BehindMLM’s original Zilis review was published back in 2017.

The company was then headed up by co-founders Steven and Angie Thompson, with Steven being a former LiveSmart 360 promoter and executive.

Zilis had a large product range but the company’s MLM compensation plan unfortunately focused on autoship recruitment.

This is from the conclusion of BehindMLM’s 2017 Zilis review;

Zilis has some serious compliance issues they need to address.

Zilis have a whole sections of their compensation plan dedicated to direct and indirect affiliate recruitment! Recruitment commissions in MLM are the defining factor of a pyramid scheme.

In June 2025 a BehindMLM reader suggested we update our review, owing to Zilis having a “completely new product line and comp plan.”

With that in mind, today we’re revisiting Zilis for an updated review.

The Company

Whereas Zilis was co-founded by Steven and Angie Thompson in 2015, today only Angie is credited as Zilis’ founder:

There is no mention of Steven Thompson on Zilis’ website. That said, Angie’s Zilis corporate bio states she “has worked side-by-side with Steven” since the 90s.

I’m trying not to read too much into it but it appears something went down between Steven and Angie last year.

Neither of the Thompson’s respective social media profiles have recently featured the other and, in October 2024, Zilis put out a press-release announcing Angie was taking over as CEO:

Divorce? Separation? No idea, but for all intents and purposes Steven Thompson doesn’t appear to be publicly involved in Zilis anymore (Steven’s LinkedIn still cites him as Zilis’ CEO but I’m assuming that just hasn’t been updated).

Zilis’ Products

Zilis’ product range has been greatly trimmed down, a welcome change over the sprawling overlapped offering in 2017.

Categories across Zilis’ products are healthy weight management, beauty and skincare, cellular balance and overall wellness, sleep, energy and cognition, joint and muscle support and “pet”.

Healthy Weight Management

  • UltraGlow Powder Sticks – “precision spectrum hemp powder [that provides] weight management support, promotes a healthy immune system [and] helps with situational stress”, retails at $164.99 for thirty servings
  • B-Fit Powder Sticks – beta-caryophyllene appetite regulation supplement, retails at $149.99 for thirty single-serve sticks

Beauty & Skincare

  • Refreshing Foaming Cleanser – “gently remove dirt and oil with this advanced liquid-to-foam lather”, retails at $67.99 for a 150 ml bottle
  • Restore Face and Neck Serum – “reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles with this luxurious serum”, retails at $149.95 for a 30 ml bottle
  • Revive Lip Balm – “soften and soothe dry, chapped lips and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles”, retails at $22.99 for a 0.17 oz tube
  • Renew Collagen Complex – “supports skin elasticity and the overall appearance of skin”, retails at $82.99 for a bottle of thirty servings
  • Reveal Facial Exfoliant – “supports a healthy skin complexion by gently washing away impurities”, retails at $59.95 for 1.7 fl oz. tube
  • Rehydrate Body Butter – “a rich and silky, non-greasy body butter that absorbs quickly to nurture and deeply moisturize”, retails at $67.99 for a 4 oz. jar
  • Replenish Night Cream – “an ultra-rich and velvety overnight cream that improves the appearance and firmness of aging skin while we rest”, retails at $79.95 for a 1 oz jar
  • Recover Moisturizer – “hydrate and nourish the natural barrier of your skin “, retails at $112.99 for a 50 ml bottle

Cellular Balance & Overall Wellness

  • UltraVibe – “the most advanced hemp product on the market”, retails at $59.99 for a 1 fl oz bottle
  • UltraShield – “supports a healthy immune system”, retails at $164.99 for thirty servings
  • UltraCell – “supports overall, total body wellness”, retails at $164.99 for a 30 ml bottle
  • UltraCBG – “supports gut health and optimal digestion”, retails at $164.99 for a 30 ml bottle
  • UltraIce – “helps balance your body”, retails at $119.99 for a 2 fl oz bottle
  • UltraSupport Vitamin C – “supports a healthy immune system”, no pricing available (shop link broken)
  • UltraSupport Biotix – “supports a reduction of free radicals”, retails at $199.99 for thirty servings

Sleep

  • UltraDream – “supports deep, restful sleep during periods of occasional restlessness”, retails at $149.95 for a 60 ml bottle

Energy & Cognition

  • UltraCafe Happy – “a delicious combination of 100% premium Colombian Arabica coffee and Precision Spectrum Hemp CBC”, no pricing available (shop link broken)
  • UltraEdge – “cognitive and energy support”, retails at $89.95 for a 60 ml bottle of oil or thirty single-serve sachets

Joint & Muscle Support

  • UltraCell Topical Gel – “supports overall skin health and skin conditioning”, retails at $97.99 for a 1 fl oz tube

Pet

  • UltraCell Pet – “healthy coat and skin conditioning support”, retails at $82.99 for a 0.5 fl oz bottle

Note there is still some overlap with Zilis’ product categories and products. To keep things simple I’ve listed products as presented on Zilis’ website in the first category they appear in.

