| 1 | D+ | web-services · Independent (no publicly disclosed parent company or owner) | Vendors it ranks pay indirectly through affiliate commissions on purchases made via its links, and the site discloses that its commercial agreements with providers can factor into listicle rankings, though it says it "never accept[s] payment to review a produc… |
| 2 | D+ | Senior care directory & referral · SilverAssist (acquired Jan 2026; previously Caring Holdings, LLC, 2018-2026) | Senior living communities and home-care agencies pay the most, via per-lead and per-move-in referral fees plus listing subscriptions; by Caring.com's own disclosure this paid relationship can influence display order and prominence, though it states compensatio… |
| 3 | D+ | Travel rewards & credit cards · Red Ventures (via Bankrate) | Card issuers (notably Chase, Citi, Bank of America, and American Express, several under exclusive marketing deals) pay TPG up to ~$120+ per approved applicant, and TPG's own advertising policy states this compensation "may impact... the order in which they app… |
| 4 | D+ | Personal-finance lead-generation marketplace that also publishes editorial reviews and rankings of lenders · LendingTree, Inc. (NASDAQ: TREE); publicly traded since its 2008 spin-off from IAC/InterActiveCorp | Revenue comes overwhelmingly from the businesses being listed, lenders, card issuers, and insurers pay for leads and matches; consumers are not charged. On the marketplace side, paying does influence visibility: LendingTree's own editorial guidelines state tha… |
| 5 | D+ | Personal finance / credit cards · Red Ventures (via Bankrate) | Card issuers (American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Discover and other partners) pay it the most, and by its own disclosure that compensation can buy featured placement and list order, though it says it does not change the independent st… |
| 6 | D+ | Product comparison and review platform · Finder (hive.com Pty Ltd, founded Australia) | Finder earns affiliate/click commissions, display ad revenue, and sponsored content fees from the lenders and financial providers it ranks. Its own "How We Make Money" page states compensation may affect product ordering and placement on the site. |
| 7 | D+ | web-services · Digital Brands, Inc. | By its own advertising disclosure, the site takes compensation from the hosts it lists and says that pay "may impact how and where hosts appear on the page, including the order in which they appear," so rankings are not purely merit-based. |
| 8 | D+ | Insurance comparison marketplace · Independent (privately held; VC-backed, with Admiral Group a minority shareholder after Insurify's 2023 acquisition of Compare.com) | Insurance carriers pay Insurify the most, through commissions on bound policies plus cost-per-lead and advertising fees, and by Insurify's own description paying can buy "featured carrier placement" and influence quote ordering, even though it says insurers do… |
| 9 | D+ | Personal finance rate comparison · QuinStreet, Inc. | Banks, credit unions and thrifts pay it most; by its own disclosure some have paid for a link and compensation may impact how and where products appear, including the order in which they appear. |
| 10 | D+ | consumer-electronics · Kape Technologies (owned by Teddy Sagi / Unikmind Holdings) | Revenue comes from affiliate commissions on purchases made through its links, and the site is part of Kape Technologies, which also owns VPNs it reviews; by its own disclosure these affiliate and ownership ties "may" factor into rankings, and reporting notes K… |
| 11 | D+ | consumer-electronics · Kape Technologies PLC (via Webselenese; ultimately Unikmind / Teddy Sagi) | Revenue comes from affiliate commissions paid by VPN vendors when readers buy through vpnMentor's links; the site says it doesn't accept payment for positive reviews, but its own disclosure states rankings "may take into consideration" both affiliate commissio… |
| 12 | D+ | Business software directory · Slashdot Media (BIZX, LLC) | The software vendors being ranked pay SourceForge the most, and by its own vendor pages paying a higher-priced plan buys a higher ranking and more visibility. |
| 13 | D+ | Small-business services review & rankings | Business.org earns affiliate commissions from partner brands when readers purchase through site links, and its own advertising disclosure states this relationship "can affect which services appear on our site and where we rank them." |
| 14 | D+ | Editorial personal-finance review vertical · NBCUniversal (Comcast) | CNBC Select earns affiliate commissions when readers click links and apply for financial products. Its own disclosures state that compensation affects "how and where" products appear, including ordering. Only lenders with active affiliate arrangements are feat… |
| 15 | D+ | Personal finance affiliate review site | CreditDonkey earns affiliate commissions when readers click through and apply for financial products; the site's own disclosure confirms this compensation can influence which products appear and in what order. |
