Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how SMB Compare(referred to in this policy as “we”, “us”, or “our”) collects, uses, holds, and discloses personal information when you use smbcompare.com(the “site”). We handle personal information in accordance with applicable data protection and privacy laws.

1. Who we are

SMB Compare is an independent business-services comparison site, and a registered business name of an independent business. You can reach us via our contact form.

2. What information we collect

We collect the following categories of personal information:

Quote request information

When you submit a quote request through our comparison tools, we collect your business name, contact name, email address, phone number, website or social page (if provided), monthly volume, and any comparison inputs you have entered (such as your average transaction size or card mix). This information is shared with the providers you select so they can contact you with pricing. To help you get the best price, we may also share it with up to 2 more providers listed on our site that suit your business. We do not share your details with any other provider.

Email signups

When you sign up to an email alert, price updates, or news on our site, we collect your email address and a record of your consent (the wording you agreed to, the date and time, and your IP address). We use this to send you the emails you requested and occasional related updates from SMB Compare. These may include relevant offers from SMB Compare and our partners, which we send ourselves; we do not hand your email address to those partners. We manage our mailing list through our email provider (Resend). Every email includes an unsubscribe link and a postal address, and we honor opt-out requests promptly, in line with the CAN-SPAM Act.

Affiliate click tracking

When you click a link to a provider through our site, we log a cryptographic hash of your IP address (not the IP itself), your browser user-agent string, the page you clicked from, the provider you clicked, and any UTM parameters present in the link. This information helps us measure which providers convert and which sources of traffic refer paying customers.

Analytics

We use PostHog analytics with first-party cookies to understand how visitors use our site. These cookies help us recognize returning visitors and improve the experience. We do not track you across other websites. We do not share personal information with third parties for advertising purposes. You can clear cookies through your browser settings at any time.

Session recordings and heatmaps

PostHog also shows us how pages are actually used: where visitors click, how far they scroll, and a playback of how a page was navigated. We use this to find parts of the site that are confusing or broken, such as a table that is hard to read on a phone. Text you type into forms, including quote requests, contact messages and calculator inputs, is masked and is not captured in a recording. We do not use any of this for advertising, we do not sell or share it, and we do not link it to your name or email address. Opting out through your browser settings, or clearing cookies, stops it in the same way as the analytics cookies above.

SMB Compare in AI assistants

SMB Compare is our tool that lets AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude look up prices from our comparison tables for the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. When you use it, the assistant sends us only the business figures you give it (for example card volume, average sale or number of employees), the country and the category. It does not send us your name, email address or phone number. We do not control what the assistant itself collects; that is covered by the assistant provider’s own privacy policy.

We log each request (which tool, country, category, which assistant platform, whether the figures were complete, the outcome and the time). We do not store the network address a request comes from, in any form, and we keep these logs for 24 months.

The tool only returns prices and links to our website. It cannot submit a quote request or anything else on your behalf. If you follow a link from the assistant to our website, a first-party cookie calledmc_entryrecords for 7 days that you arrived from the AI tool, and which assistant. If you click through to a provider or request a quote in that time, we note that it came from the AI tool. The cookie stores only the assistant’s name and the time you arrived, and it is not set if you have opted out of analytics. A quote request you make on our website after following such a link is an ordinary website quote request, covered by the rest of this policy.

Server logs

Like most websites, our hosting provider records standard server logs (IP address, request path, timestamp, user-agent) for security and debugging purposes. Logs are retained for a limited period.

3. Why we collect it

• To send your quote request to the providers you have selected, and to up to 2 more listed providers suited to your business.
• To respond to questions or feedback you send us.
• To measure the effectiveness of our comparisons and how providers perform on our site.
• To improve the accuracy, coverage, and usefulness of the comparison.
• To meet our legal and tax obligations.

4. How we use and disclose your information

We do not sell your personal information. We only share quote request details with the specific provider or providers you have asked to receive a quote from, and with up to 2 more listed providers suited to your business. Aggregate analytics and click data may be shared with payment providers in anonymised, non-identifying form, but never with information that identifies you personally.

We may disclose personal information where required by law, in response to a lawful request from a regulator or court, or to protect our legal rights.

5. Service providers and data transfers

We use third-party service providers to operate the site, including cloud hosting and database providers, product analytics providers (PostHog), and transactional email providers. Some of these providers may process personal information in states or countries other than your own. We take reasonable steps to ensure each provider handles personal information appropriately.

6. How we store and protect your information

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorized access, modification, and disclosure. Data is transmitted over HTTPS, stored at rest in a managed database with row-level access controls, and your IP address is hashed before being recorded with an affiliate click. Access to personal data is limited to people who need it to operate the site.

7. Cookies and similar technologies

We use first-party analytics cookies (PostHog) to recognize returning visitors and measure how the site is used. We do not use advertising cookies, and we do not share data with advertising networks. We may also use a small number of strictly necessary cookies that keep core functions of the site working. You can control or disable cookies in your browser settings. We also set a first-party cookie called mc_entry for 7 days when you arrive from the SMB Compare AI tool, to record that you arrived from it and which assistant.

8. Accessing, correcting, or deleting your information

You can request access to the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Send your request via our contact form. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Complaints

If you believe we have mishandled your personal information, please contact us first via our contact form. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to lodge a complaint with the data protection or privacy authority in your jurisdiction.

10. Children

SMB Compare is intended for business owners and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page indicates when it was last revised. If we make material changes, we will note them on this page and, where appropriate, notify you by email.

See also our Terms of Use.