Alternatives
The best MagicBrief alternatives after the shutdown
MagicBrief closed on July 31, 2026, after Canva acquired it. If it was your swipe file, your analytics or your briefing tool, you need a MagicBrief alternative for each of those jobs. Here are six, with prices checked in October 2026, and a step-by-step guide to rebuilding the boards you lost.
The short answer
No single MagicBrief alternative copies all of it, so replace each part on its own. For the Inspire library and boards, Foreplay or Swipekit. For Insights on your own ad accounts, Canva Grow, the product MagicBrief's team now builds at Canva, or Motion or Atria. For finding proven Meta ads and turning them into briefs, Ad Radar.
If you are rebuilding a lost swipe file, start with the brands you remember: 87% of the ads on our board were already live before July 31, 2026, so most of the winners you saved are probably still running.
What happened to MagicBrief
MagicBrief's home page now carries a single notice: the platform shut down on July 31, 2026 at 8 PM EST, and its team has joined Canva. The shutdown FAQ fills in the rest:
- Canva acquired MagicBrief. The FAQ says the goal was to bring the best of it into a product that reaches more teams. That product is Canva Grow, which the FAQ calls built on the same DNA but net-new, not a direct port.
- Billing stopped at the announcement. Customers were not charged again.
- Insights reports could be downloaded as CSV from an Overview report, any time before July 31.
- Inspire collections had no bulk export. The FAQ's reason: they hold ads you did not create and do not own.
- A Canva Business offer (6 months free) had to be redeemed by September 30, 2026, so it has expired.
After July 31 the platform is no longer accessible. If you didn't download your Insights CSVs in time, the source data is still in Meta Ads Manager and TikTok Ads Manager: MagicBrief read it from your accounts, so connecting another analytics tool brings it back.
MagicBrief alternatives at a glance
Prices checked October 12, 2026
| Tool | Replaces which part | Starting price |
|---|---|---|
| Ad Radar | Inspire for Meta, plus briefs from proven ads | $49 every 4 weeks |
| Foreplay | Inspire and briefs, saving from many platforms | $59/month, $49 billed annually |
| Swipekit | Inspire on a budget | $26/month |
| Canva Grow | Insights, plus AI ad creation and publishing | On all Canva plans, limits by plan |
| Atria | Insights, research and AI briefs in one tool | Free plan; Core $129/month billed annually |
| Motion | Insights, for creative analytics teams | $750/month |
Entry plan billed monthly unless noted, from each vendor's public pricing page, checked October 12, 2026.
Six MagicBrief alternatives, compared
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Ad Radar
A board of Meta ads that already have an estimated $50k or more in spend, each tagged on ten dimensions, with search across headlines, body copy and video transcripts. Any ad on the board, or any ad you save, turns into a written creative brief in the app or in Claude through the MCP server. Its Chrome extension, free to install and working with an Ad Radar membership, saves ads from the Meta Ad Library into boards with tags, comments and sections; boards share by link and export to CSV. Agency is $199 every 4 weeks with 25 client workspaces and a client portal. It doesn't connect to your ad accounts, so it replaces Inspire and briefs, not Insights.
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Foreplay
The swipe file most MagicBrief teams already know: Chrome extension, mobile app, unlimited saves, a 200M+ ad library and Briefs on every plan. Basic is $59 a month ($49 billed annually) for one user; competitor tracking, Lens analytics and MCP start on Workflow at $175 a month with 5 users, per its pricing page. If your team lived in Inspire and briefs, this changes the daily routine least. See Foreplay alternatives.
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Swipekit
Saves from the Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn ad libraries and from organic content, with brand tracking, white-label share links, and API and MCP on every plan. Basic is $26 a month with 5 seats and 5 tracked brands, with a 14-day trial and no card, per its pricing page.
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Canva Grow
The official successor. Canva's Grow page describes three parts: create ads with AI from a prompt and a website link, bulk publish to Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn, and learn from custom reports with AI tagging, using data pulled from each platform's API. It is available on all Canva plans, including Free, with limits by plan. The page doesn't list a competitor ad library or swipe file, so it covers Insights, not Inspire.
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Atria
The closest mix to what MagicBrief offered: an ad library with boards and a Chrome extension, brand following, analytics on your ad accounts with an AI strategist, and AI concepts, scripts and copy. Core is $129 a month billed annually with 5 seats and 5 connected ad accounts, per its pricing page. See Atria alternatives.
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Motion
Creative analytics for your own ad accounts: it tags and analyzes every creative you run and reports on what works, with inspiration, benchmarks and MCP access. Starter is $750 a month for brands spending up to $50k a month on ads, per its pricing page. Our Motion alternatives post compares the analytics tools.
