Outbrain
Taboola
| Feature | Outbrain | Taboola |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Contact sales | Contact sales |
| Free Plan | ✗ No | ✗ No |
| Rating | 3.9 / 5 | 3.8 / 5 |
| Best For | content-marketers, enterprise-brands, publishers, agencies | content-marketers, publishers, agencies, brand-awareness-campaigns |
| Founded | 2006 | 2007 |
| Native Ads | ✓ | ✓ |
| Smartfeed | ✓ | ✗ |
| Audience Targeting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Conversion Tracking | ✓ | ✗ |
| A B Testing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Brand Safety | ✓ | ✗ |
| Content Recommendations | ✗ | ✓ |
| Retargeting | ✗ | ✓ |
| Video Ads | ✗ | ✓ |
| Smart Bidding | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ 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
✓ Taboola Pros
- Massive publisher network
- Good for content marketing
- Lower CPC than social ads
- Broad reach on news sites
✗ Taboola Cons
- Lower conversion rates than search ads
- Brand safety concerns
- Click quality can be low
The Verdict
Outbrain is built for content marketers and enterprise brands, with a focus on native-ads and smartfeed. Taboola targets content marketers and publishers and leads with native-ads and content-recommendations.
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.
Both tools are a solid fit for content marketers, publishers, agencies — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.