While some of Zilis’ website featured products are absent from its retail storefront, others are in the storefront but not featured on Zilis’ website.

These products include:

  • Amalaki Powder Sticks – “amalaki juice powder”, retails at $99.9 for thirty servings
  • Ultra R&R – “support falling asleep and maintaining restful sleep”, retails at $104.99 for a 0.5 fl oz bottle

Zilis’ Compensation Plan

Zilis’ compensation plan pays on the sale of products to retail customers and recruited promoters.

Autoship is heavily incentivized, for which retail customers are slugged with a $49 annual fee.

Zilis Promoter Ranks

There are sixteen promoter ranks within Zilis’ compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

  1. Ambassador and Active Ambassador (note these appear to be the same rank) – sign up as a Zilis promoter, generate either 50 PV in autoship volume or 75 PV in regular order volume a month, and have generated 100 PV accumulated total
  2. Jade – maintain either 50 PV in autoship volume or 75 PV in regular order volume a month and recruit two Ambassador or higher ranked promoters
  3. Pearl – generate either 100 PV in autoship volume or 150 PV in regulator order volume a month, have generated 500 PV accumulated total, recruit three Ambassador or higher ranked promoters and generate 1000 GV a month (max 400 GV from any one recruitment leg)
  4. Opal – maintain either 100 PV in autoship volume or 150 PV in regulator order volume a month, recruit four Ambassador or higher ranked promoters and generate 3000 GV a month (max 1200 GV from any one recruitment leg)
  5. Ruby – maintain either 100 PV in autoship volume or 150 PV in regulator order volume a month, maintain four personally recruited Ambassador or higher ranked promoters (at least one Jade or higher), generate 6500 GV a month (max 2600 GV from any one recruitment leg and min 1000 GV on either side of the binary team)
  6. Ruby Elite – maintain either 100 PV in autoship volume or 150 PV in regulator order volume a month, maintain four personally recruited Ambassador or higher ranked promoters (at least two Jades or higher), generate 10,000 GV a month (max 4000 GV from any one recruitment leg and min 2000 GV on either side of the binary team)
  7. Sapphire – generate either 150 PV in autoship volume or 225 PV in regulator order volume a month, maintain four personally recruited Ambassador or higher ranked promoters (at least two Jades or higher), generate 20,000 GV a month (max 8000 GV from any one recruitment leg and min 4000 GV on either side of the binary team)
  8. Sapphire Elite – maintain either 150 PV in autoship volume or 225 PV in regulator order volume a month, recruit four Jade or higher ranked promoters, generate 30,000 GV a month (max 12,000 GV from any one recruitment leg and min 6000 GV on either side of the binary team)
  9. Emerald – maintain either 150 PV in autoship volume or 225 PV in regulator order volume a month, recruit six Jade or higher ranked promoters, generate 60,000 GV a month (max 24,000 GV from any one recruitment leg and min 18,000 GV on either side of the binary team)
  10. Emerald Elite – maintain either 150 PV in autoship volume or 225 PV in regulator order volume a month, recruit eight Jade or higher ranked promoters, generate 150,000 GV a month (max 60,000 GV from any one recruitment leg and min 60,000 GV on either side of the binary team)
  11. Diamond – generate either 200 PV in autoship volume or 300 PV in regulator order volume a month, recruit ten Jade or higher ranked promoters, generate 300,000 GV a month (max 90,000 GV from any one recruitment leg and min 120,000 GV on either side of the binary team)
  12. Double Diamond – maintain either 200 PV in autoship volume or 300 PV in regulator order volume a month, maintain ten personally recruited Jade or higher ranked promoters, generate 600,000 GV a month (max 180,000 GV from any one recruitment leg and min 240,000 GV on either side of the binary team)
  13. Triple Diamond – maintain either 200 PV in autoship volume or 300 PV in regulator order volume a month, maintain ten personally recruited Jade or higher ranked promoters, generate 1,000,000 GV a month (max 300,000 GV from any one recruitment leg and min 400,000 GV on either side of the binary team)
  14. Black Diamond Elite – generate either 300 PV in autoship volume or 450 PV in regulator order volume a month, recruit twelve Jade or higher ranked promoters, generate 2,000,000 GV a month (max 600,000 GV from any one recruitment leg and min 800,000 GV on either side of the binary team)
  15. Double Black Diamond Elite – maintain either 300 PV in autoship volume or 450 PV in regulator order volume a month, maintain twelve personally recruited Jade or higher ranked promoters, generate 4,000,000 GV a month (max 1,200,000 GV from any one recruitment leg and min 1,600,000 GV on either side of the binary team)
  16. Triple Black Diamond Elite – maintain either 300 PV in autoship volume or 450 PV in regulator order volume a month, maintain twelve personally recruited Jade or higher ranked promoters, generate 8,000,000 GV a month (max 2,400,000 GV from any one recruitment leg and min 3,200,000 GV on either side of the binary team)

