Ad design often slows down marketing teams. Managing formats, maintaining brand consistency, and producing multiple variations takes time and resources.

This guide compares two platforms built to solve that: The Brief AI and Zeely AI. Both offer AI-powered ad creation, but they take different approaches in usability, speed, and team fit.

The Brief is a feature-rich creative automation platform. It includes AI image generation, smart resizing, automated translations, and a Brand Kit for consistent design. It’s built for teams that need control, multi-format output, and collaborative workflows.

Zeely AI is designed for speed and simplicity. It helps marketers and small businesses create scroll-stopping creatives fast using guided flows, smart templates, and minimal setup. It reduces onboarding time and supports fast campaign execution.

This comparison shows how the platforms differ in performance, pricing, creative control, and workflow efficiency. You’ll learn what makes The Brief’s AI tools powerful for larger teams, and where Zeely AI offers a more agile, cost-effective alternative.

What’s The Brief?

The Brief is a former Creatopy. It is an ad creation platform designed to streamline multi-format digital ad production. Originally launched as Bannersnack, it evolved to support larger teams, collaborative workflows, and AI-driven automation.

It features a drag-and-drop editor, a centralized Brand Kit, and a wide template library optimized for platforms like Google Display, Facebook, and Instagram. You can customize a layout, apply brand assets, and export it across multiple formats without starting from scratch.

The Brief supports one-click resizing, allowing you to generate ad variations for different channels quickly. It’s built for marketing teams creating high volumes of digital assets while maintaining consistency.

Its workflow tools help teams collaborate, manage feedback, and launch campaigns efficiently.

The platform has a learning curve. While the interface is visual, new users often need onboarding to use features like animation, bulk editing, or collaborative review.

For structured ad production at scale, The Brief offers the control and speed needed to manage branding, design quality, and output volume across digital channels.

Deep dive into the Brief’s AI-driven features

The Brief’s AI tools automate repetitive design work, optimize layouts, and improve collaboration across teams. The platform is built to reduce manual edits and speed up ad production without compromising quality.

AI automation & optimization tools

The Brief’s AI automation features are built to streamline ad production, eliminate guesswork, and deliver fast, intelligent creative optimization. Powered by predictive analytics, prompt-based editing, and AI-assisted visual tools, these capabilities help you scale campaigns without scaling workload.

Predictive scoring: Instant creative feedback before launch

The Brief’s predictive scoring tool provides real-time insights into your ad’s performance potential — before you even publish. It analyzes text density, visual hierarchy, and call-to-action positioning. If your design is too cluttered or the CTA is buried, the AI flags it instantly. This gives you time to refine the layout and improve engagement, making every ad launch smarter and more data-driven.

Prompt-based editing: Modify designs using text commands

With The Brief’s prompt-based editing, you simply type a command like “enlarge headline” or “align image to left.” The AI interprets your intent and updates the layout in real time. This removes the need for manual tweaks or deep design skills. It’s a fast, accessible way to experiment with creative variations — perfect for marketers scaling across multiple ad formats.

AI image generation: Visuals from simple prompts

It enables AI-assisted image generation directly from short prompts. Want a “modern workspace with soft lighting”? Just type it. The tool creates unique, brand-aligned visuals for ads, backgrounds, or product placements without external tools or stock sites. This reduces production time and ensures you can build visually compelling creatives on demand.

Auto-layout & smart cropping for multi-format ads

With AI-powered resize, you can transform a single design into multiple ad formats in seconds. Smart cropping keeps key visuals in frame, while auto-layout adapts your hierarchy for each size, whether it’s a banner, carousel, or story. This allows you to stay on-brand across platforms without duplicating work.

Usability without overload: Automation that works out of the box

Many AI automation platforms overwhelm users with too many settings or require complex training. The platform keeps it simple. Every feature — from predictive scoring to image generation, is designed for immediate use. You get actionable insights and fast creative updates without needing technical expertise, making it ideal for marketing teams with tight deadlines and high output demands.

Animation & dynamic content creation

Create attention-grabbing visuals with motion and interactivity, without writing a single line of code. The Brief’s animation tools are built to help you design animated ads, interactive banners, and motion graphics that stand out across formats and platforms.

One-click animation for text, images, and buttons

The Brief’s one-click animation feature lets you animate any element with zero coding skills. Using drag-and-drop controls, you can add fade-ins, slides, zooms, or bounce effects to your creatives in seconds. These pre-set motion styles help make static visuals more dynamic and increase engagement across display and social ad placements. Whether you’re building banners, popups, or email assets, the interface is designed for speed and consistency.

