How We Score
The full methodology behind every number on this site: the rubric and its weights, the sourcing rules, the review panel, and what happens when we're wrong.
The rubric
Every provider is scored on five fixed-weight factors. The weights don't move per review, per provider, or per anything:
| Factor | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Accuracy | 35% | Three inputs, in order: the provider's stated accuracy claim and how it is documented; the provider's verification model (how measurements are checked before delivery); and the breadth and consistency of public user corroboration |
| Price value | 20% | True cost per report, published rates score above reported figures score above quote-only opacity |
| Turnaround | 15% | Order-to-delivery clock; published commitments score above reported typicals |
| Formats & integrations | 15% | Claims-native files (ESX/XML) above integrations above documents; fit into real estimating workflows |
| Ordering & support | 10% | Friction, commitment requirements, and support behavior (revision policy folded at 5%) |
Why can two providers with the same stated 98%+ accuracy carry different Accuracy subscores? Corroboration breadth. Breadth scales with years and volume in market, so this factor deliberately rewards proven track record at scale, and a newer provider with an identical stated figure will score somewhat lower here until public corroboration catches up. That is a disclosed design choice, not an accident, and it is the main reason incumbents sit atop close scores.
Sourcing rules
Every price, spec, and policy claim carries a source and an as-of date, listed at the bottom of the article that uses it. 'Reported' means compiled from published third-party reporting; 'published' means the provider posts the number publicly; neither is a quote. Accuracy figures are always labeled as the provider's own claims, weighed against public user reviews.
Provider-facing language follows one test: is it a verifiable fact? Prices, formats, policies, and turnaround commitments qualify. Motives, quality adjectives, and mind-reading don't. When a provider updates its published figures, we update the score and the source date to match.
Review process
Every article passes a pre-publication review panel that checks three things independently: factual claims against their cited sources, originality of the writing, and fairness of provider characterizations. Nothing publishes with an unresolved flag. Rankings are recomputed from the rubric, editors don't hand-order lists.
Scores are computed from the fixed-weight rubric, and every figure is checked against the provider's own published or publicly reported information and dated before it ships.
Corrections
Wrong is wrong, and speed matters more than pride: verified corrections ship within the week with a note on the page. Providers and readers use the same door, [email protected]. Pricing pages carry their retrieval dates so staleness is visible, and dated roundups refresh on a published cadence.