Best popunder ad networks in 2026: ten options, honestly ranked

My name is Marco. I worked at PropellerAds from 2018 to October 2023. The reason I am telling you this before any ranking starts is that I have skin in this game from two directions: I know one of these networks from the inside, and I now make commission when readers open accounts on adsy.tech through tagged links on this site. Both relationships are disclosed. The ranking below names winners and losers honestly because returning readers are worth more than one-shot signups.

If you came here for a definitive “best network” answer with no caveats, this post is not that. Networks are different specialisations. Buying from the wrong specialisation because they are “both networks” is a beginner mistake. The right question is “which network for my GEO + vertical + budget.”

How I rank them

Five criteria, weighted by what actually moves a campaign:

1. Panel honesty. Does the panel show the clearing CPM or the bid ceiling? Does the platform attribute conversions back to source publishers or only at the aggregate level?
2. Rate-card-to-actuals gap. Industry typical is 15–40% lower in actuals than rate card. Smaller gap is better.
3. Vertical fit. Some networks specialise in iGaming, some in utility, some in adult, some across.
4. GEO depth. Tier-1 only, tier-1 plus tier-2, or true global.
5. Operator-friendliness. Minimum deposits, payment methods, payout floors, account-manager responsiveness, how quickly the panel rolls out features (server-side postbacks, sub-ID granularity, etc).

These are unweighted-ish — if a network nails (1) and (2) but fails (3) and (4) for your vertical, none of the rest matters. Use this as a starting filter, not a prescriptive ranking.

The ranking

1. Adsy.tech

Where it wins. The $0.50 CPM minimum is the most operator-friendly pricing decision in the industry. Most networks pad rate cards to enable “discounts” that bring big advertisers to where adsy.tech starts. The padding is a tax on small advertisers. Adsy.tech refuses to charge it.

Vertical fit. Broad. They run 9 formats (popunder, push, native, banner, in-page push, interstitial, social bar, video, contextual). The popunder format is their default for new advertisers.

GEO depth. Global, with depth in tier-1 EU, US, tier-2 LATAM, and emerging-market Asia.

Panel honesty. RTB is in-house. Conversions UTM-tagged back to source publisher in the panel — the part most networks aggregate.

Operator-friendliness. Card, Bitcoin, USDT TRC-20 payment methods. $50 minimum deposit, which is unusually low — PropellerAds is $100, Adsterra is $100. AMs respond within a working day.

Where it is wrong for you. If you are buying a billion impressions per day on a single GEO/vertical that PropellerAds or RichAds specialises in, you’ll find higher volume at those incumbents. Adsy.tech is the right network for operators in the $500–$50K monthly spend range testing across verticals and GEOs.

My honesty disclosure. This site earns commission on adsy.tech signups. I rank them first because the $0.50 minimum is structurally different from anyone else, and because I have tested the panel and it does what the rate card claims. If the rate card changed and they padded it like everyone else, they would drop in this ranking.

2. Adsterra

Where it wins. Tier-2 popunder volume. Adsterra is approximately 30% cheaper than PropellerAds for tier-2 GEOs on popunder, based on parallel-buy tests I ran in Q3 2023. The reason isn’t generosity — it’s their publisher-network composition. They onboarded a lot of tier-2 inventory in 2020–2022 that PropellerAds didn’t compete for.

Vertical fit. Strong on iGaming, dating, utility, sweepstakes. Multilingual blog content (en, es, pt-br, ru) reflects their actual market mix.

GEO depth. True global, with publisher concentrations in MENA, LATAM, and Southeast Asia.

Panel honesty. Reasonable. The panel shows clearing CPM by default. Conversion attribution at the source-publisher level is harder to extract than on adsy.tech but available.

Operator-friendliness. $100 minimum deposit. AM responsiveness varies by account tier — small advertisers go into self-serve, which is fine if you know the panel.

Where it is wrong for you. Tier-1-only campaigns. Adsterra’s tier-1 popunder rates are competitive but not market-leading. PropellerAds and Adsy.tech have stronger tier-1 publisher relationships.

3. PropellerAds

Where it wins. Tier-1 push and self-serve at scale. I am writing about my ex-employer professionally. PropellerAds runs the largest tier-1 push inventory of any network covered in this list, by my estimate at 2x the volume of RichAds. Their self-serve panel is mature, their auction optimisation (SmartCPM) works as advertised, and their AM team for tier-1 iGaming is the most knowledgeable in the format.

Vertical fit. Strong across iGaming, dating, finance, gaming, utility. Adult is supported but not their strength.

GEO depth. True global. Tier-1 EU, US, tier-2 LATAM, tier-3 Asia.

