How We Are Funded

This page exists so that no reader ever has to wonder who pays for this publication. Two things fund or may fund Terminus Research. Both are disclosed here in full.

Referral links

Some links from this site to suppliers are referral links. When a reader opens a supplier through one and buys something, that supplier pays this publication a share of the order. Those links are marked where they appear, and the pages that carry them carry the disclosure sentence too.

The arrangement is open to every supplier in the vendor status ledger on identical terms, with one stated exception. Suppliers are written to a few at a time, so most have not been asked yet, and one that asks first gets the same terms. The full terms are published at Supplier referral program. Taking part cannot change a documentation score, a position on a board, a caution, or whether a supplier is covered at all. Rankings are set by the criteria on How we evaluate, and a supplier that converts poorly but documents its compounds well will always outrank the reverse.

That claim can be checked rather than trusted. Each supplier's record lists the eight criteria and marks which were met on the dates observed, and every Terminus Score is arithmetic over those entries alone. The arithmetic has no input for which links pay. A commission cannot add an entry to a record, and a supplier scores the same whether or not a link to it ever earns anything.

On Banana Peppers

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 is covered here. Its record entered through the same review pipeline as any other supplier, it carries the disclosure above on its own page, and any evaluation that follows is held to the corrections process like anything else. The prior affiliation stays disclosed on every page that names the store.

Banana Peppers is also the one exception to the referral arrangement described above. It is not offered the terms and holds no code here, so no money moves between this publication and that store. The full terms, and this exception, are published at Supplier referral program.

What we do not take

No sponsored posts presented as editorial, no pay-for-placement, no free product in exchange for coverage, and no advertising that dresses up as an evaluation. If any paid placement ever appears on this site, it will say so on its face.