The short version: some links on this site earn us a commission. Our scores are never for sale. Here’s exactly how it works.
How This Site Makes Money
Crush Critic is free to read, carries no display ads, and doesn’t charge for reviews. Instead, we earn money through affiliate partnerships. When you click certain links on this site and then sign up for or purchase a subscription on an AI companion platform, that platform pays us a commission. You pay nothing extra — the price is the same whether you use our link or type the URL yourself.
How to Spot Our Affiliate Links
Most of our partner links are routed through redirect URLs that look like crushcritic.com/go/platform-name. If you see a /go/ link, assume it’s an affiliate link. Some direct outbound links also carry affiliate or partner tracking parameters. Either way, the tracking simply tells the platform “this visitor came from Crush Critic” — it doesn’t send them any personal information about you from us (we don’t have any to send).
Commissions Never Change Scores
This is the part that matters, so let’s be blunt:
- Ratings are set before money enters the picture. Every platform is tested and scored using the same methodology, described on our How We Rate page — whether it pays us a commission, a big commission, or nothing at all.
- We review platforms with no affiliate program. If an app is worth covering, we cover it. Some of our reviewed platforms earn us exactly zero dollars.
- We pay for our own subscriptions. Reviews are based on paid accounts we purchase ourselves, not free press accounts or sponsored access.
- Negative findings stay in. If a partner platform has hidden costs, weak memory, or sketchy billing, that goes in the review — commission or not. Partners don’t see reviews before publication and can’t request edits to scores.
- No sponsored reviews. We do not accept payment to write, improve, or suppress a review. Ever.
How We Pick Partners
We only join affiliate programs for platforms we’ve actually tested. The order of operations is always: test first, review second, then — if the platform has an affiliate program and the review justifies sending readers there — join the program. We won’t partner with platforms that engage in deceptive billing, fake countdown timers on “discounts,” or practices we’d warn readers about. If a partner’s behavior changes for the worse after we’ve joined, we update the review and, if warranted, drop the partnership.
Why We Disclose This
Two reasons. First, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission requires sites like ours to clearly disclose material connections with the companies we review — and equivalent rules exist in many other countries. This page, plus the disclosure notices on individual reviews, exists to satisfy the spirit and the letter of those rules. Second, and honestly more important: you can’t trust a review site that’s cagey about how it gets paid. We’d rather over-explain than have you wonder.
What This Means for You
Using our links is the easiest way to support the site — it funds the subscriptions, the retesting, and the hours of chat logs behind every review. But you should only ever use a link because the review convinced you, not out of obligation. Read the review, check the platform’s own terms and pricing, and make your own call.
Questions
If anything here is unclear, or if you think a disclosure is missing somewhere on the site, email hello@crushcritic.com and we’ll fix it.