How we make money
Plain-language disclosure of our affiliate relationships, how they don't influence rankings, and exactly when you'll see one. Required by the FTC, but we'd write it anyway.
Last updated: May 3, 2026
The short version
Some links on Nomada — specifically the “Visit” CTA buttons inside our directory pages (/directory) — are affiliate links. If you click through and sign up or make a purchase with that partner, the partner pays Nomada a commission. You pay no more than you would by going to the partner directly. This is how we keep the site free.
We neversort partners by commission, take payment for placement, or accept paid reviews. Our rankings are editorial, written from the user’s perspective, and re-evaluated quarterly. If our ranking and our pocketbook ever conflict, we keep the ranking.
How you can spot an affiliate link
- The HTML attribute
rel="sponsored noopener"on the link, per FTC and search-engine guidance for paid endorsements. - A page-level disclosure callout near the top of every directory page (e.g. Banking, Travel Insurance) explaining that affiliate links appear on that page.
- The data attribute
data-aff-mock="true"while we’re still placeholder links. Once a real affiliate program is signed for a given partner, that attribute is removed and the link becomes a tracked referral.
Which partners pay us a commission
Pre-launch (May 2026), every directory CTA is still a placeholder pointing to the partner’s public site, with data-aff-mock="true". We’re in the process of signing up to the affiliate programs of the partners listed in our directory categories — examples include SafetyWing and Genki (insurance), Wise and Mercury (banking), Airalo and Holafly (eSIM), Skyscanner and Going (flights), Anytime Mailbox and Earth Class Mail (mail forwarding), and others listed on each category page.
As real affiliate IDs are wired in, we’ll update this page with a current list of programs we participate in. The presence of a partner in our directory does not automatically mean we earn a commission from them — many of the highest-ranked options pay nothing or have no affiliate program at all.
What we don’t do
- No paid placement.No partner can buy a higher rank, a featured spot, or a highlight badge. The “Best for” and “highlight” labels are editorial.
- No sponsored content. Every category page is written by us. If we ever publish sponsored content, it will be labelled at the top of the article in plain language and will not appear inside the directory rankings.
- No undisclosed relationships.If we ever have a non-financial relationship with a partner (advisor, equity, family) that could affect coverage, we’ll say so on that partner’s entry.
- No affiliate links inside our native tools. The Build tools (timezone overlap, visa tracker, etc.) are pure utilities. They have no embedded affiliate links.
Our editorial process
Each directory category page documents its own ranking criterion at the top (look for the “How we ranked these” section). Common factors across categories: real usefulness for nomads, transparency of pricing, breadth of country coverage, customer support quality, and how well the product holds up in failure modes (frozen card abroad, denied insurance claim, locked-out account). Commission rate is never a ranking factor.
We re-evaluate every category quarterly. Each page shows a Last updated date so you know how fresh the assessment is.
Other revenue sources
Beyond affiliate referrals, our planned revenue layers (described in our changelog and on the homepage) are:
- Contextual display adson content pages and category landings, never inside the tool widgets. Ads will appear once we’re eligible for premium ad networks (around 50K monthly sessions). When ads are added, this page will be updated to disclose the network and placement rules.
- A free email newsletter with affiliate-loaded weekly content. Signing up for the newsletter shares your email with our newsletter provider only (see Privacy). We don’t resell email addresses.
We do notcharge subscriptions, sell user accounts (we don’t have any), or monetize personal data. The trust strip on the homepage isn’t marketing — it’s an enforceable promise.
Questions or corrections
Found a partner missing a disclosure, or a ranking that smells off? Email editorial@nomada.tools. We take corrections seriously.