Prices checked October 2026 (vendor pricing page shows iOS prices; AI Ads rate from Captions help docs)
Best Captions alternatives
Leaving Captions? Here are 12 AI video ad tools ranked by what one ad actually costs.
The shortlist
1. Addy
from about $0.95 per video ad
AI ad agency that renders and posts your Reels.
Best for brands that want ads written, rendered and posted for them. Addy vs Captions in detail →
2. ReelFarm
from about $0.26 per video ad
TikTok slideshow automation with unlimited accounts.
Good at: Very cheap per post; Unlimited TikTok accounts on every tier
3. Superscale
from about $0.40 per video ad
Paid-ads creative generation for brands with multiple seats.
Good at: Cheap per generation on paper; Multi-brand and multi-seat
4. Topview
from about $0.50 per video ad
AI video agent for link-to-video ads, product avatars and viral video recreation.
Good at: Cheap per video on yearly plans; API and MCP on every plan
5. Creatify
from about $0.65 per video ad
AI ad generator with 300+ AI actors and a performance agent.
Good at: Large actor library; About $1 per 15-second avatar video on yearly plans
6. HeyGen
from about $0.97 per video ad
AI avatar video platform with digital twins, translation and a prompt-to-video agent.
Good at: Very realistic avatars and digital twins; Translation with lip-sync in 175+ languages
7. Tagshop AI
from about $2.60 per video ad
AI avatar UGC ad maker with 300+ avatars and ad templates.
Good at: 300+ AI avatars and 200+ ad templates; URL-to-video and ad cloning
8. MakeUGC
from about $3.73 per video ad
AI UGC videos with product-in-hand and PDF-to-video.
Good at: Product-in-hand avatars; PDF-to-video
9. Zeely
from about $4.00 per video ad
AI ad maker for small businesses with built-in Meta ad launching.
Good at: Meta Business Partner with bulk Meta ad launching; Talking reels, AI avatars and AI twin
10. Arcads
from about $11.00 per video ad
AI actors reading your script for UGC-style ads.
Good at: Very realistic cloned actors; Simple script-to-video flow
11. Billo
from about $99.00 per video ad
Marketplace of real UGC creators who film video ads for your product.
Good at: Real human creators, 5,000+ in its network; Full usage rights for ads and your channels once approved
12. Icon
from about $166.67 per video ad
Human UGC ad agency with its own ad software (no AI actors).
Good at: Real human creators with usage rights and raw footage; Unlimited revisions and a money-back guarantee
Price per video ad
Each tool's best-value monthly plan, list price.
| Product | Plan | Monthly | Video ads / mo | $ per video ad |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Captions | Frontierthe tool you're leaving | $69.99 | 93 | $0.75 |
| Addy | Starter2,100 credits | $19 | 20 | $0.95 |
| ReelFarm | Enterprise750 slideshows, bring your own Anthropic key | $195 | 750 | $0.26 |
| Superscale | Advanced8,000 credits, 250 generations, 1 brand | $99 | 250 | $0.40 |
| Topview | UltraBilled yearly ($599.90). 500 credits/mo at 5 credits per 15-second video | $50 | 100 | $0.50 |
| Creatify | Max730 credits; $66/mo billed yearly | $95 | 146 | $0.65 |
| HeyGen | Creator600 credits; Video Agent is 80 credits/min, so 20 credits per 15-second ad. Plain Avatar IV talking heads would be ~77. $24/mo billed yearly | $29 | 30 | $0.97 |
| Tagshop AI | GrowthBilled yearly (1,800 credits, up to 180 videos a year) | $39 | 15 | $2.60 |
| MakeUGC | Pro2,000 credits | $149 | 40 | $3.73 |
| Zeely | Growth10,000 credits at about 500 credits per video (reported) | $79.95 | 20 | $4.00 |
| Arcads | Starter~10 videos, reported | $110 | 10 | $11.00 |
| Billo | Pay per videoFrom $99 per video from a prepaid balance, no subscription. Length, premium creators, extra hooks and variations raise it | $99 | 1 | $99.00 |
| Icon | The Agency6 human UGC ads (2 creators x 3 ads), 3-day trial, then $1,000 | $1000 | 6 | $166.67 |
"Video ads / mo" is the vendor's stated video count, or monthly credits divided by the cost of one video ad. Checked October 2026 (vendor pricing page shows iOS prices; AI Ads rate from Captions help docs).
