CleverThai is the closest thing to us in format — editorial top lists about Thailand, written by named staff who say they try things before recommending them — and their disclosure is more transparent than most. The differences are structural: they earn commission when a reader buys, we charge a flat listing fee; they publish no way for a business to be listed, we publish both the price and the cap on paid placements; and our readers can vote.
Comparison last checked 2026-08-03
| What matters | Thairanked | CleverThai |
|---|---|---|
| Cost model | A published price: one flat listing fee from 399 THB a year, paid by the business, with no share of anything a reader later spends. | No published price for businesses. Their disclosure states the site earns mainly through affiliate links, that it is free for readers, and that vendors are the ones who pay the commission. |
| How placement is earned | Editors research and rank; verified listings sort above unclaimed ones inside the organic tier; paid featured spots exist, are capped at three per list, and always carry the Thairanked’s Choice badge so a reader can tell them apart. | Editorial, per their published method: candidates found through databases and recommendations, checked against certifications, awards, experience and licences, with the service tried first. Their disclosure states they are not paid for their reviews. Our own experience points the other way: we have received their outreach offering Thairanked a specific ranked position in one of their "Best…" lists for a recurring fee. |
| User input & votes | Readers vote a business up or down on every list, and upvotes are the first sort key in the organic order. Verified businesses get Line, WhatsApp and Facebook share links that turn an arriving reader into a vote in one tap. | Their method does account for what customers commonly say, gathered by their researchers. We found no published feature that lets a reader vote on or rate a listing directly — if that changes, this row changes. |
| Commission on bookings | Zero. We never take a cut of a booking, a cover or a sale — our income is the listing fee and nothing else. | Per their own disclosure, the site may earn commissions on purchases made through it, paid by vendors. That is a normal affiliate model, disclosed openly — but it does mean their revenue moves with your transactions, and ours does not. |
| Placement longevity | Your listing runs for a year and stays published and indexed throughout, moving on votes, views and editorial review. Renewal is yearly and never automatic. | You are on a list for as long as their editors keep you there, with no term and no fee attached either way. Neither of us can promise a permanent position, and neither of us should. |
| Setup effort | One form and one payment. Our team reviews the listing and publishes it, usually within two business days, and keeps the details current for you afterwards. | Nothing to do, and nothing you can do: inclusion follows from their own research. Predictability cuts both ways here — you cannot buy your way in, and you cannot apply either. |
| Audience & languages | Around two-thirds of readers are outside Thailand, and every list is published in 11 languages, so the same ranking is readable in German, Japanese or Korean. | Broad subject range — dining, services, shopping, money, guides — published in English. Their category coverage goes well past travel, which is a real strength if your business is not hospitality. |
| Reporting | Page views on your listing and the votes readers leave, plus a published traffic figure with the period it was measured in: 500,000+ page views Jan–Jul 2026. | We could not find audience or traffic figures published on their site, so we quote none. Absence of a public number is not evidence of a small one — we simply will not guess at somebody else’s numbers. |
They do the work, and they show it. Their published method is specific in a way most list sites never bother with: candidates found through databases, referrals and other platforms, then fact-checked against certifications, awards, years of experience and licences, then actually tried before being written up. The bylines are real people. And the disclosure page is unusually straight — it says plainly that the site earns mainly through affiliate links, that readers pay nothing, that vendors pay the commission, and that they are not paid for their reviews. That is more than many Thailand "top 10" sites will tell you, and it deserves credit rather than a smirk. Their category range is wider than ours too: banking, moving companies, clinics, contractors — places our travel-shaped lists do not go.
Three differences, and none of them is "we try harder". First, who pays and when. Their disclosure says vendors pay commission on purchases made through the site, so their revenue tracks your transactions; ours is one flat fee from 399 THB a year, paid once, with no share of anything that happens afterwards. Second, whether you can take part. There is no published way to be listed on their site — you are included if their researchers pick you. We publish the price, publish that paid featured spots are capped at three per list, and badge every one of them, so a business knows exactly what can and cannot be bought and a reader can see which is which. Third, who moves the order after publication. Our readers vote, upvotes are the first sort key in the organic tier, and a verified business can turn an arriving reader into a vote with one tap from a Line, WhatsApp or Facebook share link. And the ranked order itself is not something we sell: we have received outreach from CleverThai offering Thairanked a specific ranked position in one of their "Best…" lists for a recurring fee, whereas a place in our organic order is set by our editors on merit and moved afterwards by reader votes. Add 11 languages and 500,000+ page views Jan–Jul 2026 — on track for 1M+ in 2026 — with around two-thirds of readers outside Thailand.
This is not really a choice, because only one of the two is something you can buy. If CleverThai’s researchers include you, that is free coverage and you should be pleased about it — there is nothing to sign and nothing to pay. What you cannot do is plan around it. A Thairanked listing is the part you can decide on: a fixed yearly fee, a placement our editors make on merit, a page published in 11 languages, and readers who can vote you up afterwards. If your business is outside travel and hospitality — a moving company, a clinic, a contractor — their category range may serve you better than our lists do, and we would rather point you there than pretend otherwise. If your customers arrive from abroad, that is the gap we are built for.
500,000+ page views Jan–Jul 2026 — on track for 1M+ in 2026. Page views from our analytics, not an estimate, and always quoted with the period they were measured in.
Around two-thirds of readers come from outside Thailand — Germany, the Netherlands, France, Japan, Korea and beyond — and content is published in 11 languages. Your listing reaches the trip that is still being planned, not only the customer already standing on your street.
A single listing fee from 399 THB a year — not a cost per click, not a cost per booking. You know the whole bill before you pay it, and renewal is yearly and never automatic.
We never take a cut of your bookings or sales. What a customer pays you is yours — a busy month costs exactly the same as a quiet one.
Verified businesses get Line, WhatsApp and Facebook share links, and readers who arrive through them can give you a thumbs up in one tap. Upvotes are the first thing our lists sort on, so happy customers can genuinely strengthen your spot — no paid placement can buy that.
Our newsletter subscribers get weekly picks of top-ranked places, new lists and travel tips — and the businesses those picks feature are the ones ranked on the site.
150,000+ Google AI Overview impressions Jan–Jul 2026. When someone asks an assistant where to go in Thailand, ranked lists are the shape of content it can quote — and ours are being quoted.
Join Thairanked from 399 THB a year — one flat fee, zero commission on bookings.