Regardless of whether they are considered independent or not, their articles include thorough reviews of journal articles about supplements (absent any manufacturer information) in the journal review section of their publications. I find this section of their reviews to be unbiased--as all of their statements are backed up by a journal reference--and full of excellent references to nutrition, endocrinology and other scientific journals. I tend to bounce their reviews off of my sister who has a Ph.D. in endocrinology and is a professor at a large university. She agrees with their advice and respects the reference sources.

They also include tests of brand-specific products paid for by the manufacturers who have products included in the tests. If Consumerlab indicates that a product has lead in it, I'm definitely not taking it. I find value in that sort of information (regardless of whether they are paid or not for testing specific brands). I also find their brand reviews to be extremely matter-of-fact. And, I'm much less suspicious of a manufacturer who is open to a third party lab test of their product vs. one who would not include their products in such a review.

Certainly one should consider the source, but when the source has a wealth of related but non-marketing information, I am happy to use it to my advantage. I've found very few other sources with as much information available (besides doing my own journal reviews which can be quite time consuming). If you have one, please share as I'm always looking for new information.