How we make money

The short version

Well Basecamp is free to read and always will be. We make money through affiliate commissions: some of the links on this site are tracked, and if you start a program or buy a product through one of them, the company pays us a fee. You never pay more because of it — the price is the same whether you use our link or go to the company directly.

That is the entire business model. We don’t sell ads that follow you around, we don’t sell your data, and we don’t charge for anything.

What this does — and does not — change

The honest tension with affiliate income is obvious: we get paid when you buy, so you should know whether that money is bending what we tell you. Here is how we keep it from doing that:

• Our scores are set before money is considered. The editorial score for each provider is based on transparent criteria — verified pricing, medication type, regulatory standing, the catch — and it does not move because a company pays us. Our paid partners span the whole ranking, high and low; that’s the point.
• We recommend against products that pay us when the evidence points that way, and we turn down partnerships that demand favorable coverage.
• We publish the real, all-in price — including the fees a company’s headline number leaves out — even when a lower advertised number would earn us more clicks.
• Some of the best options pay us nothing. When the right answer is a provider we have no relationship with, we still say so and link you straight to them.

How to tell a paid link from a normal one

• Every page with affiliate links carries a disclosure at the top.
• Individual paid links are labeled “Paid link” (and marked sponsored for search engines). Providers we don’t have a relationship with are labeled “Not a paid link.”
• Amazon links carry the required note: “As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.”

Who we currently earn from

Our partners include telehealth providers and consumer-health brands, disclosed on the pages where they appear. The list changes as we add or drop partners; we describe each one honestly, including the ones we rank below providers who pay us nothing. See the affiliate disclosure for the current details and the review methodology for how commercial comparisons are built.

Why we’re telling you all this

Because trust is the only thing this site has that a bigger, better-funded competitor can’t buy. If we ever shade the truth to earn a commission, we lose the one reason you’d listen to us in the first place. Being loud about how we get paid keeps us honest — and lets you weigh our recommendations with your eyes open.

Questions, or think we’ve gotten the balance wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] — we read every message.