EthicalAds vs Swapstack Comparison 2026
Both cover ad networks. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Ads without tracking, for developer sites
Newsletter sponsorships with a published fee
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
- Swapstack takes 10% of what you earn against EthicalAds's 30%.
Side by side
EthicalAds | Swapstack | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | Not listed |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Usage-based | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
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
Swapstack
Newsletter sponsorships with a published fee
Swapstack introduces newsletter writers to the brands that want to advertise in them, and it is unusually direct about what it takes for doing so. A publisher joins for nothing and keeps everything on a deal they source themselves; the fee applies to campaigns Swapstack brought. Advertisers pay a share of spend instead. For a writer with a few thousand subscribers and no interest in cold email, that is the whole pitch.
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.