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Everything on SunsetWell is free to use. Here is exactly how the site is funded — and what money can never buy here.
Last updated: July 9, 2026
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.
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.
SunsetWell currently provides an optional, clearly labeled link to A Place for Mom, an independent senior-living advisory service after a visitor enables optional marketing measurement. Without that permission, the CTA stays on SunsetWell. The sponsored link may first pass through Awin for click and referral attribution before opening the partner's site. If you choose to submit contact, care, or financial information there, you provide it directly to the partner under its privacy policy. The partner or participating communities may then contact you, and SunsetWell may earn a referral fee.
We want to be direct about the tension here: placement advisory services are commonly paid by participating communities. Some families still want human help, so we offer that route as a separate, optional service. We never present an advisor referral as a facility recommendation, and partner compensation cannot affect our scores, rankings, search results, or editorial coverage.
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.
In 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.
Because our scores are built from public data with a published methodology, you can check our work: