Why this page exists
Affiliate marketing is a normal, widely-used way to fund independent publishing, but it only works well for readers if it's disclosed clearly rather than buried in fine print somewhere no one reads. This page is our attempt to do that plainly — not because a regulator requires a specific sentence somewhere, but because a reader who understands exactly how a site makes money is better equipped to weigh its recommendations fairly. We'd rather a reader trust our comparisons a bit less after reading this page and being skeptical for good reason, than trust them more because something important was left vague.
What an affiliate link actually is
An affiliate link is a tracked link to a retailer's product page. If you click it and go on to complete a purchase — sometimes within a set window after clicking, depending on the retailer's program — that retailer pays Ranking Hours a small commission. The price you pay is set entirely by the retailer and doesn't change because you came from an affiliate link; the commission comes out of the retailer's own margin, not an added charge to you.
Not every outbound link on this site is an affiliate link. Links to manufacturer specification pages, for instance, are usually just references, not affiliate relationships — affiliate links tend to appear specifically where a comparison points you toward a place to actually buy the product being discussed.
The mechanics vary slightly by retailer — some use a cookie set in your browser, others track the referral through a URL parameter passed at the moment of the click — but the underlying principle is the same across all of them: a small percentage of your purchase, paid by the retailer rather than by you, if you buy after clicking through from here.
The order things actually happen in
This is the part worth understanding clearly: a comparison's conclusion is written first, based on the research and criteria described on our Methodology page. Only after that conclusion is settled does an affiliate link get added, pointing to whichever retailer happens to carry the recommended product. The commission structure of a retailer's affiliate program has no input into which product wins a comparison.
A practical way to check this yourself: browse a few comparisons and notice that some of our highest-rated products link to retailers with relatively modest commission rates, while some lower-rated products belong to programs that pay considerably more. If commissions were driving conclusions, that pattern wouldn't exist.
We've also structured our internal process to keep this separation real rather than just stated. The person or people researching and writing a comparison work from the criteria on the Methodology page without reference to which retailer's program pays better — affiliate links are added in a separate step afterward, by checking which retailers currently stock the products already named in the finished article.
Where you'll find affiliate links
Affiliate links mainly appear in individual comparison articles, usually near a mention of where a specific product can be bought, and occasionally in category or "top comparisons" pages that link through to those articles. They generally don't appear on editorial pages like About, Methodology, or the FAQ, since those pages aren't recommending a specific purchase.
Not every comparison has one. A product without an active affiliate program, or a retailer we don't currently partner with, will still be included and rated on its merits — the presence or absence of a link reflects retailer program availability, not how strongly we do or don't recommend the product.
What doesn't change because of an affiliate relationship
- Which product wins a comparison — decided by the criteria in the article, not by commission rates.
- The star rating on a comparison — reflects how clear-cut the evidence is, not which retailer is linked.
- Whether a genuine downside gets mentioned — a real flaw stays in the article whether or not the retailer selling that product is a partner.
- The price you pay — set by the retailer, identical whether you click our link or navigate there directly.
- How quickly a comparison gets updated — a correction happens on its own timeline, unrelated to whether the page currently earns commission.
More on how this fits into our broader approach to independence is on the About page, which goes into the editorial team's process in more depth than this disclosure needs to.
How affiliate revenue fits alongside advertising
Affiliate commissions are one of two main ways this site is funded, alongside the display advertising described in our Privacy Policy. Both exist for the same basic reason: comparisons take real time to research, verify, and write, and funding that work through readers who choose to buy through a link — at no extra cost to them — is more sustainable than a paywall that would keep the content from being freely accessible.
Neither funding source is tied to a specific dollar target that shapes editorial output. We don't set a monthly revenue goal that determines how many comparisons get published or which categories get prioritized — coverage decisions are driven by reader interest and how much genuine ground there is to cover in a category, as described on our Categories page.
If you'd rather not use affiliate links at all
That's entirely your choice, and nothing about using the site requires it. Every comparison names the specific products and retailers involved, so you can search for and navigate to any retailer directly instead of clicking through from here — you'll pay exactly the same price either way, and we won't know the difference on our end beyond a slightly lower referral count for that page.
