Most people looking for an AdSense alternative are in one of two situations. Either AdSense turned them down, or AdSense approved them and the money turned out to be disappointing.
The second group is much larger now than it used to be. AdSense stopped paying per click in early 2024 and started paying per impression instead, which removed the one thing that made small, high-intent sites viable. A site with a few thousand visitors and an audience that clicked could once earn real money. Now the same site earns whatever its impressions are worth, which is not much.
At the same time the networks that used to be out of reach came down to meet you. Raptive cut its entry requirement by 75 percent. Mediavine dropped its entry program to 1,000 monthly sessions. Both changes happened because search traffic has been falling across the whole industry and the networks would rather sign a smaller site than sign nothing.
This post was first published in 2016. Almost none of it survived. Five of the original fifteen networks have shut down, one was quietly killed by Amazon, and the two best options available today did not accept sites your size back then. Everything below reflects what is actually running in 2026.
The short version
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Best if you have any traffic at all: Journey by Mediavine. It starts at 1,000 monthly sessions, which is the lowest real bar of any quality network.
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Best once you pass 25,000 pageviews: Raptive. Highest RPMs in the business, and it now accepts sites four times smaller than it did in 2024.
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Best managed option in between: Monumetric, from 10,000 pageviews.
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Best straight swap for AdSense: Media.net. Same idea, same effort, different advertiser pool. No traffic minimum.
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Best for non tier-one traffic: Adsterra. Takes almost anyone, pays from $5, and works with audiences the premium networks will not touch.
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Best if you sell directly: BuySellAds, or just sell sponsorships yourself and keep everything.
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Do not bother with: Ezoic, unless you have 250,000 monthly users. It raised its minimum in February 2026 and is no longer an option for small sites.
Quick comparison
| Network | Entry requirement | Payout threshold | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Journey by Mediavine | 1,000 monthly sessions | $25 | Small sites that want a real upgrade |
| Mediavine | $5,000 annual ad revenue | $25 | Established content sites |
| Raptive | 25,000 monthly pageviews | $25 | Sites with mostly US, UK, CA, AU, NZ traffic |
| Monumetric | 10,000 monthly pageviews | $10 | The gap between AdSense and Mediavine |
| Media.net | No hard minimum | $100 | English content, tier-one audience |
| Sovrn Ad Management | No hard minimum | $25 | Small sites wanting a second demand source |
| Newor Media | Around 30,000 monthly visits | $50 | Managed service without the big-network wait |
| Setupad | Around 100,000 monthly visitors | €100 | European publishers, header bidding |
| Ezoic | 250,000 monthly users | $20 | Large sites and web apps only |
| Publift | 500,000 pageviews or $2,000 monthly ad revenue | Varies | Larger publishers wanting a managed partner |
| Adsterra | None | $5 | Global or non tier-one traffic |
| Infolinks | None | $50 | Extra revenue layered on top of display ads |
| BuySellAds | Approval based on quality | $20 | Selling space directly to advertisers |
Numbers move. Every network on this list changed something in the last eighteen months, so treat the table as a starting point and check the network’s own page before you apply.
How these were ranked
Four things decided the order:
- Can you actually join it? A network with brilliant RPMs and a 500,000 pageview minimum is not an alternative for most people reading this. Accessibility counts.
- Does it beat AdSense? Several popular “alternatives” pay less than AdSense and exist mainly because they approve anyone. Those are further down, with the reason stated.
- What it costs your readers. Pop-unders and push notifications earn money. They also drive people away and can get your site flagged. That is a real cost, not a footnote.
- Is the company stable? Half the networks in the original version of this post are gone. Ownership, funding, and how long they have been paying publishers all matter.
1. Journey by Mediavine (best overall path, and the easiest to join)
Best for: content sites that plan to keep growing, at almost any current size.
