AppNexus vs. Basis DSP

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
AppNexus
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
AppNexus AppNexus offers online auction infrastructure and technology for data management, optimization, financial clearing and support for directly negotiated advertising campaigns. It integrates with advertising sources including Google's DoubleClick, Microsoft's AdECN, and aggregators.[3]N/A
Basis DSP
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Basis from Basis Global Technologies (formerly Centro) is a programmatic ad buying platform supporting digital advertising buying and placement across varying channels. Since the acquisition of SiteScout the platform also contains technology from the SiteScout AdServer.N/A
Pricing
AppNexusBasis DSP
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AppNexusBasis DSP
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
AppNexusBasis DSP
Considered Both Products
AppNexus
Chose AppNexus
Appnexus is less retargeting-focused than Criteo. Their solutions are more focused on building awareness and not so much on the bottom of the funnel and on conversions. Regarding Mopub, their focus is on mobile, and Appnexus, even though it has a very strong mobile set of …
Chose AppNexus
The TTD platform seems to have better CTV/OLV inventory, so that is typically preferred over AppNexus (APN). Usually, if clients have an internal desk, they will use TTD, which can often lead to us bidding against them, which is also another benefit of running campaigns within …
Chose AppNexus
We use AppNexus as a part of a full advertising stack which includes the other platforms listed below. AppNexus is similar in it's offering and also offers unique header bidding options which help it stand out slightly against the other options in the demand side platform …
Chose AppNexus
AppNexus is a different kind of DSP. They put a lot of focus on taking care of their ecosystem, they are very restrictive in which kind of ads you can serve there. They audit all of the creatives, and that's why they never have issues with fraud and are good for branding …
Chose AppNexus
AppNexus has more advanced targeting options as well as better publishers than The Trade Desk. Even if the system is harder to use and less intuitive they have a lot of CTV inventory and are at the forefront of the industry. They should expand on other markets to improve their …
Chose AppNexus
Qlikview's dashboard is hard to configure. Also, it is unable to report on metrics by section or DMA. It does not update data that have been corrected. There is no visualization with Qlikview.
Chose AppNexus
Appnexus reporting was significantly more granular than Rubicon. It's reporting also was better organized and felt more trustworthy when pulling historical data.
Chose AppNexus
Before using AppNexus we have used Ad Juggler and compared to Ad Juggler, AppNexus is sophisticated ad server and the UI is awesome.
Chose AppNexus
n/a
Chose AppNexus
N/A
Chose AppNexus
Appnexus is the only one that i have used but I don't see why I would use anything else. It fits all of my needs, has extra things that I never got a chance to use and I look forward to learning and playing more with the data tools. I also like knowing that our user data is …
Chose AppNexus
Adobe Photoshop,Basecamp,DoubleClick,GoToMeeting,McAfee,Synthesio,WebEx Meetings
Chose AppNexus
AppNexus stacks up very well and works to mend across similar products, and to our proprietary technologies. They've created a platform that's close to a one-stop shop that spawns across a number of technologies and services, which is great from an advertising or publishing …
Chose AppNexus
Google Marketing Platform is the platform we used prior to AppNexus, while Google Marketing works innately with so many other platforms and does a wonderful job of streamlining everything we thought the vast features that AppNexus brings to the table would assist us better. …
Basis DSP
Chose Basis DSP
Advangelist, StackAdapt, Simplifi, Trade Desk, Media Math - overall most of the other platforms we reviewed were perfectly fine and can get the job done quite well. We have mostly stuck with basis because of the relationship that we have, the fact that they have continued to …
Chose Basis DSP
Basis [DSP] has much better fraud control than SmartyAds DSP. Even though they do not have the amount of supply inventory as Smarty, they have much more controls for invalid traffic and bots which is very important to minimize discrepancies and issues with clients.
Compared to …
Chose Basis DSP
Compared to these 3 alternatives, Basis DSP is the easiest to use. Applovin is more complex but it is very messy and the learning curve is pretty steep. Applovin is focused mostly on big clients and not suitable for agencies of any size. OpenX would be the closest competitor …
Chose Basis DSP
Basis is able to reach ad exchanges that these platforms can not. Basis serves as a one-stop shop whereas these platforms require 3rd party integrations.
Chose Basis DSP
We've previously tested Pocketmath and evaluated Beeswax.

Pocketmath and Basis are roughly the same in terms of cost and inventory. However, Pocketmath's interface, while very attractive, is very difficult to use to deploy large scale campaigns quickly. It is definitely …
Chose Basis DSP
The primary reason for an agency or an SMB to use Basis is cost -- unlike other platforms which are full service or enterprise platforms with aggressively high minimums, Basis is well suited for proofs of concept and smaller campaigns. It can scale up, but the entry-level …
Chose Basis DSP
Basis DSP is much more user-friendly than DoubleClick and allows us to host our ads within their platform, rather than having to use DCM and DBM. Although DBM has more third party targeting options, the overall user experience of Basis DSP is far superior to DoubleClick.
Chose Basis DSP
SiteScout has much more control over our ads than other comparable platforms offer. We spend a bit of time configuring everything, but we're able to perform many A/B tests and really optimize our campaigns to a very detailed level.
