Programmatic advertising platforms: 20 DSPs and buying tools

The tools you actually buy media with — demand-side platforms, self serve DSP products, and specialist buying tools — with the channels each one covers, how you get access, and what it publishes about cost. Where a platform buys streaming TV advertising, the inventory itself sits in the CTV advertising platforms dataset.

Channels and access routes list what each vendor documents publicly, not every option they offer; a platform shown with sales-assisted access may still have self-service that is simply undocumented here. Three records contain a numeric budget requirement, and the three are not comparable: Vibe's $50 is a daily budget, AdRoll's help centre gives a $10 daily campaign budget alongside marketing pages that state no minimum, and Amazon DSP's $50,000 describes a typical managed-service engagement. AdLib also publishes a $799 monthly platform fee, which is a fee rather than a budget requirement. They are never merged into one starting price, and there is no cheapest-first ranking on this page.

Sources last read September 8, 2026 · United States focus; global platform capabilities may vary by market

Platforms tracked
20
Numeric budget requirements
3
Sources cited
32
Self-service access
11
Document CTV buying
19

20 of 20 platforms

20 platforms. Sortable and filterable; all rows are present in the page source.
ChannelsBuying accessPublished costDetails
Adform
Omnichannel DSP
DisplayVideoCTVAudioMobileDOOH
Sales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources
AdLib
DSP access and orchestration
DisplayNativeVideoCTVAudioDOOHMobile
Self-serviceSales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources
AdRoll
Multichannel buying platform
DisplayNativeVideoCTVMobileSocialDOOH
Self-serviceManaged service
$10 / day
Help-center campaign launch budget; $5 minimum daily spend also stated
Amazon DSP
Omnichannel DSP
DisplayVideoCTVAudio
Self-serviceManaged service
$50K / managed-service engagement
Typical managed-service minimum; varies by country; no period specified
Basis
Omnichannel DSP
ProgrammaticCTV
Sales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources
Choozle
DSP access and services
DisplayNativeVideoCTVAudioDOOH
Self-serviceManaged service
No amount in reviewed sources
DeepIntent
Healthcare DSP
AudioCTVDisplayNativeDOOHEHRVideo
Sales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources
Display & Video 360
Omnichannel DSP
DisplayVideoCTV
Sales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources
illumin
Journey-focused DSP
Programmatic
Self-serviceSales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources
Jamloop
CTV buying specialist
CTV
Self-serviceManaged serviceWhite label
No amount in reviewed sources
MNTN
CTV buying specialist
CTV
Self-serviceSales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources
Nexxen
Omnichannel DSP
VideoCTVOmnichannel
Sales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources
PulsePoint
Healthcare DSP
DisplayNativeEHRVideoAudioSocialCTVLinear TV
Sales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources
Quantcast
Omnichannel DSP
CTVAudioVideoDisplayMobileNative
Self-serviceSales-assisted access
No minimum stated
Platform overview states no minimums; confirm account/campaign settings
Simpli.fi
Omnichannel DSP
CTVProgrammaticNativeAudioDOOH
Self-serviceSales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources
StackAdapt
Omnichannel DSP
NativeDisplayVideoCTVAudioDOOHIn-game
Self-serviceManaged serviceHybrid
No amount in reviewed sources
The Trade Desk
Omnichannel DSP
DisplayNativeCTVAudioDOOH
Sales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources
Viant
Omnichannel DSP
DisplayNativeMobileCTVAudioIn-game
Sales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources
Vibe
CTV buying specialist
CTV
Self-service
$50 / day
Advertised starting daily budget
Yahoo DSP
Omnichannel DSP
DisplayNativeVideoCTVAudioDOOH
Sales-assisted access
No amount in reviewed sources

Stable copies of the full dataset, free to reuse with attribution: CSV · JSON

How to read the cost column

Three records contain a numeric budget requirement, and AdLib publishes a platform fee. None of these figures mean the same thing, so they are never combined into a single starting price.

Vibe — $50 per day. An advertised starting daily budget for a self-service CTV buy. It tells you the entry point, not what a meaningful test costs over a month.

AdRoll — $10 per day, flagged as conflicting. The conflict is between the marketing and pricing pages, which state no minimum, and the help centre, which specifies a $10 daily campaign budget and a $5 daily spend. Those two daily figures are not in conflict with each other; the mismatch is with the no-minimum claim, and we record both rather than picking the friendlier one.

Amazon DSP — $50,000. Widely cited as a typical managed-service engagement, varying by country, with no period attached. Treat it as an indication of where managed service starts, not a published floor, and note that self-service access carries different terms.

AdLib — $799 per month. A platform fee for access, recorded under fees rather than cost, because none of it is media spend.

