Let me guess, someone showed you Monat products and the business plan, but you wonder, “Is Monat A Scam?” If yes, you’ve come to the right place.
In my Monat review, I’ll walk you through the whole thing with the below topics:
- What Is Monat?
- How To Make Money With Monat?
- Monat Compensation Plan
- Monat 2021 Income Disclosure
- Monat Pros & Cons
- Who Is Monat For?
- Can You Make Money Selling Monat?
- Is Monat A Scam?
Without further ado, let’s dive deep and get started!
Disclaimer: As the owner of Smileaffiliatesuccess.com, I have tracked down special deals for products, tools, and services mentioned herein. When you click my affiliate links on this page to make a purchase, I may get a small commission, and you will definitely get a great bargain. This is a win-win advantage for both of us.
What Is Monat?
-Summary of Monat-
Product Name: Monat
Founders: founded by Luis and Ray Urdaneta in 2014
Product Type: Haircare MLM
Price: $99-$599 Starter Kit & $49.95 Annual Renewal Fee & 200PV Per Month
Recommend: No
Luis and Ray Urdaneta founded Monat in 2014. They provide a wide range of natural hair care products that can solve all kinds of hair issues. Monat is the first company in the personal care and beauty area of direct selling companies that take hair care products as the primary product. This makes them stand out from the crowd.
In 2017, Monat’s sales revenue exceeded $300 million, a growth of 700% in 3 years. They currently have half a million distributors and one million VIP customers worldwide. They also run business operations in Canada(2015) & the United Kingdom(2018).
What’s inside Monat?
Besides hair care products, Monat has other products to help its distributors maximize earnings. In recent years, they have expanded the product line and included skincare, pet, and men’s products.
But, I won’t mention every product in this article. Otherwise, we will digress from our main intent – Monat’s business opportunity. So, I will only list the product lines below.
Product Lines
- Hair: Rejuveniqe Oil Intensive, restructuring/advanced hydrating collections, etc.
- Monat Junior For Kids: Shampoo, conditioner, gentle detangler.
- Monat Black For Men: Shave cream, shampoo + conditioner, styling clay, beard oil(similar to Young Living & doTERRA essential oils)
- Skin: Cleanser, illuminating serum, eye cream, moisturizer, etc.
- Pet: Dog wash and deodorizing spray.
If you are interested in Monat products and want to know more, you are welcome to check HERE.
Does Monat Product Work?
I don’t use any Monat products, so I cannot give you any feedback on this. I’ve managed to find out what other users said about the products.
Taking Monat hair care products as an instance, the negative comments seem to outweigh the positive. I cannot deny the truth that there are tons of complaints against Monat on the internet. Here are some examples:



When I find a product with many complaints, I will also check its Better Business Bureau(BBB) page. Although Monat gets an A rating on BBB, I am not surprised since it could be done by all distributors in the USA, Canada, and the UK.
Monat BBB page shows 1,023 complaints in the last three years(340 complaints each year), but only 166 cases closed last year(less than 50%). The number is low.
How To Make Money With Monat?
For all MLMs, there are two ways to make money, and Monat is no exception.
- Sell Monat products to earn retail commissions
- Recruit people to become your downlines to make group sales for bonuses and incentives
Getting Started
The first thing to do is find yourself a Market Partner, AKA your upline, so it’s inevitable to become someone’s downline.
The next step is to pick a starter kit that costs $99+ to become a Monat distributor. Once you get any of them at hand, you are all set and ready to start your Monat business journey.
Here is the list of other starter kits:
- Starter Kit $99
- Essentials Combo Product Pack $199
- Be Balanced Skin Essentials Product Pack $220
- Success Product Pack $349
- Overachiever Product Pack $599

