Brett Lindenberg
Spott.ai is still online. On October 1, 2026, spott.ai runs as a brand of Publitas, a Dutch company that makes digital catalogs, and its pricing page offers one enterprise plan that starts with a demo. A Belgian court appointed bankruptcy trustees for Spott NV, the company that built Spott, in March 2023, and the bankruptcy closed in June 2024. Buyers of Spott's lifetime plan on AppSumo reported that their accounts would close on July 5, 2024. If you need a replacement, match it to the jobs Spott did for you: clickable products in the frame, product cards, a path to the cart, and reports on what shoppers clicked.
What happened to Spott.ai?
We checked Spott's own pages, archived copies of them, and Belgian and EU public records on October 1, 2026.
| Date | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 to 2020 | Spott NV, based in Aalst, Belgium, coordinates an EU Horizon 2020 project on its interactive shopping and advertising platform. The spott.ai footer still cites this grant. | CORDIS project 823356 |
| From February 2021 | Spott sells a "Kickstarter Plan" with lifetime access through AppSumo. The deal page's first update is dated February 19, 2021. | AppSumo deal page |
| March 7, 2023 | A court appoints bankruptcy trustees for Spott NV. | Belgian company register (CBE) |
| May 2023 | spott.ai still lists self-serve plans with a free trial. | Archived pricing page, May 31, 2023 |
| September 2023 | spott.ai shows "by Publitas" in its header. Its pricing page now offers only "Spott.ai for Enterprise", priced after a demo. | Archived pricing page, September 28, 2023 |
| June 2024 | AppSumo buyers post reviews that quote a notice: their Spott.ai services would shut down on July 5, 2024. | Reviews on the AppSumo deal page |
| June 24, 2024 | The register records the bankruptcy procedure as closed and Spott NV as stopped. | Belgian company register (CBE) |
| October 1, 2026 | spott.ai is online "by Publitas", with a login page and enterprise pricing. Publitas's terms list Spott.ai among the platforms it operates, and its help center files the Spott articles under "Publitas Interactive". | spott.ai, Publitas terms of service, Publitas help center |
The first version of this article, from September 2024, said Spott.ai had shut down. That matched what lifetime-plan buyers reported at the time. The product itself continues under Publitas, so we have corrected the article. We found no public statement from Spott or Publitas about the July 2024 date.
What does Spott.ai do today?
Spott adds clickable layers to images, 360-degree images, PDF catalogs, videos, and ads, according to its home page and pricing page (checked October 1, 2026). Its pitch has four steps: inform, engage, collect, and sell. The pricing page, the feature pages on spott.ai, and the Publitas help center list these parts:
- Interactive templates, a custom hotspot creator, overlay templates, and video branching.
- A product library that can load from CSV product feeds. The pricing page lists an hourly refresh. Each product can carry a name, images, a link, a description, a price, and a discount (product fields).
- Publishing to WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Magento sites, and to social, email, and ad networks such as Google Display Network.
- Layers on top of the video player you already use, including YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Brightcove, and JW Player.
- VAST and VPAID tags for interactive in-stream video ads.
- HubSpot forms inside a layer.
- A dashboard that counts impressions, interactions, and clicks, with reports per media item and per product.
The case studies on spott.ai cover shoppable content that the publisher SAPO made for advertisers, and interactive Google display ads for Multipharma. If you search for "Spott interactive", you may also find Publitas Interactive, the name the Publitas help center now uses for the Spott product.
What Spott users need from an alternative
Start with an inventory of what Spott did for you, because Spott covered images, catalogs, and ads as well as video. If your Spott work was video, check a replacement against each job below.
Clickable products in the frame
A shoppable hotspot sits on the product itself. When the camera moves, the hotspot has to move with the product, or the shopper taps empty space. Spott calls this auto tracking. In Mindstamp, a hotspot has a Track motion setting that follows the object. Tracking needs a hotspot that shows for at least 3 seconds and does not pause the video, and it does not work on YouTube sources (hotspot setup guide). Our guide to hotspots in ecommerce product videos covers where to place them, how big to make them, and when to show them.
Product cards
A product card opens when the shopper clicks and shows the product and its price, with a button to buy. Spott builds cards from its product library. In Mindstamp, the Show Card click action opens an info, media, or product card with text, an image, and one or more action buttons. A product card also has a price line, and one of its actions can add the item to a Shopify cart.
Product data that stays current
Spott can pull products from a CSV feed on a schedule (product feed setup), so prices change without manual edits. Ask any alternative where its product data comes from. Mindstamp has no product feed import. Its Shopify Add to Cart action picks products and variants from your connected store, but you type the text and price on each product card. For a large catalog with frequent price changes, decide who updates the cards, or link to the product page and let your store show the price.
A path to checkout
Decide where the purchase happens before you compare tools. With the Mindstamp Shopify integration, a hotspot can add a product to a cart inside the player, and the shopper pays in your Shopify checkout. Buy now sends the shopper straight to checkout with that one product (setup steps). For other stores, link the hotspot to the product page or to the store’s add-to-cart URL. Our interactive shoppable video guide compares a cart in the player with checkout inside TikTok Shop and with YouTube product tags.
Reports that connect clicks to sales
Spott's dashboard counts impressions, interactions (a hover or a tap), and clicks. Mindstamp stores every click against the viewer who made it, with the interaction and its timecode, so you see which product drew the click and at what moment (how reporting works). Shopify carts made in Mindstamp carry the attributes Mindstamp Video, Mindstamp Play ID, and Mindstamp Interaction ID, so each order shows which video and which hotspot started it. To send clicks to your own analytics, the embedded player posts JavaScript events to your page on Core and higher plans (event guide).
