How we make money
Last updated 13 August 2026
Affiliate commissions. When you click through to a shop and buy something, that shop may pay Scout a small percentage of the sale. You pay exactly the same price either way. It never affects which products are shown first.
How it works
Most retailers run affiliate programmes: if a website sends them a customer, they pay that website a cut of the sale — usually somewhere between 1% and 10%. It's a referral fee, paid by the shop out of its own margin.
So a link from Scout to a shop may carry a tag identifying where the visitor came from. If you buy, the shop pays Scout. If you don't, nothing happens. Either way, the price on the shop's page is the price you pay — commissions never come out of your pocket.
The bit that matters: it doesn't affect the ranking
This is the part worth being blunt about, because it's where sites like this usually go wrong.
Scout ranks listings on price and reputation. That's it. The scoring works on how a price compares to the typical price for that search, the rating, and how many people left that rating. Whether a shop pays a commission, or how much, is not part of the calculation and never has been.
Concretely, that means:
- A shop that pays nothing can be — and often is — the top recommendation.
- Nobody can pay to be listed, ranked higher, or labelled "best value".
- There are no sponsored slots, promoted products or paid placements.
- Cheaper options aren't hidden because a pricier one pays better.
The tool is only worth using if the ranking is honest. Selling it would earn a little money once and destroy the reason anyone came.
What Scout doesn't do
- No ads. No banners, no pop-ups, no ad network watching you.
- No selling your data. See the privacy page — there's barely any to sell.
- No subscription. Everything here is free, with nothing held back behind a paywall.
- No commission stealing. If you arrived at a shop through someone else — a YouTuber, a blog, a friend's link — Scout does not overwrite their referral to claim the commission for itself. That practice is common in this industry and is currently the subject of major litigation. It isn't done here.
Why tell you at all
Partly because the US Federal Trade Commission requires it, and every affiliate programme requires it too. Mostly because you're about to spend your own money on a recommendation, and you deserve to know what the person making the recommendation gets out of it.
Questions
If something here looks wrong, or a ranking seems off, tell me: scoutfindr@gmail.com. Being called out on a bad recommendation is more useful than the commission.