Affiliate Disclosure

How Affiliate Links Actually Work

When you click an affiliate link on our site:

• You're taken to the vendor's website, same as any other link
• The vendor's pricing stays exactly the same — you don't pay a cent more
• If you sign up for a paid plan, the vendor pays us a referral fee
• That fee goes back into running the site: testing tools, paying our writers, and keeping reviews up to date

It's the same model used by most independent review sites. The difference is in how it's handled — and we've made some firm choices about that.

Our Rules About Affiliate Relationships

To keep our reviews trustworthy, we follow a few non-negotiable rules:

• Editorial independence comes first. Our reviewers don't know which platforms have affiliate programs when they're scoring features, and commission rates never factor into rankings.
• We review tools that don't pay us. If a great platform doesn't offer an affiliate program, we still cover it. If a mediocre one pays generously, we still call it mediocre.
• Higher commissions don't buy better placement. Our "best for" recommendations are based on fit, not payouts.
• We disclose, every time. If a page contains affiliate links, you'll know.
• We won't recommend something we wouldn't use ourselves. If we wouldn't put our own money into a tool, we won't suggest you do either.

What We Won't Do

Some things we've seen elsewhere that we refuse to do:

• Write fake-positive reviews in exchange for higher commissions
• Hide negative findings to protect a partner relationship
• Rank platforms by payout instead of merit
• Pretend to be neutral while quietly being paid by one side
• Use sneaky tracking that follows you around the internet beyond what's needed for the referral

If a vendor ever asks us to soften a review or bury a flaw in exchange for a better partnership, the answer is no — and we'll usually mention it in the review.

Other Ways We May Earn Money

To be fully transparent, affiliate commissions aren't the only way independent review sites can make money. Here's what applies to us:

• Affiliate commissions — yes, as described above
• Display advertising — not currently used on this site
• Sponsored content — if we ever publish sponsored posts, they'll be clearly labeled as such and kept entirely separate from our reviews
• Paid placements in rankings — never. Our rankings are not for sale.

Why We're Telling You All This

Honestly? Because the email software space has a trust problem. Plenty of "best of" lists are basically pay-to-play, and readers are right to be skeptical.

We'd rather lose a click to honesty than win one through deception. If you trust our reviews, you'll come back. If you don't, no commission is going to fix that.