If you are running a mobile app in 2026 and monetizing through advertising, you have almost certainly faced the question: AppLovin or AdMob? It is the monetization equivalent of iOS versus Android — two fundamentally different platforms, each with fiercely loyal advocates, and each with structural advantages that the other cannot easily replicate.

The answer, as with most non-trivial engineering decisions, is not a binary choice. It depends on what you are building, where your users are, and how much operational complexity you are willing to absorb. But the market has shifted dramatically over the past eighteen months, and the calculus that might have made sense in 2024 looks very different today.