Best Creative Intelligence Tools for DTC Agencies (2026): Seats, Brands and Price per Client

"Creative intelligence" is the umbrella term vendors use for tools that research ads, analyse what's working and help you make the next batch. For a brand, the question is mostly "does it find insights?" For an agency, there's a second, more practical question: does it work when you have ten clients, five people and a weekly report due for each?

So this list leads with the agency mechanics: seats, brands, ad accounts, client sharing and price per client. Every figure comes from each vendor's pricing page, checked October 21–23, 2026.

If your agency used MagicBrief: it closed on July 31, 2026, and the team moved to Canva, where some features live on in Canva Grow.

Agency features compared

Price per client

Here's the monthly cost divided across 8 clients, using each plan's published price. It ignores spend limits for a moment, which we come back to below.

Spend caps matter more for agencies than for brands. They're listed per plan, so they may cover all your clients combined. Eight clients spending $15K a month each is $120K, which is over Motion Starter's $50K and within Segwise Growth's $250K. Check how each vendor counts spend before you sign.

1. Foreplay (Agency plan)

Foreplay is the most agency-shaped of the research tools. Its swipe file saves ads from the Meta Ad Library, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube Shorts. Discovery searches a shared library Foreplay says holds 200M+ ads, sorted by longest-running. Spyder tracks competitors around the clock, and Briefs turns saved ads into scripts and creator briefs. The Agency plan includes Lens, its creative analytics, for 10 brands.

Price: $459 a month, or $389 billed yearly, with 10 users. 7-day trial with a card; 14-day money-back guarantee after the first charge.

Best for: agencies whose process starts with saved ads and creator briefs.

2. Atria

Atria combines research (following competitor brands), creative analytics on connected ad accounts, and AI production through Raya, which builds briefs, grades every ad and can batch upload to Meta. It also has an MCP server and REST API, which matters if your agency is building its own AI workflows.

Price: Plus is $343 a month billed yearly (8 seats, 8 brand profiles, 10 ad accounts, follow 100 brands with AI insights). Business is $959 (15 seats, unlimited brands and accounts, guest invites, custom metrics). Both were Black Friday prices when we checked.

Best for: agencies that want research, analytics and production from one tool.

3. Segwise

Segwise is the most generous with seats and sharing: unlimited seats and view-only users, a studio view across multiple brands, scheduled reports with Slack and email alerts, and share links for clients. Underneath, it does AI tagging on every format across 15+ networks, fatigue alerts, competitor ads from four ad libraries, ad generation and pre-flight testing. Every feature is on every plan.

Price: Startup $250 a month (under $50K spend, limited eligibility), Growth $499 (up to $250K), Pro and Enterprise custom. 7-day trial, no card.

Best for: agencies running clients across several networks who need to give clients their own view.

4. Motion

Motion is the best-known creative analytics product. Reports update automatically from Meta, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn, creatives are tagged by hook, format and angle, and live reports can be shared with clients with sensitive numbers hidden. Starter includes unlimited seats and ad accounts.

Price: $999 a month for up to $50K in monthly spend. Higher tiers on a call. Trial without a card.

Best for: agencies with a few larger clients where reporting quality is what the client pays for. More in Motion vs SellTheClick.

5. GetCrux

GetCrux covers analytics, competitor research and AI production. For agencies, the Starter plan's limit of 2 ad accounts is the main constraint. Professional is custom-priced and adds Slack, automated workflows and pre-flight testing.

Price: Starter $1,500 a month. You start with an intro call.

Best for: agencies with one or two very large clients. More in GetCrux vs SellTheClick.

6. AdAmigo (agency plan)

AdAmigo is different from everything else here: it's an AI media buyer that runs campaigns on Meta and Google, rather than an analysis tool. Its agency plan offers white labelling, multi-account setups and a guided proof of concept.

Price: per ad account for brands ($99 Entry, $349 Unlimited Access); agency pricing on request.

Best for: agencies that want to automate media buying under their own brand. More in AdAmigo vs SellTheClick.

Where SellTheClick fits

We make SellTheClick, and we'd rather be straight about it than rank ourselves. Our Pro plan ($149 a month) is aimed at agencies, with 5 seats and a dedicated Slack channel for creative reviews. But the multi-brand workspaces and client-ready PDF export are still marked "coming soon". If those are why you'd buy, wait until they ship.

What agencies use today is the diagnosis and the pre-launch check. When a client's ad stops selling, the report says whether it's losing people before the click, after it, or at the price, and puts their ad next to a competitor's longest-running one. Before a new batch goes live, the similarity check flags near-duplicates. Both can be tried free without an account.

How to choose as an agency

1. Add up your clients' combined monthly spend. That rules out plans with caps you'll blow through.
2. Count brands, not just seats. Some plans limit brand profiles or analytics brands separately from users.
3. Decide how clients will see the work. Share links and view-only users save hours of screenshotting each week.
4. Separate research from reporting. If you mainly brief creators, a research tool like Foreplay may cover it. If clients pay for reporting, put that first.
5. Trial with your messiest client. The client with the most accounts and creative will show a tool's limits fastest.

Questions to ask on any vendor demo

Pricing pages leave out the details that matter most to agencies. Ask these before you sign:

• How is ad spend counted? Across all connected accounts, or per brand? What happens in a month when you go over?
• Can a client see only their own brand? And can you remove their access cleanly when the contract ends?
• Who owns the data and tags if you leave? Can you export saved boards, tags and reports?
• Are extra seats charged monthly or yearly? Several tools charge $20 per extra seat, which adds up with freelancers.
• Is the price you're quoted a promotion? Some of the prices in this article were Black Friday offers, so check what renewal costs.

FAQ

What is a creative intelligence tool?

A tool that helps you research ads, analyse which creative traits drive results, and plan or produce the next ads. Most combine an ad library, creative analytics with tagging, and AI briefs.

Which creative tool has unlimited seats?

Of the tools we checked, Motion's Starter plan and every Segwise plan list unlimited seats. Segwise also offers view-only users for clients.

What is the cheapest creative analytics tool for agencies?

Per client, Atria Plus and Foreplay Agency on yearly billing came out lowest in our 8-client example, at about $43 and $49 a month per client. Check spend and brand limits before deciding.

Does Foreplay have an agency plan?

Yes. Foreplay's Agency plan is $459 a month, or $389 billed yearly, with 10 users, Lens for 10 brands and Spyder for 50+ brands.

Can I white label a creative tool for clients?

Of the tools here, AdAmigo lists white labelling on its agency plan. Motion and Segwise offer client-facing share links rather than full white labelling, based on their pricing pages.

What replaced MagicBrief?

MagicBrief shut down on July 31, 2026, and its team joined Canva. Canva points former users to Canva Grow.

References

1. Foreplay pricing
2. Atria pricing
3. Segwise pricing
4. Motion pricing
5. GetCrux pricing
6. AdAmigo pricing
7. MagicBrief shutdown notice