Sponsorship policy

We take money from vendors. Here is exactly what it does and does not buy — the whole policy, on one page.

What money can buy

• A richer profile — more media, an updates feed, the ability to respond to reviews.
• A clearly labeled sponsor placement in a category or in the newsletter.
• Faster review of corrections a vendor submits (verified against public evidence like everyone else).

What money cannot buy — ever

• Position in the ledger or any ranking. Order is set by the data.
• Inclusion. A platform is listed because it belongs in the market, not because it paid.
• A single coverage mark, review, or caveat. We will not change one glyph for money.
• Removal of unflattering findings — critical reviews and “where it doesn’t fit” stay.

Why we publish this

The review channel buyers rely on has a trust problem: pay-to-play rankings and seeded reviews. Our entire reason to exist is being the source that doesn’t do that. Stating the line publicly is how we keep ourselves to it — and how you hold us to it.

Every sponsor placement is labeled

Where a vendor has paid for visibility, it says so on the placement. If you ever find sponsored content on this site that isn’t labeled, that’s a bug — tell us and we’ll fix it.