How we research

For tool reviews

1. We sign up for the tool on a real paid plan. No courtesy accounts from vendors. No comped "reviewer access." We pay the same money the reader would.
2. We use it for at least 30 days on a real workflow, not a toy task. For accounting tools, we track actual books. For CRMs, real pipeline.
3. We test the free tier against the paid tier. Many SaaS advertise "free forever" with limits that make the free tier useless past week two. We show the cliff.
4. We check renewal pricing. "First year discount" is the default; we price the tool at the renewal rate, not the teaser.

For vertical stacks

Each stack page is anchored to interviews or hands-on experience with practitioners in that vertical — not just reading around. For verticals we don't operate in ourselves, we bring in a named practitioner as co-author or primary source.

What we won't do

• Recommend based on commission size. If ConvertKit beats Mailchimp for a given vertical, ConvertKit wins — even though Mailchimp pays us more.
• Accept sponsored reviews. If a vendor pays for placement, it will be labeled unambiguously as a sponsored post — and that has not happened yet.
• Write "best of" lists pretending 10 tools are all great. They aren't. We'll tell you which one.

Corrections

Pricing changes. Features ship. Vendors pivot. If you spot something stale, email the author listed on the page — we fix fast and note the correction.