How we make money

CostMyStack is free, and today it earns nothing. We hold no affiliate relationships and every outbound link on this site goes straight to the vendor, untagged. We would rather say that plainly than describe an arrangement we have not made.

We intend to change that: where a platform we already recommend runs an affiliate programme, we will join it, and the platform will pay us a commission when you sign up through our link. You will pay the same price either way, and the link will say it is a paid one.

What will not change is how the answer is worked out. The verdict is computed from verified prices and category coverage only. Platforms cannot pay to be recommended, and when the math says keep your current stack, that is what we show — with the same visual weight as a savings verdict. Commission is not an input to the ranking, and if a recommended tool has no programme, it still gets recommended.

Once they exist, affiliate links will be marked with rel="sponsored" and labelled where they appear. This disclosure is linked from every page.