Managed wrapper vs self-serve Prebid: the 'who owns the auction' tradeoff

Managed wrapper vs self-serve Prebid: the 'who owns the auction' tradeoff
Heard: Mediavine/Raptive/Freestar-style managed stacks vs rolling your own — and pubs underestimate the lock-in.
— Managed: turnkey, demand relationships included, ops handled — but you rent the auction and rarely get log-level data.
— Self-serve Prebid: full control, log-level transparency, every dollar of demand is yours — but you staff it.
— Middle ground vendors (Assertive, Setupad) give Prebid control with managed demand bolted on.
Impact: Under ~5M sessions/mo, managed usually wins on math; above it, self-serve transparency pays for the headcount. (sourced)