Best Header Bidding Solutions in 2026: Wrappers, Platforms and Ad Servers Compared

Almost every header bidding solution runs the same Prebid auction. What differs is how much of your stack it covers. Some only run the wrapper. Some also bring demand and take a share of it. Some put your own campaigns, the wrapper and the reporting in one account.

Below are 17 solutions in six groups, with fees and minimums taken from each vendor’s own site. Start with the group that matches what you already own: your demand, your ad server, or neither.

What Is a Header Bidding Solution?

A header bidding solution is the product that runs a publisher's header bidding auction: the wrapper script, the bidder setup and, in some models, the demand contracts. Most are built on Prebid, the open-source standard.

There are three types of header bidding wrappers: self-hosted, managed by a vendor, or hosted inside your ad server.

How We Compared Header Bidding Platforms

We asked five questions of every option:

1. Who serves your own campaigns? If you sell directly, those campaigns should compete with SSP bids in one auction.
2. Who runs the wrapper? You, a vendor or your ad server.
3. Who brings the demand? Your SSP contracts, or the vendor's.
4. Which ad server does it need? Some work with any; many assume Google Ad Manager.
5. How do you pay? A share of revenue, a fixed fee or engineering time.

No type answers all five in your favour. Each one trades something away:

A managed service brings demand and people, but takes a share of every impression and holds the demand contracts. A Prebid SaaS tool keeps your contracts and a fixed bill, but leaves the bidders to your team.

A wrapper run by an SSP costs little, but its owner bids in the auction it runs. An all-in-one ad server puts your own campaigns into the Prebid auction, but expects you to bring the SSPs.

Table: Header Bidding Solutions Compared

Every header bidding platform here can run the same Prebid auction. What changes from row to row is who owns the demand and who gets paid when it wins.

All-in-One Ad Servers with Header Bidding

An all-in-one ad server serves your direct campaigns and hosts the Prebid wrapper in the same account. Sold campaigns and SSP bids meet in one auction, and one report shows who filled each slot.

Epom Ad Server

Epom Ad Server hosts the Prebid tag on publisher pages. Your own campaigns bid in that auction before Google Ad Manager is asked, alongside any other Prebid bidders you add. One line item in GAM is all the setup it needs.

On the web, the auction runs in the browser. For apps and server-side auctions, you use your own Prebid Server, and Epom keeps its slot setup in sync. You can test on a shared Epom server first.

A Header Bidding report shows who filled each slot: your campaigns, Google, a partner or no one. Header bidding is included in your Ad Server plan.

✅ Best for: ad networks and publishers that sell their own campaigns and want them priced in the same auction as SSP bids.

❌ Not for: publishers that do not have any own demand. Epom can provide some, but it’s not its specialty.

See what shipped in Release 151.

AdButler

AdButler adds its own Prebid wrapper to its ad server and passes the winning bid to Google Ad Manager as key-values. Its pricing page lists the programmatic add-on at \$110 a month plus \$0.001 per 1,000 bids, on top of plans from \$179 a month. Google Ad Manager stays the ad server of record, and header bidding zones let direct campaigns compete with header bids.

✅ Best for: small ad networks that want public pricing.

❌ Not for: in-app or server-side heavy setups. Its help pages still reference Prebid 5.x.

Compare it in AdButler alternatives.

Equativ

Equativ, formerly Smart AdServer, runs an independent ad server and SSP. It offers a managed Prebid script configured in its interface, and server-side bidding through third-party wrappers. Those include Prebid Server, Amazon TAM and Google Open Bidding.

✅ Best for: publishers already on Equativ.

❌ Not for: new setups built on the managed script. Equativ's help center says it will be removed in Q2 2027\.

Aniview

Aniview is a video ad server and player. Its unified auction takes VAST, VPAID and Prebid demand together, and the platform also connects OpenRTB and Amazon demand. It integrates with Google Ad Manager and AdX, so Google demand competes in real time.

✅ Best for: video-first publishers.

❌ Not for: display-first sites.

Managed Header Bidding Services

A managed service runs the wrapper, resells its own demand and takes a share of revenue. You trade control for zero ad ops work.

Raptive

Raptive, formerly AdThrive and CafeMedia, is full-service ad management. It is the only vendor here that publishes its split: 75% to the publisher. Its 25% covers ad serving fees and other costs, and you create or link your own Google Ad Manager account.

✅ Best for: content creators from 25,000 pageviews a month, with at least half of traffic from the US, UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

❌ Not for: teams that want to own their demand relationships.

Freestar

Freestar sells a fully managed service and Flex, a plug-and-play option for teams with their own demand seats. The fully managed service covers web and app. Its quality rules cap ad density at 30% and refresh at no faster than every 30 seconds.

✅ Best for: content sites with mostly organic traffic from the US, UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Freestar's publishers average 1,000,000+ pageviews a month.

❌ Not for: small or non-English sites.

Publisher Collective

Publisher Collective merged with Snigel in February 2025\. Its AdEngine runs client-side, adds server-side demand through Open Bidding, Amazon and its own bidding server, and covers apps. It pays Net-30 with no lock-in.

