Statly vs Sandcastles

Statly vs Sandcastles.
Tracking or scripting?

Sandcastles is a creator tool for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts: a database of outlier videos, hooks from templates, AI scripts and video breakdowns, with monthly credits for the AI work. Statly is built for agency owners, social media managers and growth operators who monitor competitors and niches they do not own. It tracks the public accounts you choose every day and scores every video against its own account’s median, with no credits and no account limit.

Start tracking from $0 →

No card needed · 500 videos · 3 days

Statly Trend Finder ranking a niche’s videos by outlier score, with views, likes, comments and engagement

Statly vs Sandcastles
in short.

Choose Sandcastles if you want a ready-made database of outliers plus AI that writes hooks and scripts and breaks down why a video worked. Choose Statly if you want your competitors and your own accounts tracked every day across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X, with a clear outlier score, no cap on accounts and seats for your team, from €39 a month.

Side by side,
feature by feature.

Feature	Sandcastles	Statly
Best for	Creators who want outlier ideas, hooks and scripts in one place	Monitoring the competitors and niches you don’t own, every day
Platforms	Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts	Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X
How videos are found	A pre-built database of outlier videos, channel discovery and a curated competitor feed	You add public accounts and group them into niches; Trend Finder ranks their videos
Outlier score	“Top 1% outliers in every niche”; how a score is calculated is not published	Views ÷ the account’s median views, on every video
Data refresh	12h on Pro, 6h on Visionary, 1h on Titan, for your verified own channels; refresh for tracked competitors is not stated	Every 24 hours for every account, ready by a time you choose Faster refresh is coming soon.
Pricing model	Plan plus monthly credits: 100 on Pro, 250 on Visionary, 1,500 on Titan. Credits pay for video analyses, scripts and reports and expire each month	No credits. Plans by videos kept fresh: 2,000, 5,000 or 10,000
Entry price	$49/month (Pro), or $39/month billed yearly	€39/month (Starter), or €390/year
Tracked accounts	Up to 150 competitors per workspace on Pro, 250 on Visionary	No account limit on any paid plan
Workspaces	3 on Pro, 5 on Visionary, 20 on Titan	Workspaces on every paid plan
Team seats	Not published; guest access to workspaces on Titan ($499/month)	5 on Starter, 10 on Scale, unlimited on Agency
AI hooks and scripts	Yes: hooks from templates and scripts built on storytelling frameworks	No
Video breakdowns and transcripts	Yes: breakdowns of hook, story, format and style, plus transcript downloads	No
Own channel analytics	Yes: personal analytics and strategy audits for verified channels	Add your own public accounts to a Watchlist like any other
Alerts and exports	Not published	Telegram, Discord and Slack updates; CSV from every table
API and MCP	MCP on every plan from Pro; API on Titan ($499/month)	API and MCP on Scale (€89/month) and Agency
Refunds	No refunds on subscription plans; no pause	Free preview before you pay
Try it	“Try it risk-free”; trial length and terms are not stated	Free preview: 500 videos for 3 days, no card

Two tools,
two jobs.

Sandcastles is built to help a creator make the next video: find an outlier, borrow its hook, and have AI write the script. Statly is built to track: you choose the accounts that matter and it re-reads every one of them every day.

Where Sandcastles is stronger

Ideas without a list. A database of outlier videos lets you start before you know which accounts to follow.
AI writing. Hooks from templates and scripts built on storytelling frameworks.
Breakdowns. Analysis of a video’s hook, story, format and style, plus transcript downloads.
Faster refresh for your own channels. Verified channels refresh every 12h, 6h or 1h depending on plan. Faster refresh is coming soon to Statly.
MCP from the entry plan. The MCP connector comes with Pro at $49 a month.

Where Statly is stronger

X as well. Statly covers Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X.
A score you can check. Views divided by the account’s median, shown on every video.
No credits. Tracking does not draw down a monthly budget that expires.
No account cap. Every paid plan tracks as many accounts as you like; Sandcastles caps competitors per workspace.
Seats for the whole team. 5 seats on the €39 Starter plan; Sandcastles publishes no seat counts and offers guest access on Titan.
API from €89. Statly’s API comes with Scale; Sandcastles’ API is on the $499 Titan plan.
Try before you pay. A free preview with no card, where Sandcastles states no refunds.

Why Statly doesn’t
write your scripts.

Sandcastles uses AI to help you make the next video. Statly is built for the step before: catching what is taking off in your niche, every day. Writing scripts, hooks or ideas for you is not what Statly is for. AI copy built from the same viral videos tends to sound generic and promise more than the video delivers, and the creative call should stay yours.