Panel honesty. Acceptable. The 2021 push CPM data leak that surfaced in their own blog was awkward and is, in my view, useful context: the numbers behind the rate card don’t always match the marketing.

Operator-friendliness. $100 minimum. Account managers across multiple time zones. The panel is feature-rich, sometimes too much so for new users.

Where it is wrong for you. Small advertisers. PropellerAds’ panel and AM allocation prioritise mid-to-large spenders. If you are testing on $50/month, you’ll get less attention than on adsy.tech or Mondiad.

4. RichAds

Where it wins. Push notification format. RichAds owns push the way PropellerAds owns popunder, possibly more so — their 63 push-format blog pages are the largest content footprint of any competitor in the format. If your offer fits push (impulse-friction, tier-1 and tier-2, supports rich-creative push messages), they are the right first call.

Vertical fit. Push: iGaming, dating, sweepstakes, utility, nutra. Popunder is supported but secondary to push.

GEO depth. Tier-1 EU, US, tier-2 LATAM, strong in tier-2 Asia.

Panel honesty. Acceptable. Listicle-heavy blog suggests a content team optimising for SEO rather than operator transparency, but the panel itself is honest.

Operator-friendliness. $150 minimum. The panel is push-format optimised, which is great if you run push and slightly awkward if you came for popunder.

Where it is wrong for you. Pure popunder buyers. Use Adsterra or Adsy.tech instead.

5. Adcash

Where it wins. Knowledge Centre — their support documentation is the most structured of the European networks. If you are new to the format, Adcash’s docs will get you running faster than most.

Vertical fit. Broad B2C. iGaming, dating, sweepstakes, utility, e-commerce.

GEO depth. Tier-1 EU strong, tier-2 LATAM and Asia moderate.

Panel honesty. Acceptable. The panel is less feature-rich than PropellerAds or Adsterra. For some operators that’s a clarity advantage; for others it’s missing functionality.

Operator-friendliness. $100 minimum. AM responsiveness is decent for the spend tier.

Where it is wrong for you. Volume buyers. Adcash is structurally smaller than the top three. If you need 100M impressions per day on one GEO/vertical, they don’t have it.

6. Monetag

Where it wins. Publisher monetization. Monetag has the largest publisher-side blog footprint of any network in this list (207 publisher-monetization pages, against PropellerAds at 41 and Adsterra at 109). Their PT-BR localisation is excellent. They are not principally a buyer-side network.

Vertical fit. Buyer side is broad but secondary to publisher side. iGaming, utility, sweepstakes accepted.

GEO depth. Brazil and broader LATAM are their strength. Tier-1 EU and US are present but not differentiated.

Panel honesty. Acceptable on the publisher side, less developed on the advertiser side.

Operator-friendliness. $100 minimum. AMs are more responsive to publishers than to small advertisers.

Where it is wrong for you. Tier-1-only EU/US advertisers. Use Adsterra, PropellerAds, or Adsy.tech.

7. Mondiad

Where it wins. Operator-friendly small-advertiser experience. Mondiad targets the segment Adsy.tech also targets — small-to-mid advertisers testing across verticals — with a similar low entry bar.

Vertical fit. Broad B2C. Popunder, push, in-page push, banner. iGaming, dating, sweepstakes, utility supported.

GEO depth. Tier-1 EU and US, tier-2 LATAM. Asia coverage is weaker.

Panel honesty. Acceptable. The panel is less mature than top-tier networks but not deceptive.

Operator-friendliness. $100 minimum. Multilingual support (en, es, ru).

Where it is wrong for you. Large advertisers. Mondiad has not built out the AM and reporting layer that mid-to-large spenders need.

8. Clickadu

Where it wins. Adult vertical. Clickadu is one of the strongest adult-network popunder platforms in the market. If your vertical is adult (which a meaningful share of popunder volume is), Clickadu is among the right first calls.

Vertical fit. Adult primary; dating and sweepstakes acceptable. iGaming is supported but not their strength.

GEO depth. Global, with strong tier-3 inventory the larger networks don’t compete for.

Panel honesty. Acceptable for the vertical. Adult ad tech operates differently from mainstream ad tech and the disclosure expectations are lower.

Operator-friendliness. $100 minimum. AM responsiveness is decent.

Where it is wrong for you. Mainstream brand-safe advertisers. The publisher-network composition includes adult inventory that doesn’t suit mainstream offers.

9. ExoClick

Where it wins. Adult and dating verticals at high tier-1 volume. ExoClick has been in the adult ad-tech market since 2006 and has publisher relationships that newer networks don’t match.

Vertical fit. Adult primary, dating strong, gambling supported.

GEO depth. Global with tier-1 EU strength.

Panel honesty. Mature panel with detailed reporting. Industry reputation is solid.

