We run affiliate programs. That means some links on this site earn us money when you sign up for a tool. This page explains exactly how that works, what guardrails keep it from corrupting our editorial judgement, and what you should know before trusting our recommendations.
How affiliate links work
When you click a tracked link to a vendor and sign up for a paid plan, the vendor’s affiliate program pays us a commission. The commission is typically a percentage of the first payment or a flat fee, depending on the vendor’s program terms.
Not every tool we cover has an affiliate program. Some tools, including several that appear in our top rankings, pay us nothing. The absence of an affiliate relationship is not a disadvantage in our editorial process.
Three things that keep editorial separate
1. Rankings are set before we look at commission rates. The reviewer runs the testing workflow and submits scores. The editor assembles the final ranking. Neither person knows what the affiliate commission is for each tool when they make their editorial calls. Commission rates are not in the review template.
2. High-commission tools can and do rank poorly. We have reviewed tools with industry-leading affiliate programs and ranked them lower than tools that pay us nothing, because they performed worse in our workflow. The affiliate manager of those tools will tell you this happened.
3. We cover tools with no affiliate program. If we waited until a tool had an affiliate deal before we reviewed it, we would miss a significant portion of the market. We do not.
Editor conflicts of interest
None of our current editors or reviewers have disclosed material financial interests in tools they cover. “Material financial interest” means equity ownership, a current advisory role with compensation, or a current employment relationship.
If any editor or reviewer acquires such an interest in a tool they cover, they will disclose it in the byline of every review of that tool, and we will have a second reviewer re-run the testing independently.
No sponsored content in editorial rankings
Vendors can pay for sponsored placements: labelled “Featured Tool” slots on category pages, newsletter sponsorships, and sponsored deep-dives. These are visually distinct from editorial content and never appear in our best-of rankings. Our ranking positions are not for sale.
Affiliate-free tools in our coverage
The following categories currently include tools we cover with no affiliate relationship: [this list will be updated as coverage expands]. Check the disclosure block on each individual review to see the affiliate status of that specific tool.
For the complete mechanism of how affiliate commissions work and how they are disclosed at the article level, see our Affiliate Disclosure .