- Entry: 1,000 monthly sessions for Journey, $5,000 annual ad revenue for full Mediavine
- Revenue share: 70 percent on Journey
- Payout: $25, net 65 days
- Requirement: the Grow plugin must be installed
Mediavine changed its rules on 15 January 2026, and the change matters more than anything else in this post.
The old rule was 50,000 monthly sessions. That number defined the ceiling for a generation of site owners, and most never reached it. It is gone. Full Mediavine now asks for $5,000 in annual ad revenue instead, which is a revenue test rather than a traffic test. The logic is that revenue tells you whether an audience is worth premium advertiser demand, and raw session counts stopped telling you that once AI started inflating pageviews on low quality sites.
Underneath that sits Journey, which is where most readers of this post will start. Journey now accepts sites with 1,000 monthly sessions. Not 50,000. Not 10,000, which was the Journey requirement until January. One thousand. Once your site earns $5,000 in ad revenue over twelve months, it moves up to full Mediavine automatically.
The catch is that sessions have to be tracked through Mediavine’s Grow plugin, because that is how they verify your traffic and engagement. Some people find Grow heavy, and it is a fair complaint. You are trading a bit of page weight for access.
What it does well
- The lowest genuine entry point of any quality network, by a wide margin
- Automatic upgrade path, so you do not reapply as you grow
- Consistently among the highest RPMs available to independent site owners
- Strong support reputation and a large community you can ask questions in
Where it falls short
RPMs are lowest in your first month because the system is still learning your audience. A lot of people quit at week three and conclude Journey does not work. Compare it to AdSense at the three month mark, not week one.
It is also niche-sensitive. Food, parenting, and lifestyle sites do noticeably better than tech and gaming sites, partly because tech audiences use ad blockers more heavily. If you run a tech blog, expect a smaller gap over AdSense than the case studies suggest.
2. Raptive (best RPMs once you qualify)
Best for: sites with at least a quarter of a million pageviews a year and a mostly English-speaking, tier-one audience.
- Entry: 25,000 monthly pageviews
- Extra rule: sites between 25,000 and 99,999 pageviews need at least 50 percent of traffic from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand
- Payout: $25
- Notice period: 90 days to cancel
Raptive, which most people still know as AdThrive, dropped its requirement from 100,000 monthly pageviews to 25,000 in October 2025. It also retired the Rise program and folded everyone into a single tier called Insider. That is a 75 percent cut to the bar, and the company said plainly why: pageviews stopped being a reliable measure of quality when AI content started generating inflated traffic and algorithm updates started moving numbers overnight.
What you get in exchange for qualifying is the closest thing to a done-for-you setup. Raptive designs your ad layout, runs the auctions, handles the consent management platform, manages ads.txt, and deals with ad block recovery. You paste some JavaScript and stop thinking about it.
What it does well
- Generally the highest RPMs available to independent publishers
- Full service, so there is nothing for you to optimize
- Direct sold campaigns from brands that will not buy through AdSense
- Referral bonuses if you bring other site owners in
Where it falls short
Raptive is selective about who it accepts and openly says so. Meeting the pageview number is necessary but not sufficient. They want original, human-written content, and the majority of your pages should be long form.
Ad density is high by design, and you give up control over placement. If you care deeply about how your site looks, this will bother you. There is also a 90 day cancellation notice, which is worth knowing before you sign.
3. Monumetric (best managed option in the gap)
Best for: sites between roughly 10,000 and 80,000 monthly pageviews that want a managed service now.
- Entry: 10,000 monthly pageviews (Propel tier)
- Revenue share: 70 percent at Propel, up to 80 percent at higher tiers
- Setup fee: $99 one time under 80,000 pageviews, waived above that
- Payout: $10, net 60
Monumetric occupies the position it has always occupied: too big for AdSense, not yet ready for the premium networks. That gap got narrower after the Mediavine and Raptive changes, but Monumetric still has two things going for it.
