- Every guide and every tool on MiddleEastEcom is free to use.
- We may earn a referral or affiliate fee when you hire a provider through our links or the quote form.
- Providers can't pay to be listed or to rank higher, and fees never change the price you pay.
- Affiliate links are marked rel="sponsored", and our own paid services are always labelled as ours.
MiddleEastEcom is free. You can read every guide and use every tool without paying or signing up.
So how do we keep the lights on? Mostly through referral and affiliate fees, paid by providers when a seller hires them through us.
This page explains exactly how that works, and the rules we follow so it never bends our advice.
What's free
Everything you can read or click on this site costs you nothing:
- Guides in English, Arabic and Chinese on marketplaces, payments, logistics, rules and marketing.
- Tools like our fee, landed cost and VAT calculators.
- The provider directory, with notes on what each company does.
- Quote matching through our free quote form.
There's no paywall and no "premium" version of a guide. You get the full answer every time.
How we earn money
We may earn a fee in two situations:
- Affiliate links. Some links to tools or services may pay us a commission if you sign up or buy.
- Referrals. If you hire a provider after we introduce you, through a link or the quote form, that provider may pay us a referral fee.
That's the whole model today. We don't run paid placements, sponsored rankings or "featured partner" slots.
The rules we follow
Money only works for a site like this if readers can trust it. So we hold ourselves to four rules:
- 1
No pay to play
Providers can't pay to be listed in the directory, and they can't pay to rank higher.
- 2
Your price doesn't change
A referral fee never adds to what you pay a provider.
- 3
Advice comes first
Fees never decide which providers we suggest or what we recommend in a guide.
- 4
Paid links are labelled
Affiliate links are marked rel="sponsored", so they're flagged in the page code.
If a provider that pays nothing is the best fit for you, that's the one we'll point you to. Our editorial policy covers how we research and update pages, and how we vet providers explains who gets listed and why.
Our own services
We also sell services of our own, such as Shopify builds, SEO and Arabic localization. They live on our services page and are always labelled as ours.
You'll always know when you're looking at something we sell.
Your data
We don't sell personal data. Ever.
When you send a quote request, we use your details to match you with suitable providers and pass them only to those providers. Nobody else gets them.
Frequently asked questions
No. A referral fee comes out of the provider's side of the deal. Your quote is the same as it would be if you'd contacted them directly.
Sources & further reading
- Editorial policy — MiddleEastEcom
- How we evaluate service providers — MiddleEastEcom
