Experience

We strive to give you objective reviews of products and services that aid you in making the right decisions best suited for you.

Over the past six years, we’ve written over 5,000 reviews covering personal finances, health and beauty, home and garden, technology, and more. This wealth of experience teaches us a few important lessons about sound research.

Our advice has been featured on Huffington Post, MSN, U.S. News & World Report, Investopedia, Lifehacker, H&R Block, Glassdoor, and more.

Process

First, our writers approach every product and service we cover as a consumer. We read through a website’s claims as if they were all true. We give in to the marketing and hype because we believe most readers who come to the site will do the same. We note the claims that are most attractive. We review the research, if any. We watch the commercials. We listen to the testimonials.

Then, we approach the product or service as a skeptic. Which claims seem suspicious? Is the research used company-funded or independent? The claims the product is making seem amazing but is it possible, based on prevailing research, that it can fulfill those claims? Furthermore, how does the product or service compare to competitors?

At this point, our research team gathers our observations and assesses what we’ve found. We identify the main questions our readers will most likely have about the product or service we’re reviewing.

In many cases, answering those questions goes beyond our expertise in the specific issue at hand. Rather than avoid those gaps, we reach out to experts and interview them so that we can better inform ourselves ahead of writing our review. The typical expert we contact has a degree in the area in which we’re covering and, ideally, we seek out those with doctorates when possible.

Once we have all of this information collected, we let the information guide our writing. And, in our writing, we construct our reviews in a way that presents our findings in a logical, understandable way. In doing this, we meet our readers’ needs for fact-based, research-backed conclusions that inform them of the truth.

Values

Underpinning this entire process is our devotion to editorial integrity. Of the thousands of reviews we’ve completed, less than 10 include links from which we earn money from readers signing up for a service or buying a product.

Additionally, we pride ourselves in presenting our readers with truly independent reviews. We operate outside the control of the companies about which we write. Our editorial team has the final say in what appears in our reviews and companies cannot change that content with payments or any other form of quid pro quo.

Furthermore, we approach each review in a spirit of fairness. If prevailing research and experts say a product or service works, we will tell you. If it doesn’t, we’ll tell you that, too.

In the end, our goal is to meet the creed at the heart of journalism: to achieve the best obtainable version of the truth. Our readers win when we achieve that goal.