How we make money

The gist: this site’s only income is a Starlink referral reward. When a first-time customer places a starlink.com order through the site’s referral link and qualifies, that new customer’s account gains $100 from Starlink, and the person who runs Which Starlink receives the same amount. No ads, no sponsorships, no other paid links.

Where the money comes from

Starlink runs a public referral program: any customer can share a link, and a new customer who orders through it earns a reward for both sides. Which Starlink uses that program and nothing else. Here is the deal as Starlink describes it:

• How much, and when: $100, on the second monthly subscription invoice under Starlink’s terms (the help center says it can show up around day 60 after activation), as credit on your Starlink account, unless the account’s Referrals tab offers a cash payout instead.
• What it isn’t: a lower checkout total. checkout still charges the kit and first month in full; nothing comes off the order total.
• First-timers only: it’s only for people who have never held a Starlink account.
• US addresses: the service address has to be in the US (we take that as the 50 states and DC; territories are unconfirmed).
• Through starlink.com: the order has to go through starlink.com via the link; kits from stores, resellers and marketplaces are excluded, and a missed referral can’t be attached later.
• Which plans: Starlink’s help center names all three Residential tiers and all three Roam tiers as eligible.
• People, not companies: the person referred has to be an individual; business accounts are left out.
• How long: you need two complete monthly billing cycles on a full-speed plan, and time spent paused in Standby Mode is excluded.
• Rentals: Starlink is silent on rented kits: its terms talk about buying a kit on starlink.com, so rentals stay unconfirmed.
• Starlink’s last word: the final call on each referral is SpaceX’s; it may change the program with 30 days’ notice, and rewards can be taxable.

How to spot a referral button

Every button that carries the referral is labelled “Referral link · we earn a reward if you order”, and the disclosure sits in the same box, ahead of the button. The referral is built into the link itself, so nothing needs copying or typing. Any other link to a Starlink page on this site is a citation and earns nothing.

Pages with a button, and pages without

• With: the plan pages, the dish comparisons, “is it worth it”, the first-year comparison and the questions page, each with at most one referral box placed after the decision content and after a “who should wait” box. The home page has two: the offer card below the referral explainer, and the chooser’s answer when it fits.
• Never on a “wait” answer. If the chooser advises waiting (fiber already working or on its way, a seasonal home, a short-term need, a business), its answer has no button.
• Never on: returns and warranty, the changelog, or any page about the site itself (About, this page, Editorial policy, Corrections, Privacy, Terms).
• One popup, at most once. On buying pages a short window can open once per browser, never on arrival, with the full disclosure inside and a one-click close.

Why the reward can’t steer a pick

• The reward is the same on every eligible plan, so recommending Max over 100 Mbps earns nothing extra.
• Store-bought kits earn the site nothing, and the guides still mention stores where they matter.
• Readers likely to stop soon (seasonal homes, one-off needs, a wired build on its way) are told to wait, with no button.
• No ads anywhere on the site, no paid ads pointing at the link, and no other commission programs.

What we can and can’t see

Everyone, people and search engines alike, gets the same HTML; nothing is shown to some visitors and hidden from others. Analytics count clicks on referral buttons, but a click isn’t an order: the only record of sign-ups is the Referrals page inside the site owner’s Starlink account. The site never asks for a name, email, street address or ZIP code, and it never sees the address you give starlink.com.

If the link is switched off

The referral link lives in a single setting. Empty or invalid, it removes every referral button, offer and disclosure across the site at once, and each page still reads as a complete guide.