Sharethrough
Sell-side platform offering first-price header bidding for display, video, and native.
Best for small and mid-market publishers.
Summary review · Last verified Oct 19, 2026 · Scored on 10 criteria · Vendors can't pay for scores
Research by Vahe Arabian · Scored and edited by the SODP team
Key facts
- Score
- 3.5 / 5
- Tier
- Fair Fit
- Pricing model
- Revenue share, rate not publicly disclo…
- Type
- Supply-side platform
- Publishers using it
- 357
- HQ
- Montreal, Canada
- Headcount
- 38
At a glance
- Sharethrough scores 3.5/5 (Fair Fit) in Benchmark Grid's independent ad networks benchmark, assessed on 10 published criteria.
- It is built for small and mid-market publishers.
- Strongest on Integration & ad-ops workload (3.8) and Consent & privacy readiness (3.6); weakest on Page speed & Core Web Vitals impact (2.5).
- Pricing: Revenue share, rate not publicly disclosed.
- 357 publishers in our tracking use Sharethrough, from ads.txt files, page code and public case studies.
- Scores last verified 19 Oct 2026. Vendors cannot pay for a score or a position.
Summary
Editor's update: 19 Oct 2026 accuracy audit: added June 2025 merger into Equativ
Sharethrough provides a sell-side platform with first-price auction technology, helping publishers monetize display, video, and native inventory through header bidding and direct integrations. Now part of Equativ: the merger completed in June 2025 and it operates as Sharethrough, an Equativ company.
Score breakdown
3.5 = 0.45 × 3.14 capability + 0.40 × 4.50 publisher fit + 0.15 × 2.20 cost
Σ (criterion rating × weight) across 10 criteria · scale 1 (poor) → 5 (excellent)
The platform utilizes a transparent first-price auction model that provides solid monetization potential for mid-market publishers.
16% of capability · What we check: RPM and fill a publisher can expect, and evidence of uplift against the stack it replaces.
Sharethrough offers specialized first-price header bidding infrastructure and direct connections to a range of DSPs.
14% of capability · What we check: Prebid and header-bidding support, number of SSPs and bidders, and access to Google AdX demand.
Standard brand safety controls are included, though the platform does not emphasize advanced proprietary or third-party verification as a core feature.
12% of capability · What we check: Malvertising and redirect blocking, creative review, and advertiser category blocks the publisher can set.
Publishers have adequate control over their inventory through direct SSP-to-DSP connections and standard reporting features.
12% of capability · What we check: Control over floors, placements and ad density, line-item visibility, and no forced exclusivity.
It pays only on revenue it has actually collected, once the month's earnings pass US$100. Payment timing and currency are set per Order Form, and disputes must be raised within 10 days.
10% of capability · What we check: Net payment terms, minimum payout thresholds, currencies and a record of paying on time.
No public evidence found in our October 2026 research; the vendor does not publish this.
10% of capability · What we check: Script weight, lazy loading and layout-shift handling, and measured effect on Core Web Vitals.
The platform provides a functional dashboard focused on standard reporting and analytics for mid-market teams.
8% of capability · What we check: Report granularity and freshness, API or export access, and how easily numbers reconcile with payouts.
The platform is designed for straightforward header bidding implementation, allowing for relatively quick deployment and reduced ad-ops complexity.
8% of capability · What we check: Setup effort, CMS plugins and GAM compatibility, and how much ongoing ad-ops work stays with the publisher.
Its supply policy requires content sites with mainly US, UK, Canada or EMEA traffic plus ads.txt and sellers.json compliance, bans listed content categories, and needs integration-team approval before going live.
5% of capability · What we check: Traffic minimums, approval criteria, supported geographies and time to go live.
It is registered on the IAB TCF vendor list (ID 80), its Prebid adapter handles TCF, CCPA and COPPA signals and every user-ID module, and GPP support is only partial.
5% of capability · What we check: IAB TCF and GPP support, consent-aware ad serving and cookieless identity options.
