Frequently asked questions
Everything people ask us about RankBid, answered so each one stands on its own. If yours isn't here, email hello@rankbid.ca and a person in Calgary will answer.
What is RankBid?
RankBid is Canada's pay-to-rank leaderboard, a public business directory for the Canadian market where the order is decided by money. Every listing is ranked by the total it has paid, all time, highest first. Listing starts at $10 CAD. Payments are one-time, never expire and are never refunded. There are no accounts, no ads and no subscriptions. RankBid is run by Flowtify in Calgary, Alberta, and launched in 2026.
Who can list a business on RankBid?
Anyone can list a business, product, service, app, store or organization. You do not need to own it. Paying to promote a business you do not own is allowed, though you cannot edit its details unless your email is on the listing's own domain. You need a real URL, a province and city (or "Global" for a business outside Canada), a contact email and at least $10 CAD. No account required.
Can a business outside Canada be listed?
Yes. Pick "Global" instead of "Canada" on the form. A global business sits on the same board, ranked by the same rule, and appears in its category. It is marked "Global business" and shows no city or country. It does not appear on any province or city board, and it does not carry the Canadian badge.
What counts as a Canadian business?
A business with a real Canadian connection: headquartered, registered, founded or primarily operating in Canada. A Toronto SaaS company counts. A Calgary plumber counts. A Vancouver founder's app on a .com domain counts. A US company with a Canadian mailing address does not. Canadian status is self-declared when you submit, and Flowtify may remove listings that are clearly not Canadian, with no refund. Some listings carry a "Verified Canadian" badge after review.
How much does it cost to list?
Listing a business costs a minimum of $10 CAD, paid once. To take #1 on a board you need to exceed the current #1 by at least $5. To take any other spot you need $1 more than the holder. Top-ups start at $5. Whole dollars only, and the maximum single payment is $50,000. The calculator shows the exact amount before checkout, and there is nothing else to pay. No renewals, no monthly fee.
What happens when someone outbids me?
You move down one spot and they take yours. Your total does not change and your listing stays live. If you were in the top 50 of the national board or your city board, you get an email with a one-click "Reclaim #N for $X" link showing exactly what it costs to take the spot back. We send at most one outbid email per listing every 6 hours, and you can unsubscribe from alerts at any time.
How do top-ups work?
Enter your URL on the submit page and RankBid recognizes it and switches to the top-up flow instead of creating a duplicate. You pay only the difference between your current total and the total you want. The minimum top-up is $5 CAD. Anyone can top up any listing, including one they do not own, so a happy customer, or a rival with a sense of humour, can push you up the board.
Can I get a refund?
No. Payments on RankBid are not refundable, and we say so on the submission form, at checkout and in the terms. That includes being outbid, changing your mind, and having a listing removed for breaking the rules. Your payment buys a permanent addition to your listing's total, not a time-limited spot, so there is nothing to refund when the board moves. Chargebacks are treated as removed payments and the listing is hidden until the dispute is resolved.
Why are there no accounts?
Because you do not need one. Stripe handles payment, and we email you a private manage link for edits. There is no password to forget, no profile to fill in and no login wall between you and the board. It also keeps the site fast and keeps the data we hold small, which matters under Canadian privacy law. If you lose your manage link, email hello@rankbid.ca from the address you paid with.
What is the manage link?
The manage link is a private URL emailed to the person who paid for a listing. It is your only credential, so keep the email. With it you can edit the listing's name, tagline, description, logo, category, city and contact email, top up, turn outbid alerts on or off, and see click counts and payment history. Do not post it anywhere public. If you lose it, email hello@rankbid.ca from the address you paid with and we will resend it.
How do I edit my listing, and what is the verified owner rule?
Open your manage link and change what you like. If the email you paid with is on the same domain as the listed website (say, jane@acmeplumbing.ca for acmeplumbing.ca), the listing shows a "Verified owner" badge and your edits go live immediately. If not, changes to the name, tagline and description are held for admin approval, usually within two business days. This stops a stranger from paying $10 to rewrite a business's description. Logo, category, city and contact email changes apply immediately for everyone.
What is an unclaimed listing, and how do I remove one?
Unclaimed listings are businesses Flowtify added from public information so the boards were useful from day one. They show $0 and an "Unclaimed" label. The first payment of $10 or more claims the listing, and the payer becomes its manager under the verified owner rule. If you would rather your business did not appear at all, send a removal request through the contact page and it will be removed within two business days, free.
Do I get a backlink?
Not one that passes ranking authority. Links to listed websites go through a tracked redirect (/go/your-slug) and carry rel="sponsored nofollow", because they are paid placements and Google's link spam policies require it. What you get is visibility and traffic: a ranked listing on Canada's pay-to-rank leaderboard, a listing page of your own, and counted clicks. If you want backlinks, publish something people want to link to.
How do ranks on city and category boards work?
Every listing has one total, and that total ranks it on every board it belongs to: Canada, its province, its city, its category, and its category within its city. Your rank on each board is your position among the listings on that board. So $40 might be #200 in Canada and #1 for web design in Lethbridge. Small boards are cheap on purpose.
What happens when two listings have the same total?
The listing that reached that total first ranks higher. If you and a competitor both sit at $100, whoever hit $100 first holds the higher spot. To pass them you need $101, or $105 if they hold #1 on that board. Clicks, listing age and badges do not break ties, and neither does a polite email to us.
What cannot be listed?
Adult content, gambling and betting, cannabis, tobacco and vaping products, weapons, payday loans, multi-level marketing, and anything illegal in Canada. Also chat and invite links (Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack), link shorteners, affiliate or tracking links, and pages that impersonate another business. Query strings are stripped from every URL, so tracking parameters do not work anyway. Listings that break these rules are removed without refund.
How fast does a listing go live?
The moment Stripe confirms your payment, usually within three seconds of checkout. The success page shows your rank and share buttons, and your confirmation email with the manage link arrives within a minute or two. Flowtify reviews listings after they are published, not before, so nothing waits in a queue. If the success page is still waiting after 20 seconds, the listing will appear as soon as the payment clears and the email is on its way.
Do I get a receipt, and is tax charged?
Stripe emails a receipt for every payment. Prices are shown in Canadian dollars before tax. GST or HST is added at checkout where Flowtify is required to collect it, and the tax amount appears on your Stripe receipt. The receipt shows the amount, the date and Flowtify as the seller, which is what your bookkeeper needs. Flowtify is in Calgary, Alberta.
Who runs RankBid, and how do I reach you?
RankBid is run by Flowtify, a Canadian SaaS company in Calgary, Alberta, founded by Martin Pereira. Email hello@rankbid.ca for anything: lost manage links, removal requests, press, rule questions. We answer within two business days, and removal requests for unclaimed listings are handled within two business days as well. The contact page has a form if you prefer one.
List your business on Canada's board from $10
Still stuck? The rules are the short version of what is allowed, and the contact page reaches a person in Calgary within two business days.