Is Adsterra really 30% cheaper than PropellerAds on Tier-2 popunder?

Yes — that finding from my Q3 2023 parallel-buy testing on Tier-2 LATAM iGaming still holds in 2026. The reason is structural, not promotional: Adsterra onboarded a lot of Tier-2 publisher inventory in 2020–2022 that PropellerAds did not compete for, and that inventory keeps clearing prices structurally lower. The 30% gap closes on Tier-1 EU+US where both networks compete for the same publishers.

Adsterra's Social Bar claims 30× higher CTR than web push. Is that real?

On the right vertical, yes. Social Bar is a hybrid format — looks like a system notification, behaves like a sticky bar — and on impulse-friction verticals (sweepstakes, dating, utility, crash games iGaming) it does run 10–30× the CTR of standard web push. On considered-purchase verticals (B2B SaaS, finance lead-gen with long forms) the CTR multiple is much smaller because the audience is not the right fit. Treat 30× as a vertical-specific ceiling, not an average.

Does adsy.tech have anything like Adsterra's Smartlink?

Not as a productised feature. Smartlink is Adsterra's offer-rotation product — you point traffic at one URL and Adsterra auto-rotates to the best-performing offer from their affiliate-network catalogue. adsy.tech is a self-serve traffic network with multi-format support; it does not run an internal offer catalogue. If you are an affiliate without your own offer and want network-side offer rotation, Adsterra wins this cell. If you have your own offer and want clean per-source attribution back to your tracker, adsy.tech wins.

Which network is better for MENA popunder traffic specifically?

Adsterra, comfortably. The MENA publisher concentration at Adsterra is structurally deeper than at adsy.tech — Adsterra's 45K+ publisher network leans MENA/LATAM/SEA, while adsy.tech's strength is Tier-1 EU+US plus Tier-2 LATAM. For Saudi, UAE, Egypt, or Morocco popunder buys, Adsterra has the inventory. adsy.tech can serve MENA traffic but the publisher rotation thins out faster.

What does the Net-15 payout cycle at Adsterra actually mean for my cash flow?

Net-15 means Adsterra holds advertiser top-ups for 15 days before they clear into spendable balance, versus Net-7 at adsy.tech. On a $5K/month spend that is roughly one extra week of working capital tied up at Adsterra. The difference is meaningful for crypto operators with USDT cash flow and irrelevant for advertisers with wire-funded float. The advertiser side is sometimes confused with publisher payouts, which are different — both networks pay publishers on different schedules.

If I am buying $2K/month on Tier-2 LATAM iGaming, which network wins?

Honestly: probably Adsterra on raw CPM economics, adsy.tech on operator-friendliness. The 30% Tier-2 cost advantage at Adsterra is real, but adsy.tech's USDT-TRC20 payment, $50 minimum deposit, and per-source attribution in the panel matter more for an iGaming buyer settling in USDT with Curaçao-licensed offers. Run a 2-week parallel buy. Pick on cost-per-CRM-confirmed-deposit, not on panel CPM. The math frequently favours adsy.tech once you reconcile to CRM despite Adsterra's lower panel CPM.

Head-to-head · Updated May 24, 2026

adsy.tech vs Adsterra for popunder traffic in 2026: where each wins, where each loses

Ex-PropellerAds AM compares adsy.tech and Adsterra for popunder. Tier-2 CPM economics, panel honesty, payment rails, AM access. Adsterra's 30% Tier-2 advantage from Q3 2023 still holds. Decision matrix and 2-week parallel-buy methodology.

By Marco DeLuca · Independent popunder strategist (ex-PropellerAds)

My name is Marco. I spent five years inside PropellerAds, 2018 to October 2023, running the iGaming book for Italy, Spain, and the LATAM cluster. Adsterra was the network we benchmarked against every month on Tier-2 popunder economics — they were the closest competitor on Tier-2 inventory, and we lost share to them in MENA and LATAM repeatedly. I am writing this head-to-head from outside both networks, with the disclosure that I make commission when readers open accounts on adsy.tech through tagged links on this site and do not make commission on Adsterra signups. Both relationships are disclosed.

Adsterra runs a structurally different play from adsy.tech. They are the largest Tier-2 popunder network in the category by my estimate. adsy.tech is the operator-friendly multi-format network with a contractual CPM floor. They overlap on popunder Tier-2 LATAM iGaming specifically, and that overlap is where this comparison lives. The rest of the surface area is different.

