A discontinued cannabis price-comparison and crowdsourced-review site whose ad-and-data revenue came from the dispensaries it listed, and whose domain now simply redirects to a Canadian retailer after the company sold off and exited in 2021.
What it's really for A strain and dispensary info site; dispensaries pay for featured placement.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its strain ratings and dispensary price comparisons, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
By the company's own disclosure, revenue came from the dispensaries and brands it covered: free menu pages with paid upsells for "increased exposure," sponsored listings, sponsored strains, geo-targeted ads, sponsored content, and data/subscription products. That structure means a listed party could buy promotional placement; reporting and the company's plans frame paid options as added visibility (e.g., "sponsored" slots and geo-targeted ads) layered on top of the free listings, which is the classic conflict for a site that ranks the same businesses that fund it.
Source →- Operating since
- 2014 (12 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- Free dispensary menu/listing pages monetized by selling the listed parties advertising: sponsored listings, "sponsored strains," geo-targeted display ads, and sponsored content, plus data licensing and subscription products sold to dispensaries and brands. Strain and dispensary ratings were largely crowdsourced from users.
- What they do
- Wikileaf was a consumer-facing cannabis platform that let users compare nearby dispensary prices and menus (via a "reverse-auction" budget model) and browse crowdsourced strain and dispensary reviews and THC/effect information. As of its September 2021 sale, its digital assets including the wikileaf.com domain were transferred to Fire & Flower/Hifyre, and the apex domain now redirects to a Canadian cannabis retailer.
- What to watch for
- Treat it as a marketing platform, not an independent rater. Star ratings came from end-user reviews rather than Wikileaf's own lab testing, and the businesses it listed could pay for sponsored placement, ads, and "increased exposure." Most importantly, the operation is effectively dormant: per its own filing the company sold all its digital assets in 2021 and exited US cannabis, so wikileaf.com now redirects to Fire & Flower and the rankings are no longer maintained.
- Composite score
- 1.30 / 5.00 → grade D
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
- Per its own press release, Wikileaf Technologies completed the sale of all its digital assets, including the domain www.wikileaf.com, to Fire & Flower Holdings Corp. and Hifyre Inc. for $7.5 million in Fire & Flower shares on September 15, 2021, and announced it would rename to Cashbox Ventures and exit the United States cannabis sector. The apex domain now redirects to fireandflower.com. Source: Wikileaf Technologies / GlobeNewswire (company press release) →
- Wikileaf launched January 22, 2014 in Seattle as a dispensary price-comparison and strain-information site; reporting describes its revenue as advertising and data services and notes plans to offer dispensaries paid 'increased exposure' and 'sponsored listings' / geo-targeted ads on top of free menu pages, while strain and dispensary ratings came primarily from end-user reviews. Source: Wikipedia: Wikileaf →
- High Times describes Wikileaf's core mechanic as a reverse auction in which a user sets a budget and nearby dispensaries respond with how many grams they will offer at that price, founder Dan Nelson saying he 'wanted to create a platform where dispensaries could compete with each other on price' rather than an independently tested quality ranking. Source: High Times: Wikileaf, The Priceline of Pot? →