The first is that it publishes its revenue share, which almost nobody in this industry does. You know exactly what you are giving up. The second is that it measures pageviews rather than sessions, which is a slightly easier bar to clear than Mediavine’s old session count, and it is more relaxed about where your traffic comes from geographically.
The tiers are Propel (10,000 to 80,000 pageviews), Ascend (80,000 to 500,000), Stratos (500,000 to 10 million), and Apollo above that.
What it does well
- Transparent about revenue share, which is rare
- Real human onboarding and account support at a size where most networks give you a help centre
- More flexible about international traffic than Raptive
- Pageview-based, which is friendlier than a session count
Where it falls short
The $99 setup fee at the entry tier stings when you are earning very little. There are structural requirements too: WordPress or Blogger, a sidebar at least 300 pixels wide, and at least six ad slots on both mobile and desktop. Six ad slots is a lot of ads, and on a slim block theme you may have to redesign to fit them.
Waiting lists have historically been long. Apply before you need it.
4. Media.net (the closest thing to a straight swap)
Best for: English-language sites with a US, UK, or Canadian audience that want a second contextual network.
- Entry: no published minimum, but approval requires quality content and tier-one traffic
- Payout: $100
- Ad types: contextual display, native, the display-to-search unit
Media.net is powered by the Yahoo and Bing advertiser pool and works the way AdSense works: it reads your page and shows ads related to what is on it. If you liked AdSense conceptually and just want different demand behind it, this is the closest match on the list.
Its distinctive format is the display-to-search unit, which looks like a small block of search results inside your content. Click-through tends to be higher than a standard banner because it does not read like a banner.
Contextual targeting also aged well. As tracking cookies disappeared, networks that match ads to the page rather than to the person became more valuable rather than less.
What it does well
- No hard traffic minimum, so a smaller site can realistically get in
- Works alongside AdSense rather than replacing it, if you want both
- Strong in finance, technology, and travel, where the Bing advertiser pool is deep
- Contextual approach that does not depend on tracking
Where it falls short
Performance falls off sharply outside tier-one, English-speaking traffic. If most of your visitors are in South Asia, Africa, or Latin America, fill rates and CPMs will disappoint you, and Media.net is better treated as a supplement than a main earner.
The $100 payout threshold is high for a small site, and approval is manual and not fast.
5. Sovrn Ad Management (easiest second demand source)
Best for: small sites that want more advertisers competing for the same ad slot without changing anything else.
- Entry: no hard minimum, approval by manual site review
- Payout: $25, one of the lowest in the industry
- Also offers: Sovrn Commerce, the affiliate link tool that used to be VigLink
Sovrn is an ad exchange rather than a managed service, which means it plugs extra demand into your existing setup instead of taking over your site. For a smaller publisher that is an easier decision than switching networks entirely.
It is also the home of what used to be VigLink. Sovrn Commerce still turns ordinary product mentions into affiliate links automatically. Worth knowing: Amazon cut third party affiliate networks like Sovrn and Skimlinks out of its program back in 2020, so this covers everything except Amazon.
What it does well
- Genuinely accessible, with judgment based on site quality rather than a number
- $25 threshold means you actually get paid
- Ad management and affiliate commerce from one account
- Sits alongside your existing ads rather than replacing them
Where it falls short
RPMs are modest. Sovrn is a supplement, not a step change, and if you are expecting Mediavine numbers you will be let down. Payment terms are slower than most.
6. Newor Media (managed service without the queue)
Best for: sites around 30,000 monthly visits that want hands-on management sooner than the big networks will give it.
- Entry: around 30,000 monthly visits, though this is not published firmly
- Payout: $50, net 30
- Model: header bidding across multiple demand partners
Newor Media is a managed header bidding service, which means it runs an auction among several ad networks for each ad slot and serves whichever bid is highest. AdSense, Criteo, GumGum, Outbrain, Revcontent, and others end up competing for the same space.
