Genuine lab tests up top, retailer-paid 'where to buy' links underneath.
What it's really for A consumer-tech publication with real test labs, monetized by affiliate links around the reviews.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its lab-tested reviews and 'Editors' Choice' awards, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
PCMag's parent runs a roughly $1-billion-a-year affiliate-commerce operation in which Ziff Davis uses revenue-per-click data to decide which retailers earn link placement, negotiating how much rivals must pay to match Amazon's yield, so the merchants featured in shopping links are effectively those paying the most, even though that retailer-link layer is kept separate from the editorial review scores.
Source →- Operating since
- 1982 (44 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It earns affiliate commissions when readers click product/retailer links, plus display and video advertising and B2B lead generation, all part of parent Ziff Davis's digital-media revenue.
- What they do
- It publishes hands-on reviews, ratings, "Editors' Choice" awards, and buying guides for consumer electronics and software, much of it backed by repeatable benchmark testing in its own NYC labs.
- What to watch for
- You get a genuine lab-tested verdict on the product, but the "where to buy" and best-deal links steer you toward whichever retailer pays the site the most per click, so the cheapest or best place to actually buy may not be the one shown.
- Composite score
- 3.90 / 5.00 → grade A-
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
- PC Magazine launched as a print publication in February 1982 by David Bunnell and Tony Gold; in November 1982 it was sold to Ziff Davis Publishing, and it remains a Ziff Davis (NASDAQ: ZD) property today. Source: PCMag — Wikipedia →
- PCMag's syndicated 'How We Test' explainer states it has done lab testing for 'more than 40 years' and runs 'rigorous, repeatable testing of more than 1,500 products each year' from PC Labs in New York, and that 'The editorial team... does not handle affiliate commissions in any way. Our reviewers do not know how a particular story is monetized... Companies... do not have any input into review scores or outcomes.' Source: How We Test Everything We Review (PCMag, syndicated on Yahoo Tech) →
- Ziff Media Group 'drives $1 billion in last-click attributed revenue a year' and uses revenue-per-click data so that 'if other retailers want to come in and take share, Ziff Davis is armed with data about how much they'll need to pay to net the publisher the same overall yield for a link' — i.e., retailer link placement is priced by who pays most. PCMag is named as a core testing brand in this commerce operation. Source: Inside Ziff Media Group's $1B Affiliate Commerce Biz — AdExchanger →
- Ziff Davis's SEC 10-K describes its Digital Media revenue as coming from 'display and video advertising, customer clicks to online merchants, commissions on sales attributed to clicks to online merchants, B2B leads, licensing, and subscription services' — confirming the affiliate/lead-gen monetization that underlies PCMag. Source: Ziff Davis, Inc. Form 10-K (FY2021) — SEC →