For dropshippers and ecommerce owners who research winning products and their ads

Minea vs Playhead: finding ads or reading them

Minea and Playhead do two different jobs. Minea is a product and ad research database for ecommerce: a Meta ads listing, products, shops, influencer placements and a brand tracker, from $49 a month with 10 AI ad analyses. Playhead reads one ad you give it and returns the hook, every beat with its start and length, and every claim with the second it appears. Playhead is free for 50,000 credits a month and its first paid plan is $19. Neither replaces the other: Minea finds the ad, Playhead tells you what is in it.

By The Playhead team

We build the video layer these numbers are measured on. Every figure about Playhead comes from the source file it lives in.

Published 26 September 20269 min read

The short version

Minea costs $49, $99 or $199 a month, or $39, $79 and $158 a month when paid quarterly. None of the 3 plans is free.
Minea's $49 Starter plan holds 10 AI ad analyses a month, which is $4.90 an analysis. Premium at $99 holds 50, which is $1.98.
Playhead is free for 50,000 credits a month, with no card, and the first analyses need no account at all.
Minea finds products, shops and influencer placements. Playhead holds no database and reads only the ad you give it.
Minea's pricing page lists TikTok ads as coming soon, while its home page lists a TikTok ads listing. Playhead reads a TikTok link today.

What is on this page and on no other

Every page about these products carries the same prices and the same feature lists. These are the facts this one produced itself, and how each one was made.

One AI ad analysis in Minea costs $4.90 on the $49 Starter plan, which holds 10 a month, and $1.98 on the $99 Premium plan, which holds 50.
Counted The plan price divided by the monthly AI analysis quota, both as Minea's pricing page printed them on 26 September 2026.
Minea's 2 main pages disagree on TikTok: the pricing page lists TikTok ads as coming soon, and the home page lists a TikTok ads listing and TikTok Shop.
Counted The pricing page and the home page, both read on 26 September 2026.
0 of Minea's 3 plans is free, and 0 of its 2 main pages names an MCP endpoint or an API.
Counted The pricing page and the home page read on 26 September 2026, every plan and every feature line counted.

What Minea is better at

First, because a comparison that opens with our own advantages is an advertisement rather than a comparison.

A database of more than 10 million ads, by Minea's own count, searchable with filters. Playhead has no ad database to search.
Influencer product placements beside the paid ads, so a product that sells through creators shows up too.
Products, shops and ads in one plan from $49, with daily niche lists that point at products to test.
A brand tracker with notifications, unlimited on Business, that follows competing stores.
A free .store domain and 10 hours of free training, both named on Minea's own pages.

How they compare

Playhead compared with Minea, capability by capability
What you want	Minea	Playhead
Find winning products and shops	YesProducts listing, shops listing and daily niche lists on every plan from $49. ^[1]	NoPlayhead holds no product or shop database. You bring the link of the ad you want read.
Search Meta ads by filter	YesA Meta ads listing on every plan, and magic search: 50 a month on Starter, 100 on Premium, unlimited on Business. ^[1]	NoNo ad search. Take the link from the Meta Ad Library, TikTok or Instagram, where every public ad already is.
TikTok ads	In partThe pricing page lists Snapchat, Pinterest and TikTok ads as coming soon. The home page lists a TikTok ads listing and TikTok Shop. ^[1]	YesA TikTok link reads the same way as a Meta Ad Library link or an Instagram reel.
What happens inside one ad, second by second	In partAI analysis of an ad and an AI transcript, 10 each a month on Starter. What the analysis returns, and whether it names a second, is not published. ^[1]	YesThe hook and how it reaches the viewer, every beat with its start and length, every claim at the second it is legible, the cuts, the first face and the first product.
How many ad analyses a month	In part10 on the $49 Starter, 50 on the $99 Premium, unlimited on the $199 Business plan. ^[1]	YesA reading costs credits by the length of the ad. 50,000 credits free, 600,000 on the $19 plan, 1,500,000 on the $39 plan.
Compare a set of ads side by side	Not documentedNot described on the pricing page or the home page.	YesUp to 10 ads in one set, each read on its own, then stacked with the same fields so the differences show row by row.
Use it inside Claude or ChatGPT	Not documentedNeither the pricing page nor the home page names an MCP endpoint or an API. ^[2]	YesA hosted MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor on every plan, the free one included.
A free plan	No3 plans at $49, $99 and $199 a month. The home page offers to register for free and to try for free, and names no free plan. ^[1]	Yes50,000 credits a month, no card, and the first analyses on the ads page need no account.
The price of the first paid plan	Yes$49 a month, or $39 a month paid quarterly. ^[1]	YesCreator at $19 a month with 3 seats. Pro $39, Studio $109 with 5 seats.

