THE BOARD

A Paved alternative that sells a position on one page rather than a day in somebody's inbox

Paved is the right buy if there is a newsletter whose readers are your customers and a send to them is worth its list price. A sponsorship is a whole audience for a day at a flat fee the publisher set, from about $100 for a small list to $6,000 for Fast Company by Paved's own price guide, and you pay what is listed with no fee on top.

If a send is more than the budget, or $50 a day on the network is, The Board lists a brand for a dollar on one public page ranked by what each listing paid, with no publisher to accept you, no send date and the traffic counted by Fathom.

Paved compared with The Board: to be listed, $50/day against $1
PavedThe Board
To be listed
$50/dayAd Network minimum; sponsorships from about $100
$1once, no daily minimum
A sponsorship
$5,000typical average, per Paved; $135 to $6,000 in its examples
$1 overwhatever rank 01 has paid
Attention lasts
1 sendon the Marketplace; the network runs while the budget does
Until outbidand 30 days at the top wins the season
Audience
253M+subscribers, summed across newsletters, not deduplicated
Fathompage views and clicks, in public

The Board is ours, so read this with that in mind. Every listing on it is a paid placement, its position is decided by money and by nothing else, and nothing on it is editorial. The figures for Paved were read from its own pages on 6 September 2026 and are linked at the foot.

What Paved is, and what it costs

Paved is a newsletter advertising marketplace with an ad network beside it, owned since March 2025 by Redbrick of Victoria, Canada. The Marketplace is the direct product: you pick a newsletter, request a date, the publisher accepts at its sole discretion and offers dates, and your creative is the only sponsor in that send, a 100% share of voice for the day. The Ad Network is the other: a native unit placed by real-time bidding across many newsletters, reviewed by hand before it runs, where the higher bid and the better-performing creative are shown more. A free account opens both.

There is no platform fee, subscription or minimum monthly spend, per the pricing article dated 9 April 2026; Paved takes its 30% and 50% commissions from the publisher's side, so the listed price is the price. Marketplace sponsorships run from as little as $100 for an indie newsletter to thousands for a large one, typically averaging around $5,000 by Paved's own guide, whose examples include Hacker News Digest at $135, Newser's Daily Rundown at $250 and Fast Company at $6,000. The Ad Network has a minimum daily spend of $50, with the cost per click set by the advertiser and averaging $1.10 to $6, per the same April 2026 article, and Paved recommends running at least seven to fourteen days. Payment is by card at booking.

The reach figure is the biggest on this shelf and needs a footnote: 3,000 and more newsletters and 253 million and more total subscribers, per paved.com on 6 September 2026. That subscriber figure is a sum across newsletters, so anybody on two lists is counted twice, and Paved does not say it is deduplicated; the Marketplace FAQ also puts the bookable newsletters at hundreds rather than thousands. Refunds are not issued, as a matter of company policy; underperformance is met with makegoods and account credit, and a sponsorship cancelled within 30 days of its send date is charged in full under the Advertiser Agreement, effective 2 March 2022.

The price of a place, and the price of the top

Two prices matter: what it costs to be on the page at all, and what it costs to be the one everybody sees first. Drawn to scale, with The Board’s top spot read live from the board.

A log scale: every gridline is ten times the last, which is the only way a dollar and a five-figure sum fit on one line. Prices on the left are Paved’s as read on 6 September 2026; the top spot on The Board is $101 as this page was built and changes as the board does.

Paved and The Board, side by side

QuestionPavedThe Board
To be listedA free account; then a sponsorship from about $100, or $50 a day on the Ad Network$1, once, for a listing: a logo, a line and a link
What you payThe publisher's list price for a send, typically about $5,000; on the network a CPC you set, $1.10 to $6 on average, per Paved in April 2026$1 once for the listing; more only if you choose a higher position
What decides your positionA publisher's acceptance and a date on the Marketplace; your bid and your click rate on the networkWhat the listing has paid. Nothing else, and nobody decides
A guaranteed top positionA sponsorship is a whole send to itself on a fixed date; no top exists across the network$1 more than whoever holds rank 01 has paid
What a month runsOne send at list price, $135 to $6,000 in Paved's examples; or $1,500 at the network's $50-a-day floorWhatever you paid once. There is no monthly charge and nothing bills again
Reach you can verifyPaved's own count: 253M+ subscribers summed across 3,000+ newsletters, and clicks filtered by its own bot filterPage views and outbound clicks counted by Fathom on a public dashboard; every listing shows its own impressions and clicks
What you getYour creative alone in one send to a chosen list, or clicks from a native unit across manyA place on a page people watch, and a click from somebody who chose your brand off it
Best forA brand that can name the newsletter its customers read and afford one send to itA brand that wants to be seen for a dollar and to price its own position

Eight things to know before you pay either

QuestionPavedThe Board
Terms with a date on them✓ Advertiser Agreement effective 2 March 2022✓ Dated 25 August 2026
A named operator✓ Paved, Inc., owned by Redbrick of Victoria, Canada✓ Dustin W. Stout, with a city and a Stripe profile
The price of the top spot published✓ Per newsletter, at list price; $6,000 for Fast Company✓ On the board, live, to the dollar
Reach counted by a third party✕ Paved's own metrics, bot-filtered by its own filter✓ Fathom, on a public dashboard
Position lasts past a day✕ One send; the network only while the daily budget runs✓ Until somebody pays more; seasons end it
A refund path✕ None by policy; makegoods and credit for underperformance✕ None. Every payment is final
No curator between you and the page✕ A publisher accepts each sponsorship; ads reviewed by hand✓ None. Money decides, nobody else
On the page for a dollar✕ $50 a day on the network; sponsorships from about $100✓ $1, once

How The Board works, for somebody leaving Paved

There is no inbox and no send date. The Board is one page of brands, sorted by what each has paid, that people open to look at; a listing is a logo, a line and a link, and a dollar puts it on the page at whatever rank a dollar buys. No publisher accepts the request, nothing is reviewed for fit beyond the terms, and nothing is sent to anybody.

