Every review, comparison and Top 5 list on this site follows the same method. This page is the operational promise: how we score, what we record and where our figures come from, so a reader can reproduce or dispute the result instead of taking the score on faith.
How a tool gets a rating
Each tool is scored on four criteria and reduced to a single 0-5 rating: features (does it do the job it claims, and how well), pricing (value for money against the alternatives we track in the same category), output quality (the result a real user gets on a fixed task), and usability (how quickly someone new to the tool gets a useful result).
The rating is a judgement by a person, not a formula. Two tools can score the same and still suit different people, which is why every verdict names who the tool is for, not just how it scored.
Pricing and the no-conversion rule
We quote each price in the currency the vendor's own page displayed, and we never convert between currencies in a comparison. A figure that only appeared in EUR is shown in EUR, with a note on the page. Pricing is re-checked against the vendor's own site on a regular schedule, and the date of the last check is recorded with the data.
Affiliate disclosure and independence
Some tools link out through an affiliate programme, and pikowise may earn a commission when a reader buys through one of those links. That commission never changes a rating, a ranking or a verdict. No vendor can buy a placement, a score or a kinder verdict; no review is written to a vendor's brief. Where a relationship is sponsored, it is labelled as such where it appears.
Corrections
Wrong information is corrected as soon as it is found, and corrections are dated in the public change log. If you spot a wrong price, a dead link or a fact that no longer holds, report it and we will fix it and note the change.