| 16 | D+ | Personal Finance Editorial · MoneyGeek LLC | MoneyGeek's own homepage states: "Insurance companies pay us a commission when you purchase a policy we helped you find." The personal-loan rankings page discloses that "some insurers compensate us for their inclusion on our site" and that "these partners may … |
| 17 | D+ | Consumer-finance comparison marketplace and lead-generation site with user-generated reviews · Independent (privately held; founded and led by Miron Lulic) | SuperMoney is paid most by the financial-services providers it lists. By its own disclosure, "some, but not all, of the financial institutions with products on our site may compensate us" when a user applies or is approved, and the site is an "advertising-supp… |
| 18 | D+ | Personal finance & insurance · LendingTree, LLC | Insurers, lenders, and card issuers pay it most through ads, affiliate commissions, and lead-gen referrals to parent LendingTree, and by ValuePenguin's own disclosure compensation can influence the offers shown and their order. |
| 19 | D+ | Personal finance product ratings · Evolution Finance, Inc. | WalletHub's largest payers are the card issuers and banks it ranks (American Express, Chase, Discover, Capital One, Citi, Wells Fargo, SoFi, and others), and it states outright that "advertising impacts how and where offers appear on this site (including... th… |
| 20 | D+ | Personal Finance Reviews | Crediful earns affiliate commissions when readers click through to featured lenders and sign up. Their own best-personal-loans page discloses: "Compensation may influence how and where products appear, including their order in listing categories," confirming t… |
| 21 | D+ | Business software reviews · Appitsimple Infotek Pvt. Ltd. | Software vendors pay the most, and by SoftwareSuggest's own ranking-methodology page paid PPC listings are positioned first within each category. |
| 22 | D+ | Personal finance media · Gen Digital (acquired January 2025; formerly ConsumerTrack, Inc.) | Financial brands (banks, card issuers, lenders such as Capital One, Chase, and Fidelity) pay the most via ads and performance payouts; the site says advertisers cannot buy favorable reviews but discloses that compensation can affect how and where products are … |
| 23 | D+ | business-reputation · Independent (privately held; backed by investors including Elephant, Rich Barton) | Doctors and practices pay most of the revenue, roughly $200 to $5,000+ per month for advertising, profile upgrades, and leads; RealSelf states ads are labeled "Sponsored" and cannot change reviews or the editorial "Top Doctor" badge, but its paid "Dr. Spotligh… |
| 24 | D+ | Investing content and personal-finance product reviews · The Motley Fool, LLC (Independent, privately held) | The brokers, card issuers, and banks it ranks (Fidelity, Schwab, American Express, Capital One, Citi, Ally, and others) are the same advertisers that pay it commissions, and its own disclosure concedes that "compensation may impact how and where products appea… |
| 25 | D+ | Personal finance comparison · LendingTree, Inc. | Banks, lenders and other financial providers (and parent LendingTree's lender network) pay it the most through advertising and referral fees, and by its own disclosure those fees can influence placement and the assigned score. |
| 26 | D+ | Personal finance reviews · Money Group, LLC (formerly Ad Practitioners LLC) | Advertiser partners whose products it ranks pay it the most, and by its own disclosure their payout can influence placement and ordering on the site. |
| 27 | D+ | Local pro "best of" lists (lead-gen directory) · Forbes Digital Marketing, Inc. (Forbes Marketplace / Forbes Advisor); operating entity Expertise LLC, Encino, CA | The parties it ranks are exactly who pays it the most: Expertise.com's own Marketing Agreement says a listed provider "shall pay SP the amount agreed to per the Expertise.com invoice in exchange for placement in the corresponding category" (monthly, 90-day ini… |
| 28 | D+ | B2B software directory & rankings · SoftwareWorld (independent; associated with founder Andy Butcher, Portland, OR) | Software vendors pay it the most, and by SoftwareWorld's own sponsorship-package descriptions, the Sponsored plan grants "top placement in category listings (within the top 5 profiles)" and the Featured plan grants eligibility to "rank within the top 50," mean… |
| 29 | D+ | Student Loan Advisory & Lender Rankings | Student Loan Planner's own ranking methodology page states that lender payment amount is one of three explicit criteria for determining which lenders appear and how prominently. The site earns referral commissions from every lender it recommends, and individua… |
| 30 | D+ | Financial product comparison marketplace · Natural Intelligence Technologies Inc. | Lenders and financial product providers pay BestMoney commissions; BestMoney's personal loans page states "We earn commissions from brands listed on this site, which influences how listings are presented" and "advertising compensation...impacts their (and/or t… |
