# Top CitrusAd Competitors & Alternatives

## Top CitrusAd competitors and alternatives

### 1. [Kevel](https://www.kevel.com/)
Like CitrusAd, Kevel is an [API-driven tool](https://www.kevel.com/blog/what-are-ad-apis) for easily integrating sponsored products and other ad units into one’s site and app.

**Where Kevel excels over CitrusAd is around flexibility and features**. As an ads API tool founded seven years before CitrusAd, Kevel has a wealth of features not yet available in CitrusAd, including radius targeting and first-party data activation.

Kevel’s customer list includes Rappi, Bed Bath and Beyond, Lyst, Slickdeals, Ticketmaster, Yelp, and many more.

##### When to consider them
- **You currently use CitrusAd and are looking for a viable alternative**.
- **You want full control over your** [**retail media platform**](https://www.kevel.com/retail-media).
- **You think CitrusAd lacks functionality**.
- **You don’t like revenue sharing**.
- **You want an independent tech partner**.

##### When to think twice
- **If you have no advertiser relationships**.
- **You want to launch a new platform in a few days**.

### 2. Criteo
A retargeting company that branched into [retail media](https://www.kevel.com/retail-media), Criteo has built the largest sponsored products ad network. Criteo’s solution is mainly tag-based, which comes with difficulties around ad blocking, page speed, and the potential for inadvertent data sharing.

##### When to consider them:
- **You want to maintain some revenue from sponsored products.**
- **You want Criteo to bring the demand.**

##### When to think twice
- **You want a flexible, full-featured sponsored listings platform**.
- **You want transparency and control**.
- **You don’t like revenue sharing**.

### 3. PromoteIQ
PromoteIQ, bought by Microsoft in 2019, has pros and cons that mirror Criteo's. They are a tag-based sponsored listings ad network that makes it easy to integrate sponsored products into your retail site.

**They differ from Criteo in that they provide more visibility into your advertisers, allowing you to manage direct deals and approve vendors before they appear on your site/app.**

### 4. Google Ad Manager
No list of ad servers is complete without mentioning Google Ad Manager. With over 90% market share, GAM’s publisher-side ad server towers over competitors.

**GAM also has some** [**inherent problems**](https://www.kevel.com/blog/gam-risks) **that could push most retailers to think twice about using them.**

### 5. Other third-party ad servers
In your research, you may come across the below ad serving tools. However, it is unlikely they'll provide all the features you're looking for in your retail media platform.
1. **Standard ad servers** - Includes Adbutler, Adform, AdGlare, AdSpeed, EPOM, Revive, Smart Ad Server, UpRival, and Zedo.
2. **Acquired ad servers** - Includes Hooklogic (bought by Criteo), Mabaya (Criteo), and Polymorph (Walmart).

### 6. Building it entirely yourself
The other option is to build a retail media platform yourself. Such a project could take 10-20+ engineers and upwards of a few years — but it’s a path that some retail companies like Walmart and Amazon took.

### What are the next steps?
If you are a retailer looking for a CitrusAd competitor, we’d love to chat about the pros and cons of Kevel over CitrusAd. You can reach out to us [here](https://www.kevel.com/contact).

#### Chris Shuptrine
Chris has worked in ad tech for over fourteen years in a variety of roles - giving him customer support, PM, and marketing perspectives from both the advertiser and publisher sides. He previously worked as the VP of Marketing at Kevel.