Features
AppNexusBasis DSP
Ad Network Integration
Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Product A and Product B
AppNexus
8.5
Ratings
14% above category average
Basis DSP
-
Ratings
Data Transfer8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
DSP integration9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
AppNexus
8.0
Ratings
3% above category average
Basis DSP
-
Ratings
Ad campaign creation8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad deployment9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Display advertising7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Sequence targeting8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
AppNexus
8.2
Ratings
6% above category average
Basis DSP
-
Ratings
Ad dashboards9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad performance reports7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Cross-channel ad management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AppNexusBasis DSP
Small Businesses
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.5 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 9.0 out of 10
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Score 9.0 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AppNexusBasis DSP
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
4.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
5.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
2.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
5.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
5.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
5.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
4.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AppNexusBasis DSP
Likelihood to Recommend
AppNexus is well suited to use for programmatic campaigns that we have to launch for clients. Everything from standard display, native, high-impact, and video can run within the platform. Our trading team is well experienced within AppNexus (APN), and it's typically the first DSP they learn when starting.
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Basis DSP is well suited to every type of campaign imaginable. My firm specializes in outreach and education campaigns and we use Basis DSP in order to turn people out to events and to take specific actions. Basis has changed how we do business for the better. The hyperlocal campaigns, native campaigns, and audio campaigns have all added excellent additional capabilities to our tool box and have allowed us to complete very compelling campaigns for our clients.
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Pros
  • As per my experience they have strong support personnel. Solving the issues as and when required.
  • We can solve certain issues like campaign performance, inventory optimization and more with the help of AppNexus wiki. We get all the required information in the Wiki itself.
  • They have given the right platform to both buyers and sellers to workout and meet their digital marketing needs and goals.
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  • Customer Service and Support is fantastic. Always willing to educate our team and help us get the most value out of the platform.
  • The ad fraud features are great. Through DV360 we need to use a third-party which comes with additional costs.
  • Easy to use platform.
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Cons
  • Better visualization and dashboard will make it a perfect product.
  • The product concept is hard to master. More video training in addition to the interactive training may help.
  • More report templates will make my life easier since it takes time to build one.
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  • Managed service is a little pricey and tends to have slightly lower performance
  • interface is very 90's, could use a real facelift purely from an aesthetic perspective
  • Reports are continually being updated but could use some refinement in output for client-facing reports
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Likelihood to Renew
I love almost everything about AppNexus because I feel like the user data is easy to track because of the identifiers, you can see which adverts got clicked and which were ignored. We can track the location of the ad on the page fold and this makes it so much easier for future campaigns. The only thing I don't like is that the data is only kept for a year, and I'd like it for a longer period of time
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No answers on this topic
Usability
Because I think the interface is kind of confusing at the beginning and it confuses you a lot.
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It's pretty basic, nothing is hidden and nothing ever moves so you can count on finding what you are looking for each day
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Reliability and Availability
I've never had any problems with appnexus - the software is always available
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No answers on this topic
Performance
Yes, everything works great in that sense
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Because the support team does give you support, they take 24hrs to get back to you but once they open a ticket they focus on resolving the issue for you. My only problem is that you don't have a specific account representative assigned to you.
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We have a dedicated account rep. She makes it seem like we are her only client, she is very responsive, helps each time we have a question and understands our campaign goals. Anytime we need support, our rep is available either email or call and if she is not going to be available, she will let us know ahead of time to provide back up and inform them of our current campaigns so they can better assist us.
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Online Training
Online training are not user friendly and not easy to understand
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
There are a ton of tactics and strategy to implement in the DSP platform. There isn't really a selection of the different types of campaigns or tactics to choose from, you just have to learn as you go. Once you figure out the strategy and goal of the campaign it is very easy to implement the tactic and to achieve its goals.
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Alternatives Considered
Appnexus is less retargeting-focused than Criteo. Their solutions are more focused on building awareness and not so much on the bottom of the funnel and on conversions. Regarding MoPub, their focus is on mobile, and Appnexus, even though it has a very strong mobile set of solutions, is specialized on CTV and other media channels.
Read full review
Basis [DSP] has much better fraud control than SmartyAds DSP. Even though they do not have the amount of supply inventory as Smarty, they have much more controls for invalid traffic and bots which is very important to minimize discrepancies and issues with clients. Compared to other DSPs though, it lags on performance solutions.
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Scalability
Because it's a great DSP but not the best
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • After using AppNexus for our banner ads, which used to be a simple task became a complex one and we lost time building it out.
  • After realizing there is no dedicated way to contact AppNexus for troubleshooting and exchanging many emails going into long threads we lost even more time.
  • Our return on investment was poor with AppNexus due to the vastness of the platform and poor support experience limiting what we could do and losing time.
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  • Basis DSP allows us to reach users in many different places while controlling costs - access to major exchanges at a competitive bid rate allows us to provide a lot of added-value to clients without dramatically increasing the cost they incur.
  • The team is friendly, helpful, and responsive, so we don't have a lot of situations where we're locked in campaign downtime due to a customer service issue with negative downstream impacts to the bottom line.
  • Periodic reporting outages have resulted in campaigns that overpace and incur needless costs (however, this is certainly an exception, not the rule).
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ScreenShots