Affiliate Disclosure

The short version

BrewTested earns money from affiliate links. When you buy through certain links on this site, the retailer pays us a commission at no extra cost to you. That is the business model, stated up front. What a link pays never influences which gear we recommend, how it scores, or whether we publish the things that fail.

The one program we're actually in

As of the last-updated date above, BrewTested participates in exactly one affiliate program: the Amazon Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Every paying link on this site points to amazon.com and carries our associate tag.

We have not joined any manufacturer, specialist retailer, or affiliate network program. If a link on this site goes anywhere other than Amazon, it pays us nothing. Some of those links are labeled "not an affiliate link" in the article text, because sometimes the right product to recommend is one we cannot earn on. When we do join another program, this page will name it and articles containing those links will say so.

Where you'll see disclosure

• On this page, which lists every program we're in.
• On the homepage and the picks hub, directly above the buttons, because that is where the links actually are.
• In every article carrying a paying link, as a disclosure block near the top rather than a footnote at the bottom.
• In the markup: outbound affiliate links carry rel="sponsored nofollow" so search engines can see them for what they are.

If you find a paying link on this site without a disclosure, that is a bug, not a policy. Please tell us and we will fix it.

The rules that don't change

• Scores are never for sale. We accept no payment, free product, or review fee from any brand in exchange for coverage or placement.
• Failures get published. When a machine or grinder with a healthy commission rate loses its category, it loses it in public, with the reasoning shown.
• We don't sell gear. No store, no house brand. A review site that also sells the products it reviews stops writing negative reviews, and we've structured this one so it can't.
• Price claims are dated, not evergreen. Espresso street prices move constantly. We distinguish list from street and hedge every figure to the period we checked it. Verify the current price before you buy.

What "Tested" means here, and what it doesn't

This matters more than the commission question, so we'll be blunt about it. BrewTested's current content is research synthesis, not hands-on lab testing. The Fit Analysis is a structured framework built from manufacturer specifications, teardowns, service documentation, and owner reports gathered across the espresso community. It is disclosed as research everywhere it appears.

Our test bench is coming online: machines bought at retail with our own money, run as daily drivers, documented in dated Ownership Logs on the same URL as the original piece. Until a specific machine has actually been through that, no page will claim it has. Our methodology page states plainly what has and hasn't been.

FTC compliance

This disclosure exists to comply with the FTC's Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255), which require that any material connection between a reviewer and a seller be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, close to the recommendation itself. An affiliate commission is a material connection. So is a free sample, which is why we don't take them for scored coverage.

Questions

Ask anything about how we make money at hello@brewtested.com, or through our contact page.