How this site makes money.

The short version

When you click a price-check button on this site and buy the machine from the retailer it links to, the retailer pays this site a small percentage of your purchase as an affiliate commission. The price you pay is unchanged. We don't accept payment from any vendor for inclusion, rank, or recommendation.

What that means in practice

Every product on this site goes through the same picks logic regardless of whether the underlying retailer pays a commission. The skip list — the page where we tell you which machines to avoid — is the proof. If a vendor gets a kickback for being recommended, we're still willing to tell you not to buy it.

We participate in retailer affiliate programs (including Amazon Associates and the affiliate programs run by independent espresso retailers). When we're recommending a machine, we point at whatever retailer pricing source we actually verified that week — which usually but not always corresponds to a program we're part of.

What it does not affect

• ◦Whether a machine appears in a buying guide or skip list
• ◦The order in which machines are ranked
• ◦The verdict in any individual review
• ◦Which entries land on the skip list and the reasons given

Link partners

Some outbound retailer links on this site are routed through two aggregator networks that monetize clicks where we don't hold a direct affiliate relationship with the retailer. The price you pay is unchanged; the recommendation logic is unchanged.

• ◦Skimlinks — auto-tags eligible retailer links across the catalog.
• ◦Sovrn Commerce — second-source link aggregator complementing the above.

Pricing accuracy

Prices on this site are pulled from the actual retailer product pages weekly. They can be wrong because the retailer ran a flash sale, raised the price, or changed the SKU. The date on the freshness badge tells you when we last verified. Always confirm the price on the retailer's page before buying.

Questions

Email editor@wearetheplug.com with any question about a recommendation, a price, or how a verdict was reached. We answer.