How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- The Trade Desk is the leading independent platform for buying display, video, CTV, audio, and out of home from one place, at a reported 12 to 15 percent of media spend.
- StackAdapt is the reachable version of the same idea: self serve, no long contract, with typical starting budgets around $5,000 a month.
- Google DV360 and Amazon DSP are the walled garden giants. Each is powerful inside its owner's world and priced for enterprise budgets.
- Skai and Pacvue cover the retail media side, Amazon, Walmart, and the commerce networks where a growing share of budgets now sits.
- Platform fees are a percentage of spend, not a subscription, and data, verification, and agency fees stack on top. Model the full take before you sign.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 The Trade Desk | Independent omnichannel buying at scale | See website | No |
 Google Display & Video 360 | YouTube and Google ecosystem reach | See website | No |
 Amazon DSP | Advertising built on Amazon shopping data | See website | No |
 StackAdapt | Self serve multichannel for mid market teams | See website | No |
 Skai | Search, social, and retail media in one platform | See website | No |
 Pacvue | Retail media and commerce advertising | See website | No |
 Smartly | Creative led social and video campaigns | See website | No |
 Basis | Agency planning, buying, and billing in one tool | See website | No |
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#1The Trade Desk
Best for: Independent omnichannel buying at scale4.4/5 on
G2 (186 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit thetradedesk.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
The Trade Desk is the reference platform for omnichannel buying on the open internet. A media team plans one campaign and the platform bids across streaming TV, websites, apps, podcasts, and digital billboards, optimising toward the outcome rather than the channel. Its founding argument still holds: unlike Google or Amazon, it sells no ads of its own, so its auctions are not tilted toward a house inventory.
The entry bar is real. Contracts are quoted, fees are reported around 12 to 15 percent of media, and most advertisers arrive through an agency or with five figure monthly budgets. For brands and agencies spending at that level, The Trade Desk is the platform the rest of the independent market is compared with.
What we like- Buys display, video, CTV, audio, native, and digital out of home from one platform
- Owns no media, so it has no inventory of its own to favour
- UID2 identity framework aimed at the post cookie world
- Deep measurement partner marketplace
Watch out for- Fees reported around 12 to 15 percent of spend
- Practical minimums reported from $25,000 a month upward, often through an agency
- No access to YouTube or Amazon's owned inventory
- Platform depth demands trained traders
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
DV360 is Google's enterprise buying platform, and its trump card is YouTube, which no independent DSP can buy the same way. Around that it offers display, video, audio, and connected TV inventory with Google's audience data and measurement built in. Large brands and their agencies run global campaigns from it as part of the Google Marketing Platform.
The relationship deserves clear eyes. Google sells the inventory, runs the auction, and provides the measurement, a concentration the industry debates openly. Budgets are enterprise: reporting puts efficient operation in the hundreds of thousands per year. If YouTube is central to your media plan, DV360 is close to unavoidable; if it is not, the independent platforms make a cleaner case.
What we like- The only route to programmatic YouTube buying at scale
- Deep integration with Google Analytics, ads data, and audiences
- Strong brand safety and verification tooling
- Global inventory across display, video, and connected TV
Watch out for- Access runs through Google sales or a reseller, with enterprise scale budgets expected
- Fees and serving costs reported around 7 to 15 percent of spend
- Google's dual role as seller and platform draws fair criticism
- Complexity rivals any tool here
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Amazon DSP sells one asset nobody else has: knowledge of what people buy. Advertisers target audiences built from shopping, browsing, and Prime Video viewing, then reach them on Amazon's streaming properties and across third party sites and apps. You do not need to sell on Amazon to use it, though sellers get the most from it.
Access costs enterprise money, with self serve minimums reported in the $35,000 to $50,000 a month range, and Amazon has been folding the DSP into its newer Ads Agent products during 2026, so buyers should confirm the current product shape in the sales process. For commerce brands, the purchase data justifies the ticket. For everyone else, it is a specialist channel, not the centre of the stack.
