The rubric
Five criteria, fixed weights, scored 0–10 each and combined into a score out of 100. The same rubric applies to a $19/month app and a $5M credit facility.
| Criterion | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 25% | Cost against the outcome it produces, at the price a small business actually pays. |
| Pricing honesty | 25% | Is the price findable before you talk to sales? Hidden fees, ramps, and lock-in count against. This scores price DISCLOSURE only — whether the pricing mechanism can be independently verified is scored under evidence quality, not here. |
| Small business fit | 20% | Built for a business with under 50 employees, or scaled down from an enterprise product. |
| Support & exit | 15% | Can you get a human, and can you leave without a fight? Contract length and data portability. |
| Evidence quality | 15% | Are the vendor's claims backed by anything checkable? Covers unverified mechanisms, unpublished structures, and figures we could not independently confirm. |
Two of those weights are deliberately unusual. Pricing honesty is worth as much as value for money, because in small business software and finance the most common way to be harmed is not a bad product, it is a price you could not find until you were committed. And support & exit is scored because a twelve-month auto-renewing contract with no data export is a real cost that never appears on a pricing page.
The three relationship labels
Every review carries one of these, at the top, in colour, before the score.
| Badge | What it means |
|---|---|
| We own this | Operated by the same people who run this site. We profit if you buy. Treat this review as advertising and verify it independently. |
| Pays us commission | An unaffiliated company. If you buy through our link we may be paid a commission at no extra cost to you. |
| No relationship | We are not paid anything by this company and hold no link with them. Listed because it belongs in the comparison. |
The three evidence tiers
We will not tell you we tested something we did not test. Each review states which of these applies.
| Badge | What it means |
|---|---|
| Hands-on | We ran this in a real business, as a paying customer or operator, for at least 30 days. |
| Desk review | Assessed from published pricing, contract terms, documentation and operator interviews. We have not run it ourselves. |
| Operator reports | Based on structured conversations with businesses currently paying for it, plus published terms. |
Every relationship we currently have
This table is generated from the same data that generates the reviews, so it cannot fall out of sync with them.
| Product | Relationship | Evidence | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aurea Growth Partners — Merchant Cash Advance | We own this | Hands-on | 68.0/100 |
| BizRep A.I. — AI Voice Agent | We own this | Hands-on | 77.5/100 |
| Tomorrow Doctor — Zero-Cost Benefit Program | Pays us commission | Desk review | 69.0/100 |
What we are not
- We are not a broker, lender, insurance agent or registered adviser, and nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice.
- We do not accept payment to change a score, and we do not offer “featured placement” slots.
- We do accept affiliate commission, and it does influence which categories we build out first. That is a real bias and we would rather name it than hide it.
- We do not publish user review counts or star averages we cannot verify.
When we get it wrong
Prices change, vendors improve, and we make mistakes. If something on this site is inaccurate, email [email protected] with the page and the correction. We fix errors in place and note material changes at the top of the review. We do not quietly delete things.
Questions
Do companies pay you for a better score?
No. Scores come from a fixed rubric with fixed weights, published on this page, and every review breaks the score down criterion by criterion so you can check the arithmetic yourself. What money does change is which products we get around to reviewing first — we are honest that commercial relationships influence our coverage order, because pretending otherwise would be a lie.
You own two of the products you review. How is that independent?
It is not, and we do not claim it is. Every product we own carries a red 'We own this' badge at the top of its review, in its listing row, and in the footer of every page on the site. Our own merchant cash advance scores 62/100 and the review tells you to try a bank first. The honest position is disclosure plus a published rubric, not a claim of neutrality we could not back up.
What does 'desk review' mean?
That we assessed the product from published pricing, contract terms, documentation and operator interviews, but have not run it in a business ourselves. It is a weaker evidence tier than hands-on and we label it as such rather than blurring the two.
How often are reviews updated?
Pricing and terms are re-checked at least annually, and sooner when a vendor changes something material. Each review shows the year it was last reviewed.
Can I request a review?
Yes, and category pages have a request link. We prioritise products that lots of small businesses are actually being sold, especially ones where the real cost is hard to find before a sales call.
Will you review something that pays you nothing?
Frequently. A comparison that only contains products paying commission is not a comparison, it is a directory of advertisers. Products with no commercial relationship carry a green 'No relationship' badge.