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Technology · Business & Marketing

Prebid

prebid.org
Open source

Prebid is free, open source header bidding software. Prebid collects bids before the ad server is called, and the ad server makes the final decision.[1]

Prebid is a versatile open-source header bidding wrapper that forms the foundation of many ad tech platforms, including the Nucleus ad platform. It enables publishers to increase their ad revenue and performance by allowing multiple demand sources to bid on their inventory simultaneously. With its extensive support for various ad formats and integrations, Prebid offers a flexible and efficient solution for maximizing the value of digital ad spaces.

Prebid belongs toAdvertisingcategory.

Made for

Publishers selling ad space[1]

Price

Free, open source software[1]

Products

Prebid.js, Prebid Server, Prebid Mobile and SharedID[1]

Runs

In the browser, on a server or in a mobile app[1]

125websites

use it — 4.9% of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months

#7of 85

tools in its category seen in our scans (we recognize 244)

1public pages

on UptimeCard — open any of them to see how that site is doing

In short: an open source auction layer a publisher runs itself, with no license fee. You still choose and contract with each demand partner; the software does not do that for you.[1]

2.61% of all websites we track run Prebid▼ 0.01 points since 20 Sep

Should you use Prebid?

The 10-second version, from the vendor’s own pages and what we see in our scans

Prebid fits if…

  • You sell ad space on a website and want several bidders to compete at once[2]
  • You run mobile apps or AMP pages, where a server-side setup is required[1]
  • You want to read and change the code yourself[3]

Look elsewhere if…

  • You want a managed service and no code to run[1]Members offer hosted server-side setups.
More bidders called from the browser can slow a page; the timeout decides which bids count[1]

Support and help for Prebid

How the vendor says you can reach it, and the public help community

Email

Questions about becoming a member go to a Prebid email address[5]

Stack Overflow

42 questions[6][7]

24% have an upvoted answer. [prebid] questions

Prebid versions

The newest release, the series that still gets fixes, and what changed

Latest release

11.44.0[4]

Released 24 Oct 2026

How Prebid sites protect themselves

Share of the 125 sites we scanned that run each protection

HSTS54% · 67 sites

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) informs browsers that the site should only be accessed using HTTPS

reCAPTCHA30% · 37 sites

reCAPTCHA is a free service from Google that helps protect websites from spam and abuse

Protections add up, they do not replace each other: a site can run all of them.

How Prebid sites are built

Closest partners. The number says how many times more often the tool runs on Prebid sites than on an average website. Hover a partner for its share of sites.

Marfeel13×Amazon Advertising12×comScore9×Funding Choices9×Didomi9×Criteo9×Taboola7×Preact5×Google AdSense5×

Stacks we see most. Tools that tend to run together with Prebid on the same websites. The percentage is the share of all 125 Prebid sites that run the whole stack.

13 stacks · swipe, drag or use the arrows
#1

Prebid + Google Analytics + Funding Choices + Amazon Advertising + Criteo

12.8%16 of 125 sites
#2

Prebid + Google Analytics + Funding Choices + Amazon CloudFront + AWS Certificate Manager

8%10 of 125 sites
#3

Prebid + Google Analytics + Funding Choices + Microsoft Clarity + Marfeel

5.6%7 of 125 sites
#4

Prebid + Google Analytics + Funding Choices + comScore + Google Sign-in

4.8%6 of 125 sites
#5

Prebid + Amazon Advertising + Google AdSense + Amazon CloudFront + AWS Certificate Manager

4%5 of 125 sites
#6

Prebid + Amazon Advertising + Taboola + Adobe Experience Platform Identity Service + Adobe Analytics

4%5 of 125 sites
#7

Prebid + Amazon Advertising + Criteo + Google Sign-in + Microsoft Clarity

3.2%4 of 125 sites
#8

Prebid + Google AdSense + Criteo + Marfeel + Didomi

3.2%4 of 125 sites
#9

Prebid + OneTrust + Taboola + Datadog

3.2%4 of 125 sites
#10

Prebid + OneTrust + comScore

4%5 of 125 sites
#11

Prebid + OneTrust + Amazon CloudFront

4%5 of 125 sites
#12

Prebid + Criteo + Cloudflare Browser Insights

3.2%4 of 125 sites
#13

Prebid + Google Sign-in + AppNexus

3.2%4 of 125 sites

Usually installed alongside

The bigger the bubble, the more of the 125 Prebid sites also run the tool. Colour shows what the tool does. Hover or tap a bubble for details.

Google Tag Manager98%Google Analytics73%Facebook Pixel21%comScore20%Funding Choices55%OneTrust25%Didomi13%Amazon Advertising50%Google AdSense21%Criteo20%Cart Functionality22%
Tag managerAnalyticsCookie consentAdvertisingOnline store

Similar tools in its category

Advertising: 244 tools known, 85 seen in our scans

Microsoft Advertising337 sitesAlternativeDoubleClick Floodlight244 sitesAlternativeLinkedin Ads175 sitesAlternativeGoogle Ads140 sitesAlternativeReddit Ads140 sitesAlternativeTwitter Ads127 sitesAlternativetheTradeDesk70 sitesAlternativeAdRoll43 sitesAlternativeAmazon Advertising108 sitesUsed togetherGoogle AdSense101 sitesUsed togetherCriteo60 sitesUsed togetherTaboola58 sitesUsed together

Who is behind Prebid

From its own pages and public records, with sources

Maintained by

Prebid.org[1]

Prebid since 2015[1]

Its story

  1. 2015

    Prebid.js launched as a collaboration of ad tech companies. It gave publishers one open code layer for header bidding instead of separate proprietary wrappers.[1]

  2. 2015

    The Prebid.js code repository was created on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license, so any publisher or ad tech company could read and extend it.[8]

  3. 2017

    The Prebid Server repository was created. Running auctions on a server moved bidding work off the visitor's browser and made header bidding possible beyond web pages.[9][1]

  4. 2017

    The Prebid Mobile iOS SDK repository was created. It brought the same header bidding model to native apps, which have no web page header to use.[10][1]

  5. 2018

    A Java version of Prebid Server appeared next to the Go one. Server hosts could now pick either language for their own deployment.[11]

  6. 2025

    Prebid.js 10.0.0 was published, a new major version after years of numbered releases. Major versions are where the project may remove older behavior, so publishers plan upgrades around them.[12]

  7. 2026

    Prebid.js 11.0.0 was published in March, followed by frequent minor releases.[12]

  8. 2026

    Prebid.org announced the Prebid Sales Agent with AgenticAdvertising.org. It extends the project from bidding on pages toward software agents that sell ad space.[13]

Questions about Prebid

Do I need to be a Prebid.org member to submit a bidder adapter?
No. Membership is not necessary for contributing code as a community member.[3]
Where is the server-side code?
Source code in Go and Java is available on the Prebid GitHub page.[1]
How many websites use Prebid?
We found Prebid on 125 of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months (4.9%). 1 of them have a public status page.
What is Prebid often used with?
Among the websites we scan, Prebid is often found alongside Google Analytics (72.8% of its sites), Funding Choices (55.2% of its sites), Amazon Advertising (50.4% of its sites).
What are the alternatives to Prebid?
Other advertising tools we recognize include Microsoft Advertising, DoubleClick Floodlight, Linkedin Ads, Google Ads.

Is your website built with Prebid?

UptimeCard checks it around the clock, tells you the minute it stops answering, and gives your visitors a status page.

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