How We Make Money
Everything on SunsetWell is free to use. Here is exactly how the site is funded — and what money can never buy here.
Last updated: June 10, 2026
Our Pledge
No facility can pay to change its SunsetWell Score or ranking. Scores are computed from public CMS data with a published methodology.
There is a hard firewall between how we make money and what our data says. A facility's score, percentile rank, inspection history, and position in any list on this site are determined entirely by public federal data and the formulas described in our scoring methodology. Advertising or partnering with us buys visibility for ads — never a better score, a higher ranking, or a softened inspection record.
Why This Page Exists
Most senior care websites are referral agencies: they are paid by facilities for every family they send, which shapes what they recommend. SunsetWell works differently, and we think you deserve to see exactly how. Families making placement decisions are often stressed and short on time — the last thing you should have to wonder is whether a recommendation was bought.
Below is a complete list of how SunsetWell makes money today and how it may in the future. If this list changes, this page will be updated first.
Where Our Revenue Comes From
1. Display advertising on editorial pages
CurrentWe show display ads (served by Google AdSense) on content-rich editorial pages such as our guides and data reports. Advertisers pay for impressions and clicks; they have no relationship with the facilities we cover and no influence over our content or scores.
We deliberately keep ads off thin or tool-focused pages. Ads never appear disguised as facility recommendations.
2. Affiliate partnerships
PlannedWe may partner with senior care services (for example, placement advisory services) that pay us a fee when a visitor contacts them through a link on our site. When an affiliate link is present, it is clearly labeled as such — you will always know before you click whether we may be paid for a referral.
Affiliate partners are never given preferential treatment in scores, rankings, or search results. A partner's service being useful to some families does not make any facility look better or worse on SunsetWell.
3. Facility-claimed listings
Possible futureIn the future, facilities may be able to pay to claim their listing — to add photos, descriptions, and contact details. If we launch this, claimed content will be clearly labeled as provided by the facility, and it will sit alongside (never replace) the public inspection data and scores.
Claiming a listing will not change a facility's SunsetWell Score, percentile, ranking, or inspection history. Ever.
What We Never Do
- We never sell rankings. No payment of any kind can move a facility up a list or improve its score.
- We never hide or soften inspection data. Deficiency citations and federal fines come straight from CMS enforcement records and are shown for paying and non-paying facilities alike.
- We never sell your contact information to facilities. Using SunsetWell will not get you sales calls. See our Privacy Policy for details on the data we do collect.
- We never accept payment for editorial coverage. Our guides and data reports are not sponsored content.
Don't Take Our Word for It
Because our scores are built from public data with a published methodology, you can check our work:
- Read the scoring methodology to see what goes into every score.
- Download our free datasets and compare them against the originals at data.cms.gov.
- Learn more about who runs the site on our About page.