The mission
New AI tools launch every hour, and most are marketing with a chatbox bolted on. Our job is to separate the tools that genuinely save you time and money from the ones that just save their founders' pitch decks.
As of August 2026 we publish ten deep-dive category analyses. Each one is built the same way, and when we analyze rather than physically test, we say so — right at the top of the article.
How rankings are made
1. Docs and pricing, verified. Official documentation read end to end; pricing pages checked at publish time and dated in our records. If a number comes from a vendor page, the review says so.
2. Public evidence, aggregated. Published benchmarks and user reviews read in bulk, so the judgment is never a sample of one.
3. Free tiers, hands-on where possible. When a tool has a no-account free tier, we use it. Paid-only tiers are scored from documentation and labeled as such.
4. Scores are judgment. Output quality, time-to-value, reliability signals, and price per useful unit — weighted by an editor, not a formula. We own that, and we'd rather be auditable than impressive.
Anecdotes in our reviews are illustrative composites of real user reports, not lab logs. We believe judgment you can audit beats a demo you can't.
How we make money (full disclosure)
Display ads. The ad boxes on this site are reserved for Google AdSense. They don't influence rankings — the ads don't know what we wrote.
Affiliate links (future). Some "try it" links may earn a commission later. If that ever happens, the policy is already set: commissions never change scores. We'll rank a tool with no affiliate program above one with a fat one, every time.
If we ever rank a tool because it pays us rather than because it's good, we'd rather you stop reading than keep trusting us. That's the whole business model.
Contact & corrections
Spotted an error, a price change, or a tool we got wrong? We publish corrections openly and fast. A human reads every message.
Tool makers: we don't accept payment for coverage or rankings, but we're always happy to be pointed at your free tier so we can use it like everyone else.