A vendor gets listed, then re-checked every 14 days — and we charge for visibility because that's what keeps the vetting independent.
3,800+ B2B SaaS companies pay for placement on A Great Portal. Not because we run sponsored rankings — we don't — but because a vetted directory with 1.2M monthly readers, a 34% newsletter open rate, and a published 14-day freshness SLA is the shortest path between a category decision and a credible shortlist. Below: what the four paid tiers buy, what they don't, and the rules we won't negotiate on.
Four tiers. One rule: paid tiers buy visibility, never editorial score.
Every paid placement is badged in the listing as a paid slot. None of them can move a vendor up the Dreyfus Trust Score, into a category leaderboard, or into a curated shortlist. Here's what each one actually buys — and what it doesn't.
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01 Verified From $1,200 / yr
Pass the 47-point review, get listed.
Every vendor on the portal — paid or not — must clear the same 47-point editorial review before going live. The Verified tier covers the re-verification work and keeps your listing on the 14-day freshness cycle. No ranking guarantees; you appear in the full index.
- Index inclusion in up to 5 categories
- Re-verified every 14 days, published audit trail
- Badged as Verified Vendor
- Lead delivery: CSV export, weekly
Does not buy: Dreyfus score lift, shortlist placement, or category-leader visibility.
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02 Featured From $4,800 / yr
Above the fold inside your category.
Featured listings appear in the pinned top row of their category pages, with a duotone logo, a longer description field, and a richer lead form. Paid slots are clearly badged so readers can tell them apart from editorial rankings.
- Pinned top row in up to 3 categories
- Duotone logo + 600-char description field
- Richer lead form (company size, use case, timeline)
- Lead delivery: CSV or REST API, real-time
Does not buy: editorial ranking position or Dreyfus score changes.
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03 Category Leader From $9,600 / yr
The top-of-category slot — earned, then purchased.
Category Leader is only available to vendors who already sit in the top quartile of the Dreyfus Trust Score for their category. The slot is paid; the score is not. If your score drops below the threshold, the slot pauses until you re-qualify.
- Top-of-category slot in 1 primary category
- Quarterly analyst briefing (30 min)
- Co-branded comparison-page inclusion
- Lead delivery: REST API + webhook, real-time
Does not buy: Dreyfus score. The score is the gate, not the product.
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04 Spotlight From $22,000 / quarter
The Shortlist cover slot, for one quarter.
The weekly Shortlist newsletter goes to 218,000 subscribers at a 34% open rate. Spotlight reserves the cover slot for one issue. Cover slots are badged as paid placements; the editorial picks inside the issue are not influenced by the sponsor.
- 1 cover slot in The Shortlist (218K subs)
- Dedicated landing page on the portal
- Custom UTM and source attribution
- Lead delivery: REST API + CRM push (HubSpot, Salesforce)
Does not buy: editorial picks inside the issue. Pick list is editor-blind to sponsors.
All tiers renew annually unless cancelled 30 days before renewal. Pricing is indicative and varies by category traffic — final terms come from the partnerships team after a discovery call.
What "listed on A Great Portal" actually puts in front of you.
These are the audience figures a vendor reaches by clearing the editorial review. They are also the figures the partnerships team will quote on the call — we publish them here so the call is about fit, not arithmetic.
The rules we won't negotiate on, written so you don't have to email us to ask.
A directory is only worth the trust readers put in it. These are the four rules that keep ours trustworthy. They are not negotiable on a sales call, but they are negotiable in writing if you find a better way to enforce the same outcome.
01 — Paid tiers never move editorial rankings.
The Dreyfus Trust Score is computed by the editorial team from publicly verifiable signals: review depth, support responsiveness, pricing transparency, security posture, customer references, and the 14-day re-verification result. No paid tier, at any price, changes that score. If a Category Leader's score drops below the threshold mid-contract, the slot pauses until the score recovers.
02 — The separation is audited every year.
BDO audits the separation between paid visibility and editorial ranking once a year, on a published scope. The most recent audit (FY 2024) is available on request to vendors under NDA. The audit has never produced a qualified finding.
03 — Every listing passes the 47-point review — and 62% don't.
Before any listing goes live, an analyst runs it through 47 checks: positioning clarity, documentation quality, security disclosures, support SLA, pricing model transparency, customer references, and so on. The rejection rate is 62%. If your product is rejected, we send the analyst notes and a list of what would change the decision — re-application is free once.
04 — Vendor pricing is not real-time.
We update vendor pricing on the 14-day re-verification cycle, not in real time. If your pricing changes between cycles, we will reflect it within 14 days. We will not claim a price we cannot re-verify. This is a feature, not a limitation — and it is the rule we are most often asked to bend.
"Zero sponsored placements in editorial rankings. Paid slots are clearly badged and never affect scores — audited annually by BDO."
— From our editorial charter, §4.2Questions vendors ask before the first call — answered here so the call is shorter.
If anything below is unclear, write to [email protected] and an analyst will reply within one business day. The most common questions, in the order vendors ask them.
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How long does it take to get listed, end to end?
Two to four weeks from signed brief to live listing. Week 1 is the analyst review against the 47-point checklist. Week 2 is vendor back-and-forth on the analyst notes. Weeks 3–4 are copywriting, category placement, and lead-form wiring. Faster if your security and pricing documentation is already published.
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What happens if our application is rejected?
The analyst sends a written summary of which of the 47 checks failed and what would change the decision. Re-application is free once, after a 30-day cooling-off period, and is reviewed by a second analyst. Roughly 38% of rejected vendors re-apply and pass.
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Does paying for a Featured or Category Leader tier raise our Dreyfus score?
No. The Dreyfus Trust Score is editorial and is not influenced by payment at any tier. The score can, however, gate access to the Category Leader slot — if your score is already in the top quartile of your category, you can buy the slot; if not, the slot is not available to you regardless of budget.
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How are leads delivered, and in what format?
Verified and Featured tiers get weekly CSV exports and a self-serve dashboard. Category Leader adds a real-time REST API. Spotlight adds webhook delivery and direct CRM push to HubSpot or Salesforce. Every lead is deduplicated against your existing CRM on the email domain before delivery.
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What is the renewal cadence, and how do we cancel?
All tiers renew annually on the contract anniversary. Cancellations require 30 days' written notice before renewal. Mid-contract cancellations are pro-rated only if the listing has materially underperformed the contracted impression floor — the floor is written into the contract.
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Can we see the 47-point review checklist before we sign?
Yes. We send the full checklist (with weights) to any vendor under a one-page NDA before the first call. It is the same checklist our analysts use; we don't gatekeep the criteria we judge you on.
Email, call, or send a brief — whichever is easiest.
The partnerships team is five people: Maya Okafor (founder), two senior analysts, and two account leads. Replies within one business day. No SDR funnel, no qualification script — just a short email and a 30-minute call to see if there's a fit.