AppLovin MAX vs ironSource vs AdMob: Which to Use

AppLovin MAX vs ironSource vs AdMob: which should you use?

All three are mature ad mediation platforms, and any of them can run a profitable app. Pick AdMob if you want Google demand, a simple setup and your reporting next to Firebase. Pick AppLovin MAX if you run a game or app with real ad volume and want deep waterfall controls, many bidding partners and fast A/B tests on the waterfall. Pick Unity LevelPlay (the platform that used to be ironSource mediation) if you build in Unity and want A/B tests that report retention and ad pacing alongside revenue. Most teams pick one platform and add the other two companies as bidders inside it.

If mediation itself is new to you, read What is ad mediation? first. This article assumes you know what a waterfall and a bidder are.

First, what “ironSource” means in 2026

Search for “ironSource vs AppLovin” and you will find articles comparing a product that no longer exists under that name. After the Unity and ironSource merger, ironSource mediation became Unity LevelPlay. Unity’s LevelPlay product page describes it as a unified auction across leading SDK networks and bidders, with rewarded, interstitial, banner and native formats, A/B testing and real-time reporting.

The ironSource name now survives in two places:

• ironSource Ads (iAds), the ad network. Unity’s ironSource Ads sunset notice says iAds stopped serving direct demand on April 30, 2026, after new campaigns and new publisher onboarding stopped on April 15, 2026.
• ironSource Exchange (iSX), the programmatic demand. The same notice says iSX continues with no planned changes, as long as the iAds SDK stays integrated, and that LevelPlay “remains the core mediation platform”. Unity tells publishers to keep the iAds SDK and to add the latest Unity Ads SDK to their mediation setup.

So the real comparison is AdMob vs AppLovin MAX vs Unity LevelPlay. Facts in this article were checked on November 4, 2026, against each company’s own pages.

The three platforms side by side

The rows are based on each platform’s documentation, which we link in the sections below. None of the three is missing a basic capability; they differ in how you work with them.

Bidding and the networks you can add

All three platforms support in-app bidding and the classic waterfall at the same time. Google’s AdMob Mediation guide says bidding sources “place bids in real-time and compete in a single auction”, while waterfall sources are called one at a time in the order of the average eCPM you set, and you can mix both in one mediation group. In-app bidding vs waterfall explains why bidding usually wins on both price and setup time.

AdMob

Google’s list of mediation networks for Android shows bidding support for AppLovin, Liftoff Monetize, Meta Audience Network, Mintegral, Pangle, Unity Ads, ironSource Ads, DT Exchange, InMobi and Moloco, among others. Chartboost is listed without bidding. Each network needs its own adapter in your app.

AppLovin MAX

AppLovin’s MAX documentation tells you to “prioritize bidding networks whenever possible” and explains that custom networks cannot use bidding or Auto-CPM. Its SDK bidder network guides cover more than 20 bidders, including Google, Meta Audience Network, Unity Ads, ironSource Ads, Liftoff Monetize, Mintegral, Pangle, Moloco, InMobi, DT Exchange and Amazon Publisher Services (which is invitation only).

Unity LevelPlay

Unity does not print a single network count on the product page; it refers to “all the leading SDK networks”. The LevelPlay platform docs have a mediated networks section with a guide per network. Partners document their own LevelPlay bidding setups too: Meta’s Audience Network docs, for example, describe bidding through LevelPlay.

A/B testing compared

Every serious mediation setup changes over time, so the A/B tool matters more than it looks on a feature list.

• AdMob. Google’s help page on mediation A/B tests says you can send 1% to 50% of users to Variant B, that the test runs for 90 days unless you stop it, and that AdMob needs at least 10,000 ad requests to determine a result. You cannot change the split or either variant once the test starts. At the end you choose “Keep variant A” or “Apply variant B”.
• AppLovin MAX. AppLovin’s A/B testing page describes cloning your waterfall into a test that covers 50% of users by default. A test that passes 10,000 impressions in the test group gets a result page the next day, with the expected ARPDAU lift. AppLovin recommends promoting changes that are stable for 24 hours, exceed 10,000 impressions a day and show more than 2% incrementality.
• Unity LevelPlay. The LevelPlay A/B test docs say you can test waterfall settings and ad strategy, including capping and pacing, per ad unit. The split starts at 50/50, moves in 5% steps and can change during the test. The A/B dashboard compares revenue, ARPDAU, ARPU and D1, D3 and D7 retention between groups.

