How we test
Every runbook here is a workflow we did end to end ourselves, on accounts we opened ourselves, and every number came off one of those runs. This page is the method, so you can check the work or repeat it.
One set of inputs, one day, every tool
Tools in a comparison are run against the same inputs, in the same place, on the same day. Running them a week apart makes the comparison worthless, because the conditions move underneath and a tool that looks worse may simply have run later.
The run is large enough that free tier limits start to matter and small enough to repeat when a vendor changes its pricing.
We count what survives, not what arrives
A tool that reports two thousand of something has not given you two thousand usable ones. Whatever the unit is, we discard the duplicates, drop what cannot actually be used, and check what is left. The number at the top of a runbook is that last figure, never the first one the tool showed us.
Any page quoting only the first number is selling you something.
We publish the failures at the same size as the wins
Where a tool got blocked, returned nothing, or cost more than it claimed, that goes in the summary at the top of the page and not in a footnote. Where a free tier was enough, we say so, even though a commission only ever arrives when somebody upgrades.
What we commit to
- Nothing here is sponsored, and no vendor sees a page before it goes up.
- We say how we got access to every tool, free tier or paid.
- We say when the free tier is enough, even though a commission only ever arrives when someone upgrades.
- The order on a round-up is the order the numbers put things in.
How this site makes money
Affiliate commissions, and nothing else. No advertising, no sponsored content, no paid placement. None of the tools on the site earn us anything today, so the arrangement below is what happens when one does:
| What happens | What we get |
|---|---|
| You read a guide | Nothing |
| You click through and use a free tier | Nothing |
| You click through and later pay for the tool | A commission, at no extra cost to you |
| A vendor asks us to change a page | We publish the request instead |
Every tool on this site carries a tag saying how we got access to it, free tier or paid, on every page that mentions it. We do not make a blanket claim about buying everything, because it would not be true and it is what every affiliate site says.