How to switch from Captions
Paste your website into Addy and it builds your brand profile in about a minute: what you sell, your colours and how you talk. Upload your best-performing Captions videos to keep them in your library, then let Addy write new hooks from your customer comments and competitors' ads. Nothing renders until you approve it, so your trial credits only go on ads you actually want.
Other guides: Arcads alternatives, Creatify alternatives, Icon alternatives, MakeUGC alternatives, Superscale alternatives, ReelFarm alternatives, Tagshop AI alternatives, HeyGen alternatives, Topview alternatives, Zeely alternatives, Billo alternatives, the 2026 pricing guide and the video ad cost calculator.
How we compared
- Prices are each vendor's public monthly list price in US dollars, last checked October 26, 2026. Yearly-billing discounts are noted next to the plan where the vendor publishes them.
- Cost per video ad is the monthly price divided by how many short portrait video ads the plan buys. When a vendor sells credits or minutes, we convert at its published rate; when it publishes no rate, we use third-party reports and label the figure as reported.
- Features come from each vendor's own site and docs. A dash means we could not confirm a feature, not that it is missing.
- Addy is our product. To keep that from tilting the page, tools are listed alphabetically, Addy is scored on the same criteria, and its limits are published on the facts page.
- Something out of date? Tell us on the contact page and we will correct the page and its date.
Sources
- Captions: official pricing page, checked October 2026 (vendor pricing page shows iOS prices; AI Ads rate from Captions help docs).
- Arcads: third-party pricing reports, checked October 2026 (third-party report; vendor pricing page returned 404).
- Creatify: official pricing page, checked October 2026.
- Icon: official pricing page, checked October 2026.
- MakeUGC: official pricing page, checked October 2026.
- Superscale: official pricing page, checked October 2026.
- ReelFarm: official pricing page, checked October 2026.
- Tagshop AI: official pricing page, checked October 2026.
- HeyGen: official pricing page, checked October 2026 (prices from vendor pricing page; credit rates from HeyGen help center).
- Topview: official pricing page, checked October 2026 (only yearly-billed prices published; credit rates from Topview's guide, updated Jan 2026).
- Zeely: official pricing page, checked October 2026 (prices from vendor page; per-video credit cost from a third-party report).
- Billo: official pricing page, checked October 2026 (pricing page now redirects to login; price from Billo's own blog, Oct 9 2026).
- Addy pricing: our own plans, updated whenever prices change.
Questions
+What is the cheapest Captions alternative?
On list prices checked October 2026 (vendor pricing page shows iOS prices; AI Ads rate from Captions help docs), the cheapest per video of the AI video ad tools we track is Topview, at about $0.50 on its best-value plan (Billed yearly ($599.90). 500 credits/mo at 5 credits per 15-second video). Addy works out to about $0.95 per 15-second ad and also writes the concepts and posts the ads; Captions is about $0.75.
+Is there a free Captions alternative?
Addy has a 7-day free trial with 150 credits and no card, which covers one free 15-second video ad. Most tools in this list have a trial or a free tier with watermarks.
+Why do people switch from Captions?
The usual reasons are price per ad, too few formats, and having to export and post every video by hand. For Captions specifically: Published prices are iOS prices; web prices are not shown.
+How did you pick these?
They are the AI ad tools we track on our comparison pages, ranked by the cheapest published price per video ad. Prices come from each vendor's pricing page or, where a vendor doesn't publish one, third-party reports. Spot something stale? Email hello@use-addy.site.