Working fine for YEARS
Everybody has their own favourite ad management plugin. This just happens to be mine. Why? It works. And has worked well enough for the past decade (or two?). Do I need any more features? No, not really. I get sometimes annoyed when I cannot save a more complex JavaScript ad snippet — but that’s not AdRotate, it’s the WordPress core interfering, being extra-cautious.Do I need any fixes or changes? Well, the truth is, Arnan is constantly tinkering with this plugin. Most of the time you just get improvements — free of charge. Some things could be better managed, e.g. changing multiple schedules at the same time for the same last date. But perhaps it’s just me being lazy, and instead of “multiple schedules” I might just need… one, but configured correctly. That said, it’s all my fault, really. These days, ad blockers are pervasive and AI-enhanced to successfully disable most ads. AdRotate cannot do “magic”, but it has some pretty neat features to punch a hole through all those barriers. This is never 100% guaranteed to succeed, but it’s always worth a try. One might wonder — why use a third-party plugin to manage your ads manually? Why don’t I stick simply with Google Ads, or any other provider which already has fantastic backends with all statistics I could possibly ever want — and for free? The answer is not quite obvious and does not apply to everybody. First and foremost, Google is very keen in blocking content that they know that will discourage advertisers. If you have that kind of content, you already know that (you have been blocked, or at least offered a reduced set of advertisers). The option is not to rely on Google (note that other operators have similar rules or guidelines and are quite trigger-happy to exclude as many sites as they legitimately can). And even if you do (my own Google Ads are shown inside AdRotate), you have to take Google’s word on how many impressions you got, and how many of those were clicked-through. I prefer not to trust Google on that, and double-check their status, by contrasting them with what AdRotate says. A small discrepancy is to be expected — both do their maths differently. But a big difference is worth investigating — and, for that, you need to have statistics of your own that you can rely upon. But the biggest advantage of AdRotate is to manage sections of your site that have “special” links — not necessarily “ads” in the classic sense, but things like URL exchanges with friends with related content. Or actual ads that a prospective customer wants to buy — but avoid Google’s (or any other providers’) fees. Every now and then, I do get the odd customer who wants to “place an ad” but does not want to use Google to serve such ads. Well, I need to be able to track such cases on my own — Google will only track their own ads, obviously — and that means you need an alternative. This is it.
Great Product: Simple, Straightforward, Efficient, Powerful
Top-notch product, has everything we need in an extremely straightforward and easy to use interface. Built-in documentation/tips/instructions appear throughout, making implementation fool-proof.
Pete Broderick
August 28, 2025
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1 reply
A rare developer that is genuinely interested in making better products.
Arnan quickly made some significant improvements to the AdRotate plugin after we discovered a couple of problems that became apparent on a larger site with 100’s of active ads and 1,000’s of archived ads. He was quick to reply after I submitted the information and screencasts to clearly show where we were running into a problem and had a beta ready to test within a few hours.
Brian – TGL
August 11, 2025
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1 reply
Not recommended for websites using caching, based on my experience
I tested AdRotate extensively for several months before purchasing the paid version. The main reason I eventually bought it was that impression and click tracking worked reliably for me — an area where I had previously experienced problems with another advertising plugin.During my entire testing period, AdRotate worked with my existing setup, including WP Fastest Cache.Shortly after purchasing the Pro version, however, the number of recorded impressions dropped dramatically, even though the ads continued to be displayed and clicks were still being recorded.The developer’s response was essentially that the problem is caused by my caching setup. WP Fastest Cache does not support fragmented caching, so I was advised to switch to Borlabs Cache or W3 Total Cache — or alternatively to get “better hosting” so that caching would supposedly no longer be necessary.That is exactly where I see the problem.The product advertises statistics and impression/click tracking as key features. It also advertises support for paying customers. However, I was not made aware before purchasing that reliable internal statistics on a cached WordPress website apparently depend on using specific caching solutions.What makes this particularly disappointing is that my WP Fastest Cache setup had already been in place throughout the months in which I tested AdRotate successfully.Instead of investigating why the statistics suddenly stopped working reliably with the exact same setup, the issue was simply attributed to my caching plugin and hosting, with the recommendation that I change my website infrastructure.From paid support, I would expect at least an attempt to understand why such a significant change occurred — especially when the plugin had previously worked correctly under the same conditions.Unfortunately, my impression from the support conversation is that there is very little interest in actually investigating the root cause.For website owners who depend on reliable impression and click statistics for paying advertising clients and who use normal full-page caching, I therefore cannot recommend AdRotate based on my experience.Had I known before purchasing that the statistics feature I specifically bought the plugin for would not be considered reliably supported with my existing caching setup, I would not have purchased it.
Christine
August 17, 2026
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1 reply
Excellent Ad Manager Plugin and Support
Have been using this plugin for many years to manage ads on a heavy traffic site. Setting up banner ads, inserting Google Ads code, keeping track of advertisers: it simply works. The support is always fast, friendly, and helpful. Any issues are typically user error or conflict with other themes/plugins. It may not be the easiest plugin to understand at first, but once you get used to it, everything makes sense. It is nice that so many options have been made available in the free version, but as a plugin used primarily to make money, it’s only right to eventually consider supporting the Pro version. Totally worth it! Thank you to the developer!
A painful waste of time
I’ve tried this plug-in twice with the same results each time. It works great until Wordpress has an update then everything just stops working. Maybe the paid is better but looking at the 1-star reviews, I doubt it.
