AdMob Alternatives: 8 Ways to Monetize an App in 2026

What is the best AdMob alternative?

The best AdMob alternative for most apps is a mediation platform such as AppLovin MAX or Unity LevelPlay, because it lets several ad networks, AdMob included, compete for every ad request. If you want more demand rather than a new platform, add bidding networks such as Meta Audience Network, Liftoff Monetize, Mintegral, or Pangle. And if ads alone do not pay enough, add a model that earns from different users: an offerwall for players who want free currency, or in-app purchases and subscriptions for those who will pay.

This guide is the app counterpart of AdSense alternatives for websites. It covers why developers look beyond AdMob, how mediation works in practice, and eight options with their formats and trade-offs.

Why developers look for AdMob alternatives

AdMob is often the first ad SDK a developer adds, and many keep it for good. The reasons people start looking elsewhere tend to be concrete. Each one below comes from Google’s own AdMob help pages (checked on October 20, 2026).

• Limited serving on new apps. Google’s app readiness help page says a new app must be reviewed and approved before it can fully serve ads, and that ad serving may be limited during the review. The app has to be published in a supported store and linked to it in AdMob first.
• Ad serving limits. According to AdMob’s ad serving limits page, Google may cap the number of ads an account can show, either temporarily while it evaluates traffic quality or because of invalid traffic concerns. The page says limits typically last less than 30 days, but can last longer.
• Disabled accounts. AdMob’s page on accounts disabled for invalid activity says such publishers are not allowed any further participation and may only appeal through a form, with no guarantee of reinstatement. Developers who have been through this rarely want a single point of failure again.
• Payment threshold. AdMob’s thresholds table lists a payment threshold of $100 for accounts in US dollars, €70 in euros, and £60 in pounds. A small app can take months to get paid.
• Fill and eCPM by region. Ad prices and the share of requests that get an ad vary widely by country. If your users are mostly outside high-paying markets, one network may leave many requests empty. See the highest CPM countries and what fill rate means.
• Banners do not fit the app. Games with a currency and rewards apps often earn more from opt-in formats and purchases.

Mediation: why you rarely have to replace AdMob

Ad mediation is a layer in your app that sends each ad request to several networks and serves the best result. Google’s guide to AdMob Mediation describes it as managing the ad sources that serve ads in your apps “all in one place”. AdMob itself is a mediation platform, and so are AppLovin MAX and Unity LevelPlay. You pick one platform, and the others become demand sources inside it.

There are two ways networks compete:

• In-app bidding: every bidding network bids on the impression at the same time, and the highest bid wins.
• Waterfall: networks without bidding are called one at a time in order of an estimated eCPM until one fills.

Most setups combine both. The practical point for this article: moving to MAX or LevelPlay does not mean dropping Google demand. Unity’s LevelPlay network guides list Google AdMob as a mediated network next to Meta Audience Network, Mintegral, Pangle, InMobi, and Liftoff Monetize. Our article What is ad mediation? explains waterfalls, bidding, and hybrid setups in detail, and What is an ad network? covers the demand side.

The cost of mediation is weight. Each network you add usually means another adapter or SDK to integrate, test, and update. What is an SDK? covers that trade-off. A few well-tuned networks usually beat many neglected ones.

AdMob alternatives compared

Formats come from each provider’s own pages, checked on October 20, 2026. Availability differs by country and platform.

Six ad networks and mediation platforms

1. AppLovin MAX

MAX is AppLovin’s mediation platform. The MAX documentation covers interstitial, rewarded, and banner or MREC ads, and says bidding and traditional networks “compete by the highest CPM to serve an impression”. It recommends prioritizing bidding networks to reduce waterfall maintenance and latency. You can also add networks MAX does not support through custom SDK connections, but those are not eligible for in-app bidding or Auto-CPM. Best for: games and apps that want a single auction with many networks and are ready to tune it. Watch out for: AppLovin’s documentation has moved between domains recently, so bookmark the current docs rather than old adapter guides.

2. Unity LevelPlay and Unity Ads

LevelPlay is Unity’s mediation platform, the former ironSource mediation, and Unity says it serves rewarded, interstitial, banner, and native ads through one unified auction. Unity Ads is the separate ad network that can bid inside mediation platforms. One change matters if you integrated ironSource years ago: Unity’s ironSource Ads sunset notice says the direct demand business of the ironSource Ads network stopped serving on April 30, 2026, while LevelPlay mediation is unaffected. Unity recommends keeping the iAds SDK for now so ironSource Exchange programmatic demand keeps flowing, and adding the latest Unity Ads SDK to your mediation setup. Best for: games of any engine; LevelPlay also has SDKs for native Android and iOS, Flutter, and React Native apps.

