🧪 How We Test & Grade Tools

Every score on ToolGraded is earned through hands-on testing — not vendor pitches, sponsored placements, or guesswork. Here's exactly how we do it.

Our Commitment

We publish honest, independent reviews. Every tool we grade is tested by our team for a minimum of two weeks before we publish a score. We never accept payment to influence a rating. If a tool earns a high score, it's because it earned it.

We do earn commissions through affiliate links — that's how we keep the lights on. But our editorial scores are determined independently of commercial relationships. A tool with an affiliate link gets the same scrutiny as one without.

How We Score: 5 Dimensions

Each tool is graded on five weighted dimensions. The final score is a weighted average out of 10.

⚙️ Features (25%)

Does the tool do what it claims? How complete is the feature set compared to competitors? We compare against category benchmarks and test each advertised capability directly.

💰 Value (25%)

Is the pricing fair relative to what you get? We look at free tiers, paid plans, per-user costs, and compare value against direct competitors. A cheap tool that barely works still scores low here.

🖥️ Ease of Use (20%)

How steep is the learning curve? Can a non-technical user get value in the first 30 minutes? We assess onboarding, UI clarity, documentation quality, and time-to-first-value.

🎧 Support (15%)

We open real support tickets and measure response time and quality. We also assess self-service options: documentation, knowledge base, community forums.

⚡ Performance (15%)

Speed, reliability, uptime, and output quality. For hosting: real load tests and uptime monitoring. For AI tools: benchmark comparisons and output consistency across repeated prompts.

Testing Timeline

We don't publish after a 20-minute demo. Our standard testing window:

Minimum 2 weeks of hands-on use before writing a draft
At least 5 real use-case scenarios per tool (writing, coding, image gen, etc.)
For hosting: 60-day uptime monitoring before finalizing a score
Reviews are re-evaluated after major updates — a score can go up or down
We mark every review with a "last verified" date

What the Scores Mean

9.0–10.0 Best in class. Exceptional across all dimensions. Strong buy.

8.0–8.9 Very good. A few minor weaknesses but excellent overall.

7.0–7.9 Good. Solid tool with some notable gaps.

6.0–6.9 Average. Does the job but plenty of better alternatives exist.

< 6.0 Below average. Hard to recommend at current pricing/state.

⚠️ Affiliate Relationship Disclosure

Some of the tools we review pay us a commission if you purchase through our links. This does not affect our editorial scores. The commission comes from the vendor's marketing budget — you pay the same price with or without our link.

We never accept payment for positive coverage. If a vendor asks us to change a score in exchange for a better commission rate, we decline. Tools are evaluated independently by our editorial team, and scores are approved before affiliate deals are negotiated.

Have a question about our methodology? We're transparent.