How MacProbe is funded.
MacProbe is free, with no login wall, no "Pro" tier, and no plan to add one. This page explains where the money comes from, what a paid tier would look like if we ever needed one, and what we will never do.
Where the money comes from
MacProbe earns a small commission when you click a "View on eBay" link and buy something within 24 hours. This is the eBay Partner Network — the same affiliate program any publisher can join. The commission comes out of eBay's margin, not yours. The price you see is the price you pay. We do not mark anything up, and we do not see a different price than you do.
Best Buy and Apple are not monetized. Best Buy's affiliate program (Impact.com) rejected our application in March 2026. Apple has no public affiliate program. We link to those retailers anyway because they are useful — Best Buy open-box inventory and Apple Refurbished are both real deal sources — but those clicks earn us $0.
That's it. There is no display advertising, no sponsored listings, no "featured deals" upcharge, and no lead-gen. The ranking on the Deals page is the ranking the score produced; the order does not change based on who is paying.
Why free, forever
The data is the product. MacProbe's value comes from the fact that the listings page is comprehensive and up-to-the-minute — anyone can see what a fair price is right now, and anyone can see the same numbers. Selling access would require gating that view, which would gut the SEO and shrink the data flywheel. Fewer eyes mean fewer sellers listing, which means worse data, which means a worse product. It's a self-defeating loop.
The affiliate revenue model is the right shape: the cost to you is zero, the cost to MacProbe is hosting (cheap, on Cloudflare), and the alignment is correct — we only get paid when you find a deal worth clicking. If revenue ever outgrew costs, we'd invest the surplus in faster cron intervals and broader retailer coverage. If costs ever outgrew revenue, this page is the first place we'd announce a change.
Try the live deals board
See the current state of the market for yourself — visit the live deals board for the top-scored MacBook Pro listings right now, sorted by price-vs-market-value score. No signup required.
What a paid tier would look like, if we ever add one
If we ever ship a paid tier, it would be opt-in Pro features, never a paywall on basic deal browsing. The basic dashboard, the score, the Intelligence page, and the deals list stay free. The paid features would be things you can build a budget around:
- SMS price alerts (vs. email only on the free tier)
- Faster cron — instant alerts on a new deal instead of the next 15-minute window
- Programmatic API access for resellers and refurb shops
- Watchlist with seller-archetype filtering (e.g. "only alert on pro refurbishers")
The deal dashboard itself stays free, forever. That's the only honest way to do this.