Supplier Referral Program

Terminus Research is funded in part by referral links. When a reader opens a supplier through a marked link on this site and buys something, that supplier pays this publication a share of the order. This page is the whole arrangement in plain words: who it is open to, what it costs a supplier, and the line between taking it and what gets published. It exists so that neither a reader nor a supplier has to infer any of that.

The offer is the same for everyone

The same arrangement, in the same words, is open to every supplier with a record in the vendor status ledger, whatever its documentation score, whatever its position on a board, and whatever cautions its record carries. Suppliers are written to a few at a time, so most have not been asked yet; one that asks before its turn gets the same terms as one that was written to. There is no tier, no premium placement, and no negotiated rate that buys anything on this site. A supplier that says no is left exactly where it was, and a supplier that never answers is left exactly where it was.

There is one exception, and it is stated rather than hidden: Banana Peppers is not offered this arrangement, for the reason set out under the ownership relationship below. That exception costs this publication money and is the point of it.

What taking the terms cannot do

Participation changes nothing a reader sees about a supplier except the marker on its outbound link. It cannot change:

• a documentation score, or any observation that feeds one
• a position on any board or ranking
• whether a supplier is covered at all, or how closely
• a caution, a status flag, or any dated entry in the ledger
• the order of the price comparison, or which suppliers appear in it
• whether a correction is published against this publication's own claims

Scores are computed from the dated observations in each record, by the method printed at How we evaluate. The list of participating suppliers is held in a separate file that the scoring path does not open, so the separation is a property of how the site is built rather than a promise about how carefully somebody behaved.

How a paid link is marked

Wherever this site links out to a supplier that has taken the terms, the link carries a marker reading REFERRAL LINK beside it, or, on a directory card, the words "referral link" inside the Shop link itself, and the page carries a sentence saying what that means in money. Both sit where a reader is deciding whether to click, not in a footer and not in fine print. A supplier that has not taken the terms carries no marker, and its link is an ordinary link.

Where a supplier confirms that its code also gives a reader a discount, the amount that supplier states is printed beside the marker, in that supplier's own words, along with the reminder that this publication is paid when you buy through the link. Where a supplier has confirmed nothing, nothing is stated: the share a supplier pays this publication is not a discount to you, and we do not present one as the other.

What the marked address carries is worth stating exactly, because it is the one thing about a marked link that differs from any other link here. Your browser sends no referrer to the vendor, so nothing about you or the page you came from is passed along. Where a link is marked REFERRAL LINK, the address carries a code that tells that supplier the visit came from Terminus, which is how the referral is credited; it identifies this publication, never you. Those two sentences are also on the privacy page, word for word, and the build refuses to publish either page if the two stop matching.

Joining, and leaving

A supplier joins by replying to the offer with the code or referral address its own program issues. What gets recorded is that code, the date it went live, and the version of these terms it was agreed under. Nothing else about the supplier changes at that moment, because there is nothing else the code is allowed to touch.

A supplier leaves by asking, in one line, to any address it already has for this publication. There is no notice period and no condition. The code comes out at the next build and the marker goes with it. Leaving changes nothing else about the record, which is the same guarantee joining carries.

The ownership relationship

Terminus Research and Banana Peppers LLC were formerly under common ownership. As of September 2026, Terminus Research LLC is independently owned and operated: it shares no ownership or financial interest with Banana Peppers, and no Banana Peppers personnel hold any editorial role here. Because of that history, Banana Peppers is held to the same criteria and the same process as every other supplier, nothing more favorable, and we disclose the prior affiliation so you can weigh it yourself.

Banana Peppers has a record in the ledger and is covered on the criteria every supplier is covered on. What it does not have is a place in this program. A referral code for that store would move money between this publication and a business it was once connected to, and the paragraph above says no money moves between them, so the store is not eligible here and the sentence stays true. The wider relationship is set out on How we are funded.

Checking this against the site

Every marked link is visible on the page it sits on, and the file behind the markers is versioned in this site's source, so the set of participating suppliers on any given build can be recovered rather than taken on trust. If anything on this page turns out to be false about how the site behaves, the corrections process applies to it exactly as it applies to a claim about a supplier.

These terms are version 1.0. A change to them is a change to this page, and a supplier recorded under an earlier version keeps that version recorded beside its entry until it agrees to a newer one.