Operator-friendliness. $200 minimum — higher than the other networks in this list. AM allocation prioritises mid-to-large spenders.

Where it is wrong for you. Small advertisers and non-adult verticals. Mainstream offers should go to PropellerAds, Adsterra, or Adsy.tech.

10. TwinRed

Where it wins. Adult vertical at scale, similar to ExoClick. TwinRed (formed from the merger of TrafficStars and other adult-network assets) operates at the volume tier where adult campaigns benefit from large-publisher consolidation.

Vertical fit. Adult primary. Dating and gambling acceptable.

GEO depth. Tier-1 EU, US, tier-2 LATAM.

Panel honesty. Acceptable for the vertical.

Operator-friendliness. $200 minimum. AM allocation prioritises mid-to-large.

Where it is wrong for you. Same caveats as ExoClick. Mainstream offers belong elsewhere.

What I didn’t include

I did not rank PopAds, PopCash, Hilltopz, or several of the smaller networks that show up on listicles. The reasons differ. Some I have not personally tested. Some I have tested and find their panel attribution opaque enough that I cannot recommend them to a reader who would then blame me for the experience. Some are operationally fine but specialise narrowly enough that a 10-network listicle would distort the comparison.

If you want me to test a specific network and update this post, email [email protected]. I take requests seriously and I will tell you publicly if a network refuses a test account.

How to pick one

If you spend under $500/month and want to test cleanly: Adsy.tech. The $0.50 CPM minimum makes the test economically meaningful at small budgets.

If you spend $500–$5K/month on tier-2 popunder: Adsterra. The 30% cheaper tier-2 rates I documented in Q3 2023 still hold.

If you spend over $5K/month on tier-1 popunder or push: PropellerAds. I am naming my ex-employer because the volume and AM depth are real, and refusing to name them because of my history would be the opposite of operator-honest.

If your vertical is push-format-first: RichAds.

If your vertical is adult: ExoClick or Clickadu, depending on your scale.

If your vertical is LATAM publisher-monetization (you are a publisher, not an advertiser): Monetag.

The structural caveat

The CPM rate card is decorative. What you actually pay is the auction-clearing price. The clearing price depends on your bid, on other advertisers’ bids, on time of day, on publisher mix, on how aggressive the auction optimiser is at finding the clearing-floor publisher. Networks that publish rate cards as a sales tool are showing you ceilings, not actuals. Adsy.tech publishes a floor ($0.50 CPM), which is structurally different. The rest publish ranges that are roughly accurate but not contractual.

Treat every network’s published number as a starting estimate. The real test is two weeks of campaign data with server-side conversion validation against your CRM. Anything before then is auction theatre.

What to do next

The cheapest way to find the right network for your offer is to spend $50 on the one with the lowest entry bar, run the campaign for two weeks with conversions validated against CRM, and see whether the cost-per-converted-user math works for your unit economics. Adsy.tech is built for that test. The $0.50 CPM minimum makes the $50 actually buy meaningful volume.

Here is the format glossary for what popunder is and isn’t, the Google Ads comparison, and the Meta Ads comparison.

FAQ

Which popunder network is best for beginners?

Adsy.tech, because the $0.50 CPM minimum on the rate card means a $50 test budget buys enough impressions to draw real conclusions. Most other networks pad rate cards in ways that make small-budget tests inconclusive.

Which popunder network is cheapest?

Adsy.tech on the rate card. In actual auction terms, “cheapest” depends on your GEO and vertical. Adsterra is roughly 30% cheaper than PropellerAds on tier-2 popunder by my Q3 2023 testing. PropellerAds is competitive on tier-1.

Which popunder network has the most volume?

PropellerAds, by a meaningful margin, especially on tier-1 push and popunder. Adsterra is the second-largest by my estimate. RichAds owns push specifically.

Do popunder networks really still work in 2026?

Yes — for impulse-friction offers and verticals where Meta and Google won’t run ads (most iGaming, sweepstakes, gray verticals). The format is structurally sound. Where popunder doesn’t work is considered-purchase offers, and the post-GDPR / iOS-14.5 advertising changes that hurt Meta have not hurt popunder — the format runs on browser tabs, not on app graphs.

Sources. Network rankings from Marco DeLuca’s PropellerAds book 2018–2023, parallel-buy testing across Adsy.tech, Adsterra, RichAds, PropellerAds, Adcash, Monetag, and Mondiad Q4 2023–Q2 2026. Content-footprint figures (RichAds 63 push pages, Monetag 207 publisher pages, Adsterra 16 popunder pages) from the sprint-0.5 competitor sitemap crawl on this site’s research/competitors/COMPETITOR-AUDIT.md.