BuySellAds Alternatives for Newsletter, Site and Creator Ads

BuySellAds started in 2008 as a marketplace where advertisers bought banner spots directly from websites. The company is still alive, but the BuySellAds homepage now describes a media planning and campaign operations service for tech brands and their agencies. It books placements across newsletters, websites and podcasts, and its inquiry form asks for a media budget in bands from less than $10,000 to $250,000+. Its two listed products are Carbon Ads and Audience.is.

That is a different deal from the self-serve marketplace many people remember. The Carbon Ads page says campaigns are planned by a client services team, sized around 1M+ impressions a month and run for about three months. It adds that an older self-serve tool still exists but is not actively promoted.

The alternatives below cover both sides of the old marketplace. The first four help advertisers buy space on newsletters, creator channels and developer sites. The last three help publishers sell their own inventory. If you want a network that fills your ad slots automatically instead, our list of Infolinks alternatives covers AdSense-style networks.

Prices below are as of November 6, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

Paved

Paved is the closest thing to the old BuySellAds experience, but for email. Advertisers sign up, pick newsletters by audience and book placements in one place, with booking, payment and tracking of opens, clicks and conversions handled for each campaign. The Paved homepage claims 3,000+ newsletters with 253+ million subscribers, and lists publishers such as Morning Brew and TechCrunch.

It also sells pay-per-click newsletter ads, which lowers the risk on a first test. Paved is now part of Redbrick, the group that also owns Leadpages and Delivra. Publishers get a separate side of the product, including a tool called Booker for taking sponsor bookings.

Best for: Advertisers who want to test newsletter sponsorships across many lists from one account.

Pricing:

• No subscription fees, according to the homepage.
• Rates are set per newsletter. No commission or rate card is published.
• The demo form starts at a budget of less than $1,000.

Watch out for:

• Paved does not publish its fees or take rate, so you only learn what a placement costs inside the app or on a demo call.

Official site: Paved.

Passionfroot

Brands that bought BuySellAds placements to reach developers and founders now often pay creators instead, and Passionfroot is built for that. It is a Berlin marketplace that matches B2B creators (newsletter writers, YouTubers, LinkedIn voices) with brands. TechCrunch reported on July 22, 2026 that it raised a $15M Series A led by Insight Partners, has paid creators at least $10M over 18 months, and counts ElevenLabs, Figma and Replit as customers.

For brands, an AI agent called Zest helps find creators and run campaigns, and a wallet pays creators worldwide. Creators get a free storefront where sponsors can book their slots directly.

Best for: B2B and AI software brands that want creator sponsorships rather than banner ads.

Pricing:

• Free for creators, with no monthly fee.
• No fee on deals creators find themselves. Deals from the Partner Network carry a 15% sourcing fee, including Stripe fees.
• Brands pay 5% on bookings that come through a creator's own storefront or proposals.

Watch out for:

• The Passionfroot pricing article labels its fees "Pricing as of Feb 2024", so confirm the 15% and 5% before you sign.

Official site: Passionfroot.

EthicalAds

Run by Read the Docs, EthicalAds sells text-and-image ads on hand-picked developer sites, much like Carbon. The difference is that its prices are public. Targeting is by page content and geography, with no tracking of the reader, and the network says publishers need no cookie banner for its ads.

The EthicalAds advertiser page lists run-of-network CPMs from $3.10 for all developers to $5.00 for a custom niche, and $5.25 to $8.00 for the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. On the publisher side it is invite-only and wants developer sites with 50,000+ pageviews a month. It estimates earnings near $2.50 per 1,000 pageviews and pays out from $50 by PayPal, GitHub Sponsors, OpenCollective or Stripe bank transfer.

Best for: Developer tool companies that want privacy-friendly ads with posted CPMs.

Pricing:

• $1,000 minimum ad buy, priced per 1,000 impressions.
• Run of network $3.10 to $5.00 CPM. Top English-speaking countries $5.25 to $8.00. Western Europe $4.12 to $6.50.
• 10% off at $3,000, 15% off at $25,000, plus 10% more for auto-renewing campaigns.

Watch out for:

• Only developer audiences are on offer. If you sell to marketers, designers or consumers, there is little inventory for you.
• Campaigns are approved and started by EthicalAds staff, so you cannot launch the same afternoon.

