How We Make Money

The short version

Some vendors pay to be considered for a category and to appear in our lists. That payment buys consideration and, when a product qualifies, a listing. It never buys a rank, a score, or a favorable word. Placement and position are decided by our research and testing alone.

Where our revenue comes from

We earn money in a small number of clearly bounded ways:

• Vendor listings. A vendor may pay to have their product evaluated and, if it meets our category standard, included in the relevant list. The research decides whether it qualifies and where it ranks.
• Referral links. Some outbound links to vendors may earn us a referral fee. These links never change how a product is ranked or described, and we mark them accordingly.

What payment does not do

• It does not move a product up a ranking.
• It does not change a score.
• It does not soften a con or inflate a pro.
• It does not keep a better competitor off a list.

How we keep the wall in place

Research and testing are done against a fixed category scope written before any commercial conversation. Scores are set during testing and checked by a separate editor who is not part of any vendor relationship. If a paying vendor's product does not hold up, it does not make the list, and we would rather lose the revenue than the reader's trust.

Disclosure

Where a commercial relationship exists, we disclose it near the content it affects. If you ever feel a page is not clear about this, tell us through our contact page and we will fix it.