Short answer: affiliate commissions. Here is the long answer in plain English.
Affiliate links
Many of the tools we review (Semrush, Ahrefs, Mangools, Surfer, Frase, Clay, Apollo, and others) have affiliate programs. When you click a link in one of our reviews and sign up for a paid plan, we earn a one-time commission or recurring percentage from that vendor. You pay the same price either way — the commission comes out of the vendor pocket, not yours.
Does it bias our reviews?
Honest answer: it would, if we let it. Here is how we keep it from being a problem:
- We pay for these tools out of our own pocket. Every tool reviewed here is one we use weekly — not a free demo account.
- We will tell you when something sucks. If a tool has a $200/mo plan that we do not think is worth it, we say so. Saying “tool X is great for everyone” pays better than “tool X is wrong for freelancers” — but the second is what makes you trust us a year from now.
- Some of our top picks have no affiliate program. When that is the right answer for you, that is the answer we give.
What we do not do
- Sponsored posts. No vendor pays us to write a positive review.
- “Best of” lists ranked by commission. Our recommendations are ordered by what we would actually pick, not what pays the most.
- Display ads. Eventually maybe (Mediavine/Raptive at 50k+ pageviews/month), but they will never influence reviews.
FTC disclosure
Per FTC guidelines, every post containing affiliate links discloses that fact at the top of the post. If you ever see a recommendation here without a clear disclosure, please tell us — that is a bug, not a feature.