Novoads vs MakeUGC: The Same Render Engine, and What Each Entry Plan Buys
Same engine, different entry model, different fine print: what Unlimited really buys, which tier unlocks product-in-hand at MakeUGC, and how Novoads does it at $49 with a custom actor or a Discover product template.
Mauricio Valdivia
·10 min
The engine is the same. Read the fine print instead.
Novoads and MakeUGC are the closest pair in AI UGC. Both put an AI creator on camera with your product (at Novoads, through a custom actor or a Discover product template). MakeUGC opens on a $1 trial; Novoads opens at $49 a month. Both render on Seedance 2.0, which is ByteDance's model, rented through the same providers by anyone who wants it.
That last point settles the argument this post is supposed to have. When two tools call the same model, output quality tracks the model, not the dashboard. So realism is close to a tie, and the honest comparison lives somewhere less exciting and more expensive: the fine print on the pricing page.
So we read theirs. Everything below is quoted from MakeUGC's own public pages, with links, so you can check us rather than trust us.
What is genuinely the same
- Seedance 2.0. Both run it. MakeUGC's headline is "Seedance 2.0 Fast Unlimited"; Novoads runs full Seedance 2.0 plus Seedance 2.0 Mini.
- A price you can read before you sign up. Both publish their plans: theirs from $59 a month with a $1, 72-hour trial, ours at $49 a month with no trial and no free tier. Neither door is the real difference between these two tools; the fine print below is.
- Product on camera. Both do it (at Novoads, through a custom actor made from a photo of someone holding the product, or a Discover product template), and theirs is good. A July 13, 2026 Trustpilot reviewer wrote that "the product-in-hand capability on MakeUGC genuinely caught me off guard with how realistic it looks compared to other tools on the market." We will take them at their word.
- Vertical, ad-ready output for TikTok, Reels, and Meta.
The head-to-head
| Dimension | Novoads | MakeUGC |
|---|---|---|
| Engine / realism | Tie: Seedance 2.0 | Tie: Seedance 2.0 Fast |
| Entry price | $49/month | $59/month (Startup) |
| Models on the entry plan | All of them, priced on the pricing page | "Access to Selected models"; "all AI models" from $79 |
| Product-in-hand | Included at $49 via a custom actor or a Discover template (50 credits) | $149 Pro tier (2,000 credits; also trialable at $1) |
| How you start | Paid plan from day one, no features held back | $1 trial (72 hours), but Unlimited does not run during it |
| Actors | 100+ | 1,000+ |
| Languages | 31 (voice catalog) | 50+ |
| Trustpilot | Too few reviews to rate | 3.1 / 5 "Average", better than ours |
Three of those rows go to MakeUGC. That is what an honest table looks like when the competitor is good.
The fine print on "Unlimited"
"Seedance 2.0 Fast Unlimited" is the headline on every MakeUGC tier. Two things about it come from their own pricing FAQ.
It does not run during the trial. Their pricing FAQ: "No. Unlimited only activates after your $1 trial ends and your first full billing cycle begins." So the $1 trial shows you the product minus the feature the page sells. If you are paying a dollar to evaluate unlimited generation, you are not evaluating it.
It is deprioritised. Same FAQ: "Unlimited runs in the standard queue; credits always use the priority queue." And: "Speed and concurrency may vary during peak hours." Unlimited generations wait behind paid ones.
None of this makes Unlimited worthless. If you want fifty low-stakes Seedance Fast drafts a month and can tolerate a slower queue, that is real value we do not match. It is just not what the headline implies.
What the entry plan includes
MakeUGC's $59 Startup tier grants "Access to Selected models." The card does name its headline models (Seedance 2.0 Fast Unlimited, "All the latest image models") and it does name what is withheld, so this is not a black box. But the phrase "Selected models" itself is never defined: "Access to all AI models" only appears one tier up, at $79, and the page does not tell you what the gap between the two is.
At Novoads every model is priced on the pricing page and available on every plan, and product-in-hand is not a Pro feature. It is included at $49 through two routes: create a custom actor from a photo of someone holding your product (Create Actor > Upload), or upload the product image to a Discover product template, which swaps it into the template creator's hand. At MakeUGC it appears on the $149 Pro tier. Those tiers are not like-for-like, and we should say so: their $149 carries 2,000 credits against our 50, and their Pro is also trialable at $1. The honest version of this row is not "they charge $149 for it"; it is that the feature we are built around sits at the top of their ladder and at the entry of ours.
The entry cost, honestly
MakeUGC's trial is $1. Novoads' entry plan is $49 a month. Neither hands you an unlimited runway, and we are including ourselves in that.
A July 10, 2026 Trustpilot reviewer said of MakeUGC's trial: "the amount of credits included in the trial was much lower than I expected and was not enough to create even a single complete video." Ours costs more at the door and gives you more room to work: the Starter plan grants 50 credits a month, and a UGC ad costs from 4 credits, so up to 12 videos rather than one. If you want twenty variations for a few dollars, though, no tool in this category is built for you, ours included.
What we will claim is narrower and checkable: our entry plan does not hold features back for higher tiers, and theirs, by their own FAQ, holds back the headline one.
Where MakeUGC is genuinely better
- Library. 1,000+ AI creators against our 100+. If you audition many faces against one hook, they are the better tool.
- Languages. 50+ against our 31. If you ship into dozens of locales, they still win this and we say so.
