Affiliate Disclosure

Last updated 14 September 2026  ·  Applies to thesoftwarescribe.com

1.Why this page exists

Publishing software reviews costs money. We pay for the subscriptions we test, and the people who test them. That has to be funded, and we fund it with display advertising and affiliate commission rather than by charging readers or taking money from vendors.

The risk in that model is obvious: a site paid by commission has a reason to recommend whatever pays most. This page sets out exactly what we earn from, and the rules that stop it reaching our verdicts. Our editorial policy covers the safeguards in more detail.

We also publish this because the law requires it. Under the US Federal Trade Commission’s guidance on endorsements, a material connection between a reviewer and a product must be disclosed clearly and where the reader will see it. Similar rules apply in the UK and the EU. We would do it anyway, but it is not optional.

2.What an affiliate link is

An affiliate link is an ordinary link with a tracking code attached. If you click one and later sign up for the product, the vendor or its affiliate network records that the referral came from us and pays us a commission.

Commission is usually a one-off payment, or a percentage of the first year’s subscription. The amount varies by product and by plan, and in some cases is zero.

3.How we mark them

You should never have to guess whether a link earns us money. Three things happen on every article that carries one:

• A short disclosure appears near the top of the article, above the point where you would meet the first link
• The link itself carries the sponsored or nofollow attribute in the page code, which is what search engines expect for a paid link
• A site-wide notice appears in the footer of every page

Where an article contains no affiliate links at all, no disclosure appears, because there is nothing to disclose.

4.Programmes we take part in

We are, or may be, part of the following affiliate programmes and networks. This list is kept current.

Some vendors we write about run no affiliate programme at all, and some we have chosen not to join. Those products are reviewed, scored and ranked on exactly the same basis as the ones that pay us.

5.What it costs you

Nothing. You pay the vendor’s normal price whether you arrive through our link, through a search engine, or by typing the address yourself. The commission comes out of the vendor’s marketing budget, not out of your subscription.

Occasionally a vendor offers a discount through an affiliate link. Where that happens we say so and state the terms, and we do not present a standard price as a special one.

6.What commission does not affect

These are firm rules, not preferences:

• Scores. Commission is not one of the criteria in our scoring rubric, and it never will be.
• Rankings. Position in a “best of” list is decided by the scores, not by what a product pays.
• What we cover. We choose subjects by what readers are trying to decide, not by which vendors have programmes.
• What the writer knows. The person testing and writing a review does not work from commission information. It is not part of the brief.
• Negative findings. A problem we find is published whether or not the product pays us.
• Timing. No vendor, paying or not, sees a review before publication.

If a product that earns us nothing is the better choice for a particular reader, the article says so plainly and recommends it.

7.What we refuse

• Payment for a review, a score, a ranking or a placement
• Sponsored posts and guest posts
• Paid link insertions into existing articles
• Higher commission in exchange for a better position
• Vendor-written or vendor-edited copy
• Requests to remove an accurate negative finding, whatever is offered for it

Where a factual finding is genuinely wrong, we correct it under our corrections process, on evidence, regardless of any commercial relationship. Where it is accurate, it stays.

8.Display advertising

Alongside affiliate commission we carry display advertising, served by Google AdSense and its partner vendors. We do not choose the individual adverts that appear, and their presence is not an endorsement.

Advertising is kept visually distinct from editorial content. We do not format adverts to look like articles, and an advertiser buying space here gains no influence over what we publish.

9.Cookies and tracking

When you click an affiliate link, the affiliate network usually places a cookie so a later signup can be credited to us. That cookie is set by the network on the vendor’s site, not by us, and it is governed by their privacy policy rather than ours.

What happens on this site is set out in our cookie policy and our privacy policy.

10.Prices change

Software pricing changes frequently and varies by country, currency and billing period. Every price we publish was verified against the vendor’s own page on the date shown on the article.

Always confirm the current price with the vendor before you buy. Where our figure and theirs differ, theirs is correct. This is covered further in our disclaimer.

11.Questions and complaints

If anything here is unclear, or you believe we have broken one of these rules, tell us. Send the article URL and what concerns you, and it goes to the editor.

See also our editorial policy, testing methodology, disclaimer and terms of service.