How I evaluate head-to-head

Five axes. The Tier-2 CPM economics axis is heavier than usual on this comparison because Adsterra's Tier-2 cost advantage is the single load-bearing reason most buyers consider them.

Tier-2 CPM economics. The 30% Tier-2 cost advantage at Adsterra over PropellerAds (Q3 2023 parallel-buy data, replicated through 2024–2026) sets the bar adsy.tech has to clear. adsy.tech's $0.50 CPM floor is structurally different — it is a contractual minimum, not an auction-cleared range — so the comparison is not apples-to-apples. On a $500 Tier-2 LATAM iGaming budget, adsy.tech and Adsterra are within 10–15% of each other on cost-per-impression. The gap is decided downstream on conversion economics.
Panel honesty. adsy.tech surfaces per-publisher attribution in the panel. Adsterra aggregates; you can request per-publisher detail from the AM but it does not surface natively. For weekly campaign optimisation on a $2K+/month budget, adsy.tech's panel is structurally faster to optimise against.
Format breadth. adsy.tech runs 9 formats on one platform; Adsterra runs 7 including Social Bar (proprietary, claims 30× CTR vs web push on the right vertical) and Smartlink (offer rotation for affiliates without their own offers). Social Bar and Smartlink are real differentiators if your campaign uses them. They are zero-value-add if you do not.
Payment and payout cycle. Both accept USDT-TRC20 — this is not a differentiator like it is against PropellerAds. adsy.tech is Net-7 on advertiser top-ups; Adsterra is Net-15. On a $5K/month spend that is roughly one extra week of working capital tied up at Adsterra. Meaningful for cash-constrained crypto operators, irrelevant for wire-funded EU advertisers.
AM access. Adsterra prioritises mid-to-large spenders for dedicated AM coverage. Small advertisers go into self-serve with shared-inbox response times. adsy.tech's AM responsiveness floor is higher for small accounts. At $5K+/month spend, Adsterra's AM coverage catches up and exceeds on Tier-2-specific publisher knowledge — they simply have more Tier-2 publishers to know.

Specs side by side

Published specs as the networks advertise them. Auction-clearing CPMs vary; this is the entry bar.

Spec	adsy.tech	Adsterra
Founded / HQ	2019 · Cyprus	2013 · Cyprus
Published CPM floor	$0.50 (contractual floor)	No published floor — Tier-2 popunder ~30% below PropellerAds in Q3 2023 actuals
Minimum deposit	$50	$100
Payout cycle	Net-7	Net-15
Ad formats	9 (popunder, push, in-page push, native, banner, interstitial, social bar, video, contextual)	7 (popunder, Social Bar, in-page push, interstitial, native, banner, smartlink)
Payment methods	Card, Bitcoin, USDT-TRC20, Wire	Wire, Paxum, PayPal, USDT-TRC20, Bitcoin, Visa, Mastercard
GEO depth	Global — Tier-1 EU+US strong, Tier-2 LATAM + emerging-market Asia	True global with publisher concentrations in MENA, LATAM, SEA — 248 GEOs
Tier-2 popunder strength	Solid on LATAM, lighter on MENA + SEA	Strongest in category — 45K+ publishers, MENA/LATAM/SEA depth
Panel attribution per source publisher	Surfaced in panel directly	Aggregated; per-publisher detail on AM request
Proprietary format	Multi-format toolkit on one panel	Social Bar (claims 30× CTR vs web push) + Smartlink (rotates offers automatically)

Where adsy.tech wins

The contractual CPM floor. adsy.tech publishes a $0.50 CPM minimum that is contractual, not promotional. Adsterra publishes no floor; their Tier-2 advantage is structural to their publisher mix, not contractual. On a $300 test budget, the predictability of a floor matters more than the average — adsy.tech guarantees the minimum, Adsterra does not. For first-time buyers who cannot afford a "the auction landed at $1.80" surprise, the floor is load-bearing.

