Mediavine
Outbrain
| Feature | Mediavine | Outbrain |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Contact sales | Contact sales |
| Free Plan | ✗ No | ✗ No |
| Rating | 4.7 / 5 | 3.9 / 5 |
| Best For | bloggers, content-creators, publishers, niche-sites | content-marketers, enterprise-brands, publishers, agencies |
| Founded | 2004 | 2006 |
| Display Ads | ✓ | ✗ |
| Video Ads | ✓ | ✗ |
| Lazy Loading | ✓ | ✗ |
| Script Wrapper | ✓ | ✗ |
| Dashboard | ✓ | ✗ |
| A B Testing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Native Ads | ✗ | ✓ |
| Smartfeed | ✗ | ✓ |
| Audience Targeting | ✗ | ✓ |
| Conversion Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Brand Safety | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Mediavine Pros
- High RPM rates
- Excellent support
- Site speed focus
- Creator-friendly
✗ Mediavine Cons
- 50k session minimum
- Long approval process
- Exclusive contract
✓ Outbrain Pros
- Premium publisher network
- Good content amplification
- Strong audience targeting
- Better brand safety than competitors
✗ Outbrain Cons
- Higher minimum spend
- Lower volume than Taboola
- Requires quality content to perform
The Verdict
Mediavine is built for bloggers and content creators, with a focus on display-ads and video-ads. Outbrain targets content marketers and enterprise brands and leads with native-ads and smartfeed.
Both tools use custom enterprise pricing — you'll need to contact sales for a quote, which makes direct cost comparison difficult.
Neither tool offers a free plan, so factor the subscription cost into your decision from the start.
Mediavine edges out on user ratings (4.7 vs 3.9). While both are well-regarded, that gap reflects real differences in user satisfaction worth considering.
Both tools are a solid fit for publishers — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
Bottom line: Mediavine has a slight overall edge — but if premium publisher network matters most to you, Outbrain may still be the right call.