Editorial policy
The standards we hold ourselves to.
A ranking is only worth reading if you know the rules it was made under. These are ours.
Commerce never buys a ranking
We earn affiliate commissions, and some tools we cover pay them while others pay nothing. A commission cannot buy a higher position, a softer verdict, or the removal of a drawback. Where a tool we rank highly happens to pay us, the reasons it ranks are on the page for you to judge, and so is at least one honest reason it might not suit you.
Every claim traces to a source
Facts about what a tool costs, what it does and what it includes come from the vendor's own pages, checked on a date we record. What a tool is like to live with comes from long-term users, and we quote them as they wrote it, never a paraphrase dressed up as a quote. We do not invent statistics, prices or testimonials.
We do not fake first-hand use
We are a research desk. We will not write "we tested this on live campaigns" or "we built pages in every tool" unless we actually did, on that specific piece. Overclaiming experience is the fastest way to lose a reader, and we would rather be trusted than sound impressive.
Named, accountable bylines
Rankings and reviews are signed by the editor who wrote them and reviewed by the desk. A byline here is a person with a beat, listed on the masthead, not an anonymous house voice hiding a sales page.
Corrections
When we are wrong, we fix it in place and note what changed and when. If you spot an error, especially a stale price, tell us and we will correct it.