It is a reasonable pick if you are stuck: past AdSense, not yet at Raptive, and not keen on Monumetric’s setup fee or six-slot requirement.
What it does well
- Header bidding without you having to understand header bidding
- Net 30 payment, faster than most managed networks
- Responsive support relative to company size
- No setup fee
Where it falls short
It is a smaller company with a smaller demand pool than Mediavine or Raptive, and the ceiling is correspondingly lower. Some of its highest-earning formats, particularly interstitials, are the ones readers dislike most. You can turn them off, but your RPM drops when you do.
The traffic requirement is not officially published, which makes planning around it awkward. Ask them directly.
7. Setupad (best for European publishers)
Best for: sites with around 100,000 monthly visitors, particularly in Europe.
- Entry: around 100,000 monthly visitors, tier one preferred
- Payout: €100
- Options: fully managed, or a self-serve header bidding wrapper
Setupad connects your inventory to a large set of supply-side platforms and runs a real-time auction across all of them. You can hand it over completely or run the self-serve version and keep control.
Its strength is European demand and European compliance. GDPR handling and consent management come built in rather than bolted on, and there is a WordPress plugin for the integration. Revenue share is on the generous side and there is no lock-in contract.
What it does well
- Deep European advertiser demand, where US-focused networks are weak
- Choice between managed and self-serve
- Consent management included at no extra cost
- No contract lock-in
Where it falls short
The 100,000 visitor requirement rules out most sites reading this post. The €100 payout threshold is high, and if your audience is mainly American you will probably do better with Raptive.
8. Ezoic (only if you are large now)
Best for: sites with 250,000 or more monthly users. Everyone else should skip this entry.
- Entry: 250,000 monthly users for new sites, as of 19 February 2026
- Payout: $20
- Model: AI-driven testing of ad layouts and placements
Ezoic spent a decade as the answer to “I am too small for everything else.” That is over.
On 19 February 2026, Ezoic raised its minimum for new publishers to 250,000 monthly users. The Access Now program that let small sites in through a self-serve course no longer serves that purpose for new applicants. Publishers already using Ezoic before that date are grandfathered in regardless of size, but with a condition: if a grandfathered site removes the Ezoic integration for more than seven days, that status is void permanently. Any new site added to an existing account after February must meet the 250,000 bar on its own.
If you were about to sign up for Ezoic on the strength of an older blog post, that is the single most important thing on this page.
For sites that do qualify, the product is still good. Ezoic automatically tests ad sizes, positions, and formats against each other and keeps whatever earns most, and its Leap tool works on page speed at the same time.
What it does well
- Automated testing that genuinely finds layouts a human would not try
- Detailed revenue and engagement analytics
- Page speed tooling alongside monetization
- High revenue share
Where it falls short
The requirement change makes it irrelevant to most independent site owners now. Ezoic also wants exclusive control of your ad environment, which means removing every other ad code from the site. And its optimization decisions sometimes favour revenue over how your pages look, in ways you may not enjoy.
9. Publift (best for larger publishers wanting a partner)
Best for: sites at 500,000 pageviews or already earning $2,000 a month from ads.
- Entry: 500,000 monthly pageviews or $2,000 monthly ad revenue
- Model: managed programmatic through its Fuse platform
- Revenue share: around 20 percent
Publift is a managed programmatic partner that connects your inventory to thirty or more demand sources and reports on the results by page, device, geography, and ad unit. It is aimed at publishers who have outgrown self-serve tools and want an ad ops team without hiring one.
It is on this list for completeness rather than because most readers will qualify. If you meet the requirement, it is a credible alternative to Raptive with more granular reporting and a clearer view of where money comes from.
What it does well
- Genuine ad ops expertise applied to your site
- Transparent reporting by page and placement
- Strong outside the US, including Australia and Asia Pacific
Where it falls short
The entry bar is the highest here. Onboarding takes time, and you are committing to a relationship rather than pasting a script.
