Creatify vs Zeely Pricing and Cost Per Video Ad

The short answer: Creatify is the cheaper tool for making ads, and Zeely is the more expensive tool for running them. Creatify publishes its credit formula, so a 30 second ad costs 10 credits, between $1.04 and $2.73 depending on the plan. Zeely sells a flat subscription from $29.95 a month, never says how many credits an ad burns, and adds a service fee of up to 12 percent of the Meta budget you run through it. Which one costs less depends on whether you want a generator or a media buyer.

If you only need the creative, you can skip both and paste a product URL into the UGC ad generator to see a finished creator ad. The rest of this post is the arithmetic, with the date each number was read.

Creatify vs Zeely pricing at a glance

We read Zeely's three plans on its pricing page on October 25, 2026, and Creatify's on its own pricing page earlier this month. Zeely shows each price next to a struck-through higher one ($49.95, $89.95 and $149.95), so treat the current figure as a promotion that can move. Creatify's yearly billing takes 20 percent off every paid tier.

What does a video ad cost on Creatify?

Creatify bills 5 credits for every 15 seconds of video, rounded up. A 30 second ad is therefore 10 credits. Divide each plan price by its credits and you get a price per ad you can budget against.

That is our arithmetic from the published credit costs, and it covers only the render. Revisions cost 3 credits per 15 seconds unless your plan includes free ones, so a team that rerenders every script will land above these numbers. Standard's 55 credits cover about five 30 second ads. Max's 730 credits cover about 73. The full plan list is on our Creatify pricing breakdown.

What does a video ad cost on Zeely?

Nobody outside Zeely can say. The pricing page lists 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 credits and a long feature list, but not what a video ad, a talking reel or a batch of static ads consumes. That makes Zeely's real cost per creative impossible to forecast before you pay, which is the main reason to be careful with its cheapest plan.

The second cost is the one most comparisons miss. Zeely's own help text says running ads through it "potentially" carries up to 12 percent. Meta still bills your card for the ad budget, and Zeely separately takes its fee for building and managing the campaign. We covered the arithmetic in our Zeely pricing guide. At $2,000 a month in Meta spend, 12 percent is $240 on top of the subscription. At $10,000 it is $1,200.

Which is cheaper at different ad spends?

The Zeely column is a ceiling, not a quote, since the fee is "up to" 12 percent and falls for people who buy its Booster add-on. The Creatify column excludes the cost of running your own campaigns, which is zero in tool fees but costs your time or an agency. Once you spend more than a few thousand dollars on Meta, the percentage fee outgrows any subscription difference. If you already run campaigns yourself, you are paying Zeely for a service you do not use.

Who should buy Creatify and who should buy Zeely?

Buy Creatify when you already have someone placing ads, you want to produce volume, and you need to know the cost of each creative before approving a budget. A DTC brand testing 20 hooks a month can plan around 200 credits and a Pro or Max plan. Developers who want to automate this should read the Creatify API pricing, where a 30 second ad drops to about $0.99.

Buy Zeely when nobody on your team will touch Ads Manager and you want a tool that makes the creative and launches the campaign. A solo Shopify owner spending $500 a month may gladly pay $140 to avoid learning Meta. The same owner at $5,000 a month should hire a buyer, or hand the media buying to an AI buyer that is priced on its own terms.

Buy neither if what you need is talking creator videos that look like real customers. Both tools lean toward template and avatar video. UGCGen produces creator-style UGC from a product URL, with the script, voice, lip sync and captions done. It costs more per second than Creatify and has no percentage of your spend, and purchases are final, so watch the example ads first. See UGCGen plans for allowances.

Questions buyers ask

Is Zeely cheaper than Creatify?

Not on the sticker. Creatify Standard is $15 a month and Zeely Starter is $29.95. Zeely then adds up to 12 percent of the Meta spend you run through it, while Creatify adds nothing. At $1,000 a month in ads, Zeely Growth can reach $199.95 against $76 to $95 for Creatify Max, so Creatify is usually the cheaper tool once you spend real money.

Does Creatify run my ads like Zeely does?

No. Creatify makes the videos and images, and you upload them to Meta, TikTok or Google yourself. Zeely creates and launches Meta campaigns for you. If you want that automation, it is what the fee pays for. If you do not, it is cost with no benefit.

Do either offer a free trial?

Creatify keeps a free plan with 10 watermarked credits. Zeely had no free plan when we checked in August and sold short paid trials that rolled into a monthly plan, so read the trial terms at checkout and set a reminder before it ends.

What to check before you pay either one

Run one real ad end to end first. With Creatify, count the credits a finished 30 second ad consumed, including a revision, and multiply by your monthly volume to see if the plan fits. With Zeely, ask support or read the in-app credit meter for what one video costs, then add the fee to your expected Meta budget. Also confirm whether the price you see is a promotion, whether yearly billing is refundable, and what happens to unused credits at renewal. Creatify says unused credits stay valid for two months. Do not assume Zeely does the same.

The bottom line

If you can place ads yourself, Creatify costs less and is easier to forecast. If you cannot, Zeely's fee buys real work, as long as you keep your spend small or accept paying more as you grow. Whichever you pick, check the plan page on the day you buy, because both vendors change prices often.