PV stands for “Personal Volume”. PV is generated via autoship and non-autoship orders by a Zilis promoter and referred retail customers.

GV stands for “Group Volume”. GV is the PV total of a Zilis promoter and their downline.

Note that required recruited Jade or higher ranked promoters must be split evenly on both binary team sides.

Also note there’s a discrepancy where for Opal and lower ranked, required recruited promoters can be substituted with retail customers on autoship. This isn’t reflected in the general rank compensation chart so I’ve just stuck with recruited promoter requirements.

Retail Commissions

Zilis pays commissions on retail customer orders.

Retail commissions are paid as the difference between the retail and wholesale price of products ordered.

Recruitment Commissions

Zilis pays an undisclosed commission on recruitment of promoters who sign up at the Bronze ($299) to Gold ($999) tiers.

Residual Commissions

Zilis pays residual commissions via a binary compensation structure.

A binary compensation structure places a promoter at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):

The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).

Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.

Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of promoters. Note there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.

At the end of each week Zilis tallies up new sales volume on both sides of the binary team. If a minimum 300 GV is tallied up on the weaker binary team side, residual commissions are paid out as follows:

  • Ambassadors earn 10%, capped at (not disclosed, also note Ambassadors must recruit two promoters to qualify for residual commissions)
  • Active Ambassadors earn 10%, capped at (not disclosed, also note Ambassadors must recruit two promoters to qualify for residual commissions)
  • Jades earn 10%, capped at $250 a week
  • Pearls earn 11%, capped at $500 a week
  • Opals earn 11%, capped at $750 a week
  • Rubys earn 12%, capped at $875 a week
  • Ruby Elites earn 12%, capped at $1000 a week
  • Sapphires earn 12%, capped at $1750 a week
  • Sapphire Elites earn 12%, capped at $2500 a week
  • Emeralds earn 12%, capped at $5000 a week
  • Emerald Elites earn 12%, capped at $10,000 a week
  • Diamonds earn 12%, capped at $15,000 a week
  • Double Diamonds earn 12%, capped at $20,000 a week
  • Triple Diamonds earn 12%, capped at $25,000 a week
  • Black Diamond Elites and higher earn 12%, capped at $30,000 a week

Note that new Zilis promoters who sign up at the Silver or Gold tier receive “pay to play” residual commission rates for one year:

  • pay $499 to sign up at the Silver Zilis promoter tier and receive an 11% residual commission rate, capped at $1000 a week for first 60 days
  • pay $999 to sign up at the Gold Zilis promoter tier and receive a 12% residual commission rate, capped at $2500 a week for first 60 days

After sixty days residual commissions are capped based on rank. After one year residual commission rates are adjusted per applicable rank.

Once paid out on, weaker binary team side volume is matched against the stronger binary team side and flushed.

Leftover volume on the stronger binary team side carries over only if a Zilis promoter is generating either 100 PV a month in autoship volume or 150 PV a month in regular order volume.

Matching Bonus

Zilis pays a Matching Bonus via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places a promoter at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited promoter placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 promoters recruit new promoters, they are placed on level 2 of the original promoter’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 promoters recruit new promoters, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Zilis caps the Matching Bonus at seven unilevel team levels.