10. Adsterra (best for traffic nobody else wants)
Best for: sites with global, non tier-one, or high-volume traffic that premium networks decline.
- Entry: none
- Payout: $5, twice a month
- Formats: popunder, in-page push, interstitial, social bar, display, video
Adsterra approves quickly, has no traffic minimum, and pays from $5 through PayPal, wire, local bank transfer, and crypto. If your audience is in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, or Latin America, this is one of very few networks where those visitors are worth something.
Now the honest part, and please read it before you sign up.
Adsterra’s highest-earning formats are popunders and push notifications. These are the formats that open a window your reader did not ask for. They make money. They also drive people away, and if your goal is building an audience that comes back, they work directly against that. Reviews also include accounts of sudden suspensions and traffic quality reviews at payout time, which is common across networks in this segment.
Use Adsterra where the maths is clear: high-volume, low-intent, non tier-one traffic that no premium network will monetize. Do not put popunders on a site you are trying to build a reputation with.
What it does well
- No traffic requirement and approval in minutes
- $5 threshold and payment twice a month
- Actually monetizes tier-two and tier-three traffic
- Many payment options, useful outside the US and EU
Where it falls short
The aggressive formats damage the reader experience and, over time, the site. Ad quality is inconsistent. Account reviews and holds are a recurring theme in publisher reviews. Monetag and PopAds occupy roughly the same territory with the same trade-offs.
11. Infolinks (extra revenue on top, not instead)
Best for: layering additional income onto a site that already runs display ads.
- Entry: none
- Payout: $50
- Formats: in-text, in-frame, in-tag, overlays
Infolinks turns words in your content into ad links and fills otherwise unused space around your layout. Because it does not compete for standard banner slots, you can run it alongside another network.
It has been around a long time and still accepts anyone, which is its main appeal for a new site that cannot get in anywhere else.
What it does well
- No traffic requirement and instant approval
- Uses space your other ads are not using
- Simple setup, one script
Where it falls short
Earnings are low unless your traffic is very large. In-text ads that underline words in your writing are intrusive in a specific way readers notice, and heavy use makes a site feel cheap. Treat it as a small extra layer, not a plan.
12. BuySellAds (best for selling space yourself)
Best for: sites with a defined audience that advertisers specifically want to reach.
- Entry: approval based on quality and audience, not a fixed number
- Payout: $20
- Model: marketplace connecting you to advertisers directly
BuySellAds is not an ad network in the auction sense. It is a marketplace where advertisers buy space on your site directly, at a price you set, and it takes a cut of the transaction.
This is the highest-value model on the list when it works, because you are not selling impressions at whatever the auction decides, you are selling access to a specific audience at a price you name. A niche site with 20,000 engaged readers in one industry can charge more for a sponsorship than the same site would earn from a month of programmatic ads.
It also generalizes. You do not need BuySellAds to sell directly. You need a rate card, a media kit, and a page saying you accept sponsors.
What it does well
- Best revenue per visitor of anything here, when there is demand for your audience
- No dependence on ad tech, tracking, or auction dynamics
- Ad blockers do not affect directly served sponsorships
- You control what appears on your site
Where it falls short
Getting approved is harder than AdSense, not easier, and it is not a fallback for a rejected AdSense application. Income is lumpy: a good month and an empty month look very different. And it takes actual sales work, which is the reason most people stay on programmatic ads.
Native ad networks (the “you might also like” boxes)
These are not replacements for AdSense. They are a different format that runs alongside your display ads, in the recommendation strip below your content. Worth knowing because the earnings sit on top of what you already make rather than instead of it.
Taboola is the biggest, and it wants around a million monthly pageviews. Payout threshold $100. Not realistic for most sites.
Outbrain bought Teads in 2025 and now trades under the Teads name, though the underlying engine is still Outbrain’s. There is no published traffic minimum, but onboarding is handled by a salesperson, which tells you they are looking for sites large enough to justify the effort.
