Radical transparency
The commission table nobody publishes
Every affiliate site earns commissions. Almost none will show you the rates, because the rates explain the rankings. Here are ours: every tool recommended anywhere on ProvenStacks, what its affiliate program pays publishers, and where we ranked it anyway.
The current status, stated plainly: as of August 2026, exactly two programs on this page pay us anything (eRank and Helium 10). Every other link on this site earns us $0 right now: the tool has no affiliate program, the program closed or declined us, or our enrollment is still in review. Each pick’s label on its stack page now says which. The rankings were locked before any application was filed and have not moved for any decision since.
Read the first four rows twice. Our most-recommended tool appears in every stack and pays us nothing, and when Notion closed its program days after we launched, the ranking didn't move. If rankings were for sale here, this page couldn't exist.
| Tool | What it pays publishers* | Where we recommend it | Our verdict anyway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude | $0 (no affiliate program) | All 13 stacks, 2 comparisons | Our #1 pick, thirteen times over |
| ChatGPT | $0 (no affiliate program) | Named a fine budget alternative across stacks | Recommended where it fits |
| GitHub Copilot | $0 (no affiliate program) | Developers stack | In the stack, and we tell you it's the first line-item to cut |
| Notion | $0: program closed to new affiliates (July 2026; terms had become ~$50/signup + 20% of year one) | Writers & developers stacks, Notion-vs-Coda | Recommended anyway, and we sent builders to Coda in the head-to-head |
| Surfer | $0 for now: the program pays ~25% recurring, but our application was declined (July 2026, new-site traffic gate). We'll reapply with traffic data. | Writers stack (conditional) | "Skip unless SEO is ⅓+ of your income": unchanged before, during, and after the application |
| Jasper | ~25–30% recurring first year | Jasper-vs-Claude comparison | We recommend Claude ($0) over it for most writers |
| Frase | Recurring (program terms vary) | Surfer-vs-Frase | The budget pick we endorse over the bigger commission |
| Grammarly | Bounty per signup (CJ) | Writers stack | Recommended with a real overlap warning |
| Fathom | Paid, rate to be confirmed: Fathom Growth Partner Program via PartnerStack, accepted 2026-08-10, link live 2026-08-13. We had recorded this as a decline and that was wrong. Rate goes here once we read it off the programme terms. | Consultants stack, Fathom-vs-Otter | Free tier praised as genuinely enough for many, before, during, and after the application |
| Otter | Affiliate program | Writers stack, Fathom-vs-Otter | Recommended for interview-heavy work only |
| Reclaim | Recurring | Consultants stack | Recommended; free tier flagged first |
| Gamma | Program terms vary | Consultants stack | Recommended with template-rigidity warning |
| Bonsai | Flat bounty per paid signup | Consultants & developers stacks | Recommended |
| Descript | ~15% recurring (PartnerStack) | Real-estate & video-editor stacks | Recommended |
| Canva | $0: Canva's Canvassador program is closed to new applicants (checked August 2026) | 4 stacks | Free tier recommended first, every time |
| Jobber | Referral program | Tradespeople stack | Recommended; we tell happy Housecall Pro users to stay put |
| CompanyCam | Partner program | Tradespeople stack | Recommended, and we published its price jump within a day |
| eRank | Affiliate program (active since July 2026: the first link on this site that paid us) | Etsy stack, eRank-vs-Marmalead | Cheapest tool on the site; recommended, and we still say who should skip it |
| PhotoRoom | Affiliate program | Etsy, Amazon & resellers stacks | Recommended with an aesthetic warning |
| Metaview | Partner program | Recruiters stack | Recommended; Fathom's free tier named as fallback |
| Recruit CRM | Recurring | Recruiters stack | Recommended; spreadsheets defended for tiny desks |
| Calendly | $0: Calendly has no affiliate program open to new partners (checked August 2026) | Recruiters & accountants stacks | Free tier recommended first |
| DigitalOcean | Bounty per customer | Developers stack | Recommended for handover economics, not hype |
| Helium 10 | Active since August 2026: 100% of the first subscription month, with 25% recurring tiers (program terms, verify) | Amazon sellers stack | Recommended with the strictest price warning in the stack, which predates the approval by hours |
| Jungle Scout | Recurring affiliate program | Amazon sellers stack | Named the budget alternative; never run both |
| Vendoo | Affiliate program (terms to verify) | Resellers stack | Recommended; free tier named first and the cheaper tier is the default |
| List Perfectly | Affiliate program (terms to verify) | Resellers stack | Named the alternative; we tell you to run one crosslister, never two |
| sellerboard | $0: accepted 2026-08-13 then declined the same day on a second review. They issue links only to partners with their own channels or courses; we are a publisher. Still our pick. | Amazon sellers stack | The honest-numbers tool; first thing to install |
* Rates as published by each program, July 2026. Programs change terms; treat as indicative. Honesty requires precision: as of August 2026 only eRank and Helium 10 pay us; every other link on this site currently earns us $0 (no program, closed, declined, or enrollment pending). The rankings were locked before any application was filed. That's rule one.
Why publish this?
Because the incentive problem is the entire reason this site exists. When you can see that our most-recommended tool pays us $0, that we sent readers to the cheaper rival in two of our four head-to-heads, and that our strictest "skip" warning sits on one of our highest-paying links, you don't have to trust our adjectives. You can check the arithmetic.
If you catch a place where the money seems to have influenced a ranking, email contact@provenstacks.com and we'll answer publicly on the re-test log.
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Stack updates, price changes we catch, and the occasional tool demotion, with the commission disclosed every time.
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