The practical difference: AdMob and MAX focus on the waterfall and its revenue. LevelPlay’s dashboard puts retention next to revenue, which helps when the question is “how many interstitials can we show before players leave?” Rewarded video vs interstitial ads covers that trade-off.

SDKs, plugins and debugging tools

Engine support is close to equal now. Google’s AdMob developer site lists Android, iOS, Unity, C++ and Flutter. AppLovin covers Android, Fire OS and iOS natively, offers a Unity Integration Manager, and publishes an official MAX Flutter plugin and a React Native module on its GitHub. The LevelPlay docs list Unity, Android, iOS, Adobe AIR, Flutter and React Native SDKs.

Each platform also ships an in-app tool to check adapters before release:

• AdMob’s Ad inspector is an overlay that analyzes test ad requests in real time on registered test devices and verifies adapter integrations.
• MAX’s Mediation Debugger shows the status of every network MAX mediates, with test or live ads.
• LevelPlay’s integration test suite lists the integrated networks and lets you test loading and showing each format and network.

Use them every time you add or update an adapter. A mediation setup with one broken adapter still “works”, it just quietly loses the auction share that network would have won.

Reporting

All three report revenue, impressions, eCPM and fill by network and country. The differences are in the extras:

• MAX splits reporting into Performance, Advanced (fill rate and win rate by network), User Activity (DAU, ARPDAU, impressions) and Network Comparison, which checks that MAX and network CPMs match. A revenue reporting API feeds your attribution partner.
• LevelPlay offers real-time pivot reports, cohorts and impression-level revenue data you can read in the app through its SDK API.
• AdMob reports inside the AdMob console and links to Firebase and Google Analytics, which is where its ad frequency tests run.

Whichever you choose, compare platforms on revenue per daily active user, not on eCPM alone. A higher eCPM with lower fill can earn less. eCPM and EPC explained and the eCPM calculator help with the math.

Who each platform fits

Choose AdMob if

• You are a small team or a first app, and you want one Google account for ads, Firebase and analytics.
• Your app is not a game, or your ad volume is modest, and you want little waterfall work.
• You already use Firebase A/B Testing and Remote Config.

Choose AppLovin MAX if

• Ads are a large share of your revenue and you have someone who will tune waterfalls and test networks weekly.
• You want a long list of documented bidders and detailed fill and win rate reporting.

Choose Unity LevelPlay if

• You build in Unity and want mediation that comes from the engine’s own company.
• You already ran ironSource mediation: you are effectively on LevelPlay already, and keeping the iAds SDK keeps iSX demand, per Unity’s notice.
• You want A/B tests that show retention and pacing effects, not only revenue.

Where an offerwall sits next to mediation

Mediation platforms run auctions for impressions: banners, interstitials, rewarded video, native. An offerwall is a different deal. Users pick offers, such as reaching a level in a game or finishing a survey, earn your currency, and you earn per completed offer after the advertiser confirms it. There is no impression to auction, so none of the three platforms mediates an offerwall. Even Unity’s own Unity Offerwall is a separate SDK (still using Tapjoy naming) with its own keys, not a LevelPlay format.

In practice the offerwall gets its own placement: a button in your store or currency screen, next to the “watch a video” button that your mediation serves. The two formats pay for different things and reach different users, which is the idea behind hybrid monetization. Offerwall vs rewarded video compares them in detail.

How to add Moonetix next to your mediation SDK

Moonetix is a pay-per-result affiliate network, and you add its offerwall as a separate placement beside AdMob, MAX or LevelPlay, without touching your mediation setup.

1. Apply as a publisher at moonetix.com. Every application is reviewed by hand; once you are approved, every app you add is live right away.
2. Add your app in the dashboard and set the currency name, icon, conversion rate, user split and wall design, using the live preview.
3. Install the SDK for your stack: the Android SDK, iOS SDK, Unity plugin, Flutter plugin or React Native package. Your server creates a short, single-use session and the SDK opens the wall with it, so no key ships in the app. The Unity offerwall guide and Flutter offerwall guide walk through it.
4. Credit currency only on your server from the signed postback, and take it back on a reversal. What is a postback URL? explains the flow.
5. Test with “Open as a test user” and “Send a test postback” in the Integration status tab, following test your app before launch, then place the button where users look for currency (offerwall placement).

Moonetix for mobile apps puts the setup, the platform rules, and an earnings estimate on one page.

Frequently asked questions