Dynamic content blocks like countdowns & product swaps

The platform templates support dynamic content creation through interactive blocks like live countdown timers, rotating product panels, and audience-specific messages. This allows you to serve context-aware creatives that update based on time, behavior, or targeting rules. For example, you can promote a flash sale that visually counts down in real time. These elements are ideal for performance-driven teams focused on personalization at scale.

HTML5 export for interactive banner ads

When you need responsive ads that work across networks, The Brief supports HTML5 animation export. You can design interactive banners with hover states, transitions, and clickable layers, then export them in a format accepted by Google Ads, Display & Video 360, and other platforms. This ensures full compatibility while retaining your motion effects, so your ads stay lightweight, fast-loading, and visually polished across devices.

Maintain visual consistency across animated formats

One of the biggest challenges in animated design is maintaining brand consistency. The Brief solves this with template-based motion styles and reusable animation presets. Once you define your visual language, like how logos enter or buttons animate, you can apply it across every size or format. This reduces design drift and helps your animated campaigns look cohesive across banners, videos, and mobile-first placements.

Collaborative features & brand consistency

It is designed for marketing teams that need to collaborate at scale while protecting brand consistency across global campaigns. From shared design systems to real-time editing, each feature supports smooth teamwork and cross-channel alignment.

Brand kit: Enforce visual consistency across campaigns

The Brief’s Brand Kit centralizes your brand assets in one place, including logos, typography, color palettes, and layout rules. Once configured, these elements are automatically applied to all new creatives. This ensures visual consistency across ad formats, channels, and teams, without relying on manual brand policing. Whether you’re producing social ads, display banners, or email assets, every output stays on-brand by default.

Real-time collaboration with commenting & multi-user editing

The platform includes real-time co-editing, threaded commenting, and user tagging directly in the design editor. Your team can collaborate simultaneously on the same file — no version control issues or back-and-forth emails. Designers, copywriters, and stakeholders can assign edits, resolve feedback, and ship faster without ever leaving the platform. This is especially valuable for remote teams working across time zones or fast-paced ad cycles.

One-click translations for global campaigns

Need to run localized ad sets in multiple regions? The service supports one-click translation, allowing you to instantly duplicate and translate any creative into dozens of languages. The system auto-generates text variations while preserving original layout, fonts, and design constraints. This removes the need for manual resizing or formatting during localization, saving time and reducing errors in global rollouts.

API integrations & credit system for campaign scaling

The Brief’s API integrations and credit-based system make it easy to scale across large campaign portfolios or manage multiple client accounts. You can connect your workflows with external platforms, automate creative production, and track usage based on team roles. This structure supports agencies, franchises, and enterprises that need efficient design collaboration across distributed teams and high-output environments.

Pricing, plans, and usability considerations

If your creative budget is tight, The Brief’s pricing model might look flexible on paper, but can turn restrictive fast. Many users find that the platform’s credit-based system introduces hidden costs as soon as production scales.

Understanding how The Brief prices its platform helps you determine whether it delivers real value or becomes a budget drain over time.

How the pricing structure works

The Brief offers three core plans: 

• The Plus plan is suited for individuals or small businesses creating occasional static ads. It provides access to basic templates and the drag-and-drop editor but excludes collaboration, automation, and AI-powered features.
• The Pro plan adds AI functionality, like smart resizing, image generation, and prompt-based editing, plus Brand Kit access and multi-user collaboration. It’s designed for growing teams managing brand consistency and creative output.
• The Enterprise plan is tailored for large organizations with high-volume needs. It includes API integrations, priority support, and usage scalability.

All plans use a credit-based export model. You receive a monthly allotment of credits tied to your plan tier. Downloading a PNG might cost 1 credit. Exporting a layered HTML5 animation could use 3–5. Once you run out, you’ll need to buy more. That’s where many users hit friction.

If you’re producing ads weekly or across multiple formats, those credits disappear fast, especially if you’re exporting banners in multiple sizes or formats for clients. For example, a mid-size agency reported burning through their monthly credits within two weeks and purchasing add-ons twice in a single quarter.

Is the value worth the cost?

For teams that produce high volumes of creatives and rely on consistent branding, The Brief’s Pro or Enterprise plans can be cost-effective. The time saved through AI automation, auto-layout resizing, and integrated brand control often justifies the spend.