The cost doesn’t stop here. To be active and eligible for commissions, you must have at least 200PV per month. If you cannot sell 200PV products to anyone you know, you would probably purchase the products yourself.
Besides the monthly quota, there is an annual renewal fee of $49.99. Now, we can calculate the total cost of becoming a Monat Market Partner for one year.
- Starter Kit $99-$599
- Monthly Requirement 200PV*12=$2,400
- An Annual Renewal Fee of $49.99
The best case is $2,548.99, while the worst is $3,048.99. Other costs, such as additional training, travel, gas, food, or miscellaneous expenses, are not included, so the total cost must be higher than my calculation here.
Monat Compensation Plan
Here we come to the most complicated part of this review.
MLMs like to create fancy terms and acronyms to make people see loads of ways to make money. Don’t worry today. I’ve made things easier for you:
- Retail Bonus: Earn 30% from retail customers and 15% from VIP Customers.
- Personal Sales Bonus: Besides a retail bonus, you can earn a personal extra sales bonus once you reach a certain amount of sales. Sell $1,000-$1,999 PV and earn 3%. Sell $2,000-$3,499 PV and earn 5%. Sell $3,500 PV or above and earn 10%.
- VIP Acquisition Bonus: When you enroll 4 VIP customers in a calendar month, you can earn a $60 bonus. This bonus is unlimited each month.
- Uni-level Bonus: When you bring people into Monat, they will be placed under you(the top) to become your “level 1”. When your level 1s bring people in, those people become your “level 2” and so on. You earn 3% to 12%, going four levels deep but infinity wide.
- Group Volume Bonus: This is only paid to Managing Market Builder or above. You are paid a 2% bonus based on your group sales volume and the next Managing Market Builder in your downline.
This is probably everything you need to know about the Monat Compensation plan. Feel Dizzy?
Just remember two things: sell the products and recruit people as much as possible. Once you turn yourself into a recruiting machine and a full-time sales manager, you’ll start making money with Monat.
How Much You Need to Sell to Stay Active?
For a Market Partner, you must have 200 personal volume(PV) in a calendar month to qualify for commissions and bonuses.
Monat Ranking 2021
There are 11 distributor rankings within Monat. People start from a market partner, managing market partner, and all the ways to the top – Senior Executive Director.
Typically, the higher the ranking, the more requirements you need to maintain your status.

What I Like About Monat
TOP#1 NO Toxic Ingredients
Monat claims that its products don’t contain any toxic ingredients. It’s good for our health since we wash our hair, face, and body daily.
Here is the list that they don’t use for production:
- Parabens
- SLS/SLES
- Cyclic Silicones
- BHT
- DEA/MEA
- Phthalates
- Phenoxyethanol
- Petrolatum
- Mineral Oil
- Paraffin Wax
- Triclosan
- Plastic Microbeads
- Formaldehyde Releasers
- Harmful Colors &Fragrances
Besides no toxic ingredients used in Monat’s products, they also received the Leaping Bunny Certification for their hair care product line in 2018. This means they don’t use animal testing on their hair care products, which is good.
TOP#2 Monat Gratitude
Monat Gratitude was founded in Oct 2014, one month after Monat launched the first nine hair care products. Monat Gratitude aims to positively impact the communities and change the world.
They donate money domestically & internationally, volunteer with the salvation army, give shelter books, etc. Whether Monat does this for a publicity stunt or not, it’s better to do something than nothing.

TOP#3 Monat Won Many Awards
Monat is one of the MLM companies that leverage social media(Facebook and Instagram) so well, winning some marketing awards.
- 2016 Hermes Creative Awards Gold Award
- 2016 Bronze Stevie Award-Motivational Video (“Life After MONAT”)
- 2016 Communications Campaign of the Year – Social Media Focused (“Real People, Real Possibilities”)
- MarCom Awards Gold – Digital Media-Social Media (Social Media Engagement & Blog overall)
Ugly Truth About Monat
TOP#1 Lots of Complaints
As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, Monat has many complaints, especially about hair care products. Other than that, it also got issues with the cancellation process.
When you want to join Monat or buy the products, you can refer to all the complaints in this article. You might have the same problem just like those angry customers online.
TOP#2 Monat 2021 Income Disclosure
Let’s read some interesting numbers! Monat 2021 income disclosure shows many insider information.