Where a sponsorship is a day of one audience's attention, a position is held: it stays until somebody pays more, and rank 01 costs a dollar over the holder, with every amount on the page. There is no CPC and no daily minimum. Every listing shows its own impressions and clicks, the page's own traffic is on a public Fathom dashboard, and a brand that holds the top for thirty days wins the season, after which the standings are kept for good and the amounts reset.

Where Paved falls short, and where it wins

Falls short
  • A send is one day. The share of voice is for the day the campaign runs, and a second day is a second booking at the same list price.
  • The publisher decides, on its own timetable. A request can sit for the three days Paved recommends and be declined; the network's $50 a day is $1,500 a month before a click is counted.
  • The audience figure is a sum. 253 million subscribers counts anybody on two newsletters twice, Paved does not say it is deduplicated, and the metrics you are billed on are Paved's own.
Wins
  • The price is the price. You pay what the publisher listed and nothing on top; the commission comes out of the publisher's side.
  • A whole audience, alone. One send with no other sponsor in it is a kind of attention a shared page cannot give.
  • Bot filtering on the network is written down, and the makegood grounds are specific: a click rate at or under 1%, or bots at half the clicks or more, earns credit.

Which to pick

Pick Paved if
  • There is a newsletter your customers read and a send to it is inside the budget.
  • You want your creative alone in front of a list for a day.
  • You can bid $50 a day for a fortnight on the network and read the results.
Pick The Board if
  • The budget is a dollar, not a send.
  • You want a position that stays until somebody pays more, not a day in an inbox.
  • You want the audience counted by somebody who publishes the dashboard.

Claim a spot from $1

A listing is a logo, a line and a link. Rank 01 costs $1 more than whoever holds it, every amount on the page is public, and the traffic is on a Fathom dashboard anyone can open.

Questions people ask about a Paved alternative

How much does a Paved sponsorship cost?
Whatever the publisher lists, charged flat, with no fee on top. Paved's own guide to newsletter ad costs puts indie newsletters at as little as $100, large ones in the thousands, and the typical sponsorship at around $5,000; its examples run from Hacker News Digest at $135 through Newser's Daily Rundown at $250 and MoneyWeek at $2,429 to Fast Company at $6,000, working out at about $1 to $5 a click. The Ad Network is separate: a minimum of $50 a day with a cost per click you set, averaging $1.10 to $6, per the pricing article dated 9 April 2026.
Is there a minimum spend on Paved?
Not on the Marketplace: the pricing article dated 9 April 2026 says there is no fee, subscription or minimum monthly spend, and a sponsorship costs its list price. The Ad Network has a minimum daily spend of $50, by card only, and Paved recommends running at least seven to fourteen days, which is $350 to $700 at the floor.
What is the cheapest alternative to Paved?
A Google Business Profile is free. Meta runs an awareness campaign from $1 a day. The Board lists a brand for $1, once, on a public leaderboard, with no publisher to accept it. None of the three is a send to a chosen list, which is what a Paved sponsorship buys, so cheapest depends on whether the list is the point.
Is The Board a Paved alternative?
For a brand that wants to be seen without booking a send, yes, and it is a different thing. Paved puts your creative in a newsletter's inbox for a day, at the publisher's price and with the publisher's consent; The Board is one public page of brands ranked by what each listing paid, a dollar to join, nobody to accept you, with the traffic counted by Fathom and published. Every listing is a paid placement and the page says so.
What does The Board cost compared to Paved?
A listing on The Board is $1, paid once; rank 01 costs $1 more than the holder paid, every amount is public, and nothing bills again. On Paved a sponsorship is the publisher's list price, $135 to $6,000 in Paved's own examples and about $5,000 typically, and the Ad Network is $50 a day at minimum, per its April 2026 pricing article.
Does Paved give refunds?
No, as a matter of stated policy. Paved's makegoods page says it does not issue refunds and instead facilitates makegoods and account credit for significant underperformance: a click rate of 1% or less, bot clicks at 50% or more of the total, an ad placed in the wrong section, or a display fault not of the advertiser's making. A sponsorship cancelled within 30 days of its send date is charged in full under the Advertiser Agreement, effective 2 March 2022. The Board's payments are final too, and its terms say so before you pay.
What happens when somebody outbids me?
Your listing moves down one place and keeps everything else; the amount you paid never goes down. You are told once who passed you and what taking the place back costs, and you can raise by any whole-dollar amount or wait. There is no send to rebook and nothing bills while you decide.
Can other brands damage my listing?
Yes, and it is part of the game. Anybody can pay for one of four kinds of sabotage against a listing, which changes how it looks or whether its link works for a few hours, never what it paid or its real rank. It wears off on its own, it can be cleared early or protected against in advance, and nobody is told who attacked whom. Backing a listing, by contrast, is public.
Do I get a backlink from The Board?
Not one to buy the listing for. Every outbound link goes through a counted redirect, and the badge you can embed carries rel=sponsored, which is what an honest paid placement has to do. What the dollar buys is the people who see the listing and click it, and both counts are on the listing.

Sources

Read on 6 September 2026. Prices on these sites move, and a figure here that no longer matches its source is a figure to tell us about: hello@toptheboard.com.

Also compared: Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Reddit Ads, LinkedIn Ads, X Ads, Carbon Ads, BuySellAds. Every listing site worth submitting to is in the directory list.