Excellent Ad Manager Plugin and Support
Have been using this plugin for many years to manage ads on a heavy traffic site. Setting up banner ads, inserting Google Ads code, keeping track of advertisers: it simply works. The support is always fast, friendly, and helpful. Any issues are typically user error or conflict with other themes/plugins. It may not be the easiest plugin to understand at first, but once you get used to it, everything makes sense. It is nice that so many options have been made available in the free version, but as a plugin used primarily to make money, it’s only right to eventually consider supporting the Pro version. Totally worth it! Thank you to the developer!
Working fine for YEARS
Everybody has their own favourite ad management plugin. This just happens to be mine. Why? It works. And has worked well enough for the past decade (or two?). Do I need any more features? No, not really. I get sometimes annoyed when I cannot save a more complex JavaScript ad snippet — but that’s not AdRotate, it’s the WordPress core interfering, being extra-cautious.Do I need any fixes or changes? Well, the truth is, Arnan is constantly tinkering with this plugin. Most of the time you just get improvements — free of charge. Some things could be better managed, e.g. changing multiple schedules at the same time for the same last date. But perhaps it’s just me being lazy, and instead of “multiple schedules” I might just need… one, but configured correctly. That said, it’s all my fault, really. These days, ad blockers are pervasive and AI-enhanced to successfully disable most ads. AdRotate cannot do “magic”, but it has some pretty neat features to punch a hole through all those barriers. This is never 100% guaranteed to succeed, but it’s always worth a try. One might wonder — why use a third-party plugin to manage your ads manually? Why don’t I stick simply with Google Ads, or any other provider which already has fantastic backends with all statistics I could possibly ever want — and for free? The answer is not quite obvious and does not apply to everybody. First and foremost, Google is very keen in blocking content that they know that will discourage advertisers. If you have that kind of content, you already know that (you have been blocked, or at least offered a reduced set of advertisers). The option is not to rely on Google (note that other operators have similar rules or guidelines and are quite trigger-happy to exclude as many sites as they legitimately can). And even if you do (my own Google Ads are shown inside AdRotate), you have to take Google’s word on how many impressions you got, and how many of those were clicked-through. I prefer not to trust Google on that, and double-check their status, by contrasting them with what AdRotate says. A small discrepancy is to be expected — both do their maths differently. But a big difference is worth investigating — and, for that, you need to have statistics of your own that you can rely upon. But the biggest advantage of AdRotate is to manage sections of your site that have “special” links — not necessarily “ads” in the classic sense, but things like URL exchanges with friends with related content. Or actual ads that a prospective customer wants to buy — but avoid Google’s (or any other providers’) fees. Every now and then, I do get the odd customer who wants to “place an ad” but does not want to use Google to serve such ads. Well, I need to be able to track such cases on my own — Google will only track their own ads, obviously — and that means you need an alternative. This is it.
Great Product: Simple, Straightforward, Efficient, Powerful
Top-notch product, has everything we need in an extremely straightforward and easy to use interface. Built-in documentation/tips/instructions appear throughout, making implementation fool-proof.
Pete Broderick
August 28, 2025
|
1 reply
Not recommended for websites using caching, based on my experience
I tested AdRotate extensively for several months before purchasing the paid version. The main reason I eventually bought it was that impression and click tracking worked reliably for me — an area where I had previously experienced problems with another advertising plugin.During my entire testing period, AdRotate worked with my existing setup, including WP Fastest Cache.Shortly after purchasing the Pro version, however, the number of recorded impressions dropped dramatically, even though the ads continued to be displayed and clicks were still being recorded.The developer’s response was essentially that the problem is caused by my caching setup. WP Fastest Cache does not support fragmented caching, so I was advised to switch to Borlabs Cache or W3 Total Cache — or alternatively to get “better hosting” so that caching would supposedly no longer be necessary.That is exactly where I see the problem.The product advertises statistics and impression/click tracking as key features. It also advertises support for paying customers. However, I was not made aware before purchasing that reliable internal statistics on a cached WordPress website apparently depend on using specific caching solutions.What makes this particularly disappointing is that my WP Fastest Cache setup had already been in place throughout the months in which I tested AdRotate successfully.Instead of investigating why the statistics suddenly stopped working reliably with the exact same setup, the issue was simply attributed to my caching plugin and hosting, with the recommendation that I change my website infrastructure.From paid support, I would expect at least an attempt to understand why such a significant change occurred — especially when the plugin had previously worked correctly under the same conditions.Unfortunately, my impression from the support conversation is that there is very little interest in actually investigating the root cause.For website owners who depend on reliable impression and click statistics for paying advertising clients and who use normal full-page caching, I therefore cannot recommend AdRotate based on my experience.Had I known before purchasing that the statistics feature I specifically bought the plugin for would not be considered reliably supported with my existing caching setup, I would not have purchased it.
Christine
August 17, 2026
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1 reply
A painful waste of time
I’ve tried this plug-in twice with the same results each time. It works great until Wordpress has an update then everything just stops working. Maybe the paid is better but looking at the 1-star reviews, I doubt it.
Typical Narcissistic plugin
The standard edition of AdRotate works well enough but the constant upselling to the pro version is beyond annoying. You cannot work in any area of Wordpress without a stupid banner ad promoting an upsell to AdRotate Pro taking up valuable real estate as you’re trying to work. When you click “maybe later” to get rid of the banner, it navigates you away from what you’re doing over to the AdRotate plugin. VERY ANNOYING!!!!
kauder
October 14, 2025
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1 reply
