One sponsor. Clearly labelled. Never a vendor we evaluate.
SIEMCostCalculator.com accepts a single sponsor: one clearly labelled strip reading "Independent research, supported by X", exclusive to the sponsor's own category. Everything else on the site stays exactly as it is.
What sponsorship is here
One strip, one sponsor, plain language. The strip is labelled as sponsorship, sponsor links carry rel="sponsored", and readers can see at a glance who supports the research and where the support stops. The sponsor holds exclusivity for its own category: no competitor of the sponsor appears in that strip for the term of the sponsorship.
The sponsor receives a monthly performance report covering the placement. Early sponsors lock a founding rate that holds as the site grows.
The hard rule
Vendors this site evaluates are not eligible to sponsor it.
The same separation applies inside the sponsor's own market: the sponsor strip never appears on pages covering the sponsor's products or its category competitors. Where a conflict exists, the strip is absent.
Never for sale
- Rankings. Vendor order in tables and calculator output follows the math, never the sponsor.
- Comparison outcomes. Head-to-head verdicts are written from the cost data. They cannot be bought or softened.
- Calculator placement. Which vendors appear in the calculator, and where, is an editorial decision only.
- Verification stamps. The confirmed-with-vendor stamp is free for every vendor, sponsor or not. Same protocol for all.
- Editorial influence. No draft review, no veto, no input on framing, methodology, or conclusions.
The full independence standard lives on two pages: methodology documents how figures are sourced and the vendor verification protocol, and about sets out the operator's editorial principles, including the commitment that sponsorship never touches the data.
Category availability
One strip means one sponsor at a time. A reserved category stays reserved until the reservation lapses.
Enquiries
Sponsorship is arranged directly with the operator, by email. Include your company and category, and you will get a straight answer on availability and the founding rate. Not sure your category qualifies? Ask anyway. If this site is not the fit, another in the network usually is.
Email [email protected]Goes straight to Oliver Wakefield-Smith, founder of Digital Signet, the studio that operates this site.