Adsy review: a huge guest post catalogue, short guarantees, and a contract that says it isn't escrow

Bottom line: Adsy is a guest posting marketplace run by Invise Inc., a Delaware company. You top up a balance (minimum $25), pick a site from a filterable list, and either send your own article or pay extra for Adsy’s writer. Sample site cards on its public pages run from $15.50 to $5,944.77 a post, and several pages advertise “Dofollow backlinks starting at $14.” The workflow is clearly documented: 3 working days for the publisher to accept, 7 days for you to check the delivery, up to 3 rounds of fixes. The guarantees are thin, though. Claims run for 30 days after publication, and the FAQ says flatly: “All purchases are final and non-refundable.” One marketing page says your payment “is held in escrow”; the terms say Adsy “does not offer payment processing, money transmission, escrow, or payment facilitation services.” We’d believe the terms.

Best for: SEO teams and agencies who want to pick each site themselves, check the metrics, and buy one post at a time without a subscription.

Think twice if: you want a long link-live guarantee, a cash refund, or someone else to vet sites for you. Buyers report a lot of junk in the catalogue.

Google’s spam policy lists “Buying or selling links for ranking purposes” as link spam. Paid links are fine only when they carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". We describe what Adsy sells; we are not recommending buying links to manipulate rankings.

We have no affiliate deal with Adsy. How we review.

Updated 30 October 2026. This Adsy review rests on what we read that day: the Adsy home page, the buyer FAQ, the Terms and Conditions, the site cards on SEO link building services and link building and content placement, the link insertion, link building agency, for agencies and publisher pages, Adsy on Trustpilot, and Google’s spam policies. We haven’t ordered a link, so we describe what Adsy publishes and what buyers report.

Adsy review at a glance

What Adsy sells

Adsy is a self-serve catalogue. You filter sites by Moz DA, Ahrefs DR, Ahrefs and Similarweb traffic, country, category, link type and more (“20+ filters”, the home page says), then buy a post on one of them. The products shown on its sample dashboard are Article Posting, Link Insertion, Press Release and Crowd Content. Each site card lists two prices: Content placement, where you supply the article, and Writing & Placement, where the content is written for you.

Link insertion means, in the FAQ’s words, “your link is inserted into existing content within the selected content context.” The link insertion page says “Over 45k sites” offer it. There’s also a free Chrome extension, Adsy Checker, that shows whether a site you’re browsing is in the catalogue and at what price, and an API and managed content services for larger buyers.

On the selling side, publishers register, pass moderation, and then “set prices and choose a category for each site.” They’re paid by PayPal, and Adsy says it takes “only a 7.9% commission during withdrawal,” split as “4% is PayPal’s commission, and 3.9% the one from Adsy.” We found no fee added on top of the buyer’s price; prices are in credits, where “one (1) Credit equals one (1) United States Dollar.”

The one thing most people miss: who is actually selling

Look closely at the public site cards and you’ll see the word Contributor under the domain. It appears on techbullion.com, msn.com, metapress.com, finance.yahoo.com and cnet.com. A contributor is someone with publishing rights on a site, not the site’s owner. Adsy’s own reply to a September 2026 Trustpilot review says as much: partners go through moderation, but not all of them own the sites they list.

Turns out that matters in practice. A contributor can lose access, an editor can remove a post, and a big-name domain can carry your link on a section that gets little traffic. The terms cover this plainly: Adsy “is not responsible for and cannot control the actions or decisions of external website owners.” So when you see msn.com for $239.99, don’t forget to ask what section the post lands in and whether the seller owns anything.

The second thing most people miss is the payment model. The link building agency page says “the payment is held in escrow. You release it only once you’re fully satisfied.” The Terms and Conditions, section 2.2, say Adsy “does not offer payment processing, money transmission, escrow, or payment facilitation services,” and section 2.1 makes Adsy “the sole contracting party,” acting “as an independent marketing agency.” In practice the flow still works like a hold: credits are “earmarked” when you order and only move when the task completes. But your legal recourse is with Adsy, under its terms, not with a neutral escrow holder.