| 31 | D+ | Business software discovery · Black and White Zebra (BWZ Media) | Software vendors pay the most, via lead-gen and promotional campaigns, and by Crozdesk's own description paying buys elevated placement in category views (though the company says it does not manipulate the underlying Crozscore for any vendor). |
| 32 | D+ | Bank & Lending Product Reviews · QuinStreet, Inc. | MyBankTracker is owned by QuinStreet, Inc. (Nasdaq: QNST), whose business model is monetizing consumer intent via affiliate leads to financial institutions. MyBankTracker's own homepage states "many of the offers appearing on this site are from advertisers fro… |
| 33 | D+ | Business Credit Marketplace · Nav Technologies, Inc. | Nav's own advertiser and editorial disclosure on its business-loans page states the site "receives compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened," directly tying placement and inclusion to commerci… |
| 34 | D+ | Consumer reviews + paid brand "accreditation" / lead-gen · Independent (privately held; acquired and controlled by CEO Zac Carman since 2010) | ConsumerAffairs' own FAQ states that compensation it receives from brands "may influence which partners they feature and the order in which they appear," and a TINA.org analysis found nearly all non-paying companies got negative ratings while only one of 25 pa… |
| 35 | D+ | consumer-reviews-aggregator · Money Group, LLC (formerly Ad Practitioners, LLC) | Revenue comes from referral commissions paid by the companies it ranks; the site's own ranking page states partners' "performance and/or payout may influence their position on our website, including the order in which they appear," and TruthInAdvertising.org f… |
| 36 | D+ | Personal-finance comparison and lead-generation site (loans, banking, credit cards) · Independent (founded by Nate Matherson and Matt Lenhard; privately held) | LendEDU is paid most by the lenders and financial-product companies it ranks, through affiliate and lead-generation commissions when readers click or apply. By its own disclosure, that compensation "may impact where & how companies appear on the site," includi… |
| 37 | D+ | Lead-gen rankings · Natural Intelligence Ltd. | Natural Intelligence Ltd. also operates BestMoney.com under the same affiliate model; both sites earn per-click or per-lead commissions from the exact vendors they rank, making ranking order a revenue variable rather than purely an editorial output. |
| 38 | D+ | Dating app and site reviews · Digital Brands, Inc. | DatingAdvice.com earns referral fees when readers sign up for dating services through links on the site. The site's own review pages state: "compensation may impact how and where products appear across the site (including, for example, the order in which they … |
| 39 | D+ | Local B2B service-provider directory (lead-gen / paid placement) · Gartner (Gartner Digital Markets; acquired October 2022) | The ranked agencies themselves are the paying customers, and paying directly buys higher placement: UpCity's own provider materials say sponsors get "top placement above Certified partners" and "above any free partners and unclaimed profiles," and one agency r… |
| 40 | D | Local & home services marketplace · EMK Capital | Service professionals pay Bark the most (via lead credits and Elite Pro subscriptions), and by Bark's own description paying for Elite Pro buys higher ranking and featured directory placement shown to buyers. |
| 41 | D | weddings-events · None (privately held; founded and led by Alan Hyman) | Listed vendors and venues pay Eventective, both through tiered annual subscriptions and a pay-per-lead market (leads from ~$2.50, shared competitively to multiple vendors), and by its own subscription pages paying for a higher tier buys higher placement (Plati… |
| 42 | D | Free credit-score and credit-monitoring app that also matches users to (and ranks) credit cards, loans, and insurance products · Independent (Credit Sesame, Inc., venture-backed; founded by Adrian Nazari) | Credit Sesame is paid primarily by the banks, card issuers, lenders, and insurers whose offers it surfaces, earning a fee when a user clicks, is approved, or opens an account, supplemented by premium subscriptions. Its disclosure states this compensation "may … |
| 43 | D- | Personal finance · Intuit Inc. | By Credit Karma's own disclosure the advertiser compensation it receives "is one of several factors that may impact how and where offers appear (including the order in which they appear)," and it is paid referral/affiliate commissions by the very lenders whose… |
| 44 | F | Bad-credit loan lead-gen marketplace · Great LLC | BadCreditLoans.com's own disclosure states: "the amount the lender is willing to pay us is likely to be the most important variable" in determining which lender a user is connected with — a pure pay-to-match model with no independent quality filter. |