One person. Zero affiliate money. A public formula.
SupplierSpy exists because every other "Top 10 Dropshipping Suppliers" list you can Google is sponsored, affiliate-linked, or both. This one isn't. It's a small editorial project with a versioned formula, receipts on every profile, and every snapshot cryptographically signed so you can verify the output without trusting the server.
Why this exists
Dropshipping supplier "reviews" are almost always written by the supplier's affiliate program, a platform with a commercial partnership, or an SEO farm chasing the keyword. The ranking conveniently matches whoever pays the best commission. That's not a benchmark — that's a billboard.
SupplierSpy is the opposite: independent, algorithmic, and boring on purpose. Every supplier is scored against the same 8-dimension formula on public signals only. If a supplier becomes more transparent, its score goes up automatically. If one stops publishing financials, the score drops. Nobody has the power to flip it by hand — not even me.
The methodology is versioned and documented at /how-we-score, the rubric bands are at /methodology/v1.0, and every score has a receipts page at /supplier/<slug>/signals. Questions welcome at hello@supplierspy.com.
How SupplierSpy makes money
A transparent rate card is published at /sponsorship-policy. Current status: the offer is live; active commercial relationships are zero. When that changes, this page updates and every affected surface gets a "Sponsored" chip above the fold.
No ads running, no affiliate kickbacks, no sponsored content live on the site. No supplier has paid a cent to be listed, scored, or placed. The leaderboard is 100% editorially determined from public signals. (See /sponsorship-policy — current status: zero sponsored relationships.)
Clearly labeled "Sponsored" editorial explainers outside the leaderboard, always with a chip above the fold and rel="sponsored nofollow". A paying supplier never moves on the ranking. Rate: €2,500 one-off. Rules: /sponsorship-policy.
€499/mo or €4,990/yr. Written commercial-use license for /api/leaderboard and /api/supplier/:slug, plus priority support. The free tier stays free forever and never gets degraded to push the paid tier. Metered rate-limit tiers, webhook push, and a formal SLA are all on the roadmap and disclosed as such on /sponsorship-policy.
Underwritten conference talks (€3,000 one-off) and an Annual Partner bundle (€9,900/yr) that combines API access with editorial slots. All labeled, none influence the ranking.
If a supplier could buy #1 or buy a takedown, the whole project would be worthless. These are on the "will-never" list at /sponsorship-policy; any change to that list would be announced in /changelog and disclosed above the fold on every page.
Corrections & disputes
If a fact on a supplier profile is wrong and a public source supports the correction, it gets fixed. If a supplier wants to dispute a dimension score, the fastest path is to publish more public data (financial filings, shipping origin pages, transparent pricing) — the score updates on the next refresh cycle automatically.
Two ways to reach me:
- Email hello@supplierspy.com with a public source URL.
- File a structured dispute: /dispute/<slug> or /dispute/<slug>/<dimension>.
Press & citations
Journalists, bloggers, YouTubers, and AI tools are welcome to cite SupplierSpy scores and quote any page. Attribution is appreciated: "SupplierSpy (supplierspy.com)" with a link back. Data and written materials are licensed CC BY 4.0 — full terms at /terms. The implementation itself is closed-source, but every published score is independently verifiable against a signed snapshot + IPFS CID (see /reproducibility). For embargoed analysis or methodology questions, email hello@supplierspy.com.