MGID is the accessible one. It asks for roughly 3,000 daily unique visitors, or about 90,000 a month, and approves within a day or two. Revenue share goes up to around 65 percent.
Revcontent sits in between at around 50,000 monthly visits, and says openly on its own homepage that it rejects the large majority of applicants.
The honest trade-off with all four: the ads in these widgets are frequently low quality, and readers have learned what those boxes are. Test with a real eye on whether people still come back.
Video ad networks (highest CPMs, and you do not need videos)
Video pays better than display, sometimes several times better. The reason more sites do not use it is a misunderstanding: you do not need to make videos.
Outstream video ads play inside your article text, in a player that appears where a banner would go. The network supplies both the player and the content.
Primis gives you a video player plus a recommendation engine that pulls contextually relevant videos from its own library. Your text article gets a video revenue stream with nothing produced by you. It generally wants around 200,000 monthly pageviews, though this varies by region.
Aniview does not enforce a strict traffic minimum, which makes it the accessible option for smaller sites wanting to test video.
Teads invented the inRead outstream format and is still the reference point for it, now under the merged Outbrain business.
If you already run Mediavine or Raptive, video is included in what they do and you should not add a separate video network on top. This is for people on AdSense, Media.net, or a self-managed setup.
The thing to watch is page speed. A video player is the heaviest thing you can put on a page. Lazy load it so it only requests when a reader scrolls near it, and check your Core Web Vitals a fortnight later.
Networks that used to be on this list
If you read an older version of this post, several recommendations are gone. Here is what happened to them, so you are not searching for something that no longer exists.
Chitika shut down in 2019.
Amazon Native Shopping Ads was discontinued in September 2023, and existing units stopped working immediately. Amazon Associates itself still runs, so plain affiliate links are unaffected. Amazon Publisher Services exists but is aimed at much larger publishers and has cut off access without notice before.
Kontera is gone.
Adengage is gone.
Adbuff is no longer operating.
VigLink was acquired by Sovrn and is now Sovrn Commerce. It still works, minus Amazon, which cut third party affiliate networks out of its program in 2020.
Skimlinks was bought by Connexity, which was then bought by Taboola. It is still running under Taboola ownership, with the same Amazon exclusion.
BidVertiser, Adversal, and RevenueHits are still around but sit in the same category as Adsterra, with the same trade-offs and lower volume. Adsterra covers that ground better.
Alternatives that are not ad networks at all
The framing of this post, “which network do I use instead of AdSense,” is worth questioning. Display advertising is one way to earn from a website, and in 2026 it is not obviously the best one for a small site.
Affiliate content. One affiliate sale can be worth several months of display revenue on a small site. If you write about products, tools, or services, comparison and review content usually earns more per visitor than any ad network on this list.
Direct sponsorships. Covered under BuySellAds above, but you can do it without a marketplace. One sponsor paying a fixed monthly fee beats a month of programmatic ads on most niche sites, and it does not slow your pages down.
Your own product. A template, a course, a plugin, a paid newsletter. The economics are completely different because there is no middleman taking 30 percent.
Newsletter ads. If you have an email list, that inventory is often worth more per subscriber than your site is per visitor, because the audience is verified and the ads are not blocked.
AI content licensing. This is genuinely new. A set of companies now sit between publishers and AI companies. TollBit charges AI bots for access to your content and lets you set your own rates. ProRata, through its Gist products, shares advertising revenue from AI-generated answers that cite your work, on a 50/50 split weighted by how much your content contributed. Microsoft announced a Publisher Content Marketplace in February 2026. Cloudflare has entered the same space.
Be realistic about this last one. The economics are unproven, most of these companies are venture funded and could be acquired by the same technology firms they exist to protect you from, and the meaningful money so far has gone to large publishers. But if AI answers are the reason your traffic is falling, it is worth understanding rather than ignoring.
Which one should you pick?
Match the network to where your site actually is right now.
