Arcads is a studio for making AI UGC ads: you choose an actor, write or generate a script, and download a video to put in your ad accounts. Its alternatives are mostly other studios that do the same job with a different library.
This list is published by Empyre, which is one of the alternatives and the only one here that also builds and runs the business the video is about. Arcads' own strengths are listed with Empyre's answer, so you can judge the swap rather than take our word for it.
Why founders leave Arcads for Empyre
Specific and checkable — a gate, a file, a price.
The script comes from verified product facts
Empyre's CMO writes each script from what the company's product actually does, recorded by the agents that built it, rather than from a blank prompt. A claim the product cannot back is not written.
Every video says it is AI-generated
Every UGC video Empyre makes carries a visible AI-generated label, and it is presenter-style only: no testimonials and no invented customers. Arcads' own help centre tells you AI actors are not real customers; on Empyre that rule is built in rather than left to the person writing the ad.
Posted to your own accounts, not handed back as a file
The video goes to the company's own connected Instagram and Facebook accounts, each pending that platform's approval. On full access the CMO writes the caption and posts to Instagram and Facebook itself; TikTok gets a one-tap confirmation for every post, because TikTok requires it.
Spend is reviewed before it happens
The CFO reviews the spend on each UGC video before it is made, and you can override the CFO. There is no separate studio subscription and credit pool to watch: the cost comes out of the company's one budget.
The product exists too
Arcads needs a product to advertise. Empyre builds the product, puts it online at its own address, takes payments into your own Stripe account and keeps eight executives operating it, so the video points at something a viewer can actually buy.
Your co-founder gets their own sign-in
Invite a Co-Founder, a Developer or a Viewer by email on any paid plan, each with their own access to the whole company, while the creator stays the owner and pays for the credits.
What Arcads is good at — and Empyre's answer
Accurately stated, then answered. The one case where staying put is right is at the bottom of the page.
A large actor library
1,000+ AI actors to choose from, per its home page.
Empyre: Empyre uses a fixed library of AI-generated presenters on purpose, and you can swap the presenter in Team Chat. A smaller library is the price of a presenter whose rights and look are settled before anyone films a product with it.
Custom actors and avatars
You can create an AI actor or an avatar of your own.
Empyre: Empyre deliberately does not make a video of your face or a custom actor. A video of a real person saying things they did not say is the one kind of AI ad that needs the most care, so Empyre keeps to presenters that are AI-generated from the start and labelled as such.
Volume for paid testing
Plans are sized in credits for producing many variations to test in ad accounts.
Empyre: Empyre makes videos for the company it runs, as part of a marketing plan the CMO keeps, rather than a batch of variations for a media buyer. If your job is feeding many ad sets, a studio is built for that.
Languages
Translation into more than 30 languages, per its home page.
Empyre: Empyre writes in the language the founder wrote the brief in, and the CMO writes the captions in that language natively rather than translating them afterwards.
Alternatives to Arcads
Empyre — AI UGC creator videos from the company that runs the product
Start here if you need the business as well as the video. On the Empyre plan and pay as you go, the CMO writes each script from the product's verified facts, an AI presenter from a fixed library shows the real product in a short vertical video disclosed as AI-generated, and it is posted to the company's own connected Instagram and Facebook accounts, each pending platform approval. The CFO reviews the spend first. Empyre vs Arcads →
Creatify — a published, low entry price
Creatify (creatify.ai) calls itself an AI ad platform (“AI Ads that win.”) and says it can turn any link into a ready-to-post video and connect your ad accounts once, naming Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Snap and Amazon among its platforms (home page, read 19 October 2026). Its pricing page lists a Free plan with 10 credits a month and a watermark, Standard at $15 a month for 55 credits, Pro at $55 for 280 credits with 1,500 AI actors and 3 custom avatars, Max at $95 for 730 credits, Business at $195 with 10 seats, custom Enterprise, 20% off annual plans, and separate API plans from $99 a month. How it compares to Empyre →
Two alternatives that are not software
Real UGC creators
If the ad needs someone's genuine experience of the product, hire people who have used it. No AI presenter can stand in for a real testimonial.
Film it yourself
A founder talking about their own product on a phone is still the most credible short video there is, and it costs nothing but time.
The rules every AI UGC video has to follow
Whichever tool makes the video, the advertiser carries these. Not legal advice; see the sources in each article.
An AI presenter is not a customer
The US Federal Trade Commission's rule on fake reviews and testimonials (announced 14 August 2024) prohibits testimonials that misrepresent that they are by someone who does not exist, including AI-generated ones, or by someone without real experience of the product. Arcads' own guidance says the same thing in its words: AI actors are not real customers. The FTC, the EU AI Act and AI UGC ads →
Label realistic AI video
TikTok asks creators to label AI-generated content that contains realistic images, audio or video. Meta labels AI content it detects or that people disclose as AI info. In the EU, the AI Act's transparency obligations for deep fakes apply from 2 August 2026.
Say what the product really does
A presenter reading a script is still an advertisement, so every claim in it has to be true of the product. Writing from verified product facts is the cheapest way to keep it so.
Frequently asked questions
What is the closest alternative to Arcads?
Creatify is the nearest like-for-like swap: another studio with AI actors, templates and a credit plan, and a published price list. If the reason you are looking is that nobody is posting the videos, writing them from the product's facts or running the business behind them, Empyre is the one on this page that does that. The single case for staying put: stay with Arcads if you run paid ad accounts yourself and need a high volume of ad variations, including custom actors, to test in them.
Is there a free Arcads alternative?
Creatify publishes a Free plan with 10 credits a month and a watermark (its pricing page, read 2026-10-19). Empyre's AI UGC creator videos come with the Empyre plan or pay as you go, charged from credits, because they come with a company being run. Starter's 3-day free trial puts a whole company live but does not include UGC videos.
Can I take my Arcads videos with me?
Check each studio's terms for ownership and use of what you made. On Empyre the videos are made from the product the company runs, so there is nothing to import; connect the company's accounts and the CMO starts from the product's facts.
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Related
Last updated 2026-10-19. Competitor descriptions reflect each product's publicly documented capabilities at that date; they change often, so check the source before relying on a detail.