How do we make money?
Written by Boring Money
3 Sep, 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.
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:
FIL Investment Management Ltd (FID001)
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 & Co
Barclays Bank Plc
Blackrock Group Limited
Broadridge Analytics Solutions Limited
Capital Group UK Management Company Limited
Chip Financial Limited
CT UK Capital and Income Investment Trust PLC
Digital Moneybox Ltd
Equiniti Financial Services Limited (1)
eToro Group LTD
Hargreaves Lansdown
Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management Ltd
HSBC
IG Group Holdings PLC
Interactive Investor Services Limited
Invesco UK Ltd
Janus Henderson
JP Morgan Asset Management
JP Morgan Personal Investing Limited
Killik & Co
Legal & General Assurance Society Limited
Liontrust
Lloyds Bank PLC
London Speaker Bureau
M&G Plc
Money Farm
Monzo Bank Limited
Octopus Money Financial Solutions Limited
Octopus Money Limited
One Family Limited
People's Partnership
Pictet Asset Management
PIMFA
Plum
Polar Capital Technology Trust
Quilter Business Services Ltd
Raymond James Wealth Management Limited
Royal London
Royal London Management Services Limited
Schroders ITs
Scottish Widows Services Limited
St James's Place
StatPro Limited (Confluence)
Trading 212 UK Ltd
Vanguard Asset Management Limited
Vanguard Asset Services Ltd
Zopa Bank Limited