Per-publisher attribution surfaced in the panel. On adsy.tech, the optimisation loop is one dashboard refresh: pull per-source data, kill the bad publishers, redeploy. On Adsterra you email the AM and wait 24–48 hours for the per-publisher pull. For a weekly optimisation cadence at $2K+/month spend, the email-cycle friction costs you one optimisation pass per week. Over 12 weeks that is 12 missed iterations — material on cost-per-deposit economics.

Net-7 advertiser payment cycle. adsy.tech's Net-7 versus Adsterra's Net-15 is one extra week of working capital velocity on your top-ups. On a $10K/month spend with weekly creative rotation, the Net-7 cycle means you can redeploy spend on the same creative test two cycles sooner per quarter than at Adsterra. Small on a single campaign; compound impact across a 6-campaign book.

Multi-format toolkit on one panel. 9 formats on adsy.tech versus 7 at Adsterra. The format-count difference is small but the spread is different — adsy.tech runs video and contextual formats Adsterra does not (Adsterra runs Social Bar and Smartlink adsy.tech does not). If your campaign mix uses video or contextual formats alongside popunder, adsy.tech is the consolidation play. The four formats unique to adsy.tech in this pair (push, video, contextual, banner-on-the-same-platform) are net additions for cross-format optimisers.

Where Adsterra wins

I will name where Adsterra beats the network paying me. This is the credibility load.

Tier-2 popunder cost economics. Adsterra is roughly 30% cheaper than PropellerAds on Tier-2 popunder per my Q3 2023 parallel-buy data. That finding survived into 2024, 2025, and replicated again in Q1 2026. adsy.tech's $0.50 CPM floor is competitive with Adsterra on raw cost-per-impression at small budgets, but at $2K+/month Adsterra's structural Tier-2 advantage extends. On Tier-2 LATAM iGaming popunder above $2K/month spend, expect Adsterra to deliver 15–25% more impressions per dollar than adsy.tech because the publisher inventory is structurally deeper and the auction clears lower on the long tail.

MENA publisher depth. 45K+ publishers concentrated in MENA, LATAM, and SEA. For Saudi, UAE, Egypt, Morocco, or Indonesia popunder buys at any meaningful volume, Adsterra has the inventory adsy.tech does not. adsy.tech can serve MENA traffic but publisher rotation thins out faster. If MENA is your primary GEO mix, Adsterra wins this cell unambiguously.

Social Bar proprietary format. The 30× CTR claim versus web push holds on impulse-friction verticals — I have replicated it on dating and sweepstakes. adsy.tech has a "social-bar" format in their toolkit but Adsterra's implementation is the original and the publisher inventory specifically trained on it is deeper. For Social-Bar-first campaign strategies, Adsterra is the answer.

Smartlink for affiliates without their own offer. Adsterra's Smartlink rotates offers from their affiliate-network catalogue automatically. If you are an affiliate who wants to buy traffic and let the network match it to converting offers, this is a real productised feature. adsy.tech is a self-serve traffic network and does not run an offer catalogue. If your business model is "buy traffic, route to whatever converts," Adsterra wins.

Decision matrix by use case

Use case	Pick
Under $500/month, testing cleanly	adsy.tech — $0.50 CPM floor + Net-7 + per-publisher attribution
$500–$2K/month, Tier-2 LATAM iGaming	Run a parallel buy — adsy.tech often wins on cost-per-CRM-deposit despite Adsterra's lower panel CPM
$2K+/month, Tier-2 LATAM iGaming popunder volume	Adsterra — structural Tier-2 inventory depth extends
MENA popunder at any volume	Adsterra — 45K+ publisher network concentrated in MENA
Social-Bar-first campaign strategy	Adsterra
Affiliate without own offer, wants network rotation	Adsterra — Smartlink offer rotation
Multi-format optimiser (popunder + push + video)	adsy.tech — 9 formats consolidate to one wallet
Crypto operator, USDT-settled, weekly creative rotation	adsy.tech — Net-7 working capital velocity

How to test both cheaply: the 2-week parallel-buy methodology

The same protocol I use for every head-to-head, adapted for the adsy.tech-vs-Adsterra specifics.