But if you’re a freelancer, solo marketer, or startup producing fewer assets, you may outgrow the Plus plan quickly and find the Pro plan’s credit limits equally restrictive. The pricing works best when your production needs are stable and predictable.

Ex Creatopy does offer a free trial, but it comes with heavy limitations. Many features, including exports and AI tools, are partially or fully locked, making it difficult to assess the platform’s full capabilities before purchasing.

Usability & performance considerations

The interface is intuitive, but exporting large animated files or managing multiple format versions can slow down performance, especially on older devices or with limited internet speed. Users managing brand assets across multiple clients may also face a learning curve when setting up folders, tags, and permission layers.

If your team is switching from a static design tool or building ad assets manually, The Brief introduces new workflows that require some onboarding. But once systems are in place, teams often see output velocity increase significantly.

The Brief AI alternatives 

Marketers often face tool overload when evaluating ad design platforms. Many claim AI capabilities, but few deliver real workflow efficiency.

Here’s how other The Brief alternatives compare and why Zeely AI remains the leading option. Read also about the best AI ad generators. 

Bannerflow: HTML5 automation built for enterprise teams

Need to scale animated banners across global campaigns? Bannerflow offers high-powered HTML5 automation, dynamic creative tools, and campaign management workflows — ideal for large in-house ad teams with time and budget for onboarding. But the steep pricing and learning curve put it out of reach for smaller, faster-moving teams.

What it delivers

• Dynamic HTML5 banner generation
• Role-based workflows and campaign scheduling
• Language localization support at scale
• Enterprise SLA and account onboarding

Who it’s best for

Bannerflow is built for global marketing departments managing hundreds of ad variations across markets with internal dev support and long-term campaign timelines.

What The Brief does differently

• No-code HTML5 animations ready in minutes
• Built-in Brand Kit for brand consistency without devs
• Accessible pricing with no enterprise lock-in
• Templates, AI resize, and predictive scoring included out of the box

Photo source: Bannerflow

AdCreative.ai: Instant headlines and ad visuals with limited layout control

AdCreative.ai is all about speed. Its AI generates headlines and visuals instantly — great for idea generation and rapid mockups. But when it comes to layout flexibility, brand design control, or multichannel export, it falls short. You get fast output, but not full creative ownership.

What it delivers

• Instant headline and image generation via AI
• High-volume ad concept creation
• Designed for speed, not deep customization

Who it’s best for

Early-stage marketers or solopreneurs testing lots of creative variations quickly, without heavy brand requirements or platform constraints.

What The Brief does differently

• Prompt-based editing with full layout control
• Brand Kit for design consistency at scale
• Cross-format resizing, motion graphics, and platform-ready outputs
• Predictive scoring to optimize before launch

Photo source: AdCreative.ai

QuickAds: Ecommerce ad creation from product feeds

QuickAds is made for ecommerce teams that need plug-and-play ads — fast. Upload your product feed, and it auto-generates visuals with prices, names, and discounts. But there’s no campaign-level coordination, team collaboration, or full-funnel creative control.

What it delivers

• Product-based creative generation
• Built-in feed syncing and basic templates
• Ideal for plug-and-play Meta or Google ads

Who it’s best for 

Ecommerce managers focused on high-volume SKUs and quick ad deployment, with minimal design adjustments.

What The Brief does differently

• Supports campaign-level workflows and team roles
• Offers interactive elements like countdowns and dynamic text
• Localized ad sets and multi-language support
• API & credit-based system for scaling across client accounts

Photo source: QuickAds

Canva: Design made simple, but not built for ads

Canva is the go-to platform for quick, template-based visuals. It’s easy, fast, and ideal for creating branded social content, presentations, or print assets. But for ad teams that need motion graphics, multi-format exports, or automated creative workflows, Canva doesn’t go far enough. There’s no predictive scoring, no HTML5 export, and no built-in tools for high-performing ad output.

What it delivers

• Drag-and-drop editor with thousands of templates
• Brand colors, logos, and fonts via Canva Brand Kit
• Social-ready static posts, carousels, and presentations
• Team folders and shared asset libraries

Who it’s best for 

Canva works best for non-designers creating light marketing visuals, like social media managers, VAs, or startup founders who need fast, on-brand content.