- Under 1,000 monthly sessions. No display network will earn you meaningful money at this size, including AdSense. Focus on growth, and if you want to earn something now, affiliate links or a small digital product will beat ads.
- 1,000 to 10,000 monthly sessions. Journey by Mediavine. This is the single biggest change in the industry since your last read of this post, and it is aimed exactly at you.
- 10,000 to 25,000 monthly pageviews. Journey, or Monumetric if you want managed support and can absorb the $99 setup fee.
- 25,000 pageviews and up, mostly US, UK, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand traffic. Raptive. Apply.
- Good traffic, but mostly outside those countries. Media.net if your content is in English, Adsterra if the volume is high and the intent is low, and think seriously about affiliate content instead.
- Rejected by AdSense, and you want approval today. Adsterra and Infolinks approve almost immediately with no traffic minimum. Media.net and Sovrn take longer but review your site properly, which means a better class of advertiser if you get in. Be aware that AdSense rejection usually means thin content or too few pages, and fixing that will earn you more than finding a network with a lower bar.
- You are on Blogger or Blogspot rather than WordPress. Fewer options, but not none. Media.net, Infolinks, Adsterra, and Sovrn all work with a pasted script, which is all Blogger lets you do. Monumetric explicitly supports Blogger alongside WordPress, which makes it the only managed network on this list you can realistically reach. Mediavine and Raptive both need plugin-level integration, so Blogger is effectively a ceiling. If display income matters to you long term, moving to self-hosted WordPress is the change that unlocks everything else here.
- Most of your traffic is from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, or similar markets. The uncomfortable answer is that display advertising pays a fraction of what it pays for US and UK visitors, and no network fixes that. Media.net and the premium networks will either reject you or fill poorly. Adsterra and Monetag will monetize the traffic, at a cost to the reader experience. The larger win is usually affiliate content aimed at local buyers, or selling directly to advertisers who specifically want that audience, because they will pay far more than an auction will.
- You have an engaged niche audience. Sell sponsorships directly. It is more work and it pays several times better.
You can run more than one. AdSense plus Media.net, or a display network plus Infolinks, are normal combinations. What you cannot do is run two managed networks like Mediavine and Raptive at once, and Ezoic requires exclusivity by contract.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AdSense alternative in 2026?
For most independent sites, Journey by Mediavine. It accepts sites at 1,000 monthly sessions, pays a 70 percent revenue share, and upgrades automatically to full Mediavine once the site earns $5,000 in annual ad revenue. Raptive is better once you pass 25,000 monthly pageviews with mainly tier-one traffic.
Which AdSense alternative has no traffic requirement?
Media.net, Sovrn, Infolinks, and Adsterra all accept sites without a published traffic minimum. Media.net and Sovrn still review your site for quality. Adsterra approves almost anyone but relies on formats that hurt the reader experience.
Can I use AdSense and another ad network at the same time?
Yes. Google allows other ad networks on the same page. Media.net, Infolinks, and Sovrn are all designed to run alongside AdSense. The exceptions are managed networks: Mediavine, Raptive, and Ezoic take over your ad setup, and Ezoic specifically requires you to remove all other ad code.
Why did my AdSense earnings drop even though traffic stayed the same?
Two likely causes. AdSense changed from paying per click to paying per impression in early 2024, so a site with a high click rate and modest traffic lost the thing that was earning it money. Separately, sites earning per impression need volume, and AI answers in search results mean fewer people click through to read the page in the first place.
Do I need to remove AdSense before applying to Mediavine or Raptive?
No. Apply while running AdSense. Both networks will tell you when to remove the code as part of onboarding. Keep earning until then.
Is Ezoic still worth it for a small site?
No. As of 19 February 2026, Ezoic requires 250,000 monthly users from new publishers. Sites that joined before that date keep access regardless of size, but only if the integration stays live; remove it for more than seven days and that status is gone for good.
