Affiliate Disclosure
Short version: some links here are affiliate links. If you buy through one, I may earn a commission and your price does not change. Commissions do not decide what I recommend.
What an affiliate link is
An affiliate link is an ordinary link carrying an identifier. When you click it, the merchant can tell the visit came from this site. If you go on to buy or subscribe, they pay me a share of the sale as commission.
That money comes out of the merchant's marketing budget. It is not added to your price. What you pay going through a link here is the same as what you'd pay searching for the merchant directly.
Programs this site participates in
This site takes part in several third-party affiliate programs. The specific partners change over time; currently they consist mainly of official programs run by SaaS tools, plus affiliate networks covering consumer electronics.
What commissions do and don't affect
This is the part of the page that matters, so I'll be specific.
What they don't affect
- Rankings and conclusions. Who comes first in a comparison is decided by the test results. I don't move A ahead of B because A pays 30% and B pays nothing.
- Criticism. Products that pay me get their flaws written up exactly like products that don't.
- The freedom to say no. If a product runs an affiliate program and I don't think it's worth buying, I say so and leave the link out.
What they do affect — honestly
- What I choose to test. I'm more likely to test a product that has an affiliate program, because writing it up might pay. That bias is real, I can't fully remove it, and the least I can do is tell you it exists.
- Coverage. Some excellent open-source tools have no affiliate program, and they probably show up here less than they deserve. If you're making a decision, don't treat "what this site covers" as a complete map of what's available.
My rules
- No affiliate link for a product I haven't actually used.
- Posts with affiliate links carry the disclosure at the top, not buried at the bottom.
- No paid reviews. If a vendor ever pays for coverage, it gets labelled as sponsored and kept separate.
- No "limited time" or "only a few spots left" urgency tactics.
- When a product gets worse, the conclusion changes — even if it's still paying me. Edits are dated.
Cookies and tracking
When you click an affiliate link, the merchant or affiliate network may set a cookie in your browser so a later purchase can be attributed to this site. That's how the mechanism works; this site can't switch it off, though you can block third-party cookies in your browser settings.
What this site itself collects, and doesn't, is on the privacy page.
Compliance
This disclosure is provided in line with the US Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides. If you have a question about any commercial relationship behind something on this site, just ask me.