AdPlugg vs EthicalAds Comparison 2026
AdPlugg is a server for ads you already sold: free up to 100,000 impressions a month, then a small monthly fee plus a metered rate per thousand above that. EthicalAds is the opposite kind of product, a managed network that finds the advertisers, targets by page content rather than by tracking the reader, and pays out 70 percent of what it collects. Getting in is the hard part: EthicalAds is invite-only, wants a developer-facing site doing 50,000 pageviews a month, and enforces a 0.1 percent click-through floor to stay in. AdPlugg has no such bar and no such ceiling on who joins.
Ad serving that starts free and bills by impression
Ads without tracking, for developer sites
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
AdPlugg | EthicalAds | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $10 | Free |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing (they differ) | Monthly or annual | Usage-based |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
AdPlugg
Ad serving that starts free and bills by impression
AdPlugg serves and reports on ads you sold yourself, with a WordPress plugin for sites that live there and tags for everything else. The free tier runs a hundred thousand impressions a month, which covers a small site outright. Above that the monthly fee is small and the real cost is metered per thousand impressions, published as a table rather than quoted. Nobody here is finding you advertisers.
Our note
Work out your monthly impressions before comparing this against AdButler or Broadstreet, because the flat-fee servers cost more at the bottom and stop surprising you at the top. AdPlugg wins for a site under a hundred thousand impressions by a distance, and the arithmetic reverses somewhere in the millions.
EthicalAds
Ads without tracking, for developer sites
EthicalAds targets on page content rather than on the reader, so a site running it needs no cookie banner and shows one ad instead of six. That is a smaller advertiser pool and a lower ceiling than a general network, and the trade is deliberate. Getting in is the hard part: the network is invite-only and aimed at sites a developer audience reads.
Why people weigh these two
- EthicalAds instead of AdPlugg
- EthicalAds runs its own ad network with no tracking, free to join, for a developer site that would rather not sell its own placements.
- AdPlugg instead of EthicalAds
- AdPlugg starts free and bills by impression, for a publisher who wants to serve ads they sold themselves rather than take a network's demand.
Which one should you pick
Take AdPlugg if you already have advertisers, or plan to sell placements yourself, and just need something to serve and report on them. It is free to 100,000 impressions a month and stays cheap past that, with a published CPM table rather than a quoted rate. Nobody here is finding you advertisers or reviewing your traffic before letting you in.
Take EthicalAds if your site is developer-facing, past 50,000 pageviews a month, and you would rather have a network sell the ad and keep 70 percent of what it collects than sell the placement yourself. No cookie banner is needed, since targeting runs on page content rather than the reader, and the format is fixed at one ad per page. A general-interest creator site will not be accepted here, and the advertiser pool would not suit it anyway.
Common questions
- Do I need to sell my own ads with either of these?
- With AdPlugg, yes: it serves and reports on placements you sold yourself, free to 100,000 impressions a month. EthicalAds does the selling for you instead, as a managed network that keeps 30 percent of what advertisers spend and pays out the rest.
- Can any site join EthicalAds?
- No. It is invite-only, and the stated bar is a developer-focused site doing at least 50,000 pageviews a month, with a 0.1 percent click-through floor to keep the spot. AdPlugg has no application and no traffic minimum; its free tier is open to any site up to 100,000 impressions a month.
- Does either need a cookie banner?
- EthicalAds does not. It targets ads to the page content rather than the reader, so no consent banner is needed to run them. AdPlugg serves whatever creative you supply to placements you already sold, so tracking depends on what that creative does rather than on AdPlugg itself.
- What does each one actually cost?
- AdPlugg is free to 100,000 impressions a month, then $10 a month plus a metered CPM above that. EthicalAds is free to join and keeps 30 percent of ad revenue, paying out the remaining 70 percent monthly once the balance passes $50.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.