EthicalAds vs Revive Adserver Comparison 2026
EthicalAds is an actual ad network: apply, get accepted if the site does 50,000 pageviews a month to a developer audience, and it finds the advertisers, keeping 30 percent and paying out 70. Revive Adserver sells no advertisers at all; it is free software that counts and delivers ads a publisher already sold directly, so nothing is taken from the invoice because nothing was sold on the publisher's behalf. EthicalAds fills empty inventory. Revive Adserver just tracks inventory that is already sold.
Ads without tracking, for developer sites
Ad server you download and run yourself
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
EthicalAds | Revive Adserver | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | Free |
| Pricing model | Free | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Usage-based | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export |
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.
Our note
The published revenue share is the reason to read this one. Every other network in this category treats its split as confidential, so a stated 70 percent is a number you can hold them to.
Only on this side
- Covers monetization & payments
Revive Adserver
Ad server you download and run yourself
Revive Adserver is software you install on your own hosting, so it does the counting rather than the selling. Campaigns, zones, targeting and delivery reports all live on a server you control, which means nothing sits between you and the advertiser and nothing takes a share of what you invoice. Setting it up is a PHP application and a database, and that is a real afternoon of work. Publishers who have already sold the slot are who this is for.
Why people weigh these two
- Revive Adserver instead of EthicalAds
- Revive Adserver is free to download and run yourself, so you keep the whole sale and take on the hosting instead of joining a network.
- EthicalAds instead of Revive Adserver
- EthicalAds sells the placements to developer-focused advertisers directly, removing the selling job Revive Adserver assumes a publisher is already doing.
Which one should you pick
Pick EthicalAds if the site needs advertisers found for it, not just ads delivered. It is free to join and keeps 30 percent of what advertisers spend, a published split most networks keep confidential. Getting in is the hard part: a developer-facing site doing 50,000 pageviews a month and a 0.1 percent click-through floor to stay in.
Pick Revive Adserver only if advertisers are already sold and counting and delivering the ads independently is the actual job. The software is free to self-host, or from $10 a month on the hosted edition for anybody who would rather not run a server. Anybody hoping the software itself will fill empty inventory is fighting the tool; that is what an ad network like EthicalAds is for.
Common questions
- Does Revive Adserver find advertisers the way EthicalAds does?
- No, and its own guidance is direct about this: it is for a publisher who already has advertisers, and anybody hoping software will fill their inventory should read the ad network listings instead. EthicalAds is the network that actually finds advertisers and pays out a share.
- How much does each one take from ad revenue?
- EthicalAds keeps 30 percent and pays out 70, a split it publishes rather than discloses after signing. Revive Adserver takes nothing, since it is software a publisher runs to count and deliver ads already sold directly.
- Is either one actually free?
- Revive Adserver's software is free to download and self-host, with a hosted edition from $10 a month for anybody who would rather not run a server. EthicalAds is also free to join, but it earns by keeping 30 percent of ad revenue rather than charging a fee.
- What does EthicalAds require to get accepted?
- A developer-facing site, documentation or a technical newsletter doing at least 50,000 pageviews a month, with a 0.1 percent click-through rate needed to stay in. Revive Adserver has no acceptance bar at all; anybody can download and run it, since it is not a marketplace.
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.