Best Traffic Exchange Sites in 2027: Which Still Work

Most traffic exchange sites that ranked in older lists are either gone or barely maintained. We checked 12 of them on 11 November 2026: eight still load, four are dead, closed or now show a different business. The working ones are cheap, and some are free if you surf yourself.

This guide shows the status of each site and its free and paid options. It also covers how the visits look in Google Analytics 4 and why ad networks object. Every price and status below comes from the site's own page on that day. The sources are listed at the end.

Which traffic exchange sites still work?#

Eight of the twelve sites we checked answered with HTTP 200 and a real homepage. For each domain we ran a DNS lookup, a curl -I request and a full homepage fetch. Then we read what the page actually showed. A status code alone can mislead: Traffic Swarm also answers 200, but with a redirect to an unrelated company.

"Live" only means the site loads and describes an active service. We did not create accounts, surf or buy points, so the table says nothing about how many visits each one actually delivers.

Which traffic exchanges have shut down?#

HitLeap is the best-known exchange that no longer works. On 11 November 2026 its domain still had name servers at its registrar, but no address record, so no browser can reach it. Our HitLeap status check from August 2026 found the same and explains what former users can still do about unused credits and payments.

Three other names from older lists are gone in different ways:

• Traffic Swarm returns a 227-byte page that sends the browser to an accounting software site. Nothing about an exchange remains.
• Bigfoot Hits now shows a personal page of recommended links. It says the original traffic exchange on the domain "has now retired".
• StartXchange shows a closing notice and links to other advertising sites instead.

Shutdowns hit exchange users harder than buyers of most other services. Credits exist only in the operator's database, so they disappear with the site. Before you prepay for a large points pack anywhere, check how long the exchange has been running and whether its pages are still maintained.

What do the working traffic exchange sites cost?#

Every working exchange in our list has a free option. Paid plans are cheap where a price is public: the lowest are $6 and $10 a month. Prices are in US dollars as shown to a visitor in the United States on 11 November 2026.

10KHits

10KHits has the clearest price list. Its pricing page defines one point as one 10-second hit. Pro costs $10 a month with 50,000 hits, Business $29 a month with 200,000 hits. Extra points cost $20 a month for 200,000 up to $68 a month for 1,000,000. Our 10KHits review works through what those points buy at longer visit lengths.

9Hits

9Hits is the cheapest paid entry. The Regular plan is free with a 75% exchange rate, 3 website slots and visits up to 60 seconds. Premium costs $6 a month with a 90% rate and 100,000 bonus points. VIP costs $18 a month with a 100% rate and 500,000 points.

Its feature list goes further than most. It includes custom referrers and user agents, click and scroll macros, proxy support and "Spoof Fingerprint". Those are tools for making automated views look like varied visitors.

Otohits, Websyndic and the manual exchanges

Otohits says it is completely free and delivers more than 15 million visits a day. Members earn 1 point for each second the autosurf runs. Websyndic works the same way and offers a "hide the referer" option, so visits show up as direct.

EasyHits4U and Hit2Hit are manual exchanges: a person clicks through other members' pages to earn credits. Hit2Hit uses a 6-second timer and a 2:1 surf ratio, so two views earn one visit.

How does a traffic exchange work?#

A traffic exchange trades views for views. You view other members' pages, earn credits, and spend those credits to have your own page shown to other members. Most exchanges also sell credits, so you can skip the surfing.

1. Add your page. You enter a URL and settings such as visit length, hourly limit and, on some plans, country.
2. Earn credits. You surf manually in a browser or run the exchange's viewer app, which loads other members' pages for you.
3. Spend credits. The exchange shows your page to other surfers until your balance runs out.

The exchange rate decides how much you get back. At 10KHits a free account earns 0.8 points per 10-second visit, Pro earns 1.2 and Business 2. At 9Hits the free rate is 75%, so four views earn three.

The models differ in who is in front of the screen. On a manual exchange a person clicks through each page. On an auto surf exchange the app or browser tab rotates pages by itself, often on a machine nobody watches. Otohits even allows several instances per account, as long as each has its own public IP address.

What does traffic exchange traffic look like in GA4?#

Expect short, low-engagement sessions from many places, and fewer of them than the exchange reports. 10KHits says on its own how-it-works page that you will receive "automated web visits" from "human and non-human traffic". Otohits warns in its FAQ that its figures will never match tools like Google Analytics.

Four things usually stand out in the reports:

• Fewer sessions than hits. Google says GA4 automatically excludes traffic from known bots and spiders. You cannot switch that off or see how much was removed.
• Low engagement. GA4 counts a session as engaged if it lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a key event or has two or more page views. A visit timed at exactly 10 seconds on one page can miss all three.
• Odd sources. With a visible referrer, visits land in the Referral channel under the exchange's domain. With the referrer hidden, GA4 files them under Direct, because Direct means source "(direct)" with no medium.
• Scattered locations. 9Hits, for example, says its members are around the world, so country reports spread wide unless you use geo-targeting.

Our guide on how to recognise bot traffic shows how to separate these sessions from the rest. Give any exchange campaign its own landing page or UTM tag, so you can filter it out of the numbers you report.

Can traffic exchange visits get an AdSense account banned?#

Yes, they can. Google's AdSense program policies list sources that sites with Google ads may not use. They name third-party services that generate clicks or impressions "such as paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, autosurf and click-exchange programs".

Google's invalid traffic page lists "automated clicking tools or traffic sources, robots, or other deceptive software" as examples. It says Google may limit ad serving, and may suspend or close an account with high levels of invalid traffic. The policies also make the publisher responsible for traffic that partners send.

The practical rule is simple. Never point an exchange at a page that shows AdSense or other network ads. Keep exchange pages off any site whose ad account matters to you.

When can a traffic exchange still make sense?#

An exchange can still be useful when the goal is a technical check, not an audience. It is a poor tool for sales, sign-ups or search rankings, because the people or machines viewing your page did not choose it.

It can make sense in three narrow cases:

1. Checking that a page loads and counts. A few hundred visits show whether a new tag, a counter or a server log records anything at all.
2. Very small budgets. If you only need movement on a test page, a free plan or a $6 to $10 plan costs little.
3. Audiences of other marketers. Manual exchanges and LeadsLeap mainly reach people who promote their own offers. Hit2Hit and LeadsLeap both pitch themselves for list building to that crowd.

Set a stop rule before you start: a fixed credit budget, one test page and a date to check your own analytics. If the numbers in GA4 do not match the exchange's counter closely enough for your purpose, stop.

What should you use instead of a traffic exchange?#

Pick the alternative by the job you need done. Real buyers come from search, ads, partners and email. Technical tests need visits you control and can measure.

• For a list of replacements sorted by goal, see our HitLeap alternatives by traffic goal and 10KHits alternatives for traffic tests.
• To compare paid visit providers on price and source, read our comparison of sites to buy website traffic.
• For free starts that do not require surfing, our guide to free traffic bots lists the caps of each one.

If what you need is a known number of visits that show up in GA4, a controlled visit service fits better than an exchange. Traffic Creator is one such service. You set the volume and settings, nobody earns credits by viewing your page, and you check the result in GA4.

Frequently asked questions#