- Volume economics. Unlimited Seedance Fast at $59 is real, and we have no answer to it for high-volume drafting.
- Speed. Reviewers consistently praise rendering speed, including the July 13 reviewer quoted above.
- Track record. 3.1 / 5 on Trustpilot, "Average", across a real review base. We have almost no independent reviews. Weight their public record above our self-published comparison, this one included.
Their record is bimodal, like most tools in this category. A July 15, 2026 reviewer wrote "Flawless software and instant customer support—I truly don't get the complaints. Canceling my plan was completely effortless." Others report the opposite: "Impossible to cancel subscriptions, even after multliple times contacting the company" (July 14, 2026). Read the distribution rather than either company's summary of it.
When to choose each
Choose MakeUGC when:
- You want the biggest creator library and the widest language list.
- You are drafting at volume and unlimited Seedance Fast fits your workflow.
- Rendering speed is your bottleneck.
- You want a tool with a real, readable public review record.
Choose Novoads when:
- The ad is a person holding your actual product (a custom actor made from a photo of someone holding it, or a Discover product template), and you want that on the entry plan rather than the top one.
- You want to know which models your plan includes before you buy.
- You want the entry plan at $49 with everything listed.
- You do not want the headline feature held back for a higher tier.
If you are weighing the premium end of the category instead, Novoads vs Arcads runs the same comparison against the actor-depth benchmark.
The engines are a tie. The fine print is not.
There is no realism argument between these two tools, because they rent the same engine from the same place. MakeUGC is broader than us on every count that scales: more creators, more languages, more drafts per dollar, more reviews. Our monthly price is the lower of the two, every model is priced on our page, and product in hand, which sits at the top of their ladder, sits at the entry of ours through a custom actor or a Discover product template.
Check both against the fine print rather than the headlines. Ours is $49 a month, cancel anytime: novoads.ai.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Novoads or MakeUGC better?
Neither is universally better, and realism will not decide it: both render on Seedance 2.0, the same rentable ByteDance model, so output tracks the engine rather than the logo. MakeUGC opens on a $1 trial; Novoads opens at $49 a month. MakeUGC leads on breadth, with 1,000+ AI creators and 50+ languages. Novoads leads on what the entry plan includes: every model is available on every plan and product-in-hand is included at $49 (through a custom actor made from a photo of someone holding the product, or a Discover product template), where MakeUGC puts product-in-hand on its $149 Pro tier. Those tiers are not like-for-like: their $149 carries 2,000 credits to our 50, so read it as where each tool puts the feature, not as a $100 surcharge.
Does MakeUGC's Unlimited work during the $1 trial?
No, and this comes from MakeUGC's own pricing FAQ rather than from us: 'No. Unlimited only activates after your $1 trial ends and your first full billing cycle begins.' Unlimited Seedance 2.0 Fast is the headline on their pricing page, so the $1 trial shows you the product without the feature the page sells you on. The same FAQ adds that 'Unlimited runs in the standard queue; credits always use the priority queue', so unlimited generations are deprioritised even once active.
How much do Novoads and MakeUGC cost?
MakeUGC lists Startup $59, Growth $79 and Pro $149 per month, plus API tiers at $99 and $299, with a $1 trial for 72 hours on the platform plans. Novoads is $49 a month. Our monthly price is the lower of the two, but the more useful question is what entry buys: MakeUGC's $59 tier grants 'Access to Selected models' without defining the phrase ('all AI models' starts at $79), and product-in-hand videos appear on the $149 tier. Their tiers carry far more credits than ours, so compare what you need rather than the headline prices.
Which has more AI actors and languages?
MakeUGC, on both counts, and it is not close. They market 1,000+ realistic AI creators and 50+ languages. Novoads has 100+ AI actors and ships voices in 31 languages. If your process is auditioning many faces, or shipping into dozens of locales, that breadth is a real reason to choose MakeUGC and we are not going to argue with it.
Is MakeUGC's 'Unlimited' really unlimited?
It is unlimited in credits, not in throughput, and only on supported models. Their own pricing FAQ says 'Unlimited runs in the standard queue; credits always use the priority queue' and that 'Speed and concurrency may vary during peak hours'. So unlimited generations are real but deprioritised behind paid ones. It also does not run during the $1 trial, by the same FAQ.
Can I use both?
Yes. They rent the same engine, so you are not choosing between two quality ceilings. A reasonable split is MakeUGC for high-volume, low-stakes Seedance Fast drafting where its library breadth helps, and Novoads when the ad has to show your actual product in hand, through a custom actor made from a photo of someone holding it or a Discover product template, and you want that included at the entry price.
Key Takeaways
- Both run Seedance 2.0, so realism is close to a tie. MakeUGC opens on a $1 trial; Novoads opens at $49 a month. The decision lives in the fine print.
- MakeUGC's headline 'Unlimited' does not run during the $1 trial. Their own pricing FAQ: 'Unlimited only activates after your $1 trial ends.' You trial the product without the feature the page sells.
- Product-in-hand videos are a $149 Pro feature at MakeUGC. At Novoads they are on the $49 plan, through a custom actor made from a photo of someone holding the product or a Discover product template.
- MakeUGC's $59 Startup tier grants 'Access to Selected models' without defining the phrase; 'all AI models' starts at $79. Every Novoads plan includes every model, priced on the pricing page.
- MakeUGC genuinely wins breadth: 1,000+ creators against our 100+, 50+ languages against our 31, and a better public review record. If breadth is your axis, pick them.
