Commercial model
How this works, financially.
Compare ITAD is a buyer-side resource. That means we are accountable to you — the buyer — first. This page describes every way we make money and every commercial relationship that could, in theory, influence our editorial judgment.
The model
Revenue, all disclosed.
Verification fees. Vendors who apply for Compare ITAD Verification pay for the review — confirming licence status with the issuing state authority, obtaining certificate documents, verifying scope, searching regulatory and enforcement history, checking insurance, and monitoring renewals for the year. The fee buys the review, not the tier. Every eligible vendor is verified at Base; the Regulated Industries and Critical Infrastructure tiers are earned on documented evidence and cannot be purchased. Registry verification, which powers the green checkmarks across the directory, is free and requires no vendor participation at all.
This stream is not yet generating revenue. The paid tier has not opened, and the founding cohort is being verified at no charge in exchange for being named as founding verified vendors and for permission to publish the process. Pricing will be published on the Verification Standard when the tier opens.
Referral fees. When you use the directory to contact an ITAD vendor and that vendor becomes a client, some vendors pay us a referral fee. The fee is the same regardless of which vendor you select, so it cannot influence which vendors are matched or in what order. Referral partners are listed in the disclosure table below. Buyers pay nothing.
Sponsored content. Occasionally, vendors or adjacent service providers sponsor content in The ITAD Brief. Sponsored content is always labeled “Sponsored” and follows the same factual standards as our editorial content. Sponsors do not review or approve editorial content.
Where the lines are
What vendors cannot buy.
- —Vendors cannot pay to be included in the directory. Inclusion is editorial.
- —Vendors cannot pay to improve their profile rating, verification badges, or certification status.
- —Vendors cannot pay for a passing verification result. The review fee is retained whether the vendor passes or fails.
- —Vendors cannot pay to suppress or remove information about themselves.
- —No vendor can buy position in search results, category filters, or comparison order. There is no paid placement product.
- —Sponsors do not influence the editorial calendar, coverage topics, or conclusions in The ITAD Brief.
- —Our assessment scoring methodology is public, fixed, and not adjustable by any vendor.
Why this works
Buyer trust is the product.
The ITAD market is small and relationship-driven. Vendors know that a buyer who trusts this directory is a buyer who is serious about vendor selection. That trust is only valuable if it is real — which means it cannot be for sale.
Our verification and referral revenue depends on buyers using the directory and taking the vendors they find there seriously. If we compromised editorial integrity to chase short-term revenue, the directory would become useless, and the commercial model would collapse with it. The incentives are aligned.
Questions about our commercial relationships can be directed to editorial@compareitad.com.
Material connections
Active commercial relationships
Every active commercial relationship between Compare ITAD and a vendor in our directory is disclosed here.
No active commercial relationships as of September 2026.
No referral, placement, or sponsored-content relationship has become active. When one does, it will be named here — with the vendor, the type of relationship, and the date it took effect — before it can influence anything you read on this site.
Questions or corrections?
If you believe a commercial relationship is missing from this table, or if you have a question about how a particular piece of content was funded, contact us at editorial@compareitad.com. We will respond within five business days and update this page if a correction is warranted.