Verdict - Living Registry
Method  /  How we verify  /  2026

How we verify

Every verdict on this site is a checkable claim, not an opinion. Here is exactly how a status is set, how the ranking works, and where the money is.

§01

What a verdict is

A verdict is a life status for a tool: live, price-hiked, degrading, sunset-announced, or dead. It always carries two things a reader can check: a date and a source.

We do not publish verdict-words without evidence. If a fact cannot be dated and sourced, it does not go on the page. Prices link to the vendor's own pricing page, so you can confirm the current figure yourself.

§02

How we rank

Relevance and live status come first. Commission is a tiebreaker, and only that.

  1. Relevance and live status decide order. A tool must be reachable and verified to place at all.
  2. Commission is a tiebreaker only. Affiliate economics can separate two otherwise-equal tools; they never move a tool up the list.
  3. Dead and degrading tools are never recommended. They are tracked, but excluded from every ranking.
  4. Every price and status carries a date and a source. No verdict without evidence.
§03

How a status changes

Reachability is re-checked twice a day from two independent runners on different networks. A single check is never enough to condemn a tool.

  1. A "dead" or "sunset" status is set by an editor, never automatically. Our system can propose a change from dated signals, but a person approves it before it is published.
  2. Vendors have a right to reply. A vendor can respond before a status is changed or a claim is published, and the response is linked on the page.
  3. We do not predict deaths. A tool with decline signals is marked degrading with the dated facts, not a guess about its future.
§04

Signals and migrations

Two page types cover the hard moments: a tool in decline, and a tool that has shut down.

A signals page lists only observed, dated, sourced facts for a tool that is still live: a price hike, a lawsuit, layoffs, a long changelog silence. A migration page appears when a tool has shut down, with the dated announcement, its source, and live alternatives you can move to.

§05

Money and independence

When this site earns from an affiliate link, that money is kept away from the ranking on purpose.

  1. All outbound links to tools route through a /go/ redirect and carry rel="sponsored nofollow". The disclosure is in every footer.
  2. Commission never buys a ranking. It is a tiebreaker between equals and nothing more; a paying tool that is dead or degrading is still never recommended.
  3. We are machine-readable. Every page has a plain-text mirror at /api/md/ and structured data, so AI engines can cite the dated facts directly.
§06

Privacy and who maintains this

Your email is the only thing we ever store, and only if you ask for alerts.

Visitor IP addresses are not stored. Verdict is maintained by its editorial team, who set every "dead" and "sunset" verdict by hand after checking the evidence. A vendor or a reader who spots something wrong can subscribe below to follow a tool, and we correct dated facts when a better source appears.

Status alerts

Get an alert the moment a tool's status changes

A price hike, a sunset announcement, or a confirmed shutdown, each dated and sourced. We email you when it happens, not before. No predictions, no spam.

Double opt-in - we email you a confirm link. Only your email is stored, never your IP.