MailAdx vs Paved: infrastructure vs marketplace
Both MailAdx and Paved serve the newsletter advertising market, but they operate at very different layers of the stack. Paved is a curated marketplace that connects newsletter publishers with advertisers. MailAdx is ad infrastructure — the technical platform on which publishers build and run their ad stack. Understanding the difference is essential for choosing the right tool at the right stage of your newsletter business.
What Paved does
Paved operates a managed marketplace where publishers list their newsletter properties and advertisers browse and book placements. The platform handles discovery, pricing negotiation within defined ranges, creative review, scheduling, and payment processing. For a publisher who wants to be discovered by advertisers without building a sales function, Paved provides a genuine service — it aggregates demand that individual newsletters couldn't access on their own.
What MailAdx does
MailAdx provides the technical infrastructure to run a complete ad operation: SSP inventory management (placement builder, floor prices, deal configuration), a DSP for direct advertiser access, an open-time ad server, programmatic demand via OpenRTB, and publisher and advertiser reporting. MailAdx doesn't aggregate demand for you — it gives you the tools to aggregate and manage demand yourself.
The demand question
The most common objection to MailAdx from publishers at early stages is "but where does the demand come from?" Paved solves this by being the demand aggregator. MailAdx enables you to build your own demand stack: direct relationships with advertisers, PMP deals, and programmatic exchanges you choose.
The tradeoff: Paved's marketplace demand is accessible immediately but comes at marketplace terms (typically revenue share of 20–30%). MailAdx's direct demand requires sales investment but pays full rates with no revenue share. The right choice depends on your stage and capacity.
Using both together
Many publishers use Paved as a demand source connected to MailAdx's OpenRTB integration. This lets MailAdx manage the decisioning waterfall (direct → Paved programmatic → other exchanges → house ad) while Paved provides access to its advertiser network as one demand tier. You get the best of both: Paved's reach and MailAdx's control.
When to choose each
Choose Paved if you're early-stage, under 50,000 subscribers, and don't yet have the capacity to manage direct advertiser relationships. Choose MailAdx if you're ready to build a genuine ad business, want control over your pricing and advertiser selection, and need infrastructure that scales to network-level operations. Consider both if you want Paved's demand pool as one source among many in a MailAdx-managed waterfall.
Conclusion
The marketplace vs infrastructure distinction isn't about which tool is better — it's about what stage of the ad business journey you're on. MailAdx pricing starts at $149/month, and a demo will help you understand exactly how it fits your current setup.