What we like- Targeting built on real shopping and streaming behaviour
- Reaches Prime Video, Fire TV, Twitch, and sites beyond Amazon
- Works for brands that do not sell on Amazon too
- Self serve and managed options
Watch out for- Self serve minimums reported around $35,000 to $50,000 a month
- The value fades outside commerce and entertainment audiences
- Reporting centres Amazon's own attribution view
- In 2026 Amazon folded the product into its Amazon Ads Agent tooling, so the interface is changing
#4StackAdapt
Best for: Self serve multichannel for mid market teams4.7/5 on
G2 (905 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit stackadapt.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
StackAdapt is the omnichannel platform a mid market team can actually start. It covers the same channel list as the giants, display, native, video, connected TV, audio, in game, and digital out of home, in a self serve interface that a small team can run, with AI tools for bidding and creative added in recent versions. Sources put typical starting budgets around $5,000 a month, against $25,000 and up at The Trade Desk.
That accessibility has made it the growth story of the category, especially with B2B advertisers using its account based targeting. The fee, reported around 15 percent of spend, is not cheap, and its data partnerships are shallower than the leaders'. For teams priced out of the enterprise tier, StackAdapt is the standard answer.
What we like- Self serve signup without the enterprise contract dance
- Display, native, video, CTV, audio, and out of home in one platform
- Typical starting budgets around $5,000 a month, the lowest of the big DSPs
- Strong account based targeting for B2B teams
Watch out for- Platform fee reported around 15 percent of spend
- Smaller data marketplace than The Trade Desk
- You still need in house ad operations skill
- International scale is thinner than the giants
#5Skai
Best for: Search, social, and retail media in one platform4.0/5 on
G2 (297 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit skai.io
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Skai, the platform long known as Kenshoo, approaches omnichannel from the walled gardens inward. It manages campaigns across Google and Microsoft search, the major social platforms, and retail media networks such as Amazon and Walmart, with shared budgets, rules, and reporting. For a brand whose spend lives in those gardens, one control panel beats five native tools.
Skai does not buy open internet display or CTV the way a DSP does, so it complements rather than replaces The Trade Desk in a big stack. Judged on its own ground, it is the veteran: two decades of campaign management, deep automation, and an enterprise client base. Pricing is quoted, and the platform pays back when several channels run through it.
What we like- Manages paid search, paid social, and retail media from one interface
- Long history as the former Kenshoo platform
- Strong rules, budgets, and cross channel reporting
- Retail media coverage spans the major commerce networks
Watch out for- Not a programmatic DSP, open web display sits elsewhere
- Enterprise pricing by quote
- Interface carries the weight of many channels
- Best value when you run at least two of its channel groups
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Pacvue is the retail media specialist. As ad budgets have shifted onto Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Instacart, brands needed tooling that treats those networks as seriously as search: bid automation across thousands of products, budget rules by margin and stock, and reporting that connects ad spend to actual sales and digital shelf position. Pacvue, now part of the Assembly group, is a leading answer.
Its limit is its focus. Pacvue will not buy your YouTube or your podcasts. Inside commerce media, though, it offers the depth the native consoles lack, especially for large catalogues where manual management collapses. For a consumer brand spending seriously on retail media, Pacvue belongs in the evaluation beside Skai.
What we like- Built for Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, and other retail media networks
- Ties ad data to sales, inventory, and share of shelf data
- Automation for bids, budgets, and dayparting at catalogue scale
- Strong fit for consumer brands and their agencies
Watch out for- Retail media only, no open web or social buying
- Pricing by quote
- Value scales with catalogue size, small sellers get less
- Retail networks change their ad products often, so any tool chases a moving target
#7Smartly
Best for: Creative led social and video campaigns4.4/5 on
G2 (475 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit smartly.io
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Smartly starts from a true observation: on social platforms, the creative is the targeting. Its platform generates and refreshes ad variants from product feeds and templates, launches them across Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Google, and moves budget toward the versions that perform. Brands with big catalogues, fashion, travel, e-commerce, use it to produce localised creative volumes no studio could hand make.
Smartly is not a DSP and does not buy the open web. It is the layer that makes social and video advertising manageable at scale, priced by quote for advertisers with real budgets. If paid social is your largest channel and creative volume is your bottleneck, Smartly addresses the actual problem.
