How We Make Money
I spent years on the lending side of small-business finance, reviewing line-of-credit applications and watching how the business worked from the inside. One thing that always bothered me: most of the “best business line of credit” lists online won’t tell you how they’re paid. So before you read a single recommendation on this site, here’s exactly how BizBee makes money — and the rules we put on ourselves because of it.
Our relationship with BizBee Funding
Read this before our recommendations: BizBee Funding (bizbeefunding.com) is our affiliated funding service — a related company, not an arm’s-length advertiser. It is the service behind our primary “Get Funded Today” button and our #1 recommendation for getting matched with a lender.
That is a material relationship, and we disclose it everywhere BizBee Funding appears. It is different from the third-party affiliate commissions described elsewhere on this site: with an outside lender we earn a referral fee and nothing more; BizBee Funding is part of the same family. Our editorial reviews and our third-party lender scoring still follow the published method on How We Evaluate Lenders — no outside lender can buy a place in them — but BizBee Funding’s #1 placement reflects that ownership as well as fit, so weigh it accordingly and always compare your actual offers before you commit.
We’re free because we’re reader-supported
BizBee doesn’t charge you anything, and there’s no paywall. We keep the lights on through affiliate commissions. In plain terms: when we point you to a lender or a lending marketplace and you go on to apply, get matched, or get funded, that company may pay us a referral fee.
You pay nothing extra for it. The rate, fee, and terms you get from the lender are identical whether you reach them through us or type their name into Google yourself. The commission comes out of the lender’s marketing budget, not your loan.
The three ways money could come in
Here’s the full revenue picture, including the parts that don’t exist yet, so nothing is hidden:
1. Affiliate commissions (how we earn today)
When you use one of our links — usually a “See if you may qualify →” or “Get matched →” button marked (sponsored) — to reach a lender or a marketplace like Lendio, and you take an action they pay for, we earn a fee. Depending on the partner, that fee might be paid when you submit a qualified application, as a share of the lender’s origination fee, or when a deal actually funds. We keep the description general on purpose: specific payout amounts vary by partner and are confidential.
2. Display advertising (later, and clearly labeled)
Once the site is larger we may run display ads. Ads will always be labeled as ads and kept separate from the words I write. They won’t influence which lenders we recommend.
3. Nothing else
We don’t sell your data. We don’t sell your loan application. We don’t charge lenders to be reviewed, and we don’t take payment to move a lender up our rankings. If that ever changes, this page changes first.
The rule that makes this site worth reading
Here’s the line we won’t cross: getting paid by a third-party lender never changes our rankings or our advice. The one relationship we flag separately is BizBee Funding, our own affiliated funding service and #1 recommendation — disclosed above and wherever it appears.
That sounds like something every site says. So here’s how we actually hold ourselves to it:
- Our rankings follow published criteria, not commissions. Where lenders land in our lists is decided by the standards on our How We Evaluate Lenders page — things like real cost, eligibility, funding speed, and transparency. Not by who pays the most.
- We warn you about products that pay us. The clearest example: merchant cash advances. Some can carry an effective cost far higher than a true line of credit, and we say so plainly — even when an affiliate relationship is on the table. A commission is never a reason to push you toward something expensive.
- A paying partner can still get a cautious review. If a lender we earn from has a catch — a confusing fee, a tight repayment window, a product that isn’t really a line of credit — we tell you. The relationship doesn’t soften the verdict.
- We separate the people from the payments. The writer and reviewer behind a page don’t get a cut tied to which lender you pick. The recommendation is the same no matter what you choose.
You can read the full version of these promises in our Editorial Standards.
Why we mostly cover lenders that pay us
It’s a fair question, so here’s the honest answer. A free site like this generally writes about lenders that run an affiliate program, because that’s what funds the work. We’re not going to pretend otherwise.
What we won’t do is let that quietly mislead you. When a lender or option you genuinely ought to know about doesn’t pay us, we’ll still mention it — and we’ll tell you we don’t earn from it, so you can weigh our take accordingly. The goal is that you finish a page knowing both what we recommend and why we’re able to recommend it.
What we are — and what we’re not
BizBee is an independent information and comparison site. We are not a lender, a broker, or a financial advisor. We don’t make loans or credit decisions, and we never see a cut of your loan. When you apply, you deal directly with the lender on their terms.
Nothing here is financial, legal, or tax advice. Business financing terms change often and depend on your specific business and credit, so always confirm the current details on the lender’s own site before applying. And we’ll never tell you you’re “approved” or “guaranteed” — only a lender can decide that. We’ll say “see if you may qualify,” because that’s the honest version.
Found something off?
If a disclosure looks unclear, a recommendation feels off, or you think we missed a conflict of interest, tell us at our Contact page or flag it through our Corrections policy. We’d rather fix it than defend it.
For the formal, FTC-style version of all this, see our Affiliate Disclosure.
By Marcus Delaney, former commercial loan officer. Reviewed by Elaine Vasquez for accuracy and compliance. BizBee is informational and independent. We are not a lender and do not broker loans. For the formal version, see our Affiliate Disclosure.