What is the fastest AdSense alternative to get approved for?
Adsterra, typically within minutes, with no traffic minimum and a $5 payout threshold. Fast approval and good earnings are different things, though. Its highest-paying formats are popunders and push notifications, which will cost you returning readers.
How much can I actually earn from display ads?
Depends far more on your audience than your traffic. Typical RPMs run roughly $2 to $8 on AdSense and Media.net, $5 to $12 on Monumetric, and $8 to $25 or more on Raptive with an optimized setup and tier-one traffic. Finance and technology pay more than entertainment. US and UK visitors pay several times what tier-three traffic pays. A site with 10,000 US visitors can earn more than a site with 100,000 visitors elsewhere.
Who are Google AdSense’s main competitors?
On the network side, Media.net is the closest direct competitor, running on the Yahoo and Bing advertiser pool rather than Google’s. Mediavine, Raptive, and Monumetric compete differently: they use Google’s demand among many others and add management on top, which is why they usually pay more than AdSense does on its own. Adsterra, Infolinks, and Sovrn compete at the accessible end.
Which AdSense alternatives pay weekly or faster?
Adsterra pays twice a month from a $5 threshold, which is the fastest realistic option here. PopAds and PopCash pay daily, but both are pop-under networks and the reader cost is high. Among the quality networks, Newor Media pays net 30, Monumetric net 60, and Mediavine net 65. Nobody good pays weekly, and a network advertising daily payouts is usually telling you something about the kind of traffic it expects.
Which AdSense alternatives work well for video advertising?
You do not need your own videos. Outstream video ads play inside your article text using a player the network supplies. Primis provides both the player and a library of relevant videos, and generally wants around 200,000 monthly pageviews. Aniview has no strict minimum. Teads created the format. If you are already with Mediavine or Raptive, video is part of what they run for you.
Which alternatives are best for native advertising?
MGID is the most accessible, at around 3,000 daily unique visitors. Revcontent asks for roughly 50,000 monthly visits and rejects most applicants. Taboola wants around a million pageviews. Outbrain, now trading as Teads after buying the company in 2025, has no published minimum but onboards through a salesperson. Native runs alongside display rather than replacing it.
Which alternative gives me the most control over ad placements?
A self-managed setup with Media.net, Sovrn, or AdSense plus an ad management plugin. You decide exactly where every unit goes. The trade-off is real: the managed networks that pay best, Mediavine and Raptive, earn more precisely because they control placement and density, and Ezoic goes further by testing layouts you did not choose. More control almost always means less revenue.
Which alternatives have the best publisher support?
Mediavine and Monumetric are the two most consistently praised, both offering real human contact at sizes where most networks give you a help centre. Newor Media is responsive relative to its size. Ezoic’s support is slow unless you are on a premium tier. Adsterra runs 24/7 live chat, but publisher reviews frequently mention accounts being restricted with little explanation, which is a different problem from response time.
Will switching networks slow my site down?
Probably a little, and it is worth watching. Managed networks load more scripts than a single AdSense unit. Most of them offset this with lazy loading, and Ezoic and Raptive both include page speed tooling. Check your Core Web Vitals a couple of weeks after switching rather than the day after.
Final word
The honest summary: if you have 1,000 monthly sessions, apply to Journey by Mediavine, because it is the biggest accessible improvement over AdSense available right now. If you have 25,000 pageviews and a mostly English-speaking, tier-one audience, apply to Raptive instead. If neither fits, Media.net is the sensible second network to run beside AdSense while you grow.
And take one step back before you optimize this at all. The reason display ad revenue fell for so many sites is not that AdSense got worse, though it did. It is that the traffic model underneath it changed. Chasing a slightly better RPM on a shrinking number of pageviews is a smaller lever than building something that does not depend on that traffic in the first place: an email list, a product, a direct relationship with sponsors.
Pick a network from this list. Then spend the rest of your time on the thing the network cannot give you.
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