How we test and score
Every score on this site can be taken apart. Here is how it is put together, and what a page means before we have scored anything.
Listings versus reviews
We list 485 products from 173 brands. A listing is the facts: what the product is, what it costs today, the fine print, and what owners say. It carries no score from us. A review is a listing we have bought, used and scored against the published rubric for its category. The badge with a number appears only on reviews, so you can never mistake one for the other.
We buy what we test
Every scored product was bought at retail, through the same checkout you would use. We do not accept review units, and when a reader or a brand funds a test we still buy the unit ourselves so the brand does not know which one we have. Testing runs for weeks, not an afternoon: a mattress is slept on for at least thirty nights, a supplement is taken for the full course on the label.
Every category has its own rubric
A mattress and a face serum have nothing in common, so we do not score them on the same axes. Each category has a published set of criteria, the factors we test, and each factor carries a weight reflecting how much it matters to a typical buyer. Comfort is worth more than packaging.
The rubric is shown on every category page, and the weight each factor carried sits at the top of every review breakdown.
How the total is calculated
Each factor is scored on its own scale, converted to a common 0 to 10 scale, then combined as a weighted average. A factor weighted 3 counts three times as much as one weighted 1. The total is the number in the badge.
Because it is a weighted average and not a sum, adding or removing a factor from a rubric does not inflate or deflate scores across a category.
Scores do not drift
When we publish a review, the rubric and weights used are locked to that review. If we later change how a category is scored, existing reviews keep the numbers they were published with until we re-test the product and say so on the page. A score you read last month means the same thing this month.
What the grades mean
- 9.0 and above, Exceptional. The best we have tested in the category.
- 8.0 to 8.9, Excellent. Recommended without significant reservation.
- 7.0 to 7.9, Good. Recommended for the right buyer. Read the cons.
- 5.5 to 6.9, Fair. Notable compromises. A better option usually exists.
- Below 5.5, Poor. Not recommended.
Owner reviews
Anyone who owns a product we list can write a review. An editor reads every one before it appears, rejects anything that reads as paid or fake, and publishes the rest unedited apart from length. Owner ratings are shown as stars next to our score and are never blended into it. One person, one review per product.
Third-party ratings
Where we show ratings from Amazon, Trustpilot or other sites, they are labeled as such and kept separate from our own score. They are useful context. They are not our verdict.
How we make money
Some links on this site are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission when you buy through them. Scores are set before any commercial relationship is considered, and no brand can pay for a score or a ranking position. The disclosure page has the full picture.