The Matching Bonus is paid as a percentage of residual commissions earned across these seven levels based on rank:

  • Opal and Ruby ranked promoters earn a 20% match on level 1 (personally recruited promoters)
  • Ruby Elites earn a 20% match on level 1 and 10% on level 2
  • Sapphires earn a 20% match on level 1, 10% on level 2 and 5% on level 3
  • Sapphire Elites earn a 20% match on level 1, 10% on level 2 and 5% on levels 3 and 4
  • Emeralds earn a 20% match on level 1, 10% on level 2 and 5% on levels 3 to 5
  • Emerald Elites earn a 20% match on level 1, 10% on level 2 and 5% on levels 3 to 6
  • Diamond Executives and above earn a 20% match on level 1, 10% on level 2 and 5% on levels 3 to 7

Blessing Bonus

The Blessing Bonus sees Opal and higher ranked Zilis promoters able to gift $100 into “their local community” each month.

It is the sole discretion of each Ambassador to choose where they give their Blessing Bonus.

Lifestyle Bonus

The Lifestyle Bonus is a monthly bonus paid to Ruby Elite and higher ranked Zilis promoters:

  • Ruby Elites receive $400 a month
  • Sapphires receive $500 a month
  • Sapphire Elites receive $1000 a month
  • Emeralds receive $1500 a month
  • Diamonds receive $2500 a month
  • Double Diamonds receive $3000 a month
  • Triple Diamonds receive $3500 a month
  • Black Diamond Elites receive $4000 a month
  • Double Black Diamond Elites receive $4500 a month
  • Triple Black Diamond Elites receive $5000 a month

Global Bonus Pool

Zilis sets aside 2% of company-wide sales volume and places it into the Global Bonus Pool.

The Global Bonus Pool is paid out to Sapphire Elite and higher ranked promoters based on shares:

  • Sapphire Elites receive one Global Bonus Pool share
  • Emeralds receive two Global Bonus Pool shares
  • Emerald Elites and higher receive three Global Bonus Pool shares

The Global Bonus Pool is paid out quarterly.

Rank Achievement Bonuses

Zilis’ compensation plan lists what appears to be rank-based bonuses but doesn’t elaborate.

Nonetheless, this is the information provided:

  • qualify at Ruby Elite and receive a “custom watch”
  • qualify at Emerald and receive an “Emerald cruise”
  • qualify at Diamond and receive “custom Diamond luggage” and a “Diamond luxury trip”

Various rank recognition plaques and crystals are also available at other ranks.

Joining Zilis

Joining Zilis as a promoter costs between $99 and $999:

  • Basic – $99
  • Bronze – $299
  • Silver – $499
  • Gold – $999

The primary difference between the Zilis promoter options is income potential and bundled product.

Zilis Conclusion

Zilis’ trimmed down product catalog appears to coincide with breaking away from its Zen Mist roots. This was an obvious carry over from the Thompson’s time at LiveSmart 360 and Cyberwize before it.

There’s still some category overlap but by and large each product category has enough products in for variety, but not enough to be daunting.

I did find pricing to be a little on the high side. Zilis has a lot of $100+ supplements and this might be a hard sell given the competition (MLM and non-MLM).

Not helping is Zilis charging retail customers for autoship. Traditionally an MLM company uses autoship as a retail incentive. Retail customers commit to a monthly order in exchange for a discount; win-win.

Zilis charges retail customers $49 annually for access to autoship, for no other reason than to present a significant hurdle towards generating retail sales.

If you consider the theory behind charging retail autoship customers a fee, things only get worse. Clearly the infrastructure to take retail orders is already there, so we can rule out the $49 fee having anything to do with development costs.

The only other thing we’re left with is the fee is supposed to eat away at autoship discounts, such that a retail customer feels obligated to order over however many months it takes to recoup the $49 fee and start actually saving.

In an attempt to justify the $49 fee, Zilis draws comparisons to Costco and Sam’s Club;

It is estimated that 94 million Americans have a Costco or Sam’s Club membership. The fact is that everyone loves to purchase
their favorite products at the deepest discount possible.

In order to meet consumer demands, Zilis has created the VIP Customer program.

Yeah that’s pretty disingenuous. Costco and Sam’s Club provide access to thousands of products. Zilis has a comparative handful.

Even if we consider Zilis’ previous abundance of products, they still only catered to specific niches.

I’m speaking strictly as a consumer here, a company wanting to charge me $49 for discounts on a handful of products is a non-starter. I’d promptly take my business elsewhere without a second thought.

There’s no sugar-coating it, Zilis’ charging retail customers $49 annually for autoship is just bad.