✅ Best for: sites in its core genres. Others need 3 million pageviews a month, though it also evaluates sites earning about €300 a day.

❌ Not for: smaller sites. The revenue share isn't published.

AdPushup

AdPushup runs Prebid-based header bidding with hands-on account management, and lets you bring your own demand. It is part of Geniee, which also runs an SSP. It connects to 50+ demand partners and pays Net-45.

✅ Best for: sites earning \$5,000 a month or more that want managed ops.

❌ Not for: teams that want a wrapper with no SSP owner.

Publift

Publift runs its Fuse tags on top of your Google tags and gives access to more than 30 demand partners. There is no lock-in contract, and 24 hours' notice ends it.

✅ Best for: sites earning \$2,000 a month or more.

❌ Not for: tight cash flow. Publift pays non-Google revenue three months in arrears.

Prebid SaaS Tools

A SaaS tool gives you a Prebid control panel for a fixed fee. You keep your SSP contracts and manage the bidders yourself.

Setupad

Setupad runs Prebid client- and server-side in your own Google Ad Manager. Its Business plan charges €0.05 per 1,000 ad requests, with optional reseller demand at a 20% share. The plan needs a €50 minimum prepayment and no long-term commitment.

✅ Best for: ad ops teams with their own SSP contracts.

❌ Not for: teams that won't give a vendor full admin access to Google Ad Manager.

MonetizeMore PubGuru

PubGuru is a header wrapper and ad ops platform sold by subscription. Plans start at \$99 a month per domain for up to 500,000 pageviews. Professional costs \$249 per domain for up to 2,000,000, and extra traffic is billed at \$0.24 per 1,000 pageviews.

✅ Best for: single-site publishers that want a fixed cost.

❌ Not for: networks with many domains, since pricing is per domain.

Opti Digital

Opti Digital is a modular Prebid platform for web, in-app and AMP, sold as SaaS or as a managed service. It also has a Prebid adapter. Its products come as separate hubs for ad management, demand, insights, ad experience and yield.

✅ Best for: teams that want to start on SaaS and move to managed later.

❌ Not for: buyers who need a public price list.

Wrappers Run by SSPs and Amazon

The company that runs the wrapper also bids in it. That keeps fees low and raises a question: how are its own bids ranked?

Magnite Demand Manager

Demand Manager is Magnite's Prebid-based wrapper management tool. Magnite added AI-driven automation to it in August 2024\. In 2024 AdExchanger described a publisher using it to give Magnite first look at private marketplace auctions.

✅ Best for: publishers already selling heavily through Magnite.

❌ Not for: teams that want a neutral wrapper.

Amazon UAM and TAM

Amazon runs two server-side marketplaces. UAM uses one contract and takes 10% of bids; TAM uses its own SSP contracts plus one with Amazon and charges bidders 2.5%.

Since January 2026 Amazon also has a Prebid.js adapter in open beta. It brings Amazon demand and 60+ marketplace buyers into Prebid auctions.

✅ Best for: adding Amazon demand next to Prebid.

❌ Not for: replacing a wrapper. UAM is invitation-only and requires Google Ad Manager.

PubMatic OpenWrap SDK

OpenWrap SDK is PubMatic's Prebid-based in-app wrapper for banner, video, native, interstitial and rewarded ads. PubMatic shelved OpenWrap Web in July 2026 and pointed its web publishers to Playwire.

✅ Best for: app publishers already working with PubMatic.

❌ Not for: the web.

Google Open Bidding

Open Bidding runs server-to-server inside Google Ad Manager, through your existing Google tags. It is open to all publishers using Ad Exchange, and Google takes a revenue share it doesn't publish. You need a primary Ad Exchange account and a contract with each exchange.

✅ Best for: Google Ad Manager publishers who want extra exchanges without touching the page.

❌ Not for: anyone who needs fee visibility or another ad server.

AdX still can't bid inside Prebid. In September 2026 a US court ordered Google to connect them, but the remedy isn't in force yet. See Epom vs Google Ad Manager for the ad server side.

Prebid on Your Own

Prebid is free and open source: Prebid.js for the web, Prebid Server for server-side and Prebid Mobile for apps. It is designed to work with any ad server. Prebid Mobile always needs a Prebid Server, so apps mean running one or renting one.

✅ Best for: large publishers with Prebid engineers in-house.

❌ Not for: teams without developer time. Prebid.js 11 changed default rules in March 2026, and every upgrade needs testing.

All 17 Header Bidding Solutions at a Glance

What Do Header Bidding Solutions Cost?

The fee model decides your cost more than the price list does. Take a site earning \$20,000 a month on 10 million ad requests:

• At a 20% revenue share, it pays \$4,000 a month.
• At €0.05 per 1,000 ad requests, it pays €500.
• On Prebid alone, it pays in engineer hours.

A revenue share buys demand and people. A fixed fee costs less but leaves the demand to you. Epom includes header bidding in the Ad Server plan.

FAQ

Pick by What You Want to Keep

The wrapper is a commodity now. Decide what you keep: your demand contracts, your data and your share of every impression.