How we verify

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We do not publish verdict-words without evidence.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.

The rules are fixed, not vibes. Price-hiked needs a dated, sourced price change. One dated non-pricing signal (a lawsuit, a breach, an incident) puts a tool under watch: it stays live and rankable, with the signal published. Degrading needs two or more independent dated signals. Sunset-announced and dead are set only by an editor on a primary source, never by a script.

Only live tools rank, order is an editorial relevance call, and affiliate commission is never an input to it.

1. Live status is the gate. A tool must be reachable and verified to place at all.
2. Order is an editorial relevance call, recorded and stable. We weigh how directly a tool serves the category's core job, its functional depth, price and free-tier accessibility, data portability, and track record. The call is stored as a fixed editorial rank per tool, so the order does not silently recompute; longer track record breaks a tie.
3. Commission is never an input. Affiliate availability and commission never affect inclusion, a verdict, or a position in any list. A tool with no affiliate program is judged by the exact same criteria.
4. Dead and degrading tools are never recommended. They are tracked, but excluded from every ranking.
5. Every price and status carries a date and a source. No verdict without evidence.

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.

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.

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. Affiliate terms never affect inclusion, a verdict, or a position; 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.

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

Our database stores no IP addresses. 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.