Zilis might not care their “VIP Customer” autoship fee is bad for retail customers, because it’s not meant for retail customers:

It would seem Zilis’ retail autoship is in fact just a cheaper “you don’t earn anything” option for prospective promoters who can’t afford $99 or more.

Cannibalizing retail customers into promoters reinforces recruitment over retail sales. This was a problem with Zilis’ compensation plan as reviewed in 2017.

Before we get into Zilis 2025 compensation plan, I want to point out that it feels like a legacy compensation plan. That is to say Zilis’ compensation plan is full of outdated restrictions and gotchas, typically associated with 1990s through 2010s MLM compensation plans.

Zilis’ promoter rank qualification criteria is a prime example.

Zilis’ compensation plan wasn’t headache inducing but I definitely had to cross-reference multiple definitions for the compensation section of this review.

Things could be made a lot simpler, but instead you’ve got no less than six qualification criteria for each rank. And some are able to cancel out the rest (unilevel or binary GV should be enough, specifying minimums for both is just a greedy gotcha).

Zilis’ 2017 compensation plan was heavily geared towards autoship recruitment. Charging retail customers an autoship fee isn’t going to do anything to remedy that.

In fact much of BehindMLM’s criticism surrounding Zilis’ autoship recruitment focus have carried into its new March 2025 compensation plan.

Specifically:

  • no retail sales volume requirements;
  • retail sales punished over autoship sales by way of requiring higher non-autoship volume for rank qualification (leaning towards promoter autoship recruitment owing to the $49 annual retail customer fee);
  • “pay to play” in Zilis joining ranks, pay more to earn more; and

Get your Zilis business launched with the products you need to meet the needs of your Customers while maximizing your earning potential out of the gate.

When you enroll with either a Silver or Gold Pack, you will qualify for a higher Binary commission percentage for your first full year in the business.

  • promoter autoship marketed as a way to increase business as opposed to self-consumption

The most important component of autoship is ensuring you have the products you need to sample, sell, show, and demonstrate.

Recruitment commissions are still a thing in Zilis, despite the company’s efforts to hide them:

Eligible Ambassadors earn a Fast Start Bonus (FSB) when they personally enroll a new VIP Customer or Independent Ambassador that chooses a promotional product enrollment pack.

A VIP Customer (retail customer on autoship) isn’t going to sign up with a promoter enrollment pack. If they did, they would no longer be a VIP Customer.

So in fact the only thing the Fast Start Bonus is paid out on is promoter recruitment.

I suspect between 2017 and now the overall makeup of Zilis hasn’t changed. In that you likely have a company full of promoters on autoship, getting paid on recruitment of promoters also on autoship.

There’s certainly nothing to discourage this in Zilis compensation plan.

The good news is establishing this on a micro level is easy. Ask your potential upline what their monthly qualification PV is and how they’re qualifying.

If it’s through a monthly autoship order of their own, ask for evidence of corresponding retail PV. You want to see at least as much retail PV being generated equal to their own order.

Anything less, or not at all, would reveal that promoter is running their Zilis MLM business as a pyramid scheme.

I’ll finish up with this disclosure in Zilis’ compensation plan that caught my eye;

Zilis requires Emerald Ambassadors and above to execute an Exclusivity & Commitment Agreement.

This agreement includes mandatory attendance at Zilis’ Annual Conventions (and any other specifically named events), as well as agreement to an exclusive dealing relationship in which Zilis is the only direct selling company in which an Emerald Ambassador or higher has a distributorship.

The Leadership Agreement must be executed within 30 days of achievement of the rank of Emerald Ambassador in order to continue receiving Emerald Ambassador and above rewards, benefits, and incentives.

Exclusivity contracts between MLM companies and top promoters is nothing new, but I believe this is the first time I’ve seen them openly disclosed. In a compensation plan no less.

This is a credit to Zilis and in spite of everything else, is good to see. I think its fair if an MLM company is going to disclose trade secrets to top promoters that they be bound to the company beforehand.

Zilis’ Leadership Agreement is effectively an NDA, which again is standard but rarely publicly disclosed (typically only when a butthurt company takes legal retaliation after someone leaves).

Zilis’ Leadership Agreement doesn’t prohibit someone from leaving Zilis to join another MLM, it just stops top promoters from collecting a check from Zilis while having effectively abandoned the business.

You might not agree but to their credit, Zilis is upfront about what they expect from promoter leaders. That level of transparency in an area typically granted no transparency, is commendable.

Unfortunately until Zilis’ address its autoship recruitment focused compensation plan however, the MLM opportunity as a whole should be approached with caution.