Hands-on consumer-tech reviews from in-house labs that earn affiliate commissions on what they recommend, not placement fees from the brands they rank.
What it's really for A consumer-tech publication that buys and tests products, monetized by affiliate links.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its hands-on reviews and buying guides for tech, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Retailers and brands pay it indirectly through affiliate commissions on reader purchases (a 2015 Digiday report cited ~$55M of ~$100M parent revenue from e-commerce); by its own disclosure, that revenue does not buy editorial placement.
Source →- Operating since
- 2007 (19 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It earns money primarily through affiliate commissions when readers buy products via its links, plus display advertising and sponsored content.
- What they do
- Tom's Guide is a Future-owned consumer-technology publication that buys, benchmarks, and hands-on tests products (phones, laptops, TVs, mattresses, etc.) and publishes ranked reviews and buying guides.
- What to watch for
- Its "best of" lists are studded with affiliate buy buttons, so the site earns a commission when you click through and purchase, even though it says no outside party decides what it reviews.
- Composite score
- 3.70 / 5.00 → grade B+
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
- Tom's Guide was launched in September 2007 as a rebranding of Gear Digest and spinoff from Tom's Hardware; its ownership passed from Bestofmedia to TechMediaNetwork/Purch and then to Future plc, which acquired Purch for $132 million in July 2018. Source: Wikipedia — Tom's Guide →
- Tom's Guide stresses its editorial independence with the statement: 'No outside party determines what products we review or the content of our reviews,' and clearly marks sponsored content; its reviewers run benchmarks and real-world tests, many developed in-house. Source: Tom's Guide — How we test, review, and rate products →
- The site monetizes through 'lots of outgoing affiliate links' in reviews and buying guides plus display advertising and sponsored content; a 2015 Digiday report indicated parent Purch earned ~$55M of ~$100M revenue from e-commerce, with a Tom's Guide mattress guide selling eight mattresses a day. Source: Niche Pursuits — How Tom's Guide Profits →