Mediavine vs Raptive vs Ezoic

Raptive

Formerly AdThrive, the strongest demand of the group. In 2026 it dropped its bar from 100,000 pageviews to 25,000, which makes it the most accessible premium network now. Sites between 25k and 100k pageviews need about half their traffic from tier-one markets (the US, UK, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand). The Calm note: its default layout runs dense, so hold it to the net-positive test and drop the units that measure under 60% viewable.

Raptive requirements and apply →

Mediavine

50,000 sessions a month, or about $5,000 in annual ad revenue. Mediavine also runs Journey, a starter tier that opens at roughly 1,000 sessions, so even small sites have a Mediavine path now. The Calm note: turn off the auto-anchor stacking and the most intrusive interstitials, keep one clean anchor.

Mediavine requirements and apply →

Ezoic

For years Ezoic was the no-minimum starter. That changed in February 2026, when it raised its bar for new publishers to 250,000 monthly users and moved up-market. Existing accounts were grandfathered, and an "Incubator" takes 20 sub-threshold sites a month, but for almost every small or new publisher Ezoic is no longer the on-ramp it was. If a 2025 post told you to "start with Ezoic, no minimum," that advice is out of date.

Ezoic requirements and apply →

AdSense is the baseline, not a competitor to the networks above. It is self-serve, has no traffic minimum, and screens on content and policy rather than traffic. The managed networks out-earn it because they run header bidding, putting many demand sources in competition for every impression, including Google's premium exchange, AdX, which AdSense alone does not give you.

The path used to run through Ezoic for small sites. With Ezoic now at 250k, it does not. The current on-ramp is simpler: run AdSense while your content earns its approval, pick up Mediavine Journey at around 1,000 sessions, and move to Raptive once you clear 25,000 pageviews. AdSense is where almost every publisher starts. It is rarely where the revenue ceiling is.

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The new small-site answer

With Ezoic gone for small publishers, two networks fill the gap. Newor Media dropped its traffic minimum entirely (English-speaking traffic, at least two ad units, no adult or gambling content), so it is the closest thing to a no-minimum managed network now. Media.net is a contextual network on Yahoo and Bing demand, with no hard floor, and it pairs with AdSense at the bottom of the ladder. Both are calm-compatible if you hold them to the net-positive test.

Header bidding for the middle and up

Setupad (around 100,000 monthly visitors, a certified Google Publishing Partner) and Playwire (around 500,000 monthly pageviews, strong in gaming, video, and entertainment) run full header-bidding stacks for established sites. They can beat a single managed network on the right inventory, at the cost of more setup. The Calm note is the same as always: more demand is good, more units is not.

Niche networks

If your content has a vertical, a specialist can out-earn a generalist. Gourmet Ads for food and recipe sites and SHE Media for women's lifestyle are the two best known. Worth a look if you fit the niche.

The ones we steer you away from

You will see Monetag, PopAds, and similar networks pushed for their low payout thresholds and near-100% fill. They earn through formats we will not recommend: pop-unders, pop-ups, and interstitials that hijack the reader and, increasingly, get filtered by Chrome's ad rules and punished in rankings. They are the opposite of calm. When a network's whole pitch is "100% fill, any traffic," that is usually the reason. We would rather you earn less from a layout that keeps your traffic than more from one that burns it.