Laguna by Poolside vs MakeUGC: Features, Pricing & Which Is Better (2026)
A side-by-side comparison of Laguna by Poolside and MakeUGC — features, pricing, and ideal use cases — to help you decide which AI tool fits your workflow.
Laguna by Poolside
Poolside
Poolside's family of open Mixture-of-Experts foundation models for agentic coding — XS.2 runs locally, M.1 reaches 72.5% on SWE-bench Verified.
Key features
- Two Model Sizes: Laguna XS.2 (33B total / 3B active) and Laguna M.1 (225B total / 23B active) target different latency and capability needs.
- Mixture-of-Experts Architecture: Routes each token through a subset of experts for efficiency at large scale.
- Local Deployment: XS.2 is small enough to run on a Mac with 36 GB of RAM via Ollama under an Apache 2.0 license.
- Strong SWE-bench Results: XS.2 hits 68.2% and M.1 reaches 72.5% on SWE-bench Verified.
- Bundled Coding Agent: Ships 'pool,' a lightweight terminal-based coding agent.
- Agent Client Protocol: Includes a dual ACP client-server used internally for agent RL training and evaluation.
Best for
- Local Agentic Coding: Running XS.2 on a laptop for private, offline code generation and editing.
- High-Capability Code Tasks: Using M.1 for harder, long-horizon software engineering work.
- Self-Hosted Deployments: Building on open weights to avoid third-party API dependencies.
- Research & Fine-Tuning: Adapting permissively licensed weights for custom coding workflows.
- Benchmarking: Evaluating agentic coding performance against SWE-bench Verified and Pro.
MakeUGC
MakeUGC
Create authentic-looking UGC videos by writing a script, choosing actors, and generating platform-optimized videos in minutes.
Key features
- Rapid UGC Production: Converts a written or auto-generated script and chosen presenter into a finished UGC video in roughly two minutes, drastically reducing production turnaround.
- Large Avatar Library: Provides 200+ customizable human presenter avatars to match brand tone, demographics, and creative direction with adjustable appearance and delivery.
- AI Script Generation & Optimization: Generates scripts optimized for virality using trending hooks and platform-specific best practices to improve engagement and conversion.
- One-Click Localization: Automatically localizes scripts and outputs to different languages and regional formats for global campaigns with minimal manual effort.
- Audience & Product Analysis: Analyzes product details, target audience, and campaign goals to tailor messaging, tone, and creative hooks for better relevance.
- Platform-Optimized Formatting: Exports videos formatted and optimized for social platforms (TikTok, Instagram, ad placements) including aspect ratio and pacing adjustments.
- Naturalistic Delivery Modeling: Produces realistic presenter delivery by modeling natural pauses, minor imperfections, and organic framing to mimic authentic UGC.
- Generate AI UGC videos (product-in-hand, presenter/host formats)
- 150+ customizable avatars/presenters
- Auto script generation optimized for ads/hooks
- Ad Toolkit for creating platform-optimized ads
- Monthly or annual subscription with video allotments
- Video licensing included
- Localization / multi-language support
- Cancel-anytime subscriptions; support via help@makeugc.ai
- Automated script generation optimized for virality and platform performance
- Library of 200+ customizable human avatars/presenters
- One-click localization for multi-market campaigns
- Platform-optimized formatting for TikTok, Instagram and ads
- Product and audience analysis to tailor content and hooks
- Fast generation workflow producing videos in minutes
- Naturalistic delivery with pauses and imperfections to mimic organic UGC
- Output suitable for scaled campaigns and A/B testing
Best for
- Scaling ad creative production: Rapidly generate dozens or hundreds of UGC-style ad variations for A/B testing without scheduling real shoots.
- E-commerce product campaigns: Replace costly shoots by producing influencer-style product demos and testimonials that match brand voice.
- Global campaign localization: Localize top-performing creatives across regions and languages with one-click translation and localized presenters.
- Social-first content creation: Produce platform-optimized short-form videos (TikTok, Reels, Stories) with trending hooks and formatting.
- Performance marketing iteration: Quickly create variant videos to iterate on hooks, CTAs, and presenter styles to improve conversion rates.
- Content supply for marketplaces: Provide sellers and marketing teams with consistent, on-demand UGC assets for listings, ads, and social feeds.
- Scale paid social ad creative with rapid UGC-style videos
- Create localized variants of ad creatives across languages
- Produce product-in-hand and demo-style short ads for ecommerce
- Generate many ad variants for A/B testing and performance marketing
- E-commerce product ads replacing traditional UGC shoots to reduce production costs
- Social media ad campaigns (TikTok, Instagram, Reels) with platform-optimized creatives
- Global campaigns requiring rapid localization of video content
- Brands and agencies generating scalable influencer-style content for performance marketing
- A/B testing different hooks, presenters, and scripts at scale