The most transparent lab testing on the web, now partly behind a paywall and wrapped in affiliate links.
What it's really for An independent electronics testing lab; reviewing is the whole job, though buy links and a paywall now sit around it.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its lab-tested scores for TVs, headphones, and monitors, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
RTINGS' historically largest income source is affiliate commissions from the retailers it links to, and RTINGS itself concedes this model "naturally creates incentives to recommend higher-priced products or those with higher commissions" - which it cites as its reason for shifting to membership. Its own How We Make Money page lists five streams: membership subscriptions, affiliate revenue, display advertising placed by third-party agencies (Antengo in the US, PubLift worldwide), content licensing of "badges from our recommendations and the use of our quotes" handled by outside partner Wright's Media, and resale of review units. It states "Brands cannot pay for reviews, rankings, or better placements" and does not accept manufacturer-supplied units at all.
Source →- Operating since
- 2011 (15 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Partly paywalled Some content is free, but the full reviews or detailed ratings sit behind a paid subscription.
- How they make money
- It earns affiliate commissions when readers click through to retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, a $45/year paid membership, display advertising sold through third-party agencies, licensing of its recommendation badges and quotes, and resale of the used products it tests.
- What they do
- It publishes original, data-driven scores and reviews of consumer electronics and household goods across 28 product categories (TVs, headphones, monitors, vacuums, printers, running shoes and more) based on standardized in-house lab tests of units it buys itself, run in a 40,000 sq ft testing facility and governed by versioned test benches with public changelogs.
- What to watch for
- Since March 2026 the full test results and detailed measurements sit behind a $45/year paywall, so a casual visitor only sees top-line scores. The "buy" links around those scores are affiliate links that pay RTINGS, which by its own admission can tilt recommendations toward higher-priced or higher-commission products. It also, contrary to how it is often described, does run display advertising, and it licenses its recommendation badges to brands - a second money path that runs back to the companies it rates.
- Composite score
- 4.30 / 5.00 → grade A
- 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 RTINGS 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
- RTINGS' own How We Make Money page (read 2026-09-01) states: "Unlike most websites, we don't get our review units directly from the manufacturers. Instead, we buy everything ourselves via retailers, like a normal customer, to stay unbiased. The manufacturers don't cherry-pick our units." It lists five revenue streams - membership subscriptions, affiliate revenue, display advertising ("We display ads via third-party agencies (USA: Antengo, Worldwide: PubLift)"), content licensing ("badges from our recommendations and the use of our quotes," managed by third party Wright's Media "to maintain a strong wall between editorial and monetization"), and resale of review units. It also states "We also don't let brands decide what we test. We let our community vote on which product we should review next." Source: RTINGS: How We Make Money →
- In the post announcing the change, RTINGS states: "While much of RTINGS.com remains free, our full test results and in-depth product analysis are now available only to members," replacing a soft paywall that had allowed a limited number of free pageviews. It gives its reasons as declining Google click-through and AI systems that "actively scrape and reuse our test results, often without attribution." It also concedes that affiliate revenue "isn't perfectly aligned with consumers. Without explicit safeguards, it naturally creates incentives to recommend higher-priced products or those with higher commissions," and says membership aligns incentives more cleanly. Re-read 2026-09-01. Source: RTINGS: Revamping Our Membership Program →
- Membership pricing checked on the live signup page 2026-09-01: $2.65/month, "Billed as $31.50 for the first year, then $45/year," cancellable anytime. The same page states "Brands cannot pay for reviews, rankings, or better placements. Our recommendations are based solely on rigorous testing," and reports 28 product categories, a 40,000 sq ft testing facility, and 4,870 products bought and tested. Source: RTINGS membership signup page →
- RTINGS publishes versioned 'Test Benches' with public changelogs for each product category, documenting methodology changes and scoring-weight revisions so tests are reproducible: "All tests and weights adjustments are done at the same time and are versioned. A change log will also be posted so you can see what changed," and "The version of the test bench that was used for a review is listed on top of the review page, next to the ratings." Source: RTINGS Versioned Test Benches →
- Founded in 2011 by Cedric Demers, initially as a site that compiled reviews from other websites; it buys products itself rather than accepting manufacturer samples specifically to avoid bias and to test budget models not given to reviewers for free. Revenue comes from affiliate commissions plus subscriber fees, and as of March 2026 full test results moved behind a paywall, citing declining Google traffic and uncredited AI scraping. Source: Wikipedia: RTINGS.com →