Sandcastles’ AI features, and their limits

AI scripts. Scripts built from the same viral videos sound alike across accounts, and copy the result rather than the reason it worked.
AI hooks. Template hooks get reused widely, and a hook can promise more than the video delivers.
AI video breakdowns. They describe what is in a video, but cannot see why the platform pushed it, such as timing or a repost from a larger account.
Transcription. It captures the words only, not the visuals, on-screen text and editing that carry a short video.
AI ideas and content plans. Ideas that do not come from fresh data on your niche are often generic, and shared by others in the same niche.
AI briefs and reports. Polished reports can hide thin data, and every claim still needs checking before it reaches a client.

What Statly does instead

Catches what is taking off. Trend Finder flags the videos that took off today, at 2× their account’s usual pace, across every account in your niches.
Shows the evidence. Every video’s views divided by its own account’s median, so you can see which formats keep winning, and which were a one-off.
Leaves the idea to you. You study what worked and decide what to make, in your own words, so your videos do not sound like everyone else’s.
Works with your own AI. On Scale and Agency, Statly MCP lets Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor read your data, if you want AI help on your own terms.

How Statly finds
the videos that won.

Statly does the reading every day. You decide what to make next.

Baseline

Every video, measured against its own account.

Each account gets a baseline: its median views. A video’s outlier score is its views divided by that median, so a small account’s breakout is as visible as a big account’s.

Median views, engagement and outliers for every accountRe-read every 24 hours on Statly’s servers

An account’s median views, average engagement, outliers, best video and performance over time in Statly

Trend Finder

Catch what is taking off today.

Trend Finder shows what is growing fastest since the last daily scan, the top outliers and the top sounds across your niches. Save the winners to your Library with tags and folders.

“Took off today” at 2× an account’s usual paceCSV export from every table

Statly Trend Finder marking videos that took off today, with views gained since yesterday and their growth pace

Which one
should you pick?

Choose Sandcastles if…

You are a creator who wants hooks and scripts written for you.
You want to browse proven outliers before building a list of accounts.
You want AI to explain why a video worked.
You want hourly analytics on your own verified channels.

Choose Statly if…

You research competitors and niches for clients or a team, not only your own channel.
You know the accounts you want to follow and want them re-read every day.
You need X alongside Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
You want a flat plan with no credits and no account limit.
Your team needs several seats and an API without a $499 plan.

Statly vs Sandcastles:
questions and answers.

Is Statly a good Sandcastles alternative?

Yes, if what you need is daily tracking of specific public accounts and their outliers. Statly scans every account you add every 24 hours and scores each video against its own account’s median. If you mainly want AI hooks, scripts and video breakdowns, Sandcastles covers that and Statly does not.

Who is Statly for?

Agency owners, social media managers and growth operators who monitor competitors and niches they do not own. Statly never posts, needs no social media logins and tracks any public account every day, with no account limit.

Is Statly cheaper than Sandcastles?

At entry they are close: Statly Starter is €39 a month with 2,000 videos, no account limit and 5 seats, and Sandcastles Pro is $49 a month ($39 billed yearly) with 100 credits. For API access, Statly Scale is €89 a month, while Sandcastles puts its API on Titan at $499 a month.

Does Statly use credits like Sandcastles?

No. Statly plans are measured in videos kept fresh (2,000, 5,000 or 10,000), and tracking runs every day within that. Sandcastles gives 100, 250 or 1,500 credits a month for video analyses, scripts and reports, and unused credits expire at the end of the month.

Which platforms do Statly and Sandcastles cover?

Sandcastles covers Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Statly covers Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X.

How often does each tool refresh data?

Statly re-reads every tracked account every 24 hours, ready by a time you choose. Sandcastles refreshes your verified own channels every 12 hours on Pro, 6 on Visionary and 1 on Titan, and does not state how often tracked competitors refresh. Faster refresh is coming soon.

Does Statly write hooks and scripts like Sandcastles?

No. Statly finds and scores the videos that won and leaves the creative work to you. On Scale and Agency, Statly MCP lets Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor read your workspace and answer questions about it.

Can I try both before paying?

Statly, yes: a free preview of 500 videos from as many accounts as you like, scanned daily for 3 days, with no card. Sandcastles offers to let you try it risk-free but does not state the trial terms, and says it does not refund subscription plans.

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Statly vs Sandcastles.Tracking or scripting?

Statly vs Sandcastlesin short.

Side by side,feature by feature.

Two tools,two jobs.