Creatify custom templates and link-to-video APIs vs Sume Formats

Creatify's API index lists a Link to Video API that turns a link into a short-form video ad and a Custom Templates API that generates videos from templates and data inputs. A Sume Format is a saved production recipe you call by name: you send an instruction and an input object, and you get durable media plus, if you bind an output schema, a JSON object in a shape you define.

Creatify's side is from its API docs index, read 2026-10-03, and the full text. The index quotes credits per 30 seconds for both APIs; that pricing is not compared here. Sume's side is from Format API, Calling a Format, structured output and the Format catalog.

What does each surface take as input?

The Creatify index describes the two APIs in one line each, so their parameters are not known from the pages read here. The index does say the link API is aimed at turning a product link into an ad, and that templates are filled with data, which implies a fixed layout and variable content.

A Sume Format run takes a free-form input object by design. The catalog's GET /v1/formats/sume/{slug} returns an io profile that declares the input kind, one of url, text, image or product, and the output kind, one of video, image or text, which is the only declared contract between a Format's author and its callers. A Format also carries its own recipe, so the instruction can be short.

What do you get back?

Creatify's docs text says its major generation endpoints take an optional webhook_url, so results can be delivered without polling. Sume Formats offer the same choice: one signed format.run.terminal event when the run completes or fails, or reads of the run until status is terminal. You can use the webhook as the fast path and reads as a fallback.

The part that differs is the shape. A Format run returns primary_output_url, an artifacts[] list, and output. Bind an output_schema and output comes back as your object, for example a headline string and a SumeMediaFile for the video, with the URL gate checking that the URLs were produced by that run.

• Media URLs are durable media.sume.com URLs and do not expire.
• Every run has a spend cap, and a Format that names none carries the platform default of $400.
• Runs that make video take minutes, so design for the asynchronous path from the start.

When a template API is enough, and when a Format is

If you only need a fixed layout filled with product data, a template API with a fixed contract is the smaller thing to integrate. If your output needs judgment, such as choosing shots, writing a script from a product page, or producing several assets with a typed receipt, a Format moves that work into a recipe and gives you a schema to validate against.

Sume's catalog is the quick test. Read one with GET /v1/formats/sume/{slug}, look at its io profile and showcase example, and call it with a spend cap. If the showcase output is the thing you were going to build a template for, you have your answer in one call.