How a review is put together
Shortlist from real demand
Products are chosen for coverage because they show up in actual reader questions and category search demand — not because a vendor pitched us for coverage.
Gather the evidence
We work from the vendor's own documentation, published pricing and plan limits, and public independent sources such as security audits and status pages. Where we have used the product ourselves, the review says so and describes what we did.
Check it against real workflows
We map features and limits to the jobs readers actually need done — and look for the friction points a feature list hides (plan limits, add-on costs, migration effort, billing terms).
Score against the fixed rubric
Every product in a category is scored against the same weighted criteria below — see the table for the exact breakdown.
Publish the full verdict
Strengths, limitations, pricing, and who the product is and isn't right for, published together — not split across pages to inflate pageviews.
Keep it current
Pricing and features change. We revisit reviews when they do, update the verdict in place and show the date of the last update.
The scoring rubric
Every product is scored 0-100, shown as the ring on review and comparison pages. The score is a weighted average across four categories:
| Category | Weight | What we evaluate |
|---|---|---|
| Features & Capabilities | 35% | Does it do what it claims, compared to category alternatives? |
| Pricing & Value | 25% | Is the price justified by what you get, relative to competitors at the same tier? |
| Support & Reliability | 20% | Published support options, public uptime/status history, quality of documentation |
| Ease of Use | 20% | Time to first value, clarity of onboarding, learning curve for common tasks |
How to read a score
What we don't do
- We don't accept payment for a specific score or ranking position.
- We don't describe a review as hands-on unless we have used the product — each review states what it is based on.
- We don't let a product's affiliate commission rate influence its score — scores are finalized before commission structure is considered.
See our Editorial Policy and Affiliate Disclosure for how independence and monetization coexist on this site.