3. Meta Audience Network

Meta Audience Network is still active and lists rewarded video, interstitial, native, and banner ads, with demand from Meta’s advertisers. The important detail is that it is a bidding-only network. Google’s AdMob integration guide for Meta notes that Meta Audience Network became bidding only in 2021 and that the waterfall integration was removed. In practice, you add it through a mediation platform with bidding (AdMob, MAX, or LevelPlay) rather than on its own. Watch out for: Meta’s demand depends on matching users to its advertisers, so results vary a lot by platform and region; test it on your own traffic.

4. Liftoff Monetize

Liftoff Monetize is the publisher side of Liftoff, and Unity’s LevelPlay guide calls it “Liftoff Monetize (formerly Vungle)”. Liftoff says it supports iOS, Android, Windows, and Amazon, with in-app bidding through the major mediation platforms. The SDK you install is still called the Vungle SDK, which confuses many developers on first setup. Best for: games with rewarded and interstitial video placements.

5. Mintegral

Mintegral is an ad network with in-app bidding, and its monetization page shows connections to MAX, AdMob, ironSource (LevelPlay), DT FairBid, InMobi, Appodeal, Pangle, and others. Best for: rewarded and interstitial placements in games with global traffic.

6. Pangle

Pangle is the publisher platform of TikTok’s parent company. Its solutions pages list rewarded video, interstitial, banner, native, and app open ads. There is a regional catch: Pangle’s integration docs (last updated February 11, 2026) say that in the US it only supports rewarded and interstitial video, with bidding through mediation platforms such as LevelPlay, MAX, and AdMob. Best for: apps that already run mediation and want another bidder, especially outside the US where more formats are available.

Other networks are worth testing once these are tuned. InMobi, for example, offers banner, interstitial, rewarded video, and native ads and lists adapters for AdMob, AppLovin MAX, and Unity LevelPlay.

Two alternatives that are not ad networks

Every network above competes for the same ad impression. The next two earn from different moments and often different users, so they tend to move revenue more than one more ad network does. Hybrid monetization covers how to run ads, purchases, and rewards together.

7. Offerwalls and rewarded offers

An offerwall is a screen in your app that lists offers such as playing another game to a set level, signing up for a service, or completing a survey. Users choose to open it, complete an offer, and receive your own currency. You earn per completed action, not per view, and the reward reaches your server through a postback, not the app. Offerwalls usually run as a separate integration next to your mediation stack.

The offerwall is often the strongest addition for a game with a virtual currency, because it reaches players who will never buy gems but will put in effort to earn them. It complements rewarded video rather than replacing it: video earns small amounts from many users, the wall earns larger amounts from a smaller group. Offerwall vs rewarded video ads compares the two, What are rewarded ads? covers all rewarded formats, and Monetize a mobile game with an offerwall walks through placement, link signing, and crediting. Watch out for: reversals. Some completions are later reversed for fraud or unmet requirements, so your wallet logic has to handle them.

8. In-app purchases and subscriptions

For digital goods inside your app, the stores require their own billing. Google’s Play Billing overview says it lets you sell digital products and content through one-time purchases or subscriptions, and it strongly recommends a secure backend for purchase verification. Apple’s In-App Purchase page lists four types: consumable, non-consumable, auto-renewable subscription, and non-renewing subscription. Best for: apps with premium features, content, or a currency that players already value. Watch out for: store service fees and payment rules, which have changed several times in recent years; check the current terms for each store and country before you set prices.

In a game, purchases and offerwalls work well together. Placing “Get free gems” next to your gem packs gives non-paying players a second route to the same currency, and your store prices give you a reference for setting the wall’s currency rate. See how to set your virtual currency exchange rate or try the virtual currency calculator.

How to choose your mix

Start from what your users do, then build in layers:

1. Pick one mediation platform. Keep AdMob if it works and you like its tools, or move to MAX or LevelPlay. Do not run two mediation platforms for the same placement.
2. Add two to four bidding networks. Choose them by where your users are. A US-heavy app and an app with most users in Southeast Asia need different demand.
3. Add an opt-in model that earns from non-viewers. If you have a currency, add an offerwall. If you have premium value, add purchases or a subscription.
4. Measure revenue per user, not eCPM. Compare formats on ARPDAU, which ARPU and ARPDAU explained covers. eCPM and EPC explained shows why per-view and per-click figures do not compare directly.

For the wider view across ads, purchases, subscriptions, and rewards, read how to monetize an app.

Frequently asked questions