AppLovin MAX vs Superwall

AppLovin MAX helps mobile games earn revenue from ad impressions by running a real-time auction among ad networks; the highest bid wins. Supported formats include rewarded video, app open, interstitial, MREC, banner, and native ads. Publishers can review user-level and impression-level data in built-in reports or through an API, and use A/B testing to compare networks, price points, and regional setups. Ad Review offers control over which ads users see and flags problematic or competitor ads. The SDK is described as lightweight, with tools for SDK validation and pre-launch ad testing through Mediation Debugger. The product supports Android and iOS apps and lists integrations for Unity, React Native, Flutter, Cordova, Adobe AIR, Unreal, Godot, and Defold. MAX is free for publishers; bidding networks pay AppLovin a fee on generated ad revenue. A mediated network requires its own account, app and ad unit registration, and approval to serve ads. Custom networks cannot use in-app bidding or Auto-CPM. Publishers must obtain consent where applicable and pass consent flags to AppLovin.

Superwall is an AI-powered monetization stack for subscription and mobile apps that helps teams build, test, and optimize paywalls. Its paywall engine serves iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, and Web from one web-standards-based runtime, with SDKs for Swift, Kotlin, React Native, Expo, and Flutter. Entitlement APIs, purchase APIs, webhook delivery, direct SQL access to subscription data, and integrations are free on every plan. Paywall revenue is billed at 1% when attributed to Superwall-rendered paywalls; subscriptions purchased outside Superwall are free. The service includes campaigns, audiences, templates, charts, in-app purchase and subscription support, and A/B testing. Superwall AI can use documentation, SDK source, account data, and analytics queries without a usage limit. App-to-Web Checkout sends U.S. iOS users to Stripe Checkout in Safari and links purchases back to the app. Startup costs $49 a month plus 1% of MAR; Scale costs $199 a month plus 1% of MAR.