Affiliate disclosure
This page explains how the site is funded, in plain language, in accordance with the US Federal Trade Commission's guidance on endorsements and testimonials (16 CFR Part 255).
The short version
Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you click one and buy something, the retailer pays us a commission. You pay the same price you would pay without our link. The commission comes out of the retailer's margin, not your pocket.
How you can tell which links are affiliate links
Every page containing affiliate links carries two disclosures:
- A strip directly beneath the site header, before any content, stating that the page contains affiliate links.
- A note at the end of the article explaining that we may earn a commission and linking back to this page.
Individual links are not visually marked, because doing so in-text is impractical without making the page unreadable. The page-level disclosure is the standard approach and it is why it appears above the fold rather than buried in a footer.
Who we work with
We participate in affiliate programs operated by retailers and by affiliate networks, including the Ascend network. When you click an affiliate link, a cookie is typically set so the retailer can attribute a later purchase to the referral. Those cookies have a fixed lifetime set by the retailer, ranging from hours to several months.
A full list of the partner programs referenced on this site is available on request by email. We do not publish it as a page because it changes frequently and a stale list would be misleading.
What partners cannot buy
Nothing on this list is negotiable.
A partner cannot buy a ranking. Commission rate is not an input to how products are ordered in a guide, and a high-paying brand does not outrank a low-paying one because of the rate. A partner cannot buy a mention — there is no sponsored placement, no paid inclusion, and no advertiser tier. A partner cannot approve coverage before publication, because no brand sees an article before it goes live. And a partner cannot have a criticism removed: if a product has a documented failure mode, the guide says so whether or not that page pays us.
We also recommend sellers we have no relationship with and say so when we do. In consumables, the cheapest correct answer is frequently a store brand that pays nobody, and a guide that cannot say that is not a guide.
A note on medical products
Financial incentives are a particular concern in health categories, and the concern is a fair one.
The rule here is that a product's regulatory status and its labeling determine what we are allowed to say about it, and no commission changes that. A device cleared by the FDA for snoring is described as cleared for snoring. It is not described as treating sleep apnea, regardless of what the seller would prefer, and that distinction is not a technicality — it is the difference between a product that helps and a product that delays a diagnosis.
Pricing and availability
Prices move. Ours are snapshots.
Where a guide quotes a price or a range, it reflects what we saw at the time of the last update, and that date is at the top of the article. Confirm the current price with the retailer before you buy. If a guide says a product costs a certain amount and it does not, the retailer is correct and the guide is out of date.
Regulatory basis
This disclosure is intended to satisfy the FTC's requirement that material connections between an endorser and a seller be clearly and conspicuously disclosed. If you believe a page on this site fails that standard, tell us and we will fix it.
Questions
Email [email protected]. If you want to know whether a specific link on a specific page is an affiliate link, ask and we will answer directly.