- 93.36% of all Market Partners made an annual earning of $144
- 3.26% of all Market Partners made less than $2,000
- Only 0.1% made $100k+ per year
I don’t know about you, but 0.1% seems pretty low to me. In that case, you may choose to become a Monat customer or a VIP customer if you love the product.
I don’t think the business plan is a “work from home and be your own boss” opportunity, especially in the first few years of joining Monat.
TOP#3 Many Lawsuits
Monat also faces lawsuits for being deceptive and fraudulent after many complaints about the products and the cancellation process.
You can find it on the Internet without much effort needed. Here are some proofs:
Who Is Monat For?
Women love hair care products and love meeting new people to promote Monat’s products repeatedly.
If you are like me, shy & introverted & don’t care about hair that much, you still have a chance to make money online successfully. I’ll show you in one minute. Read on!
Can You Make Money Selling Monat?
Yes, you can make a few bucks with Monat for the first year, while only 0.1% made decent money.
But, if you want to make a lot of money with Monat, you need to keep recruiting people to become your downlines & teach them to do the same.
Is Monat A Scam? Or A Pyramid Scheme?
No! Although Monat has many complaints and lawsuits, we cannot say it is a scam. Monat has haircare products and a business plan that helps people make money.
The questions are:
- Do you want to join a company with many complaints and lawsuits?
- Do you like face-to-face selling and constantly recruiting people?
- Can you accept that you might only earn $144 for the first few years?
If you get one “No!” from the above questions, you are welcome to check my alternative to make money online.
My Alternative Way to Make Money Online
My alternative way to make money online is through Affiliate Marketing instead of promoting Monat products in person.
Imagine you sell Monat products to your friends, family, or anyone around you. Don’t you feel blushed? My face turns blushed when I only imagine myself selling products, not to mention that they might avoid you ever since.
Doing affiliate marketing will save you from that:
- It’s free to start your affiliate marketing business.
- You don’t need to buy physical products and sell them face to face.
- There is no monthly minimum sales quota in affiliate marketing.
- You don’t recruit people to become your downlines to build a team.
- You are not restricted to promoting one product. You can promote anything you like!
- Work on your schedules & you are your OWN BOSS!
You only need to create a website with quality content. So every time people land on your site to read your product reviews or other articles, they will find insight and value.
If they like it, they may purchase the products or services via your links. Here come your earning potentials.

The platform I am using currently is Wealthy Affiliate. You will find all the proven-to-work training courses, every Friday night LIVE training courses, one keyword research tool called Jaaxy, 24/7 site support, and the most friendly community.

You are more than welcome to check my full Wealthy Affiliate review HERE, or click the button right below to start your online journey with us.
Wealthy Affiliate Income Proof
Here are some of the most active members from Wealthy Affiliate. Each of them did succeed in generating a sustainable income to replace their 9-5 jobs. You are more than welcome to check their stories HERE.
- I Made Over $1 Million With Affiliate Marketing.
- Can someone make a full time income promoting WA? You bet they can!
- What Does $1000 Per Day Look Like?$
- 40,000 In One Weekend
- A Very Humbling $12,803.26 Month – August Progress Report
- It’s Getting Better: $500+ in 2 Days
- Newbies Pay Attention! $5,195.20 Affiliate Check for June: Thanks WA!
- Joined the 10K Per Month Club. January Earnings $13,481.39
- New Record: $1,300+ Per DAY! Affiliate Marketing Works & Rocks!
- Made $7,395 in a WEEK: First Black Friday Results!
I hope you enjoy this review and you are more than welcome to share ideas or leave your comments below. I will reply as soon as I can, thanks.
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What I don’t understand is how a company like Monat has won several awards, but then receives so many complaints, and they are all about hair loss … That should put anyone off of buying any product of theirs or even promoting it.
I would feel like a fraud promoting hair products that are likely to provoke hair loss. No, thank you.
It’s a bad sign that Monat does not seem to have acted on these complaints. I mean, have they taken steps to improve their products, to do something about the complaints about hair loss?
Hi Christine,
I am not a big fan of any MLM business opportunity, so I cannot answer the reason why Monat got so many awards. Maybe the advertising company they hired did a good job of promoting Monat or their advertisements were indeed creative about hair loss…
You are right about the lying feeling when you promote Monat since you know they might worsen the hair loss issue according to the feedback on the internet. I would rather promote things that I like to use & it’s safe and good for our body.
Cheers,
Matt
Hi Matt,
Those complaints are not good for a company selling hair-care products..!! Buy our product and start losing your hair – no thanks..!
As with so many of these programs, having the buy a healthy chunk of product each month just to earn commission is the kind of lock-in that turns me off.
And then not being able to cancel..??
Not a good advertisement for the Network Marketing Industry..!
Cheers,
Martin.
Hi Martin,
Yes, I believe the last thing people want to see is that you purchase haircare products to harm your hairs… So terrible! For me, some MLMs do provide a high-quality products that can survive through time like Tupperware. But, if you want me to join an MLM that hurt people’s hair by the products I sell, I think that’s a big “NO!”
I hope you enjoy my review and make a good decision towards Monat, and you are very welcome to check out more MLM review in my website or directly try this ONE. 🙂
Cheers,
Matt