What The Brief does differently

• Built for ad production, not general visuals
• Includes motion effects, HTML5 banners, and interactive formats
• Offers predictive scoring and prompt-based editing
• Templates designed for performance across Meta, Google, and programmatic

Photo source: Canva

RelayThat: Locked-down consistency for brand templating

RelayThat focuses on brand consistency through locked layouts. You enter your fonts, logos, and colors once, and the system automatically re-skins every output. It’s efficient, but rigid. There’s little room for layout creativity, animation, or AI assistance. If you’re running static campaigns and want fast repetition over custom control, it works. For dynamic creative teams, it’s too restrictive.

What it delivers

• Auto-layout engine that applies brand elements across formats
• Fixed design systems to maintain consistency
• Rapid output for many platforms using the same layout logic

Who it’s best for 

Franchise marketers, event teams, or brand managers who need uniformity across dozens of local ads, but not motion or dynamic content.

What The Brief does differently

• Balances brand control with creative flexibility
• Supports motion graphics, dynamic countdowns, and HTML5 animations
• Real-time collaboration, comments, and multi-user editing
• Scales campaigns with AI automation and team permissions built-in

Photo source: RelayThat

The Brief vs. Zeely AI: Which AI ad platform delivers more for less?

Design tools should reduce workload — not add to it. This comparison evaluates The Brief and Zeely AI across AI capabilities, pricing, usability, and integrations to help you choose the most efficient solution.

Core features and AI capabilities

The Brief offers smart resizing, image generation, prompt-based editing, and layered animation. It supports manual control over layouts, assets, and exports. Zeely AI generates complete ads, including design, copy, and visuals, using brand and product data. Assets are built automatically and optimized for mobile and platform-specific requirements.

Example: A retail team built 15 campaign-ready ads with Zeely in under 10 minutes.

The Brief assists your workflow. Zeely handles it end-to-end.

Usability, pricing, and API integrations

The Brief has a steeper learning curve. Its credit-based pricing limits exports and adds cost as usage increases.

Example: Exporting 50 HTML5 banners may exceed monthly credits, triggering overage fees.

Zeely AI offers flat-rate pricing with no credit caps. You can generate unlimited creatives without tier upgrades.

API access in The Brief is Enterprise-only. Zeely supports ecommerce, CRM, and analytics integrations on all plans.

Why Zeely AI may be a better fit

Zeely AI is built for fast-moving teams, freelancers, and marketers focused on performance. It produces campaign-ready assets with no design steps or manual assembly.

Unlike ex Creatopy’s design-first platform, Zeely is an AI ad creative automation engine that prioritizes speed and output consistency.

The Brief vs. Zeely AI: Feature-by-feature comparison

Feature category	The Brief	Zeely AI
Creative workflow	Design-first with manual layout, asset selection, and export steps	End-to-end automation using product and brand data
AI capabilities	Prompt-based editing, AI resize, image generation, layered animations	Full ad generation: copy, design, CTA, and visuals in one step
Speed to output	Manual assembly required	Campaign-ready assets in under 10 minutes
Brand consistency	Requires setup of brand kit for styling consistency	Template color change available
Mobile optimization	Must manually adjust layouts for mobile platforms	Creatives are auto-formatted for mobile-first and platform-specific delivery
Pricing model	Tiered with credit limits and overage fees	Flat-rate, unlimited usage with no hidden add-ons
Best for	Design teams and agencies managing hands-on creative workflows	Freelancers, marketers, ecommerce teams focused on speed and scalable automation

Final verdict: Which AI ad design tool delivers the best ROI?

If you need full control over design, support for advanced animations, and detailed collaboration features, The Brief remains a strong choice, especially for teams with dedicated design resources. Its AI tools help speed up repetitive tasks like resizing, copy variation, and export formatting, but the platform still requires manual creative input and familiarity with design workflows.

For marketers, small teams, or ecommerce brands focused on speed, output, and ROI, Zeely AI provides a more efficient path. It generates ad-ready creatives in seconds, no templates, no credits, and no layered workflows. Everything is bundled: layout, copy, brand assets, and optimization logic. You focus on launching; Zeely handles the creative assembly.

Teams choosing between the two should consider their production volume, team bandwidth, and campaign velocity. If design depth is a priority, The Brief offers more control. If execution speed and automation are critical, Zeely AI is the best AI ad design tool to support growth without creative bottlenecks.

When cost, usability, and creative output all matter, Zeely earns its position as the most cost-effective alternative to The Brief, designed for action, not just creation.