How we make money
We earn commissions, and it changes nothing
This is the whole of it, in plain language. If anything is unclear, email hello@softshortlist.com and a real person will explain it.
What an affiliate link is
Some links to vendors on this site are affiliate links. If you click one and sign up, we may earn a commission. It costs you nothing extra, and the price you pay is the same as if you had gone to the vendor directly.
Every affiliate link carries a rel="sponsored" marker, which is what the FTC endorsement guides in the US expect and what the Canadian Competition Act asks for too. One disclosure satisfies both countries.
What it does not buy
Being an affiliate partner buys a vendor exactly one thing: a link that pays us if you use it. It does not buy a rating, a ranking, a place on a list, or a kind word in a review.
- Ratings are computed automatically from verified user reviews. No one can edit them, and no one can pay to change them.
- Rankings on the homepage and in categories are driven by review volume and score, by a formula, not by who pays us.
- A verdict in a comparison is written from the reviews. A vendor never sees it before you do.
Why we can afford to say that
The entire value of this site is that you can trust it. A review platform that quietly sells its verdicts is worthless, and we would rather earn less and stay worth reading. That is not a slogan, it is the business model.
When a vendor has no affiliate program
Plenty of products we review do not pay us anything, and they are treated exactly the same as the ones that do. If a product is the right answer, we say so, commission or not.
More on how the whole thing works is in our editorial policy.