How No Varnish Makes Money
Affiliate Commissions
When you click a link to a tool on this site and sign up for a paid plan, we may earn a commission from that tool's affiliate program. This is our primary revenue source and what makes it possible to research, write, and maintain independent reviews without charging readers or accepting payment from vendors.
Affiliate links are clearly marked. They appear in reviews, comparisons, best-of lists, and directory pages — always pointing to the tool's official website.
What This Means for You
- Your price doesn't change. Clicking an affiliate link never adds any cost to your purchase. You pay exactly what you would pay going directly to the vendor.
- We recommend tools we don't earn from. When a tool without an affiliate program is the best choice in its category, we still recommend it. Revenue potential does not determine coverage.
- Scores are methodology-driven. Our methodology scores don't change based on commission rates. A tool paying 40% commission gets the same criteria weights as a tool paying nothing.
What We Don't Do
Revenue keeps this site running. It does not steer our editorial judgment. Specifically:
- No paid reviews. Vendors cannot purchase a review or pay for coverage. Every tool on this site is selected based on category relevance and reader demand.
- No sponsored content disguised as editorial. If content were ever sponsored, it would be labeled as such. Currently, nothing on this site is sponsored.
- No vendor-influenced ratings. Tool vendors cannot preview content, request score changes, or negotiate editorial outcomes. See our editorial standards.
- No pay-for-placement in rankings. Position in best-of lists and comparison outcomes is determined by our scoring criteria. Affiliate status has no effect on ranking order.
Transparency Commitment
You will always see affiliate relationships disclosed. If a tool has no affiliate program, we still review it if it belongs in our coverage. Our goal is to be the most useful resource for marketing teams evaluating tools — and that only works if you trust what you read here.
Questions about our business model? Reach out at [email protected].
Get the unvarnished truth.
Every Tuesday.
One email a week. New tool reviews, head-to-head verdicts, and trend analysis — based on real data, not vendor press releases. Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.