Minea finds the ad, Playhead reads it

One is a search over a market. The other is a reading of one video.

Minea answers which: which product sells, which store scales, which influencer placed it, which Meta ad has the most engagement. It holds more than 10 million ads by its own count, and it is built to point you at a product to test.

Playhead answers what. You found the ad. Now you need what it does: the first 3 seconds, the second the product appears, how long the demonstration runs, which claim is on screen, and whether it works with the sound off. That is the part people do by hand with a scrubber, and it is the part a copy of the product needs.

Minea sells an AI analysis for that step, 10 a month on the $49 plan. Playhead is built only for that step, and it is free to start.

The first three seconds of an ad in a Playhead teardown. The hook type is Claim, on three channels: visual, spoken and on-screen text, with every line of text on screen and its second. — The hook of an ad in a Playhead teardown: what the viewer sees, hears and reads in the first seconds, each with its second.

What each plan costs

Minea starts at $49. Playhead starts at $0.

Both price lists, as the two pricing pages printed them on 26 September 2026
Plan	A month	What it holds
Minea Starter	$49, or $39 quarterly	Ads, products, shops, 10 AI ad analyses, 10 AI transcripts
Minea Premium	$99, or $79 quarterly	The same, with 50 AI analyses and 50 transcripts
Minea Business	$199, or $158 quarterly	The same, with unlimited AI analyses and transcripts
Playhead Free	$0	50,000 credits of reading, MCP included
Playhead Creator	$19	600,000 credits, 3 seats
Playhead Pro	$39	1,500,000 credits, 3 seats
Playhead Studio	$109	5,000,000 credits, 5 seats

If you want a free Minea alternative, the honest answer has two parts. For finding ads, Meta's own Ad Library is free and holds every active ad on Facebook and Instagram. For reading them, Playhead's free plan holds 50,000 credits a month. Together they cover what a Minea Starter plan does for ads, and they do not cover products, shops or influencer placements.

Use both, and pay for less

Find with Minea, read with Playhead, and keep the $199 plan for when you need it.

Find the product and its ads in Minea
Use the products listing and the daily niche lists to pick a product. Open the Meta ads that sell it.
Copy the ad links
Take the link of each ad, or open the same ad in the Meta Ad Library and copy that link.
Read the ads in Playhead
Paste up to 10 ads into one set. Each comes back with the same fields: hook, beats, claims, first product, works muted.
Write the brief from the rows that agree
What the long-running ads share is the brief. A later question on a saved ad costs less than the first reading.

When to choose Minea instead

Choose Minea when you do not yet know which product or which ad to study. It is a search over a market, with products, shops, ads and influencer placements in one place, and that needs a database. Playhead starts at the point where you already hold the link of the ad.

The verdict

Minea is the better tool for finding what to sell, with products, shops, ads and influencer placements in one $49 plan. Its weak point is the step after that: 10 AI analyses a month on Starter, $4.90 each, and no published detail of what they return. Playhead does that step from $0, names the second of every hook, beat and claim, and works inside Claude on every plan. Keep Minea for research, or replace it with the free Ad Library, and read every ad you find with Playhead.

Common questions

What is the best free Minea alternative?

No single free tool replaces all of Minea. Meta's own Ad Library is free and shows every active ad on Facebook and Instagram, and Playhead's free plan holds 50,000 credits a month to read those ads second by second. Neither one lists products, shops or influencer placements.

How much does Minea cost?

Minea costs $49 a month for Starter, $99 for Premium and $199 for Business, as its pricing page printed them on 26 September 2026. Paid quarterly, the three cost $39, $79 and $158 a month.

Does Minea have an AI ad analysis?

Yes. Minea sells an AI analysis of an ad and an AI transcript: 10 of each a month on Starter, 50 on Premium and unlimited on Business. What the analysis returns is not published on the pricing page.

Does Minea work with Claude or ChatGPT?

Minea's pricing page and home page named no MCP endpoint and no API on 26 September 2026. Playhead has a hosted MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor on every plan, the free one included.

Is Playhead a Minea alternative?

Playhead replaces Minea's AI ad analysis and not its research database. For taking apart an ad, with the second of every hook, beat and claim, Playhead does the job from $0. For finding products, shops and ads across a market, Minea does the job and Playhead has no database to search.