Mumsnet
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
Mumsnet is a British forum for parents — more precisely, a large discussion section, «Talk», wrapped around editorial material, reviews and calendars. The platform states its purpose this way: to make parents' lives easier by pooling knowledge, advice and support. It has a history of its own too: the site was conceived in early 2000 by Justine Roberts after a disastrous family holiday.
For a business, something else matters more here. Mumsnet sells advertising openly and directly: it has a separate domain for advertisers, a published media kit, «sponsored discussion» and «sponsored Q&A» formats right in the forum feed, a research panel and a creator network. At the same time, promoting your own brand on the forum is prohibited by the rules — and you need to understand that combination before you start.
The operator is Mumsnet Ltd, registered in England under number 03951486. There is a sister project for the older generation, Gransnet, mentioned in the terms of use as a second Mumsnet trademark.
Who's here
The platform publishes numbers willingly, but all of them are its own. The «About us» section reports: around 8 million unique visitors a month and around 100 million page views. The research page adds: an average of around 700 thousand user posts a month on Mumsnet and 8 million users across the whole portfolio.
The advertising site gives a fuller set — and also in the first person: over 26 years more than 118 million organic conversations; 8 million reach a month; 11 minutes of attention per session; reach three times that of its nearest competitor; every month 1 in 3 adult women aged 35–54 visits Mumsnet; 25 thousand posts a day, 80 % of which go beyond the subject of motherhood.
These figures have a single owner — Mumsnet itself. Neither a methodology nor an independent measurer (an industry panel, say) is named on the pages we checked. The phrase «three times its nearest competitor», with no competitor and no measurement source given, should be treated as marketing.
There are thematic numbers as well: for instance, the platform reports 51 million page views and 1 million posts in the entertainment and travel section, and 281 million views of «Christmas» conversations. The language is English and the audience is stated to be British.
Getting started
Registration is ordinary and free. But after that comes a fork you need to follow to the end.
There is nowhere for a brand to run a «page» of its own on Mumsnet — this is a forum, not a social network with company profiles. The discussion rules explicitly prohibit self-promotion: the platform removes attempts to clutter the boards with links promoting your own product, service, survey or petition, because it annoys members. The same place names the legal way round and its price: non-members who need a response from Mumsnet users can post a request on the Non-member requests board for £30. That is close to the only entry price the platform publishes for an outsider.
Affiliate links are prohibited too: the terms of use require that you may not post affiliate links without Mumsnet's prior permission — even though Mumsnet itself uses affiliate links and earns commission on sales.
So there is one working route for a business: the advertising department. The entry point is a separate site, advertising.mumsnet.com, with an enquiry form and a media kit to download.
What you can publish
For a member — threads and posts in the Talk section. The rules are short and firm: no personal attacks; nothing unlawful, including inciting hatred; no trolling, misleading or deliberately provocative behaviour; no «troll hunting»; no spam.
Swearing is covered separately: the platform does not delete swear words («we are grown-ups after all»), but it draws the line at obscenity and at racist, ageist, disablist, homophobic and transphobic remarks. You may edit a post for a short time after publication and only to correct a mistake; changing the meaning of a post by editing is not allowed.
Fundraising is restricted: only fundraising for registered charities may be promoted on the Talk boards.
An advertiser has access to formats visible right in the site navigation: «sponsored discussions» and «sponsored Q&As» — separate Talk sections, and also research products: the Mumsnet Voices panel and the MumsGPT tool, which the platform calls a data source for partnerships.
How to grow
Mumsnet does not describe a feed algorithm — the forum is arranged by thread activity. Brand growth here is bought or earned through an editorial partnership.
The platform puts its capabilities this way: advertising on Mumsnet is not only brand visibility but also understanding the audience; brands appear at the heart of conversations, next to discussions of their category, their customers and their competitors. Campaign results are published as case studies with the platform's own numbers: «1 in 2 parents took action», «+12 pp in consideration of solar panels and heat pumps for Octopus Energy», «3.3x engagement in a Q&A with London Gynaecology». All the measurements belong to Mumsnet and its partners; no methodology is given.
One more channel is creators: the platform has a network of influential creators of its own, the «Influencers network». There are no terms, rates or reach requirements on the open page.
Important for planning: the platform reserves the right to place advertising next to your user content and to use it for advertising and promotional purposes.
Path to monetization
Mumsnet does not pay its users. What is more, the terms of use are built the other way round: the platform may publish, edit or reject any submitted content for any purpose, including commercial ones, without payment to the author, unless otherwise agreed in writing in advance. By uploading material the author grants Mumsnet a worldwide, fully paid-up, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and transferable licence to use, sell, rent, copy and adapt the content. Copyright meanwhile stays with the author, who may go on using the material themselves.
Money also flows the other way through reader subscriptions. Mumsnet sells ad-free access: the annual plan is £29.99 a year (the platform frames it as a 15 % saving), the monthly one £2.99 a month. A subscriber is promised no advertising and no tracking, a per-user topic filter and priority in product testing. The subscription terms are described in the rules as well: Mumsnet offers monthly and annual subscriptions and reserves the right to change the mix of services for different categories of users.
Tools and automation
Mumsnet has no public API: neither documentation nor a developer section was found on the pages we checked. That is not an accident but a position: the terms of use contain an extensive prohibition on automated data collection.
The wording is direct: you may not conduct, facilitate, authorise or permit text and data mining, web scraping or automated data extraction from the site for the development, training, fine-tuning or validation of artificial intelligence and machine learning systems, nor for creating datasets, models or derivative databases that reproduce the site's content or compete with it. The same clause covers using any robots, bots, spiders and scrapers for systematic access to, collection, copying or reproduction of substantial parts of the site.
