Partners
Partner with us.
For ad networks, hosting and infrastructure, and publisher tools. Our readers trust this site because every placement on it is earned, so this page says plainly how a partnership works here, the bar it has to clear, and what we decline. If that reads as strict, it is. It is also why a recommendation from this site is worth having.
The shapes
How we work with partners
Disclosed referral and affiliate placements. Placed where the product is the honest answer: in the guides, the comparison pages, and the tool results that already recommend the category. Every placement is labeled and carries the sponsored link attribute. The footer of every page on this site already discloses the arrangement.
First-party case studies. We run a network of content sites, and everything this site recommends gets tested there first. A case study with a partner is measured on our own properties, dates its data window, and publishes the numbers we measured, including the unflattering ones. We keep full editorial control, always.
Audit referrals. When an audit finds that a publisher's honest fix is a migration, a network move, or a tool, we refer to the partner that fits. Referrals are disclosed to the client, and our audit fee stays flat: we never take a cut of a publisher's ad revenue, so the recommendation has nothing riding on it but being right.
The bar
The standard a partnership clears
- We run it ourselves first. Nothing gets recommended that is not running on our own network. If we cannot test it, we cannot recommend it.
- The net-positive test applies to partner placements. The same two bars every ad unit on our own sites has to clear: revenue-positive and experience non-negative. The test is public.
- The recommendation comes first. A partnership follows a verdict we already reached, never the reverse. Money does not change a comparison, a ranking, or a caveat.
- Numbers are measured, not quoted. We publish what our own Search Console, AdSense, and analytics records show, in the same convention as the receipts. A partner's deck is not a source.
The declines
What we do not do
No undisclosed placements. No sponsored posts presented as editorial. No pay-for-review, and no paid positions in comparisons. No intrusive-format networks: if the pitch is pop-unders, forced interstitials, or "100% fill on any traffic," the answer is already written on the networks page. And nothing that fails the two bars, whatever it pays. We would rather keep the reader.
The pitch