Most review sites claim they’ve personally tested everything they write about. Most of them haven’t. We take the opposite approach: we tell you exactly what our reviews are based on, so you can judge our conclusions for yourself.
Our method, step by step
1. We collect the owner evidence. For every product we gather verified buyer reviews and complaint records from sources we name in the article – retailer review sections, Trustpilot, the Better Business Bureau, and app stores where the product has an app. We record the date we collected them, and we pay as much attention to the 1-star reviews as the 5-star ones – patterns in complaints (billing problems, warranty refusals, breakage points) are usually the most useful information a buyer can get.
2. We read the manufacturer’s own paperwork. Specifications, manuals, warranty terms, subscription and refund policies, and regulatory filings – for example, whether a “medical” device actually holds FDA 510(k) clearance, and what that does and doesn’t mean.
3. We check the science, where there is any. For health-related products we look for published, independent research and link every study we rely on, by name and year. Where the only “evidence” is manufacturer-funded or doesn’t exist, we say so.
4. We check the marketing claims one by one. This is the core of every review. When a cutting board is marketed as “microplastic-free” but has a plastic-composite second side, or a supplement contains a fraction of the dose used in the research it cites, that goes in the review – prominently.
5. We disclose what we haven’t done. Our reviews are research-based. We do not claim hands-on testing unless a review explicitly says so and shows our own photographs. If a
review doesn’t say that, it is built from the sources above – all of them named and dated.
How Our Ratings Work
Every score on this site uses the same 5-point scale and the same five weighted criteria:
| Criterion | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Claim accuracy | 30% | Do the manufacturer’s claims survive checking against evidence? |
| Owner satisfaction | 25% | What verified buyers report — reliability, defects, real-world results |
| Value | 20% | Price against comparable alternatives, including subscription and funnel pricing traps |
| Safety & compliance | 15% | Regulatory status, safety complaints, honest labelling |
| Support & warranty | 10% | Returns, guarantees, and how the company handles complaints |
A 4.0+ means we’d recommend it to a friend without caveats. 3.0–3.9 means it works but has real trade-offs we spell out. Below 3.0, we think your money is better spent elsewhere – and we say where.
Keeping reviews current
Prices, product versions, and company policies change. We date-stamp what we verified and when, and we update reviews when the facts change. If you spot something out of date or wrong, tell us via our contact page – we fix verified errors and note significant corrections on the page.
Why trust this over “we tested it” sites?
Because you can check our work. Every claim in our reviews traces to a named source – an owner review platform, a document, a study – that you can open yourself. A testing claim you can’t verify is worth less than a citation you can.
Questions about this methodology? Contact us. How we make money is covered in our Disclosure.