Advertising and paid placement
Last updated 4 October 2026
This site makes money from advertising and from paid contractor placement. This page explains both, and what stops either from affecting the figures.
Advertising
Pages carry advertising served by Google AdSense. We do not choose the individual ads and have no relationship with the advertisers. An ad appearing next to a calculator is not a recommendation of that business.
Paid contractor placement
Contractors can pay to appear higher in the listing on relevant pages. Where they have, the listing carries a Sponsored label. That label is generated from the record itself rather than added by hand, so a paid listing cannot appear without it.
Paying for placement buys position in the list and nothing else. It does not buy:
- Any change to the cost figures, on that page or any other.
- A verification mark. That reflects a license check and nothing else.
- Removal of competitors, or any influence over who else is listed.
- Favorable editorial content.
Why the figures cannot be bought
Not as a promise, but as a matter of how they are produced. Every figure comes from published federal data through a method set out in full on the methodology page, and every page shows its own working. Changing a number to suit an advertiser would mean changing the method on a page that displays it.
Affiliate links
We do not currently use affiliate links. If that changes, this page will say so before any appear, and individual links will be marked.