How to rebuild your MagicBrief swipe file
There is no file to import: Inspire boards were never exportable, and the platform is now closed. What you can rebuild is the list of ads, and for proven winners that is easier than it sounds. On our board of 2,443 Meta ads with $50k or more in estimated spend (snapshot of October 9, 2026), 87% were already live before July 31, 461 have been running since before January 1, 2026, and the median ad has been live 120 days. Winners don't disappear quickly.
1. Collect what you still have
- Insights CSVs, if you downloaded them before July 31.
- Briefs and docs written from MagicBrief: they usually name the brand and quote the hook.
- Links and screenshots shared in Slack, Notion, email or client decks.
- Your memory of the brands. Write down every brand you followed, with its Facebook page name and its website domain.
2. Find the ads again in the Meta Ad Library
Search each brand by page name and by landing domain, and set the status to Active. Ads that are still running are there, with the date each one started. For US brands, ads that have stopped running usually drop out of the Library, so for those your screenshots are the only record. Our Meta Ad Library guide covers the filters.
3. Save them with the Ad Radar Chrome extension
Install the Ad Radar extension from the Chrome Web Store and connect it to your account: it is free to install and works with an Ad Radar membership. Every ad in the Meta Ad Library gets a Save button. Pick a board, and the ad lands in your workspace with:
- its copy, landing page and creative, with the video and images copied before Facebook's links expire;
- a transcript, the ten tags and a ready swipe prompt;
- any brand, not only the ones Ad Radar already tracks.
Recreate your old MagicBrief boards with the same names, then use board tags, comments and sections to put your notes back.
4. Follow the brands, so the file stays current
Paste each brand's Meta Ad Library link to follow it. The Today briefing shows what changed since your last visit, and a winner alert fires when one of its ads turns into a winner. That replaces the manual check you used to do in Inspire.
5. Keep a copy you own
Export each board to CSV once a month and share boards by link with the team. Whatever tool you pick, losing a library once is a good reason never to depend on a single vendor for it again. Our guide to building a swipe file you'll actually use has the fields worth keeping.
Which MagicBrief alternative fits your team
- Creative team that lived in Inspire and briefs: Foreplay. Widest capture tools and briefs with storyboards in one place.
- Small team on a budget: Swipekit for saving, plus a written creative brief template.
- Performance team that used Insights: Canva Grow if you already work in Canva; Motion or Atria for a dedicated analytics tool.
- Agency or media buyer who wants proven ads, not a library: Ad Radar. Every ad on the board already has $50k or more in estimated spend, and the Agency plan adds client workspaces and a portal where clients approve ads. Meta only.
For how the old MagicBrief parts map onto Canva Grow, and how to brief from a winning ad, see our post on Canva Grow vs MagicBrief.
Questions
Did MagicBrief shut down?
Yes. MagicBrief's site and FAQ say the platform shut down on July 31, 2026 at 8 PM Eastern and is no longer accessible. Its team joined Canva, which acquired MagicBrief, and billing was cancelled at the announcement.
Can I still export my MagicBrief swipe file?
No. Inspire collections never had a bulk export, and since July 31, 2026 the platform is closed. Insights reports could be exported as CSV before the shutdown. Your ad account data was never stored in MagicBrief and is still in your ad platforms.
What is the best MagicBrief alternative?
Pick one per job. For a saved-ad library and boards, Foreplay or Swipekit. For analytics on your own ad accounts, Canva Grow, Motion or Atria. For finding proven Meta ads and turning them into briefs, Ad Radar.
Is Canva Grow the same as MagicBrief?
No. MagicBrief's FAQ calls Canva Grow a net-new product built on the same DNA, not a direct port. Canva describes it as a tool to create ads with AI, publish to Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn, and report on performance.
What did MagicBrief cost, and what do the alternatives cost?
MagicBrief no longer sells plans. In October 2026, Swipekit starts at $26 a month, Ad Radar at $49 every 4 weeks, Foreplay at $59 a month, Atria at $0 on its free plan or $129 a month billed annually on Core, and Motion at $750 a month. Canva Grow is available on all Canva plans, with limits that vary by plan.
How do I rebuild a MagicBrief swipe file?
List the brands and ads you remember, search each brand in the Meta Ad Library, and save the ads that are still running into a new tool. With the Ad Radar Chrome extension, each saved ad keeps its media, copy, landing page, transcript and tags, and boards export to CSV.
Related research
From the Ad Radar blog, written from a board of Meta ads with $50k+ in estimated spend.
More comparisons
See the ads that are already winning.
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