For the remaining platforms, no numeric amount was found in the reviewed public sources. For enterprise DSPs that is the norm: seat fees, commitments, and take rates are negotiated, and the number you get depends on volume and who is asking.

Methodology

Editorial review of official product, advertising and help pages. Sources establish public statements, not independently tested performance. Empty arrays and nulls mean not established in reviewed sources, not unavailable or zero. Costs retain their original scope and unit; no CPM or reach estimates are inferred. Buyer notes are editorial procurement guidance.

Each platform is read from its own product, advertising, pricing, and help pages. A figure is recorded with the unit and scope it was published in, and never converted into a comparable rate — which is why the cost column cannot be sorted.

Unknown is left empty rather than filled with a zero. An undisclosed price is recorded as undisclosed, never as “no minimum”. Conditions attached to a reseller, partner, or managed-service tier keep that scope and are never promoted into platform-wide terms. Channel and access lists reflect what the vendor documents, so an empty entry means nothing was established in the sources reviewed, not that a capability is missing.

We publish no CPM estimates, reach figures, or performance benchmarks of our own, and we run no independent testing. There is no ranking and no “best” label. Every row carries its source URLs and the date they were read.

Something changed? Send a correction with a source.

Glossary

DSP (demand-side platform)
Software a buyer uses to bid on ad inventory across many exchanges from one seat.
Self serve DSP
A platform where you open the account, load creative, and launch yourself, with no vendor trader in the loop.
Hybrid access
You can start on your own, but tiers of inventory, data, or support only open after a sales conversation.
White label
The buying technology is resold under someone else's brand, so your commercial terms come from the reseller, not the underlying platform.
Managed service
The vendor's team runs the buying. Usually carries the highest entry cost of any access route on the same platform.
Published cost
A figure the vendor states publicly, kept in its original unit. A daily budget, a campaign budget, and an annual engagement are three different things.
Platform fee vs media cost
The fee is what the platform keeps for access and technology; media cost is what reaches the publisher. AdLib's $799 per month, for example, is a platform fee and not a media minimum.
Supply-path optimisation
Choosing the shortest route between your bid and the publisher, to cut the number of intermediaries taking a cut.

Procurement checklist

What to settle before a seat, a contract, or a first flight.
  1. 1.Ask for the number in writing with its unit attached: per day, per campaign, per month, or per annual commitment. Most disputes come from a figure that lost its unit on the way into a deck.
  2. 2.Split platform fee from media cost as separate line items. A platform fee like AdLib's monthly charge buys access; none of it reaches a publisher.
  3. 3.For managed service, ask what the fee covers and what happens when you fall below the engagement level mid-year.
  4. 4.Confirm the channels you actually need are live in your market. Channel lists on vendor pages are global, and CTV in particular varies by country.
  5. 5.Ask whose seat it is. If your agency holds it, establish now what happens to your campaign history and audiences when the relationship ends.
  6. 6.Check what reporting you get out: log-level data, an API, or dashboards only. This decides whether you can ever verify supply paths yourself.
  7. 7.For white-label or reseller access, get the commercial terms from the reseller in writing — the underlying platform's published terms may not apply to you.
  8. 8.Ask for the cancellation terms and what happens to an unspent commitment before the first flight goes live.

Questions

What counts as a programmatic advertising platform here?
A platform whose own documentation describes it as a tool for buying media: demand-side platforms, self serve DSP products, and specialist buying tools. Streaming services and other inventory owners are not in this dataset — they sit in the CTV advertising platforms dataset instead.
Which of these are self serve DSPs?
Filter the access column for self-service. Several platforms run a hybrid model where you can open an account yourself but need a conversation before higher-tier inventory unlocks, and those are recorded as hybrid rather than self-service.
Why does most of the cost column say no amount was found?
Because no numeric amount was found in the reviewed public sources. That is not the same as having no minimum, and it does not mean a figure exists nowhere. Enterprise DSPs commonly negotiate a seat fee and a commitment privately, and we do not fill that gap with a number someone was quoted.
Is $50 a day on Vibe cheaper than $50,000 on Amazon DSP?
Those figures answer different questions and cannot be ranked against each other. Vibe advertises a starting daily budget; the Amazon figure describes a typical managed-service engagement with no period stated and country-level variation. AdRoll's marketing pages state no minimum while its help centre specifies a $10 daily campaign budget and a $5 daily spend, so the record is flagged as conflicting rather than resolved in either direction.
Are agency or reseller conditions included as minimums?
Only with their scope attached. A figure that applies to a reseller tier or a managed-service engagement is recorded that way, never presented as a platform-wide floor.
Do you rank these platforms or test their performance?
No. There is no best-platform column and no independent performance testing. Every field records what a vendor states publicly, with the source linked on the row.

Need someone to actually run it?

An agency can help with platform access, campaign execution and measurement. These are the media buying and paid media agencies in the index, with the evidence behind each score.

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