Affiliate disclosure

The short version

When you follow a link to a provider and buy a server, the provider may pay ServerDiff a commission through its affiliate programme. The commission is paid by the provider; it is not a fee we add to the bill we show you. It never changes which servers appear, the order they appear in, or what their bills say.

Current relationships

Right now no link on ServerDiff earns a commission: none of the 54 providers listed has an affiliate link set up. This section will name every provider whose links may earn one, as soon as there is any.

How links are marked

• Every “Visit” link to a provider goes through a short redirect, /go/ followed by the server’s number (or /go/p/ and the provider’s name for its website link). The destination is stored on our side, so the link cannot be changed to point anywhere else.
• A link that may earn a commission carries rel="sponsored", the attribute search engines ask for on paid links. Every “Visit” link also carries rel="nofollow" and opens in a new tab.
• The redirect adds one to a daily total of clicks for that server. It records no IP address, cookie or other personal data, and it skips browser prefetches and software that identifies itself as a bot, crawler or link preview.
• Links to a provider’s website on its profile, and links to the page a price was taken from, go straight to the provider and are never affiliate links.

The note under every list says that some links may earn a commission, and the footer of every page links to this disclosure.

Commission and the order

The order of every list is the bill under the assumptions shown, followed by a fixed tie-break, as set out in the methodology. The code that ranks servers does not read whether a provider has an affiliate programme, and an automated test switches affiliate links on and off and checks that the order stays exactly the same. Commission does not decide which providers are covered either.

Providers without a programme

Providers without an affiliate programme, or without an agreement with us, are listed in exactly the same way: the same data, the same bill, the same ranking rule and a plain link to their site. Whether a provider is covered depends on whether we can get reliable prices for it, not on whether it pays.

Sponsored boxes

A provider can pay for a sponsored box in a few fixed places: under a list of servers, under the Best VPS picks, beside a server’s details and under a comparison. The box always says “Sponsored”, is drawn apart from the list next to it, and its links carry rel="sponsored". It never changes the order, the score, the bill or a badge of anything on the page, and the code that ranks servers does not know who has booked one. With no booking, no box is shown.

Right now no provider has a sponsored box on ServerDiff.

Providers who want one can read how sponsored boxes work.

What is not for sale

• Positions. No one can pay for a place, a row or a boost inside any list, or for a better score. The only paid space is the sponsored box described above, which sits apart from the lists.
• Badges. “Checked via API” means the price was read from the provider’s public price API on the date shown, with no editor involved. “Read from price page” means it was read automatically from the provider’s own pricing page, also with no editor involved. “From” and a site’s name means it comes from a site that lists the provider’s plans, not checked at the provider. “Checked by an editor” means an editor compared the price and terms with the provider’s own page on the date shown. None of them can be bought, and no other badge can either.
• Words. Descriptions, explanations and recommendations are not paid for and are not offered to providers for review.
• Corrections. Fixing wrong data is free for anyone, providers included.

Questions

Write to [email protected]. If you are a provider, you can ask to be listed or corrected without joining any programme.