Adsy prices, as read on 30 October 2026

Adsy doesn’t publish a price list. Each site sets its own price, and the full catalogue sits behind a free signup. The public pages do show live-looking sample cards, which give a fair sense of the range:

Prices in Adsy Credits (1 credit = 1 USD), set per site by publishers, read on 30 October 2026. Price moves with the site, writing (Writing & Placement), article length and special topics (sample +$15). Minimum top-up $25; credits valid 180 days, then an inactivity fee may apply. No subscription or minimum order. Full catalogue visible only after free signup.

Prices checked Oct 30, 2026 on Adsy’s own pricing page. Link prices depend on the site and change often, so check the live price list before you order.

What moves the price is the site itself (its metrics and the seller’s asking price), whether you want writing, the article length, and the topic. A sample dashboard card shows a “Special topic” surcharge of “+$15.00”, and the FAQ explains extra length: “the basic charge is $100 for ‘Writing & placement’ of a 1,000-word article… the extra charge is $50 for writing an extra 500 words.” The headline floor varies by page: “starting at $14” on several pages, “starting at $16.5” on the agency page. The cheapest card we actually saw was $15.50.

A worked example with real sums

Say you want three posts on mid-range sites and you’ll write the articles yourself. Using the cards above: bignewsnetwork.com at $15.50, anationofmoms.com at $19.00 and metapress.com at $49.50 come to $84.00. If you’d rather have them written, the same three cost $16.50 + $25.00 + $60.00 = $101.50, so writing adds $17.50 across all three. Honestly, at the low end that’s cheap writing, and you get what that buys.

At the top end the gap widens. On msn.com, writing adds $74.99 ($239.99 against $314.98). A longer article costs more again: on the FAQ’s own example, 1,500 words written and placed is $150 where 1,000 words is $100.

Two money rules matter more than the sums. The minimum top-up is $25, and the terms say “Adsy Credits remain valid for 180 days unless used for services. Unused Adsy Credits after this period may incur an inactivity fee.” If you’ve topped up $200 to test a few sites, plan to spend it within six months.

Notice the link type column too. Most dofollow cards say “Marked ‘Sponsored by’: No.” Under Google’s policy, a paid link that passes ranking credit is link spam whatever the seller calls it. If you want to stay inside the policy, filter for the cards that show Sponsored or No-follow.

What you control and what you don’t

You control: which exact site you buy on, since the domain and its metrics are shown before you pay. You set the target URL and anchor text in the task form; the link insertion page promises “Control over your anchor plan.” You choose whether to write the article or pay for writing. You get 7 days to check the delivery and can return it “up to 3 times.” Before approving, the FAQ tells you to check anchors, “the presence of link tags (nofollow/dofollow)” and the robots meta tag.

You don’t control: whether the publisher accepts (they have up to 3 working days, and the FAQ says “Until the task is accepted you can reject it”). You can’t change the brief once work starts: “The Client does not have the right to change order requirements after Adsy has started to execute the task.” And “Changes to published and paid content are not allowed.” After 30 days, what the site owner does with your post is out of anyone’s hands.

Adsy also gives you some signals to judge sellers: a completion rate, “Avg lifetime of links,” TAT (turnaround time), and “Tasks with Initial Domain & Price.” The FAQ says sites with a completion rate at or below 30% are hidden from “All sites.” On the public sample cards several of these fields read “-1%” or “N/A”, so check them inside the dashboard rather than trusting the preview.

Guarantees, refunds and the terms

The terms were “Updated: 02 October 2026” according to the header, though the body says they “were last updated on September 30, 2026.” Here’s what they say on the parts buyers care about.

On the link staying live. Section 11.2: “Adsy performs an internal review of published materials within thirty (30) days after publication. During this period, Clients may submit claims… After thirty (30) days, Adsy will not accept claims or be liable for any subsequent removal, modification, or inaccessibility of the publication caused by third parties.” The FAQ’s guarantee is narrower still: “the content is placed on the website with no alterations, and the URL you provided is present in the content.”

