Frequently Asked Questions

about Revive Adserver

We’ve collected some questions we frequently see about the Download edition.

Please continue reading below for our answers and explanations.

Introduction

What is Revive Adserver?

Revive Adserver is a free, open source ad serving system. Please read the page with more information about Revive Adserver.

How much does it cost to use Revive Adserver?

Revive Adserver is free, open source software. You can download it free of charge and and install it on your own server(s). You will have to pay for your own server(s), of course.

Alternatively, there is also a Hosted edition, where anyone can open an account on a hosting platform offered by the same team that maintains the Download edition. Starting from $10 per month, you can be up and running in no time!

Is there a manual or user's guide?

Yes, we’ve created a “How To Use Revive Adserver” collection of articles. We will continue to add articles over time.

Download, installation, upgrading

Where can I download Revive Adserver?

The most recent version of Revive Adserver Download edition is available at any time from the Downloads page.

What are the technical requirements to run Revive Adserver?

Please review the page listing the Technical requirements for Revive Adserver in full detail.

How do I install Revive Adserver?
How do I upgrade from an earlier version to the most recent version?
Can you send me a notification when a new version is released?

Yes, we have an mailing list you can subscribe to. Everytime a new version is released, we will send an update to the list to let subscribers know about the new release.

Sign up to our mailing list!

How can I use Revive Adserver without installing it myself?
We’ve created a Hosted edition, with everything already installed and ready to go.

Subscribe for Revive Adserver Hosted edition.

We have also partnered with a specialist hosting company called Aqua Platform, who can be of service for your Revive Adserver hosting in case you have very specific requirements with regard to service levels, dedicated support, and high volume scenarios. Aqua Platform provide part of the infrastructure and servers used by the Revive Adserver project in exchange.

Functionality

Does Revive Adserver support asynchronous tags?

Yes, with the release of version 3.2 in April 2015, the Revive Adserver supports asynchronous tags (also referred to as async tags, or lazy loading).

The benefit is that a website that contains these asynchronous tags will continue to work even if the ad server, for whatever reason, is slow or not responding.

What has changed with passwords in Revive Adserver 5.4 and higher?

With the release of v5.4.0 of the software, we have implemented several improvements regarding passwords for new and existing usernames.

Please refer to our dedicated page detailing the changes to password management in Revive Adserver 5.4.0 for more detail.

Does Revive Adserver support Geotargeting?

Yes! Starting with version v5 of the Revive Adserver software, we fully support the GeoIP2 and GeoLite2 data file format (published by MaxMind).

There is also a blog post about how to enter the MaxMind license key in order to automatically download the GeoLite2 data file and keep that file updated automatically afterwards.

Please also review the page listing the Technical requirements for Revive Adserver in full detail.

Where is the list of Magic Macros supported by Revive Adserver?

Please have a look at the list of magic macros supported by Revive Adserver in our documentation sub-site.

Does Revive Adserver support displaying Google AdSense ads?

Yes, you can display Google AdSense ad tags through Revive Adserver. There is a detailed article explaining how to enter and display AdSense ads using Revive Adserver in our How To section.

Does Revive Adserver support VAST 2.0?

Please read the article Can Revive Adserver support VAST 2.0? on our blog.

Does Revive Adserver support rich media ads made using Flash?

Since browsers stopped supporting Flash banners a long time ago, we do not recommend using this type of ad. Flash has been replaced by HTML5 ads, which are fully supported by Revive Adserver.

Is Revive Adserver compatible with OpenX Source?

Please review the page listing the Technical requirements for Revive Adserver in full detail.

Contributing to the project

 

How can I contribute to the Revive Adserver open source project?

If you use our software and want to contribute financially, please consider sponsoring the project via our Patreon program.

If you are a developer, you can help by contributing to the Revive Adserver project on Github.

If you are a security researcher, you can help contribute to make and keep Revive Adserver safe, by joining us on the Revive Adserver pages at HackerOne.

If you are a user, manager, or administrator, you can join the conversation on the Revive Adserver Community Forums and help other users with their questions.

Anyone can help translate the Revive Adserver software into one of the non-English languages.

Please consider promoting our project by telling your friends, your colleagues, your boss or the world at large about us. A tweet, a Facebook update, a message on LinkedIn, Pinterest, anything you can do is highly appreciated!

Support options

Where can I get support for Revive Adserver?

Please read our Support for Revive Adserver page to learn more about your support options.

Are there other support options for Revive Adserver?

There are numerous service providers in the areas of training and consulting, hosting, plugin development and other services. The Revive Adserver project team is considering if we can compile a lists of providers in each category.

How can I stay up to date about Revive Adserver?

Miscellaneous

Has Revive Adserver been certified?

Revive Adserver is a software package that anyone can download and then host on their own server(s). As such, certifying organisations like the IAB, or companies like Google with the 3rd party ad server certification program, are unable to certify the software itself. After all, even if the software is very good (and we believe it is), it is possible to implement it very badly and still end up with an unreliable ad server application.

Individual implementations of Revive Adserver can be certified, and there are many known cases where this has been successful. For example, Platform IQ, the company owned by Revive Adserver team member Erik Geurts, hosts a video ad server implementation based on Revive Adserver and the commercially available VAST2 plugin VidiX. This implementation has been certified by Google for their “VAST InStream” requirements, allowing the pre-roll video advertisements to be displayed on YouTube. Google calls this a 3PAS (third party ad server) certification.