Holly Mckay
Holly MackayFounder and CEO
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How do we make money?

Written by Boring Money

15 July, 2026

We generate revenue through three main channels: research services, content creation, and website partnerships.

We work with many of the investment providers we also write about and rate. We think it's important you understand exactly how that works, and why it doesn't change what we say about them.

Our ratings, Best Buy Awards, and comparison tables are produced independently by our editorial and research team. A provider paying us for a research project or appearing in our sponsored content has no influence on the score they receive or their placement in our tables. The two activities are kept completely separate. You can read exactly how our ratings are calculated here.

Our tables include all major UK investment platforms that meet our coverage criteria, not just those we have a commercial relationship with. Some platforms in our comparisons have never paid us a penny to feature in our comparison tables. That's deliberate. If we only showed you providers who paid us, we'd be useless to you.

Research & consultancy

We provide valuable insights to the investment and pension industry through comprehensive data collection and expert analysis. This includes:

  • Performance metrics and asset management data from providers

  • Customer feedback, ratings, and reviews

  • Reader surveys and broader national polling

These insights help providers understand their market position, customer preferences, and areas for improvement.

Content creation

Our expertise in making financial information accessible leads to several revenue streams:

  • Writing engaging website copy for financial companies

  • Developing video scripts and infographics

  • Speaking engagements and media contributions from our Founder & CEO Holly Mackay

  • Articles in national publications

Website partnerships

We maintain transparency in our commercial relationships through clear visual indicators:

  • Orange buttons signal when we receive introducer fees for account sign-ups

  • Sponsored content is clearly marked and is usually focused on educational value rather than product promotion

Our commitment to transparency means we use orange highlighting and clear sponsor tagging throughout the site to indicate any commercial arrangements.

No. Our comparison tables include platforms regardless of whether they have a commercial relationship with us. Whether a provider pays us for referrals, research, or content has no bearing on whether they appear or how they are scored. Our methodology page explains how scores are calculated; the process is the same for every provider.

We are talking to you about your money - any investment firm we say we like, we like. And we would say that to our sisters, our friends, our kids’ teachers... We don’t just say nice things about people who we think will pay introducer fees. As well as not being spivvy, this makes commercial sense. If you trust us, you’ll read our stuff and we’ll be relevant. If you don’t trust us, you won’t visit the site and we’ll just disappear. If you're more cynical, you can always filter the tables by other investors’ reviews and use this as your sense check.

Holly MackayFounder & CEO of Boring Money

We also do B2B work, research, data, and consultancy for many of the same firms that appear in our consumer comparisons. We know that could look like a conflict of interest, so we want to be explicit that we keep our two business streams independent. A provider can commission a research report from us on a Monday and receive a lower score in our Best Buy Awards on Friday. It has happened.

Just to be squeaky clean and transparent, here is a list of firms that have been invoiced by us over the last six months for research or content projects that we run for the industry. Logo, sponsorships, and affiliate revenues are included separately as these are highlighted and visible on our site:

AJ Bell Business Solutions Limited

AJ Bell c/o Optimise Media

Alliance Witan PLC

Allianz GI UK Marketing Budget

Allianz Global Investors UK Limited

Artemis Investment Management LLP

Ascot Lloyd

Aviva (AVI001)

Baillie Gifford c/o Fundamental Media

Barclays Bank Plc

Benchmark Capital

Blackrock Group Limited

Broadridge Analytics Solutions Limited

HSBC

Capital Group UK Management Company Limited

Charles Stanley Direct

Chip Financial Limited

Communify

Digital Moneybox Ltd

Equiniti Financial Services Limited (1)

eToro Group LTD

FIL Investment Management Ltd (FID001)

Freetrade Limited

Hargreaves Lansdown

Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Ltd

IG Group Holdings PLC

IG Index Limited

Interactive Investor Services Limited

Invesco UK Ltd

Janus Henderson

JP Morgan c/o Dentsu UK Limited

JP Morgan Personal Investing Limited

Just Group Plc

Killik & Co

Liontrust

Lloyds Bank PLC

Lloyds Banking Group

London Speaker Bureau

M&G Plc

MFM Investment Ltd

Money Farm

Monzo Bank Limited

NatWest Group

Netwealth Investments Ltd

Octopus Money Financial Solutions Limited

Octopus Money Limited

One Family Limited

PensionBee Limited

People's Partnership

Pictet Asset Management

PIMFA

Plum c/o Growth HQ

Polar Capital Technology Trust

Quilter Business Services Ltd

Quilter Invest Limited

Raymond James Wealth Management Limited

Royal London

Royal London Management Services Limited

Scottish Widows Services Limited

St James's Place

StatPro Limited

Trading 212 UK Ltd

Vanguard Asset Management Limited

Vanguard Asset Services Ltd

Wealth Wizards Limited

XTB Limited

Zopa Bank Limited