The channels and media you publish to
List every place your Spott content ran. Spott can add its layer to the player you already use. Mindstamp plays the video in its own player and reads the file from an upload, Vimeo, Wistia, S3, or other sources, so your embed code changes. YouTube links in Mindstamp are for testing only. If you used Spott for interactive images, 360-degree photos, or PDF catalogs, Mindstamp does not cover them, and it does not produce VAST or VPAID ad tags. Publitas, which runs Spott, also sells interactive digital catalogs.
A plan you can buy, and a way out
Spott's pricing page lists only an enterprise plan, priced after a demo. If you want to start small, check whether the alternative has self-serve plans and a trial. Mindstamp's plans are on the pricing page, and the free trial lasts 14 days with no payment card. With any vendor, get written answers on how you export your data and what happens to your content if you cancel or the company is sold. At Mindstamp, videos stay viewable until the end of the period you paid for after you cancel, and views and interactions export as CSV files, so export what you need before you leave.
How to evaluate a Spott alternative
Use this table to compare Spott, Mindstamp, and any other tool on your list. The last column is the test to run during a trial or demo.
| Requirement | Spott | Mindstamp | What to test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Media types | Images, 360-degree images, PDFs and catalogs, videos, ads | Video only | Every media type you published with Spott |
| Product hotspots | Custom hotspot creator, auto tracking in video | Hotspots with Track motion, except on YouTube sources | Track a product that crosses the frame, then tap it on a phone |
| Product details | Product library with images, price, discount, and custom fields | Product cards with an image, text, a price, and action buttons | Open a card on a phone and add the item to the cart |
| Product data | CSV product feeds with an hourly refresh | Shopify products and variants for Add to Cart; card text entered by hand | Change a price in your store and see where it updates |
| Checkout | Add-to-cart templates; publishing to Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Magento sites | Shopify cart in the player; product or add-to-cart links for other stores | Add two products, check out, and find the video on the order |
| Lead forms | HubSpot forms in a layer | Lead capture forms in the video; HubSpot on Pro and higher plans | Submit a test lead and find it in your CRM |
| Reports | Impressions, interactions, and clicks per media item and per product | Each click by viewer, interaction, and timecode; Shopify order attributes | Click two products in a test view and find both clicks |
| Ad formats | VAST and VPAID tags, Google display templates | Not offered | Skip this row if you do not run in-stream ads |
| Buying | Enterprise plan after a demo | Self-serve plans with a 14-day trial; custom Enterprise plan | Get the export process and cancellation terms in writing |
Where Mindstamp fits, and where it does not
Mindstamp is an interactive video platform. It fits Spott users whose interactive content was mostly video and who want to add any of these:
- Questions that lead a shopper to the right product, with video branching, or with conditional logic on supported plans.
- A form in the video that captures a lead and keeps the answers with the viewer (lead capture).
- A Shopify cart inside the player.
- Reports by viewer, in place of totals by media item.
To see a shoppable Mindstamp video, try the recipe cookware example, where viewers click a pan and add it to a demo cart, or the packable jacket example, where hotspots on three parts of the jacket open detail scenes. The shoppable video use case shows how the pieces fit together.
If most of your Spott work was interactive images, catalogs, or display ads, Mindstamp is the wrong replacement for that work. Compare tools built for each format. Our Mindstamp vs Spott comparison sets the two side by side, lists the sources we used, and explains how we review a move from Spott.
How to move from Spott to another tool
- Find every page that loads Spott. Spott's embed and player scripts load from static.spott.ai, and its image layers use a
data-spott-idattribute, so search your site templates and CMS for both. - Collect the source material: the original video files, your product feed URL, and the text and links in each layer. If you still have access to Spott, record the clicks per product as a baseline.
- Rebuild one video first. Recreate its hotspots, cards, and cart actions, then test it on a phone in a private browser window.
- Replace the embed on the page and remove the Spott script, so the page stops loading code it no longer uses.
- When the new video has enough traffic to compare, check its clicks per product against your baseline. Then move the next video.
Common questions about Spott
Is Spott.ai still in business?
Yes, as a Publitas brand. On October 1, 2026, spott.ai was online with a login page and an enterprise pricing page. Spott NV, the original Belgian company, closed its bankruptcy in June 2024, and the Belgian company register lists it as stopped.
Who owns Spott now?
Publitas.com B.V., based in Leiden, the Netherlands. Its consolidated terms of service list Spott.ai among the platforms it operates, next to its catalog and flyer brands.
What happened to Spott lifetime deals?
AppSumo marks the Spott Kickstarter Plan as sold out. Buyer reviews on the deal page from June 2024 quote a notice that their Spott.ai services would end on July 5, 2024. For questions about an account, contact Publitas through spott.ai.
What is Publitas Interactive?
It is the name the Publitas help center uses for the Spott product. Its articles still describe the Spott Studio, product feeds, and the video player integrations.
Is Mindstamp a Spott alternative for images or catalogs?
No. Mindstamp works only on video. For interactive images, PDF catalogs, or ad tags, keep Spott or choose a tool built for that format.
What are the alternatives to Mindstamp?
To sell inside social apps, use TikTok Shop or YouTube product tags. To tag products across images, catalogs, and ads, a cross-media tool such as Spott fits better. For hosting and live streaming, a video host such as Vimeo is the stronger choice, and some teams run Mindstamp on top of it. Our comparison pages say when each tool fits better than Mindstamp.
To start, list every Spott project you still run, with its media type and the job it does. Move the video projects first, test one rebuilt video on a phone, and compare its product clicks with what Spott reported before you move the rest.
