TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    AppLovin Exchange (ALX)

    Score6.9 out of 10
    N/AAppLovin is a mobile advertising optimization platform from the company of the same name headquartered in California.N/A

    The Trade Desk

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AThe Trade Desk is the eponymous flagship product from the company headquartered in Ventura California, a demand-side / data management hybrid platform (DSP / DMP).N/A
    Pricing
    AppLovin Exchange (ALX)The Trade Desk
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    AppLovin Exchange (ALX)The Trade Desk
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    AppLovin Exchange (ALX)The Trade Desk
    Considered Both Products
    AppLovin
    Chose AppLovin Exchange (ALX)
    AppLovin has focused and put resources into the gaming vertical. They have found a niche space where they can dominate the marken and they have been investing in it to become the market leaders. Contrary to other ad tech players that want to be in every market, they have …
    Incentivized
    The Trade Desk
    Chose The Trade Desk
    The Trade Desk is more universal and widely known than their competition. They will be able to provide you with a lot of inventory, but the competition is more oriented towards specific objectives. Vungle specializes in video, MoPub on in app traffic and AppLovin on high impact …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Best Alternatives
    AppLovin Exchange (ALX)The Trade Desk
    Small Businesses
    Google AdMob
    Score7 out of 10
    Basis DSP
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    StackAdapt
    Score7.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Yahoo DSP
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    AppLovin Exchange (ALX)The Trade Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.8
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    AppLovin Exchange (ALX)The Trade Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    AppLovin
    AppLovin is particularly well suited for gaming campaigns where it is really hard to reach users and you need formats like the rewarded video to keep users engaged with your ad. I would not recommend it for branding campaigns as their formats are more performance-focused and the inventory is expensive so unless you are trying to reach the desired CPA, it would not be worth it to pay that much for ad placement.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Trade Desk
    After extensive research of DSP and DMP platforms in the market, our agency made the wise decision to license TTD's platform and develop a long-term partnership. TTD continues to innovate and offer cutting-edge media buying solutions, access to more audience data segments, and access to new and emerging media channels like CTV/OTT and digital-out-of-home. We couldn't be happier with TTD's technology and is one of the most advanced agency users of TTD is a key differentiator for our agency.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    AppLovin
    • ROI
    • Growth
    • Monetization
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Trade Desk
    • User engagement - Cookie matching provides better engagement and effectiveness
    • Reporting of campaigns - Great reporting on display advertising & platforms
    • Dashboard reporting - Scalable to global deployment & campaigns
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    AppLovin
    • Their support is very slow.
    • Inventory prices can be a bit high.
    • They need better anti-fraud controls.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Trade Desk
    • Reporting platform leaves a lot to be desired. Requires a lot of trial/error to pull exactly what you need to drive optimizations/learnings.
    • The "stop"/"continue bidding" feature for sitelists, devices, player sizes, etc is awful. When you set something up specifically, you should not have the AUTOMATIC option to serve beyond those parameters.
    • Trafficking video (VAST/VPAID) tags requires a manual insertion of a click URL. Completely redundant ask and is not provided by advertisers as that URL lives within the ad tag. Should not require multiple actions traffic a video tag.
    • Creative approval process (manual) doesn't seem necessary and is not a part of peers' platforms. There is no "pause/deactivate" feature for creative, you remove them or adjust the end date.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    AppLovin
    AppLovin has been a great partner for us. We have used them through our DSP and gotten great results with them. Their focus is on monetizing publishers' inventory and they could put more resources into their standalone service as an SSP to make sure DSPs can consider them strategic partners for the long term.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Trade Desk
    easy to understand dashboards and the self started ability to get going on your own terms. It's great to target niche groups across the world while still being able to report at a high level to C-suite. Wish it drove more conversions, but display can be a struggle there. Overall, would use it again.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    AppLovin
    AppLovin's support team is their weakest point. They are not very responsive and they tend to provide solutions that do not fix the problem. It seems like they will only be proactive if you are a very big client and by doing that they are preventing the rest of the client base from increasing spend on their platform and growing their accounts
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Trade Desk
    We noted no issues with our limited interaction with support. The software operated just as expected and we found that we were able to navigate needs on our own. We understand that The Trade Desk offers excellent support, so we believe it will be a good resource to us in the future.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    AppLovin
    Of all of the competitors above, AppLovin is the one that is more focused on gaming and that has a better pool of users in terms of conversion rate. While PubMatic and Magnate offer better solutions for CTV, AppLovin is better than InMobi and MoPub regarding in-app formats and inventory.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Trade Desk
    The Trade Desk is a much better product than AppNexus. Even though both products showed promise awhile back, AppNexus stopped innovating and The Trade Desk became specialists on data, cross site tracking and CTV inventory thus having a better and more unique product that actually adds value to your advertising efforts.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    AppLovin
    • It has had a positive impact on my business objectives
    • It has helped me grow exponentially
    • It has provided a way for me to expand my business
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    The Trade Desk
    • The good thing about having an agency account is The Trade Desk lets you add your markups to the client billing.
    • We had a very positive response from clients regarding their perceived ROI on their ad spend through The Trade Desk.
    • We did not have many national clients, mostly local dealerships, so it was difficult for them to allocate a lot of funds to display advertising, even though the ROI yield was acceptable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots