How we rate and verify

The 0–10 score

The score is a rule-based score with AI-assisted inputs: a fixed formula run over what is recorded on the profile, where the profile text itself (description, pros and cons, best-for, editor's take) was drafted with AI assistance. It is not a user rating, not an average of reviews, not a benchmark result and not a hands-on test. 697 of 914 tools have a score.

The formula starts every tool at 5.0 and adds points for signals on the profile. The result is never below 5.0 or above 9.6:

• Verification status — +1.0 if the tool is editorially verified.
• Featured flag — +0.5 if the tool is featured.
• Description length — +0.3 for every 500 characters of description beyond the first 500, up to +1.2 in total.
• Pros listed — +0.2 for 3 or more, +0.4 for 5 or more, +0.6 for 7 or more.
• Cons listed — +0.3 for 2 or more, +0.4 for 4 or more.
• Pricing detail — +0.3 if a pricing-detail note of more than 20 characters is recorded.
• Best-for, not-for and editor's take — +0.5 if all three fields are filled in.
• Open source — +0.1 if the code is open source.
• API — +0.1 if the tool has an API.

So the score mostly measures how completely a profile is documented, plus a one-point bump for verified status and half a point for featured. A thoroughly documented tool can outscore a better product with a thin write-up, and the score does not measure capability, quality or recent activity. No scheduled job recalculates scores, and a small gap between two scores is not a meaningful difference. Treat the score as a way to shortlist, not as a verdict.

What "unscored" means

217 tools have no score. Unscored does not mean a low score or a zero. It means we have not assigned one, and we do not estimate or back-fill a score to fill the gap. In ranked lists, unscored tools sort after scored ones.

Verification statuses

• Editorially verified (281) — the profile passed our editorial promotion checks: a known brand or source list, a live website, and a confirmed category and pricing tier. It is not a claim that we have used the product hands-on. These tools show a green badge.
• Auto-enriched (611) — drafted automatically from the vendor's website and public sources, with no badge. These have not had an editorial pass and have not been tested hands-on, so verify details with the vendor.
• Stale (22) — the website failed our link check on three consecutive checks, or redirects to an unrelated domain. The profile may describe a product that has changed or closed.

Link checks

An automated job checks tool websites every night, up to 20 tools per day, always taking the tools checked longest ago (never-checked first). At that rate one full pass over 914 tools takes about 46 days. The most recent check recorded in our database was on 2026-10-06.

• A response in the 200s, or a redirect that stays on a related domain, counts as alive and resets the failure counter.
• A redirect to an unrelated domain, an error response, a DNS or TLS failure or a timeout adds one to the failure counter. Three in a row mark a tool stale. Editorially verified tools are never demoted automatically, so their status stays the same however many checks fail; instead, any tool page whose website has failed three or more checks in a row, verified or not, shows a "Link check failing" badge.
• Responses 403, 429, 503 and 530 are treated as unknown, not dead. Those usually mean a bot-protection layer refused our request, so the status and counter are left unchanged.

A passing check shows the website answered. It does not show that the profile text is still accurate.

Pricing and capture dates

Where a tool page shows a pricing table, it comes from a stored capture of the vendor's pricing page and carries the date it was fetched. Only some tools have a capture, and a vendor may have changed prices since. The most recent capture in our database is dated 2026-10-06. The pricing label on a tool (free, freemium, paid, enterprise) is a summary, so confirm current prices with the vendor.

AI-generated summaries

The short "In short" summaries and FAQ answers on tool pages are AI-written from the profile's own fields. Each answer must pass an automated check that it shares at least three content words with the source fields, which catches some invented content but is not a fact-check. Details are in the editorial policy.

Lifecycle tracking

When a tool is confirmed shut down, acquired or renamed, the change is recorded with a source link and date. Those tools are listed on Discontinued, acquired and renamed tools with pointers to alternatives. Name changes are also listed on Renames & rebrands.

Corrections

If a profile, score or price is wrong, email us via the contact page with the tool name and what should change. Vendors can write in the same way.