How we compare

The rules

1. Pricing is dated. Every price carries the date we verified it and links to the vendor's own pricing page. Software pricing changes constantly; undated pricing is worthless.
2. Every page says when not to switch. Where the incumbent is the better answer for a use case, we say so on the page rather than burying it.
3. Trade-offs are listed, not hidden. Each option gets strengths and trade-offs, not a feature checklist that flatters whoever pays the most.
4. Money and ownership are always labelled. Affiliate links, our own products and any paid placement are each marked on the page. None of them change the ordering — verdicts are written before any programme is joined. See below.

Transparency: money and ownership

Three things can create a conflict between what is good for you and what is good for us. Each is labelled on the page itself, not buried in a policy nobody reads.

• Affiliate links affiliate — we may earn a commission if you sign up. Placement is not paid for, and commission never changes the ordering. Verdicts are written before any programme is joined.
• Our own products our product — we build software as well as writing about it. From time to time we will promote our own tools here. When we do, they are marked, a disclosure appears at the top of the page, and we still list their competitors in full — including free and open-source options that earn us nothing and may suit you better.
• Paid placement AD — if anyone ever pays to appear, it is labelled as an advertisement, in that styling, wherever it appears. It is never presented as an editorial verdict and it never displaces a recommendation made on merit.

These labels are produced by the site's build from the underlying data, not added by hand — so an undisclosed affiliate link, an unmarked product of ours, or an unlabelled ad cannot ship by accident. See the earnings disclosure for the full detail.