We buy the tools. Every product on this site is paid for out of our own pocket at the same public price you would pay, on a real domain sending to real prospects. We do not take free accounts, extended trials or review units, because a vendor who controls your access controls your findings.
That is the whole method in one sentence, but the details are where a testing claim earns or loses its credibility, so here they are.
Inbox placement
Where messages actually land, measured on the same campaign and domain as every other tool in the category.
Features
Only the ones we used. A feature we never touched cannot earn a tool points.
Value for money
What it costs at the volume a real user would run, not the headline tier.
Support
Response times on tickets we actually opened, from an ordinary paid account.
These weights are identical for every tool and every category, and these cards are generated from the same values the scoring function uses — if one changes, so does the other.
= 8.4
What a missing score means
A tool shows a score only once it has been through the full benchmark and all four components are filled in. Until then it shows no number at all — not a provisional one, not an estimate. If you are looking at a tool page with no score, we have not tested it yet and we are telling you so rather than guessing.
Who does the testing
This section will name the person running the benchmark, with their background and a way to contact them. It is deliberately blank until that is settled — an unsigned methodology is worth less than no methodology.
How we make money
Affiliate commission, and only affiliate commission. No sponsored placements, no paid reviews, no vendor can buy a position in a ranking. Full detail on the disclosure page.