How AcreCompass makes money — and why it doesn't affect our editorial ratings.
AcreCompass is reader-supported. When you click a lender link on this site and complete a loan application or close a loan, we may receive a referral fee from the lender. This is called an affiliate commission or CPA (cost per acquisition).
There is no additional cost to you. The rates, fees, and loan terms you receive from a lender are not affected by whether you arrived via AcreCompass. Affiliate fees are paid by lenders from their own marketing budgets — they are a cost to the lender, not to the borrower.
In addition to CPA arrangements, some lenders participate in revenue share programs where we earn a percentage of the referral fee over time. These arrangements are disclosed in our affiliate agreements, and in all cases they are paid by the lender, not the borrower.
Many financial comparison websites bury their affiliate disclosures in tiny footer text or make them hard to find. We think that's the wrong approach, especially in agricultural lending where farmers are making significant multi-year financial commitments. You deserve to know upfront how we're compensated and what commitments we make to ensure that doesn't bias our content.
As of May 2026, AcreCompass has affiliate relationships with the following lenders:
| Lender | Relationship Type | Network/Channel |
|---|---|---|
| National Funding | CPA — approved application | FlexOffers and Impact Radius |
| Fora Financial | CPA — funded loan | FlexOffers |
| Lendio | CPA — approved application | FlexOffers |
| Southern AgCredit | Ambassador program | Direct |
| AgDirect | CPA — equipment loan referral | Direct program |
This list is updated as affiliate relationships change. If a lender is reviewed on AcreCompass and is not in this table, we have no affiliate relationship with them at the time of this writing.
We have no affiliate relationship with any government agency, including USDA, the Farm Service Agency, or the Risk Management Agency. Links to fsa.usda.gov, the USDA loan application portal, and other government resources generate no compensation for AcreCompass.
We include FSA Direct loans, FSA Guaranteed loans, USDA Marketing Assistance Loans, Farm Storage Facility Loans, and other USDA CCC programs throughout our content because they are often the best financial option for farmers — not because they pay us. In many cases, we recommend FSA options over higher-rate commercial lenders from whom we do earn commissions, because our editorial commitment to our readers comes first.
We also include commercial lenders in our comparisons that we have no affiliate relationship with, when their products are relevant to a specific comparison. If a non-affiliated lender offers a clearly better product for a particular use case, we say so.
We enter affiliate agreements that explicitly preserve our editorial independence. No affiliate agreement requires favorable editorial treatment as a condition of compensation. If a lender or affiliate network makes such a request, we decline the arrangement.
We are aware that perfect independence is an aspiration, not a guaranteed reality — any business with affiliate relationships must guard against subtle biases. Our safeguards include a published methodology, documented scoring, a second-editor review process, and a commitment to responding to reader corrections. If you believe our coverage of a specific lender seems biased, please contact us at editorial@acrecompass.com.
Comparison pages on AcreCompass default to sorting lenders by editorial score. This means the lender we believe is most valuable to most farmers appears first — not the lender that pays us the most.
In some cases, individual pages may display lenders in a different order for contextual or operational reasons — for example, sorting by funding speed on a page specifically about fast financing, or displaying state-specific lenders ahead of national ones on a state guide. When the sort order differs from editorial score, we note this on the page.
We do not use featured placement or "sponsored" ranking positions as a commercial product. Lenders cannot pay for a specific position in a ranked list.
All affiliate links on AcreCompass are labeled with an inline disclosure near the relevant call-to-action. The standard disclosure language is:
"Affiliate link — we may earn a commission if you apply through this link."
This disclosure appears adjacent to or immediately below any button or link where a referral fee may be earned. It does not appear on links to government websites (USDA, FSA, state agriculture departments) or to non-affiliated lenders that we link to for informational purposes only.
If you have questions about our advertiser relationships, our affiliate disclosure practices, or you believe we have not disclosed an affiliate relationship that should be disclosed, please contact:
Editorial: editorial@acrecompass.com
We take disclosure obligations seriously and will respond to inquiries within 5 business days.