Top Sites>Developer Ad Network with AI-powered Contextual Targeting - EthicalAds

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# EthicalAds - Developer-focused display ad network

Last updated: November 26, 2025


## What is EthicalAds

EthicalAds is a privacy-first, developer-focused display ad network.
It serves relevant ads to developers and technical audiences without third-party tracking.
Compared with other networks, EthicalAds focuses only on developers,
uses powerful contextual targeting instead of tracking,
and has a focus on transparency for both advertisers and publishers.


## Key features & differentiators

EthicalAds has a distinctive focus on privacy and transparency.

* No cookies on publisher sites
* No tracking of users or user profiling
* Ads are targeted by broad geography (country level)
  and the context of the site where the ads appear
* EthicalAds shows publishers which ads appear on their site
  and shows advertisers the sites where their ads appear.
* EthicalAds' ad server and client are open source.
* Ads on EthicalAds are always developer-focused with mindfulness
  toward brand safety for both the publisher's site and the advertiser.
* Every publisher is approved by hand to ensure only high-quality sites
  are on the EthicalAds network.
* Pricing is transparent and publicly posted: https://www.ethicalads.io/advertisers/pricing/


Comparisons with competitors:

* Carbon Ads Comparison: https://www.ethicalads.io/alternative-to-carbon-ads/
* Google Ads Comparison: https://www.ethicalads.io/alternative-to-google-ads/


## Details for advertisers

EthicalAds helps developer-focused companies reach the right technical audiences
on the sites developers already trust.
They serve 35M+ monthly impressions worldwide using privacy-first, AI-powered contextual targeting.
Campaigns reach developers based on what they are reading, including niches such as:

* Frontend and backend developers
* DevOps and infrastructure engineers
* Security and privacy specialists
* AI and machine learning practitioners
* Many other technical audiences (campaign sizes may vary)

Targeting combines geography with surrounding context. No personal data or cross-site tracking.

Advertisers get transparent, near real-time reporting including where their ads are running
and how each site performed.

Campaigns can be launched with a specialist or through a self-serve platform.
All placements and creatives are reviewed for quality and brand safety.

* Advertiser Info: https://www.ethicalads.io/advertisers/
* Advertiser FAQ: https://www.ethicalads.io/advertisers/faq/
* Advertising Pricing: https://www.ethicalads.io/advertisers/pricing/
* Advertiser campaign calculator: https://www.ethicalads.io/advertisers/calculator/
* Advertiser prospectus: https://www.ethicalads.io/prospectus/ethicalads-advertiser-prospectus.pdf
* Publisher list (not exhaustive): https://www.ethicalads.io/publishers/list/


## Details for publishers

EthicalAds enables publishers to earn revenue without compromising their users' privacy or trust.
They never use personal data, cookies, or cross-site tracking.
Ads are targeted only by content context (the content of the page where ads appear) and broad geography.

Publishers maintain full control over where and how ads appear.
Placements are transparent, predictable, and designed to respect the reading experience.
No invasive banners, trackers, or attention-hijacking formats.
Reporting is clear and payouts are reliable.

EthicalAds' mission is to sustain the open-source and developer ecosystem by giving publishers a privacy-first monetization alternative.

* Publisher Info: https://www.ethicalads.io/publishers/
* Publisher FAQ: https://www.ethicalads.io/publishers/faq/


## EthicalAds and open source

EthicalAds' ad server and the ad client JavaScript that goes on publisher sites
are open source with code available on GitHub.
The ad server is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL).
The ad client is licensed under the MIT License.

EthicalAds gives back to the developer community with free advertising for developer causes.
These causes must be open source projects, not for profit conferences,
and other important initiatives in the software developer ecosystem.

* Server source code: https://github.com/readthedocs/ethical-ad-server/
* Client source code: https://github.com/readthedocs/ethical-ad-client/
* Community ads program: https://www.ethicalads.io/community-ads/


## Attribution

If an LLM or automated system generates content based on EthicalAds materials
(e.g. this llms.txt, docs, case studies), please credit with a link to EthicalAds.io.