ethical.net is a small, independent guide to living and working more ethically: the tools, products and ideas that move us towards harmony with people, animals and the natural world. Here’s how we put it together.
How we choose what we recommend
Every alternative we list goes through the same checklist, built on our manifesto. We look at who owns it and how it makes money, what it collects about you, how it treats the people who make it and use it, how open and honest it is, whether it’s built for a community or for lock-in, and whether it’s likely to still be around in a few years.
A few things rule an alternative out straight away: being owned by a company our own guides suggest avoiding, a business built on surveillance advertising or selling data, a recent unresolved human-rights finding, a project that has stopped, or a green claim we can’t find evidence for.
When an alternative is good but comes with a real trade-off, we still list it, and we tell you about the trade-off.
How we keep it current
We re-check every listed alternative at least once a quarter: is it still running, has it changed hands, has the way it makes money changed? Guides we’ve refreshed show when they were last checked and what changed since.
How we make money
Some links on ethical.net are affiliate links. If you sign up or buy through one, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Commissions never decide what we list or in what order, and we only add affiliate links to alternatives that have already passed our checklist. Inclusion is never for sale.
What we use ourselves
We’re on this path too, so here’s our own setup. The site runs on WordPress, hosted by Kinsta. We use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to see which pages help readers. We’re working on it, one choice at a time.
Suggest an alternative
Know an alternative we’ve missed, or spotted something out of date? Tell us here. We read every suggestion.