Revive Adserver
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We are considering a switch to having our site hosted by WordPress. We currently use Revive Adserver for our advertising. Just want to make sure Revive works well with a WordPress hosted site.
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Great question to ask before making the switch, and the honest answer depends on which WordPress hosting option you’re considering.
If you’re moving to WordPress.com (hosted by Automattic)
This is where it gets important: WordPress.com does not allow you to install third-party plugins on the Free, Personal, or Explorer plans. Revive Adserver requires either a self-hosted installation or a WordPress plugin to serve ads on your site. Additionally, WordPress.com has its own advertising policies that restrict running external ad servers on lower-tier plans.
On the Business plan or above, WordPress.com does allow third-party plugin installation, so the WP-Revive Adserver plugin could technically be used. However, it’s worth noting that the WP-Revive plugin has not been updated by its author for at least 2 years and has a very limited active user base Adserverplugins, which raises compatibility concerns going forward.
If you’re moving to WordPress.org (self-hosted)
This is a completely different setup, you own the hosting environment and have full control. Revive Adserver works well in this setup since you can install any plugin, add custom invocation codes, and manage your ad zones freely. This would be the recommended path if Revive Adserver is central to your operation.
Our recommendation
Before switching, clarify with your team:
- Are you looking at WordPress.com (Automattic-hosted) or a self-hosted WordPress.org setup?
- Is your current Revive setup self-hosted or using Revive’s hosted edition?
If you’re committed to keeping Revive Adserver as your ad server, a self-hosted WordPress.org setup gives you the most flexibility and control. WordPress.com hosted plans come with restrictions that could limit or break your current ad workflow.
Happy to help you think through the right plan for your needs, just let us know a bit more about your setup!
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Hi there, Just to update, plugins can now be added to any paid WordPress.com upgrade plan.
However, external advertising through Revive Adserver, for example, I believe would require the WordPress.com Business plan regardless.
Because the change to plans/plugins is fairly recent, I’m also tagging your thread for staff input regarding adding 3rd party advertising networks.
Thanks for your patience while they get back to you.
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It seems the Revive Adserver plugin for wordpress, is no longer supported and seems to be abandonned.
But the wordpress.com platform has its own ads called Wordads available on the Premiumplan and higher – https://wordpress.com/support/courses/monetize-your-website/earn-ad-revenue-with-wordads/
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@staartmees thanks for adding that, but it would still be good for staff to clarify whether 3rd party ad network plugins can be used only on the Business/eCommerce plans or on other plug-in enabled sites as well.
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Advertising through third-party ad networks typically involves adding a piece of code to your site so that the ads can be displayed. If you have code from Revive Adserver that needs to be added to the site header, you can do that using a plugin such as the free Insert Headers and Footers plugin by WPCode. In this case, that would be something available on any paid plan.
I would still invite you to compare all of the plans’ benefits to see which would be a good fit in your case: https://wordpress.com/pricing/#lpc-pricing.
You can request a free migration at https://wordpress.com/support/request-a-free-migration/.
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