How we choose which retailers to partner with
We generally join affiliate programs run by established, well-known retailers rather than smaller or less recognizable sellers, partly for reliability and partly because readers are more likely to already trust a name they recognize. A retailer's willingness to run an affiliate program at all — rather than the specific commission it pays — is usually the deciding factor in whether we link to them for a given product.
We don't accept affiliate partnerships that would require us to link to a specific retailer regardless of whether they're actually the best option for a reader, or that would restrict us from also linking to a competing retailer for the same product. If a program ever came with strings like that attached, we wouldn't join it, since it would compromise the independence this whole disclosure is meant to explain.
Affiliate links vs. sponsored content
It's worth being precise about the difference between these two things, since they're often confused. An affiliate link is added after a comparison is written, pointing to wherever the already-decided recommendation can be bought — it has no bearing on which product won. Sponsored content, by contrast, would mean a brand paying for placement or a specific outcome before the content is even written. At the time of writing, nothing published on this site is sponsored content. If that ever changes for a specific article, it will be labelled clearly and separately from this general affiliate disclosure, not folded into it.
A related but distinct category is a "sponsored review" — where a brand pays for a product to be reviewed at all, regardless of outcome. We don't currently accept these either. Every product compared on this site is chosen because it's genuinely relevant to what readers are actively deciding between, not because anyone paid for the coverage to exist.
Common questions about this disclosure
Does clicking an affiliate link cost me anything extra? No. The retailer's price is identical whether you arrive through our link or by typing the URL directly — the commission comes from the retailer's own margin, not an added fee to you.
Can I avoid using affiliate links if I'd rather not? Yes — every comparison also mentions the product and retailer by name, so you're always free to navigate to the retailer directly instead of clicking through. Nothing on this site requires using an affiliate link to read or benefit from the comparison itself.
Do you disclose affiliate relationships on every single page? This dedicated page covers the general policy, and it's linked from the footer of every page on the site. Individual comparison articles don't repeat the full disclosure inline, but a link back to this page is always available in the footer for reference.
What if a product changes retailers or the affiliate program ends? We update the article's link where practical. If a link temporarily points to an outdated retailer before we catch it, the underlying comparison and its conclusion remain accurate regardless — only the destination of that specific link is affected.
How to recognise an affiliate link on this site
Affiliate links on this site open the retailer's own website, usually in a new tab, and the address in your browser will often contain a tracking parameter — a string of letters and numbers after the retailer's normal web address. That's the mechanism the retailer uses to know a visit originated here. You don't need to do anything with it, and it doesn't collect anything about you beyond the fact that the visit came from Ranking Hours; what the retailer records about your activity on their own site afterward is covered by their own privacy policy.
If you'd prefer not to click through a tracked link, hovering over a link before clicking will show the destination address at the bottom of your browser, and copying just the retailer's main address into a new tab achieves the same result without the tracking parameter.
A few concrete examples
To make all of this less abstract, here are a few ways the principles above play out in practice. When a phone comparison concludes that one model has a meaningfully better camera in low light, that conclusion comes from sample images across independent reviews and the manufacturer's published specifications — not from checking which model's retailer program pays a higher percentage. The affiliate link, if there is one, gets added afterward to whichever retailer stocks the phone we already named as the better pick.
Similarly, when an automotive comparison concludes that one EV's real-world range holds up better in cold weather, there's typically no affiliate link involved at all, since vehicle purchases generally don't work through affiliate programs. That's a useful reference point when judging our conclusions: the categories where no commission is possible tend to reach conclusions just as firmly as the ones where it is, which is what you'd expect if commissions weren't shaping the outcome.
And when a software comparison recommends a free tier over a paid one — which happens fairly often, since many readers genuinely don't need the paid features — that recommendation is made even though a paid-tier affiliate link would pay us more than a free one. If commission were the priority, that kind of recommendation would be a strange choice.
Questions about this disclosure
If anything above is unclear, or you'd like more detail on a specific comparison's affiliate relationships, reach out through our Contact page. We're glad to explain how a particular link or recommendation came about, including which retailer relationship, if any, is attached to a specific article. You can also reach us directly by email at abdullohmahmudov660@gmail.com, which goes to the same small editorial team that writes and checks the comparisons, so a question about a specific link is read by someone who can actually look into it.