How DreamUnivs makes money
DreamUnivs is funded by three revenue streams: direct sales of our research products to readers, affiliate fees from carefully selected partners, and (in the future) premium services. This page explains in detail how each stream works, who our partners are, and what they pay us.
Direct product sales
The largest portion of our revenue comes from selling our research products directly to readers — DreamPath and DreamPrep subscriptions for younger students’ families, DreamApply and DreamGrad Apply one-time bundles for application-year students. These are how we keep the lights on without depending on commercial relationships with the universities and consultancies we cover.
You can read about each product on its respective page. These products are paid for by you, the reader, and that’s why we can write the rest of our content honestly.
Affiliate partnerships
Some of our content includes affiliate links — links to companies that pay us a fee when readers click through to them. We have a strict policy on which categories of partners we accept and which we don’t.
Categories we DO accept partnerships from
| Partner type | Specific partners | Why we accept |
|---|---|---|
| Education loans | HDFC Credila, Avanse Financial Services, Auxilo, Prodigy Finance, MPower Financing | Education loans are a regulated financial product. Indian banks and licensed lenders compete openly on terms, rates, and processing. Our content compares these openly. Affiliate fees do not influence our coverage of which lender suits which case. |
| Forex services | Niyo Global, BookMyForex, Wise (when fully launched in India) | Forex is a commodity service where regulatory transparency makes affiliate relationships low-risk. We compare rates and features openly. |
| Student insurance | Tata AIG, ICICI Lombard, Bajaj Allianz | Student travel and health insurance is mandatory for many visas. We list affiliated and unaffiliated providers; affiliate relationships do not affect which we recommend for specific cases. |
| Accommodation platforms | Amber Student, University Living, Casita | Off-campus housing platforms competing on price and inventory. Low manipulation risk. |
| Test prep providers | Princeton Review India, Jamboree Education, IMS | Test prep is a competitive market with transparent pricing and outcomes. We do not exclusively recommend any single provider; affiliate fees do not affect our test-prep guidance. |
| Direct university partnerships | Selective universities (no agents) | Direct admission gateways with universities — meaning the university processes the application directly, with no intermediary agent involved. We disclose every direct university partnership prominently. |
Categories we DO NOT accept partnerships from
No commercial relationships — Study-abroad consultancies. Companies that charge Indian families fees to “place” them at foreign universities are paid by both the family and the university. This double-payment structure creates conflicts that we cannot reconcile with neutral editorial coverage.
No commercial relationships — MBBS-abroad agents. The MBBS-abroad agent industry operates with thin disclosure, frequent active deception about costs and FMGE pass rates, and high commission structures from foreign universities. We do not partner with any agent in this category, and our content actively warns Indian families about how this industry works.
No commercial relationships — Visa-fraud or document-fraud operators. Companies offering “guaranteed admission” or “fast-track visa” services that involve fabricated documents or coached interview deception are illegal and harmful. We do not list them and we do not partner with them.
How affiliate links appear in our content
Every affiliate link in DreamUnivs content is disclosed inline at the point where it appears. Our standard disclosure language is: “We earn a fee when you connect with [partner name]. We pre-vetted them; we don’t accept payments to rank one above another.”
If a comparison table includes affiliated and unaffiliated providers, the affiliated entries are marked. Our editorial recommendations of which provider best fits a specific case are not affected by which providers we have affiliate relationships with.
What affiliate relationships pay
For transparency, here’s the typical range we earn from each partner type:
- Education loan partner — ₹800 to ₹2,000 per qualified loan application
- Forex services — ₹100 to ₹500 per signup
- Student insurance — ₹200 to ₹500 per policy
- Accommodation platforms — ₹300 to ₹800 per booking
- Test prep providers — ₹200 to ₹800 per signup
- Direct university partnerships — ₹2,000 to ₹5,000 per qualified application
These ranges are approximate and may change as commercial terms with partners are renegotiated. Our internal rule is that affiliate fees are an output of which partners we believe in, not an input to which partners we cover.
The promise that backs all of this
The reason for publishing all of this in detail is straightforward: trust requires verifiability. Anyone can claim editorial independence; few publications document it in enough detail that readers can check.
If you find a case where our editorial coverage appears to favor an affiliated partner over a more suitable alternative for the case being discussed, write to us at [email protected]. We take this kind of feedback as the most important reader feedback we receive.
This page is updated whenever our affiliate relationships change. The most recent update is dated at the bottom of the page.
Last updated
This Affiliate Disclosure was last updated in May 2026.