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Pencil vs Selzee

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Free plan
Both — Pencil is free to use, Selzee has a free plan
Best fit
Pencil: Solo developers and small teams where the same person designs and implements · Selzee: DTC brands running continuous Meta and TikTok creative testing
Platforms
Pencil: macOS, Windows, Linux, VS Code extension · Selzee: Web
Trust score
About even — Pencil 84, Selzee 82
Status
Both up at our last check — Pencil Oct 15, 2026, Selzee Oct 16, 2026

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

PencilDesign canvas that lives in your repo: draw a screen, get code your editor and coding agent can readSelzeeFinds ad formats performing right now, remakes them as static image ads for your brand and ships them to Meta, TikTok and Pinterest.

Side by side

FactPencilSelzee
CategoryDesign-to-CodeAd Creative Generation
Pricing modelFreeFreemium
Starts at—$75/mo
Trust score84 / 10082 / 100
PlatformsmacOS, Windows, Linux, VS Code extensionWeb
CompanyHigh Agency, Inc.AI Studio s. r. o.
Launched2026—
Last verifiedOct 15, 2026Oct 16, 2026

What our research says

Pencil

The interesting decision here is storing the design as a file in the repository instead of a cloud document — it means a branch carries its own design state and a coding agent can read the canvas through MCP without an export step. That is a real answer to the handoff problem rather than another Figma-to-React exporter. It is also very new, free with no stated business model, and only worth adopting if your team already works with a coding agent in the loop.

Pros

  • Canvas is a .pen file stored locally and versioned with git, not a cloud document
  • Editor extension covers VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf and Antigravity rather than one IDE
  • Ships an MCP server so a coding agent can read the design directly
  • Native desktop builds for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows x64 and Linux, plus an npm CLI
  • Free with no credit card at time of check

Cons

  • No pricing at all yet, which means no commitment about what stays free
  • Very young — launched January 2026, so ecosystem, plugins and file-format stability are unproven
  • Local-first storage means collaboration is whatever your git workflow gives you, with no built-in review tooling

Selzee

The useful idea here is the research step - it looks at what is currently performing in your category before generating anything, rather than riffing off a product photo in isolation. Volume output of static ads for paid social is the target, and billing is monthly with a refund promise rather than an annual lock-in. Entry pricing is steep for a single brand, the credit allowance behind each plan is not published, and the terms explicitly exclude consumers, so solo sellers without a registered business are locked out.

Pros

  • Pulls trend and competitor signal from live ad formats before generating
  • Outputs sized for Meta, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest placements with one-click publishing
  • Edits a variant from a typed request instead of a template editor
  • Free start with no card and 25 ads, plus a full-refund promise on a batch with no winner

Cons

  • $75/month for a single brand is high compared with generic ad-creative tools
  • Tiers gate brand slots, so adding a second brand means a $200 jump
  • Monthly credit allowance per plan is not published on the pricing page
  • Terms restrict the service to registered business entities only
  • No API and no stated integration for pushing creative into ad managers automatically beyond its own publish button

Which one fits

Choose Pencil if you need

  • Solo developers and small teams where the same person designs and implements
  • Workflows where a coding agent generates the components and needs a design source it can read
  • Projects that want design state to branch and merge with the code

Choose Selzee if you need

  • DTC brands running continuous Meta and TikTok creative testing
  • Agencies managing creative for several brands under one account
  • Teams that want competitor research and generation in the same tool

Pencil vs Selzee: the questions people ask

Is Pencil cheaper than Selzee?

Pencil is free to use; Selzee starts at $75/mo.

Does Pencil or Selzee have a free tier?

Both: Pencil is free to use, and Selzee has a free tier.

More comparisons

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