What is allowed: ordinary search indexing — crawling in order to index publicly available content, showing links, limited extracts and citing the site as a source, including in AI-generated answers — provided this does not reproduce substantial parts of the content, does not replace a visit to the site and complies with industry standards, including robots.txt. It is stated separately that nothing in this clause grants permission to use the site's content for training or improving AI systems, and that the clause is declared an express reservation of rights, including for the purposes of article 4(3) of the European directive 2019/790 on copyright in the digital single market.
The practical conclusion: any scheduling service, mention-monitoring tool or Mumsnet thread parser operates outside the platform's rules. The legal way to obtain data is to apply for a licence at the address given in the terms.
Limits and rules
- Promotion without permission is prohibited. Spamming links to your own product, service, survey or petition is removed.
- Affiliate links — only with permission. You may not post them without Mumsnet's prior consent.
- A fee for approaching the audience. For non-members — £30 for a request on the Non-member requests board.
- Ad blockers are prohibited. The platform puts it plainly: Mumsnet is free and funded by advertising, and users with blockers are «riding at the expense» of everyone else.
- Scraping and AI training are prohibited. See the clause on automated systems.
- Rights to content. The platform receives a broad perpetual licence and the right to place advertising next to your material.
- Moderation by context. The platform warns that there are few hard rules and moderators decide by context, tone and circumstances.
- Disclosures about abuse. There is a separate policy: the platform may in rare cases contact the relevant authorities for a member's safety.
Who it's for
It suits brands with products and services for parents — from baby goods and health to home appliances, insurance, banks and travel. The audience is stated narrowly and usefully: 1 in 3 adult women aged 35–54 a month, and that is a rare degree of targeting precision for the British market.
It suits those who need research rather than impressions: the Voices panel and «sponsored discussions» give textual feedback from the target audience, not just clicks.
It does not suit a self-run presence: any attempt to keep a «brand page» here runs into the ban on spam and on affiliate links. It does not suit automation or mention analytics: scraping is explicitly prohibited and there is no API. And it does not suit you if your product is outside the United Kingdom: the platform is English-language and British by audience.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself as follows: «Mumsnet makes parents' lives easier by pooling knowledge, advice and support on everything from conception to childbirth, from babies to teenagers.»
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
the operator is Mumsnet Ltd, registered in England under number 03951486
The footer of the advertising site
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform reports: the site was conceived in early 2000 by Justine Roberts after a disastrous family holiday
The «About us» section
source, checked 2026-07-28
Who's here
the platform reports: around 8 million unique visitors a month and around 100 million page views
Mumsnet's claim about itself; the methodology and the measurement date are not named
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform reports: an average of around 700 thousand user posts a month and 8 million users across the whole portfolio
The Audience Insight page
source, checked 2026-07-28
the advertising site reports: over 26 years more than 118 million organic conversations; 8 million reach a month; 11 minutes of attention per session; reach three times that of its nearest competitor; 1 in 3 adult women aged 35–54 a month; 25 thousand posts a day, 80 % of them not about motherhood
All the figures are Mumsnet's claims about itself; neither the competitor nor the measurer is named
source, checked 2026-07-28
Content
the discussion rules: no personal attacks; nothing unlawful, including inciting hatred; no trolling or misleading behaviour; no «troll hunting»; no spam. Swear words are not deleted, but the line is drawn at obscenity and discriminatory remarks
The Talk Guidelines section
source, checked 2026-07-28
only fundraising for registered charities may be promoted on the Talk boards
The discussion rules
source, checked 2026-07-28
Advertising
the advertising products: sponsored discussions and sponsored Q&As as Talk sections, the Mumsnet Voices research panel and the MumsGPT tool; entry is through a separate site, advertising.mumsnet.com, with an enquiry form and a media kit to download
The «Insights», «Case studies» and «Work with us» sections
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
the platform does not pay users: the terms expressly allow it to publish, edit or reject submitted content for any purpose, including commercial ones, without payment to the author, unless otherwise agreed in writing in advance
Clause 2a of the terms of use
source, checked 2026-07-28
Paid subscriptions
an ad-free subscription: £29.99 a year (the platform frames it as a 15 % saving) or £2.99 a month; it gives no advertising and no tracking, a per-user topic filter and priority in product testing
The Ad-free page with the rates
source, checked 2026-07-28
Pricing
non-members who need a response from users can post a request on the Non-member requests board for £30
The only entry price the platform publishes for an outsider
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
self-promotion is prohibited: the platform removes attempts to clutter the boards with links promoting your own product, service, survey or petition
The «Posting links and spamming» section of the discussion rules
source, checked 2026-07-28
posting affiliate links without Mumsnet's prior permission is prohibited, even though Mumsnet itself uses affiliate links and earns commission on sales
Clause 4 of the terms of use
source, checked 2026-07-28
ad blockers are prohibited: the platform writes that it is free and funded by advertising, and that users with blockers are «riding at the expense» of everyone else
The discussion rules
source, checked 2026-07-28
Legal
by uploading material the author grants Mumsnet a worldwide, fully paid-up, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and transferable licence to use, sell, rent, copy and adapt the content; copyright stays with the author; the platform may place advertising next to user content and use it for promotional purposes
Clause 2 of the terms of use
source, checked 2026-07-28
text and data mining, web scraping and automated data extraction for the development, training, fine-tuning or validation of AI and machine learning systems, and for creating datasets and derivative databases, are prohibited; ordinary search indexing showing links and limited extracts is allowed provided robots.txt is respected; the clause is declared an express reservation of rights under article 4(3) of EU directive 2019/790
Clauses 1e–1f of the terms of use
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: en
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
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