Official site: EthicalAds.

beehiiv Ad Network

Newsletter writers who once sold slots through BuySellAds can let beehiiv bring the advertisers instead. The beehiiv Ad Network page says it vets every advertiser, then shows you offers paid per 1,000 unique opens or per verified click. A $2 CPC on 100 verified clicks pays $200, to use its own example.

You pick the offers you want and place up to three ads per post, one primary and two secondary. Up to 15 offers can be visible at once and 5 can be reserved. Money arrives through Stripe Express on the 20th of each month for the previous month.

Best for: Newsletters that already send on beehiiv and want paid ads with no sales work.

Pricing:

• No public price for joining. The advertiser sets the CPM or CPC on each offer.
• Open to publications on beehiiv's Lite plan or above.

Watch out for:

• It only works if you send through beehiiv. Lists on other email tools are not eligible, and you cannot choose CPM over CPC on an offer.

Official site: beehiiv Ad Network.

Sponsy

Sponsy replaces the publisher half of BuySellAds: the storefront where sponsors pick a date and pay. It covers newsletters, podcasts, YouTube channels and social accounts, with a booking calendar, sponsor CRM and automations. You keep the full rate because Sponsy does not sit between you and the brand.

The free Starter plan charges $5 per slot a sponsor books, after 5 included slots, and allows 3 publications with 5 placements each. The Sponsy pricing page puts Pro at $49 a month for up to 10 booked slots, rising in bands up to $599 for 200 slots.

Best for: Publishers who find their own sponsors and need booking, invoicing and reporting in one place.

Pricing:

• Starter: $0/month, first 5 booked slots included, then $5 per slot.
• Pro: $49/month for up to 10 booked slots, banded up to $599/month for 200 slots, $5 per extra slot.
• Custom: contract pricing. Concierge onboarding is $1,000 on any plan.

Watch out for:

• Sponsy brings you no advertisers. Automatic metrics also work for newsletters only, so podcast and YouTube numbers need manual entry or another tool.

Official site: Sponsy.

Google Ad Manager

If you sold banners on your site through BuySellAds, you still need something to serve them once you sell direct. Google Ad Manager is the standard free choice. You set up orders and line items for each sponsor, and fill unsold space with AdSense or other networks. You need an AdSense account to sign up, even if you never run AdSense ads.

The free version has a monthly impression limit that depends on country. The Google Ad Manager limits page sets it at 90 million in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, 200 million in a list of other countries, 150 million everywhere else, and 800,000 for video. Above that you need a paid contract.

Best for: Websites with their own sponsors that need a free ad server with Google demand as backfill.

Pricing:

• Free up to a monthly limit: 90 million impressions in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, 200 million in listed countries, 150 million elsewhere, 800,000 for video.
• Above the limit, a paid contract (Ad Manager 360) is required.

Watch out for:

• Google's own help pages call it a tool for large publishers with significant direct sales, and the setup is heavy for a site with one or two sponsors. Time zone and currency lock after your first order.

Official site: Google Ad Manager.

AdButler

AdButler is a hosted ad server, and its paid add-on is the nearest copy of the BuySellAds publisher storefront. The self-serve marketplace lets advertisers buy your inventory at fixed order prices or by auction, with approval workflows, tax settings and Stripe payments.

The base plans are priced by ad requests. The AdButler pricing page starts Essentials at $179 a month for 1M requests and 10 advertisers, and Standard at $682 for 10M requests and 50 advertisers.

Best for: Publishers and niche networks that want to run their own self-serve ad store.

Pricing:

• Essentials from $179/month: 1M ad requests, 10 advertisers, 1 user.
• Standard from $682/month: 10M requests. Advanced from $2,988/month: 50M requests.
• Self-serve marketplace add-on: $2,200 a month plus 3.5% of revenue it generates.

Watch out for:

• The storefront alone costs $2,200 a month on top of the plan, which only pays off once direct sales are steady. A sandbox account comes only with Advanced and Enterprise.

Official site: AdButler.

How to choose

When to stay with BuySellAds

Stay with BuySellAds if you are a tech brand with a five or six figure budget and would rather hand planning, booking and reporting to one team. Its homepage shows case studies such as Squarespace cutting cost per subscriber by 45% year over year. For a developer audience at scale, its Carbon Ads network across 350+ tech sites is still one of the few places to buy that reach in a single contract.

Frequently asked questions