launching a few ads a month. The free Meta Ad Library and TikTok Creative Center may be enough.
- Google Search or Shopping-heavy advertisers. The extension lists Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn libraries, not Google.
- Anyone who wants to know competitor spend, ROAS or CPA. See the next section.
Limits: no performance data on other brands' ads
This is the biggest thing to understand before you buy.
Foreplay shows you what other brands run. It does not show you what worked for them.
The source data explains why. For regular commercial ads outside the EU, the Meta Ad Library does not disclose spend, audience size or results; that detail is reserved for political and issue ads, plus some EU transparency data (Jon Loomer's guide).
So any tool built on ad libraries works from proxies: how long an ad ran, how many variants launched together, which landing pages repeat.
Those proxies are useful but weak. A long-running ad may be a winner, or a brand may simply have forgotten to turn it off.
An ad with 40 variants may be a test that lost.
Spyder's "landing pages getting the most spend" view is a signal to check, not reported spend.
Lens is the exception, but it reports on your own account, with benchmark averages, not on a specific competitor's ads.
The fix is to pair it with real results.
Our archive logs ads with real, credited numbers. @runtraffic, for example, ran a static-only Meta campaign at $32.98 per purchase on $253k, and inBeat reports that health-benefit creator videos for Hurom replaced discount messaging for −65% CPA and +300% ROAS.
Use Foreplay to collect ideas, and use proven results like these to decide which ideas to brief first.
Two smaller limits: briefs and boards are only as good as the person curating them, and $20 per extra seat adds up for larger teams.
Foreplay alternatives
The closest rival is Atria, which pairs an ad library with creative analytics on your own ad spend.
As of November 2026, its pricing page lists Core at $129 a month billed annually during a Black Friday sale (regular price $219), with 5 seats and 50 followed brands.
We compare the two in Foreplay vs Atria and cover Atria alone in our Atria review.
- Atria: pick it if you want inspiration and reporting on your own ad account in one tool. It costs more than Foreplay Basic.
- Motion: a creative analytics tool, not a swipe file. As of November 2026, Motion's pricing starts at $999 a month for brands spending up to $50k a month on ads. See creative analytics tools.
- Meta Ad Library and TikTok Creative Center: free, but there are no boards and ads disappear from Meta's library once they stop running. Fine for light use.
For the full field, including cheaper spy tools, see all ad spy tools and our BigSpy alternatives.
If the real gap is people, not software, a creative strategist or media buyer may fix more than another subscription.
Verdict
Foreplay is a strong choice for creative teams that save and brief a lot of Meta and TikTok ads, and Basic at $49 to $59 a month is a low-risk start with a 7-day trial.
Move to Workflow only if you will use competitor tracking every week.
Do not treat anything in it as proof that an ad works; check that against real results first.