On refunds. Section 6.5: “Once Adsy Credits are purchased, the payment is final and non-refundable.” Adsy “may, at its discretion” refund a payment “made in error” within 30 days if no credits were used. Section 6.7: refunds after services start go “only to the Client’s Adsy balance.” The FAQ is blunter: “All purchases are final and non-refundable. Please try to find common ground by sending your task back for improvement.”

On disputes. You email support@adsy.com with the order number, and Adsy gives “a written decision within 30 calendar days.” If the work wasn’t delivered as ordered, Adsy “may re-perform the service or issue a refund.” Liability is capped at the greater of $50 or what you paid in the last 12 months.

On content. Section 17.3 prohibits content that “is generated or substantially composed using artificial intelligence (AI) or automated text-generation tools,” and says violations may mean rejection or suspension.

On search risk. We found no statement in the terms about search-engine penalties. The agency page says “All our links are built manually using white-hat SEO tactics” and that “the risk of penalties is much, much lower.” That’s Adsy’s label. Google’s link spam policy doesn’t depend on what a seller calls its links; it depends on whether a paid link passes ranking credit.

One more mismatch: the buyer FAQ and terms say a delivery is auto-approved after 7 days, while the publisher pages tell sellers they get “automatic approval after 14 days.” We can’t tell which clock the system runs; assume 7 and check within it.

What buyers report

Adsy’s Trustpilot page, read on 30 October 2026, shows a TrustScore of 4.3 from 248 reviews, with 52 in the last 12 months. The split is lopsided: 78% five-star and 15% one-star, with little in between. Adsy’s own site shows a Google rating of 4.9 from 82 reviews.

Happy regulars. A Canadian buyer on 8 October 2026 gave 5 stars after ordering “several times.” A French reviewer on 27 August 2026 wrote that the platform “makes it easy to find relevant websites.” On Adsy’s Google widget, a long-time user writes that they’ve worked with the platform “for about 5 years.”

Junk in the catalogue. A 17 September 2026 one-star review is titled “Full of low traffic link farms.” A 25 September one-star calls it “a terrible directory” full of sites “impossible to get listed on.” Even a positive Google review on Adsy’s own page warns of “a ton of junk websites there (fake traffic, orphan pages hacks, author page links…).”

Product mix-ups. On 30 July 2026 a US buyer said they bought what was “clearly advertised as a guest post/article with dofollow links” and got something else. Adsy replied that it was a display issue, rejected the order and returned the funds.

Balance and payout friction. On 10 May 2026 a buyer complained of “$205 unused balance, no refund, ticket ignored for 11+ days”; Adsy replied that the refund was approved. On 28 May 2026 another couldn’t get a refund on a $25 balance from 2024. On the seller side, a 29 June 2026 review says a PayPal withdrawal never arrived; Adsy says it was declined and returned to the balance.

Honestly, the pattern is consistent: the ordering flow works for people who know what they’re looking for, and the complaints cluster around site quality and getting money back out. We think that’s the fair reading. If you’ve used other link marketplaces, none of it will surprise you; if you haven’t, budget time for vetting, because we’d guess it takes longer than the ordering does.

Adsy vs a managed link-building agency

Adsy’s agency page frames the choice as marketplace against agency: “You see all the website details before buying” against “You often don’t see the exact site until after purchase,” and “No commitment; buy links as needed” against “monthly retainers or minimum orders.” That’s Adsy’s framing, but the core point holds on its own pages: you see the domain and price before you pay, and there’s no subscription. The trade-off is that you do the vetting. We didn’t price Collaborator, FatJoe or other link vendors for this review, so we won’t compare their prices.

Common mistakes when buying from Adsy

Trusting the domain name. A “Contributor” listing on a famous domain isn’t the same as the site’s editors choosing your post. Ask where it will sit.

