If you sell to developers and want always-on reach, start with Carbon Ads: one ad, matched to the page, on about 350 active, hand-picked sites read by developers and the builders around them (designers, founders, people building with AI tools), with 250M+ impressions a month. Some goals fit other channels better, and this page says which. We run Carbon, so we've listed it first and tried to be fair to everyone else.
Carbon Ads, if you want always-on reach. One ad, matched to the page, on about 350 active sites developers use while they work (docs, coding tools, design resources). No pixels needed, no reader profiles, and Acceptable Ads approved (shown to AdBlock Plus users who keep Acceptable Ads on). It goes live on your schedule, and you can add developer newsletters in the same booking.
Other channels fit narrower goals:
| Option | What it is | Where ads show | Targeting | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carbon Ads | One native ad (small image plus text) on ~350 active, hand-picked developer and design sites, so your ad sits where builders already work | Docs, dev tools, blogs, open source pages, the pages developers keep open while they build | Page context and site category, plus country, OS and browser, so you reach the right readers with no reader profiles | $6 CPM (cost per thousand ad views) developer, $5 CPM creator. Baseline rate. Final quote depends on timing, targeting and volume. 1M impressions a month recommended. $5,000 a month minimum. We've run campaigns for years, and very small tests rarely reach enough developers to show whether it works. Pay per thousand views (CPM) across the network. A native pay-per-click option is also available. | Always-on awareness across many trusted sites, with white-glove service |
| EthicalAds | A contextual network that grew out of Read the Docs | Documentation and open source sites | Page topic and region | $3.10 to $8.00 CPM by topic and region. $1,000 minimum | Read the Docs audiences |
| daily.dev Ads | A managed monthly plan inside daily.dev, a news feed for developers | The daily.dev feed, Digest newsletter, homepage | Tech stack, seniority, geography and topics followed | Quoted per company. No public rate card | Tech stack and seniority targeting inside one platform |
| Developer newsletters | Sponsored slots in newsletters readers chose to get. BuySellAds plans and runs newsletter campaigns across many developer titles | The reader's inbox | The newsletter's list | Priced per send, varies by list | Launches and announcements, run by the same team as Carbon |
| Reddit Ads | Ads in Reddit's feeds and conversations | Across Reddit, targeted to developer communities and interests | Keywords, communities and interests | See Reddit's ad pages | Community awareness with honest creative |
| LinkedIn Ads | Ads on LinkedIn | See LinkedIn's ad pages | Job title, company name or industry | See LinkedIn's ad pages | Reaching managers by job title |
| Stack Overflow Ads | Ads on Stack Overflow | Q&A pages | Skills, tags and interests | Minimum $15,000 for one month or $10,000 for three months, per its advertising policy | Placements on Stack Overflow Q&A pages |
| Google Ads | Search ads on keywords | Search results | Keyword | Auction | Demand that already exists |
On privacy, Carbon and EthicalAds both target the page, not the person. EthicalAds runs no pixels at all. Carbon publishers can choose a no-tracking zone that only serves campaigns without pixels. On Carbon, pixels are optional and most advertisers run without one. Advertisers who want deeper measurement can add a reporting pixel, never a retargeting one.
Prices change. Check each vendor's site before you budget.
The broadest contextual network on this page. One clearly labeled ad per page across about 350 active, curated sites where builders read and work, with 250M+ impressions a month. Formats are Carbon Classic (an image plus 100 characters of copy) and Carbon Cover, an interactive unit on select sites. Pay per thousand views (CPM) across the network. A native pay-per-click option is also available. Campaigns are planned and run with our client services team, so you work with a real person who knows your campaign. A real-time dashboard shows results as they come in. Carbon is Acceptable Ads approved (shown to AdBlock Plus users who keep Acceptable Ads on). Targeting is by page and site category. Because the network is curated, each site is picked for the audience advertisers want to reach, without collecting personal data about readers. Campaigns go live on your schedule, and you can add developer newsletters in the same booking.
Full comparison: Carbon vs EthicalAds
Contextual ads on documentation and open source sites, from the team behind Read the Docs. Its site reports "over 35 million developer impressions each month."
Full comparison: Carbon vs daily.dev
A managed monthly plan (Starter, Growth or Scale) inside daily.dev. Formats include in-feed native ads, newsletter ads and sponsored content, per daily.dev's llms.txt. Targeting uses tech stack, seniority, geography and followed topics. Plans are quoted per company. Ads run inside daily.dev's own product, so reach is its audience.
Sponsored slots in newsletters readers chose to get. BuySellAds plans and runs newsletter campaigns across many developer titles, so you can run Carbon and newsletters through one team. Good for launches.
Paved calls itself "The World's Largest Newsletter Ad Network," with sponsorships and native ads across 3,000+ newsletters, and a self-serve platform for booking them. If you'd rather have a team pick the titles, work with the publishers, handle creative and report across all of them, BuySellAds plans campaigns across its network of developer newsletters.
Sponsor reads on developer podcasts. Like newsletters, they suit launches and announcements. BuySellAds also plans and runs podcast campaigns.
Hacker News lists no ad product in its FAQ. Its front-page job ads are reserved for YC-funded startups, and its FAQ says: "Please don't post job ads as submissions to HN."
Not advertising, but worth knowing. GitHub Sponsors lets people and organizations fund the open source projects they depend on. It supports maintainers rather than buying impressions.
LinkedIn offers targeting by job title. Reddit ads reach people based on the communities and interests they engage with.
Stack Overflow reaches developers while they solve problems. Google Ads captures people already searching for your category.
You can combine an always-on channel with a channel for launches:
Carbon and BuySellAds newsletter campaigns are run by the same team, so one plan can cover both.
It depends on your goal. For one ad across many developer sites, Carbon Ads, the broadest contextual network here (about 350 active sites, 250M+ impressions a month). EthicalAds is a smaller, docs-focused option. For targeting by tech stack inside one feed, daily.dev. For job title targeting, LinkedIn.
Contextual networks publish CPMs. Carbon lists $6 for its developer audience. Pay per thousand views (CPM) across the network. A native pay-per-click option is also available. EthicalAds lists $3.10 to $8.00. daily.dev quotes each plan. Newsletters price per send.
Carbon's minimum is $5,000 a month, and it recommends 1M impressions a month.
Carbon is part of BuySellAds. Carbon is the ad network. BuySellAds also plans and runs newsletter and podcast campaigns for developer and tech brands. Both are managed by the same team.
Not directly on contextual networks. Carbon curates its sites for the developers and designers advertisers want to reach instead. daily.dev targets by seniority. LinkedIn targets by job title.
Last updated
Prices checked against each vendor's site on 21 Oct 2026.
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