What we like- Creative automation builds and refreshes ad variants at scale
- Covers Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Google properties
- Predictive tools shift budget toward working creative
- Strong for catalogues and dynamic product ads
Watch out for- Social and video focus, not a full channel stack
- Pricing by quote and aimed at serious spenders
- Creative templates need design input to look their best
- Reporting depth varies by channel
#8Basis
Best for: Agency planning, buying, and billing in one tool4.5/5 on
G2 (289 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit basis.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Basis, from Basis Technologies, is built for the agency desk rather than the brand's trading team. Its platform pairs a demand side platform with the unglamorous machinery agencies live on: planning, orders, workflow approvals, reconciliation, and billing, across programmatic, direct buys, search, and social. One system replaces the patchwork of tools and spreadsheets a mid size agency usually runs.
That operations focus means Basis rarely wins a pure trading shootout against The Trade Desk, and it does not try to. Its buyers are agencies whose margin leaks out through manual process. For them, a competent DSP joined to the business workflow is worth more than a marginally better auction tool.
What we like- Combines a DSP with media planning, workflow, and billing for agencies
- Buys programmatic plus direct and social in coordinated plans
- Reduces the spreadsheet and email chain around campaigns
- Long record with mid market agencies
Watch out for- Less known to brands, it sells to agencies first
- Platform depth trails The Trade Desk for pure trading
- Pricing by quote
- Smaller data and CTV bench than the leaders
How we chose
We compared the platforms media buyers shortlist for multi channel work in 2026, using programmatic guides from Improvado, SynterAI, HeySid, and SaaSHero checked in October 2026, plus vendor pages. The deciding facts were channel coverage, how a platform is accessed, and the reported fee and minimum spend ranges, because those decide who can use each tool at all. We mixed demand side platforms, the two platform owner systems, and the retail and social specialists, since a real omnichannel stack usually combines them. We left out single channel ad managers and analytics only tools, which measure campaigns rather than run them.
Add up the whole take rate first. The platform percentage is only the start: data segments, brand safety verification, ad serving, and agency or management fees can together absorb a third or more of a budget on enterprise setups. Ask each vendor for the all in cost on your expected spend, in writing, and compare platforms on money that reaches media, not on the headline fee.
Then match access to your team. A self serve platform such as StackAdapt needs an operator who understands bidding, audiences, and frequency; an enterprise DSP needs that plus a contract sized budget. Finally, test measurement before the big spend. Run the same campaign through your current tool and the candidate, compare how each reports a conversion you can verify in your own sales data, and distrust any platform whose numbers only ever flatter itself.
Frequently asked questions
How much do omnichannel advertising platforms charge?
Most charge a percentage of media spend rather than a subscription. Reporting puts The Trade Desk around 12 to 15 percent, StackAdapt around 15 percent, and Google DV360 in a 7 to 15 percent range plus serving fees, with data and verification charged on top. Minimum budgets separate them further: around $5,000 a month at StackAdapt, $25,000 and up at The Trade Desk, and $35,000 or more for Amazon DSP self serve.
Do I still need Google Ads if I buy a DSP?
Yes, for most advertisers. Google Ads captures people already searching for what you sell. A DSP reaches people earlier, across streaming TV, sites, apps, and audio, and builds the demand that search later harvests. The tools solve different problems. Omnichannel planning means budgeting both on purpose rather than letting one eat the other by default.
What changed in this market in 2026?
Two moves sum it up. Amazon folded its DSP into its newer Ads Agent product line, pushing buying toward AI assisted setup, and Microsoft announced the shutdown of its Xandr Invest DSP in favour of an AI driven buying platform. The direction everywhere is fewer manual controls and more automated campaign management, which raises the value of checking what the automation is actually doing with your budget.
Which platform is best for a small business?
None of the enterprise tools, honestly. A small business is better served by StackAdapt at its entry budgets if it has someone to run it, or by the native tools, Google Ads, Meta, and Amazon Ads, run directly. The platforms here pay back at budgets where a percentage fee buys real reach and time savings, roughly $5,000 a month in media and up.
Sources we checked (0)
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.