Topping up too much. Credits are valid 180 days, then an inactivity fee may apply. Top up what you’ll spend.

Missing the 7-day window. If you don’t review in time, the delivery is deemed accepted. Set a reminder when a task reaches “Your Approval.”

Ignoring the link type. Check the card’s link attribution and “Marked ‘Sponsored by'” fields before ordering, and check the live tag after.

Sending AI-written articles. The terms prohibit them and allow rejection or suspension.

Expecting a long guarantee. Claims stop at 30 days after publication. Anything after that is your loss.

Who Adsy suits

An in-house SEO with a vetting habit. If you’ve got your own traffic checks, the filters and per-site prices save outreach time.

An agency placing sponsored content for clients. Custom lists and CSV task reports help, and nothing locks you into a retainer.

A first-time buyer who wants it done for them. Skip the marketplace; the vetting falls on you.

Anyone needing a refund path. The terms keep money inside Adsy once work starts.

How to test Adsy with a small first order

1. Top up the $25 minimum and buy one post on a site under $25, not a bundle.
2. Check the site’s real traffic yourself in your own SEO tool, and look at the section where posts land, before you order.
3. Ask for rel="sponsored" in the task brief, and confirm the live tag during your 7-day review.
4. Track indexation of the post over the following weeks, and note whether it’s still live at day 30, while you can still claim.
5. Keep the receipt and screenshots of the brief, the delivered URL and the card’s metrics on the day you ordered.

What we couldn’t check

We didn’t sign up, so we couldn’t see the full catalogue, the real price spread, link insertion prices beyond one sample dashboard card ($45), or whether the $14 floor is real today. We couldn’t confirm which auto-approval clock applies (7 or 14 days), how many sites are listed (the pages say 150k+, 147,320 and 45k in different places), or how Adsy squares its “escrow” marketing line with section 2.2 of its terms.

FAQ: Adsy questions

How much does a guest post on Adsy cost?

Each site sets its price. Public sample cards on 30 October 2026 ranged from $15.50 to $5,944.77 for placing your own article, and several pages advertise “Dofollow backlinks starting at $14.” Writing adds from $1 to about $75 on the cards we read.

Does Adsy refund you if a link is removed?

Only within 30 days of publication, through a claim. After that the terms say Adsy won’t accept claims. Refunds after work starts go to your Adsy balance, not your card.

Is buying links from Adsy against Google’s rules?

Buying a link that passes ranking credit is link spam under Google’s policy. Google says paid links are fine when qualified with rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored". Adsy’s cards show the link type, and most dofollow cards say they’re not marked sponsored.

Is Adsy an escrow service?

No, according to its terms: Adsy “does not offer payment processing, money transmission, escrow, or payment facilitation services.” Credits are earmarked for your order and released when the task completes.

The verdict

Adsy is a large, well-organised guest post marketplace with public sample prices, clear task stages and useful seller metrics. If you’ve got the habit of checking every site yourself, it’s a cheap way to buy individual sponsored placements without a contract. The weak points are on paper: a 30-day claim window, refunds kept on the platform, an escrow claim its own terms contradict, and buyer reports of low-quality sites. Read the card, check the site, ask for the sponsored tag, and start with one post.

Guides on SEO & Link Building

• Dofollow vs Nofollow Links: What’s the Real Difference?There's no dofollow tag. A normal link is 'dofollow' by default, and nofollow, sponsored and ugc are labels the linking site adds. Here's what each label tells Google and when it's required.
• How to Find High Quality Backlinks (and Tell Them From Bad Ones)Start with the links you already have, find more sites like them, and judge each one on the page where your link would sit. Then give that site a reason to link, and label anything you pay for.
• What Is Guest Posting in SEO? How It Works and What Google SaysA guest post is an article you write for someone else's site, usually with a link back to yours. How to find sites that take them, pitch an editor, follow their guidelines, and stay inside Google's link spam policy.