How this site is funded, in plain words.
Who pays us
We take part in four affiliate programs — DataCamp, Udemy, 365 Data Science and Coursera — all through the Impact network. If you click one of our links to them — an amber enrol button or a plain text link — and then subscribe to DataCamp, 365 Data Science or Coursera Plus, pay for a Coursera course, Guided Project, Specialization or Professional Certificate, or buy a Udemy course, we earn a percentage of what you pay. Our Coursera programme began on 7 October 2026. A Udemy exam voucher bought through our link pays us a flat $5 per voucher instead. We earn nothing when you create a free account, take a free course, preview a Coursera course without paying, or buy from any other provider named on this site. DataCamp, Udemy and 365 Data Science each credit a purchase made within 30 days of the click. Coursera credits a purchase made within 14 days of the click, to the last link you clicked.
What it does not change
Every course and certification we score is judged on the same five factors — curriculum currency, completion realism, skill value, employer recognition, and cost and value, weighted equally — read off the provider's own syllabus and pricing. Commission is not one of them. Scoring is AI-assisted: every course is scored twice, in separate AI model passes that see only a fact sheet of its published facts, with every commercial note removed, and the published score is the mean of the two, the same rule whether or not the provider pays us (from 8 to 28 October 2026 a course whose provider paid us, Coursera's included from the day its programme went live, took the lower of the two). The rubric, the rules and every published score are the editor's responsibility. Every course we score today is sold through one of the four programs above, so the scored catalogue is limited to our partners’ courses and a ranking ordered by our score compares only those. Free courses and certifications, vendor exams and university certificate programmes are covered on their own pages but not scored, and a course we have not scored shows "Not scored" rather than a number; which courses we score lists each group and where it appears. A score is an editorial assessment of what the provider publishes, not a measured learner outcome or pay effect: our methodology explains each factor and what a score cannot tell you.
Commission decides where some links appear, in three places, and says so in each. Every suggestion our advisor makes is chosen only among our affiliate partners’ courses. The “Ready to start?” button near the end of an article repeats the course the page itself recommends — on a review, the course reviewed — and appears only when one of our partners sells it. And the first rows of the comparison table on some pages are partners’ courses we chose for that page, as the line above each such table says. Until 8 October 2026 many pages also opened with a pick chosen only among partners’ courses; we have removed it from every page. In scoring, the only part it plays is the rule above, which can only lower a score. Since 8 October 2026 it has raised no score and no place in a ranking; our methodology explains the weighting we withdrew that day, and why.
How you can tell
Every paid link goes to one of the programs above and carries rel="sponsored", whether it is a button or a link in the text, and every page that has one carries a one-line disclosure above it naming those programs. Among buttons, amber means paid: the colour is set by where the link goes, not by hand, so a button cannot be amber unless the destination is one of the programs above.
Annual or monthly
DataCamp sells a monthly and an annual plan, priced by country. Where we quote its price, we quote the annual list price, the plan that costs less over a year; it also pays us more. Both things are true, so we say both. It is not the cheaper plan for someone who finishes in two months, which is why we send you to DataCamp’s pricing page, where both are shown.
Other providers
We have no arrangement with any other provider named on this site. If that changes, this page changes first.
Questions
Write to hello@bestaicertifications.com and we will answer.