Herb.co runs a paid brand-marketing agency alongside its editorial cannabis rankings, and brands pay a fee to be featured. It does disclose this: a sponsorship policy page sets out how paid placement works and what criteria products are picked on, and product sections carry an inline sponsored-content notice. What is still missing is any way to tell which specific item in a guide was paid for.
What it's really for Cannabis lifestyle content and commerce platform targeting millennials and Gen Z; rankings and guides serve as top-of-funnel traffic for brand marketing and product sales.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about Cannabis strains, consumer cannabis products (edibles, vapes, accessories), and dispensary/delivery service guides primarily for US markets., not everything the site does.
Medium Scoring Confidence Mostly sourced, but a detail or two still needs a primary source, so the grade could shift slightly.
Herb.co's homepage promotes "Herb Agency" with repeated "Get in Touch" calls-to-action directed at cannabis brands, and the same site produces ranked guides covering those brands. Herb's sponsorship policy states plainly that "Brands pay a fee to be featured on Herb" and that "In some cases, a sponsor may request placement within a specific article or category," while asserting that editorial writes and evaluates independently and sponsors have no editorial control.
Source →- Operating since
- 2014 (12 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- Advertising and sponsored content sold to cannabis brands via Herb Agency; brands pay a fee to be featured in editorial content. Affiliate and tracking links are used on some product placements, and the site runs an on-site product shop.
- What they do
- Publishes editorial strain guides, product reviews (edibles, vapes, accessories), and city-level "best dispensary" ranked guides. Operates an integrated product shop and runs Herb Agency, a B2B cannabis marketing service that sells sponsored content and advertising to cannabis brands.
- What to watch for
- Does not publish a scoring rubric, ranking criteria weighting, or named reviewers, and does not label which individual product in a roundup is the paid placement. Its disclosure is a blanket page-level notice that a page contains sponsored content, so a reader can tell that some items were paid for but not which ones. It also confirms sponsors can request placement in a specific article or category.
- Composite score
- 1.70 / 5.00 → grade D+
- Last verified
- September 1, 2026 — when a human last checked this entry's facts, links, and grade against the live site.
- Citations checked
- September 1, 2026 — our automated check re-fetched all 8 sources cited on this page. All resolved. This is a link check, not a re-grade — the “Last verified” date above is the one that covers the facts and the grade.
- Site confirmed live
- September 1, 2026 — our monthly automated check reached Herb.co and got a normal response.
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- Herb publishes a 'Sponsorships and Sponsored Content' policy page, last updated April 2026, which states: 'Brands pay a fee to be featured on Herb'; 'In most cases, our editorial team independently decides which articles sponsored products appear in'; 'In some cases, a sponsor may request placement within a specific article or category, but the editorial team still writes and evaluates the content independently'; 'Sponsors do not have editorial control'; and 'Some links may be affiliate or tracking links used to measure engagement or performance.' The previous review recorded no such page as existing; it was checked at the wrong URLs. Source: Herb.co — Sponsorships and Sponsored Content →
- The homepage product section carries an inline disclaimer directly above the product listings: 'This page contains sponsored content. The brands and products featured are part of paid partnerships,' linking to the sponsorship policy. The notice is page-level, so it does not identify which of the listed products are the paid ones. Source: Herb.co homepage product section disclaimer →
- The same policy page lists the criteria products are selected on: relevance to the article topic, reader interest and search trends, brand reputation, product uniqueness or innovation, regional availability, 'Staff testing and first-hand product experience,' and online user reviews from public platforms. The criteria are named but unweighted, with no testing protocol, no scoring rubric, and no named reviewers, so a ranking cannot be reproduced from them. Source: Herb.co — How Products Are Selected →
- Herb.co's homepage and site navigation promote 'Herb Agency' marketing services to cannabis brands with repeated 'Need help growing your cannabis brand? Work with Herb Agency!' and 'Get in Touch' calls-to-action, and an 'advertise with herb' link, while the same site produces ranked dispensary and product guides covering the same industry. The agency promotion appears on the sponsorship policy page itself. Source: Herb.co homepage →
- The dispensaries directory lists city-level guides with no visible ranking criteria and no indication of whether individual listings are paid or organic; the sponsorship policy addresses product placements and does not state how dispensary guides are ordered. Source: Herb.co Dispensaries directory →