Sharethrough scores 3.5/5 in Benchmark Grid's independent Best Ad Networks for Publishers benchmark (benchmarkgrid.com/best-ad-networks-for-publishers/sharethrough, verified Oct 19, 2026)
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
- Early adopter of transparent first-price auctions
- Simple header bidding integration
- Supports smaller and mid-sized publishers
Limitations
- Smaller demand pool than larger SSPs
- Limited CTV inventory compared to competitors
Who uses it
Detected from site code, ads.txt records and published case studies — not from the vendor's own customer list.
By publisher size
By content vertical
Publishers running Sharethrough357
- 20 MinutenEnterprise· News
- ABC27Enterprise· News
- Al JazeeraEnterprise· News
- American City Business JournalsEnterprise· Business
- ANSAEnterprise· News
- AOLEnterprise· News
- BloombergEnterprise· Business
- Boston Globe MediaEnterprise· News
- BustleEnterprise· Style & Fashion
- BuzzFeedEnterprise· News
- CBS NewsEnterprise· News
- CBS SportsEnterprise· Sports
Cost of ownership
Pricing
Revenue share, rate not publicly disclosed
Pricing unclear for your setup? — we'll make the introduction. Free, and it never affects the score.
Cost data sourced from vendor pricing pages and community signals. Vendors may dispute any factor.
What users say
While publishers value the platform’s monetization and supply growth, users frequently report technical reliability issues, intrusive ad experiences, and concerns regarding data privacy and integration performance.
Sources: Reddit 82% · G2 9% · Trade press 9%
Most discussed
Recent quotes
"How to Opt Out of Sharethrough.com: Comprehensive Step-by-Step Instructions"
Negative·Reddit·4mo ago
"Any one know why Pubmatic, Rubicon, Sharethrough etc all went from bidding ok via APS UAM to barely bidding after May 29?"
Negative·Reddit·5mo ago
"Sharethrough led overall ads.txt growth, strengthening its authorized supply footprint"
Positive·Reddit·8mo ago
"On the publisher side, Sharethrough, Freewheel, Criteo, TrustX, and Magnite are all showing strong new connections."
Positive·Reddit·1y ago
"I’m trying to read my webcomics but nearly every time I scroll it takes me to this link: https://pandg.tapad.com/tag...bp_id=sharethrough"
Negative·Reddit·2y ago
11 mentions from 3 independent sources, each read and scored by our analyser. Mentions we could not tie to a real user, and those flagged as promotional, are excluded. Sentiment is opinion, and is independent of the verified publisher adoptions shown above.
The company behind Sharethrough
Company facts come from an independent business-data record rather than the vendor's own site.
- Employees
- 38
- Headquarters
- Montreal, Canada
- Ownership
- Privately Held
Compare Sharethrough
The head-to-heads publishers look at most, then the closest contests in the same benchmark.
FAQ
How is Sharethrough scored?
Sharethrough scores 3.5 out of 5 in Benchmark Grid's independent Best Ad Networks for Publishers benchmark. The overall figure blends capability (45%), publisher fit (40%) and cost of ownership (15%). Capability is itself a weighted average of 10 criteria; the heaviest are revenue yield & rpm uplift (16%), demand access & header bidding (14%) and ad quality & brand safety controls (12%). Vendors cannot pay for a score.
What size publisher is Sharethrough built for?
Sharethrough is built for small and local publishers and mid-market publishers. That is the vendor's own stated target, and it is one of the inputs to our publisher-fit score — a platform that suits a national newsroom often carries more operational load than a small one can absorb.
What does Sharethrough cost?
Revenue share, rate not publicly disclosed Our cost-of-ownership score is 2.2/5, which weighs pricing transparency, entry cost, implementation cost, hidden-fee risk and ongoing cost. Ask the vendor for a written first-year figure that includes implementation before you commit.
Who uses Sharethrough?
We have evidenced 357 publishers running Sharethrough. Adoptions are detected from site code, ads.txt records and published case studies rather than taken from the vendor's own customer list, and each one is listed on this page.
Can Sharethrough pay for a better score?
No. Scores come from our editorial review of the product's documentation, demos and public evidence. A vendor can claim this listing or request a re-review, but nothing they buy changes a score or a position.
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