Independence
Brand Tested is an independent publication edited by Cam Gawley. We review, grade and compare direct-to-consumer brands and the software they use. Unless a page discloses a relationship, no brand we cover has paid for, approved or endorsed our coverage. Every relationship is listed on our conflicts page. Brand names, logos, product names, screenshots and other marks shown on this site belong to their respective owners and appear only to identify and comment on those brands. Their appearance does not mean the owner endorses us or that we endorse them.
How we make money
Today we make money one way: referral commissions when readers sign up for software through a few of our links. We don’t sell audits, and we don’t take money from brands to be scored. Cam Gawley separately owns Second Order, which offers paid brand work. Brand Tested never refers a scored brand there unless the brand asks, and the referral is labeled. Referral partners do not see or approve our reviews before publication and cannot pay to change a grade, leaderboard position, inclusion or recommendation. Our scores are produced using our published methodology before commercial terms are considered. Pages with affiliate links say so at the top, and buttons that use them are labeled. If we ever publish sponsored content, it will be labeled Sponsored at the top.
Disclosure Standard
If Cam Gawley, our editor, or Brand Tested has a relationship with a brand we score (advising, coaching, a past role, a shared supplier, an investment or money changing hands), we say so in a line marked Disclosure at the top of that brand’s page and on any page that features it. We don’t feature those brands on the homepage. Every one of them is scored with the same public methodology and the same checks as everyone else, and no score is ever changed for money or for a relationship. The full list is on our conflicts page. Second Order, Cam’s strategy practice, is only ever offered to a brand after it claims its page, with the line “Disclosure: Cam owns Second Order. Your score is never affected by whether you work with us.”
Claims and scores
Claiming a profile or joining a waitlist never changes a published score. Every brand is scored with the same public methodology.
Badges
A brand may show its score with the badge on its own page. The badge links to that page and carries the scan date, so anyone can check it. Please don’t edit the wording or the date, and take the badge down when a newer score replaces it.
Contact
Email hello@brandtested.com for anything: corrections, legal, privacy or press.