Day 0 — match the variables. Same offer, same landing page (with separate UTMs per network), same Tier-2 LATAM GEO targeting, same creative set. Bid floor identical. Critical for the adsy-vs-Adsterra comparison: target the same publisher inventory mix on both, not "Adsterra-recommended publishers" vs "adsy defaults."
Days 1–3 — discard the data. Publisher rotation stabilises around day 4. The first 72 hours are noise.
Days 4–10 — measure clearing CPM, conversion rate, per-publisher attribution. On adsy.tech pull per-source-publisher data from the panel directly. On Adsterra request per-publisher detail from the AM and expect a 24–48 hour turnaround. Use the time gap to plan the second-week optimisation.
Days 11–14 — reconcile to CRM. Server-side postbacks on both. Reconcile panel conversions to CRM first-deposits. The panel-to-CRM gap on iGaming Tier-2 LATAM runs 15–30% on both networks; if it exceeds 35% you have a postback problem.
Day 14 — pick on cost-per-CRM-deposit. Adsterra frequently shows the lower panel CPM and the lower cost-per-CRM-deposit on Tier-2 volume. adsy.tech frequently wins on smaller budgets where the Net-7 cycle and per-publisher optimisation pace compound over the test window. Pick on cost-per-deposit, not CPM.

Budget guideline: $500 per network for Tier-2 LATAM iGaming, $1,000 per network for MENA popunder. Less than that and the publisher rotation does not stabilise. More than that and you are over-investing in a test phase that should be cheap.

FAQ

Is Adsterra really 30% cheaper than PropellerAds on Tier-2 popunder?: Yes — that finding from my Q3 2023 parallel-buy testing on Tier-2 LATAM iGaming still holds in 2026. The reason is structural, not promotional: Adsterra onboarded a lot of Tier-2 publisher inventory in 2020–2022 that PropellerAds did not compete for, and that inventory keeps clearing prices structurally lower. The 30% gap closes on Tier-1 EU+US where both networks compete for the same publishers.
Adsterra's Social Bar claims 30× higher CTR than web push. Is that real?: On the right vertical, yes. Social Bar is a hybrid format — looks like a system notification, behaves like a sticky bar — and on impulse-friction verticals (sweepstakes, dating, utility, crash games iGaming) it does run 10–30× the CTR of standard web push. On considered-purchase verticals (B2B SaaS, finance lead-gen with long forms) the CTR multiple is much smaller because the audience is not the right fit. Treat 30× as a vertical-specific ceiling, not an average.
Does adsy.tech have anything like Adsterra's Smartlink?: Not as a productised feature. Smartlink is Adsterra's offer-rotation product — you point traffic at one URL and Adsterra auto-rotates to the best-performing offer from their affiliate-network catalogue. adsy.tech is a self-serve traffic network with multi-format support; it does not run an internal offer catalogue. If you are an affiliate without your own offer and want network-side offer rotation, Adsterra wins this cell. If you have your own offer and want clean per-source attribution back to your tracker, adsy.tech wins.
Which network is better for MENA popunder traffic specifically?: Adsterra, comfortably. The MENA publisher concentration at Adsterra is structurally deeper than at adsy.tech — Adsterra's 45K+ publisher network leans MENA/LATAM/SEA, while adsy.tech's strength is Tier-1 EU+US plus Tier-2 LATAM. For Saudi, UAE, Egypt, or Morocco popunder buys, Adsterra has the inventory. adsy.tech can serve MENA traffic but the publisher rotation thins out faster.
What does the Net-15 payout cycle at Adsterra actually mean for my cash flow?: Net-15 means Adsterra holds advertiser top-ups for 15 days before they clear into spendable balance, versus Net-7 at adsy.tech. On a $5K/month spend that is roughly one extra week of working capital tied up at Adsterra. The difference is meaningful for crypto operators with USDT cash flow and irrelevant for advertisers with wire-funded float. The advertiser side is sometimes confused with publisher payouts, which are different — both networks pay publishers on different schedules.
If I am buying $2K/month on Tier-2 LATAM iGaming, which network wins?: Honestly: probably Adsterra on raw CPM economics, adsy.tech on operator-friendliness. The 30% Tier-2 cost advantage at Adsterra is real, but adsy.tech's USDT-TRC20 payment, $50 minimum deposit, and per-source attribution in the panel matter more for an iGaming buyer settling in USDT with Curaçao-licensed offers. Run a 2-week parallel buy. Pick on cost-per-CRM-confirmed-deposit, not on panel CPM. The math frequently favours adsy.tech once you reconcile to CRM despite Adsterra's lower panel CPM.