About ToolAdvisor

Who this is for

Someone about to spend money on tools who has narrowed the field to a few candidates and needs the difference between them stated plainly — including when there is no meaningful difference, which we say rather than manufacturing a winner.

How a recommendation is produced

Criteria, weighted differently for different buyers. We publish the winner, the runner-up, and the gap between them on a zero-to-one scale — including when that gap is zero. Differences we cannot measure from outside are said in words and labelled as unmeasured, rather than turned into a criterion that would conveniently break a tie.

How evidence is handled

A figure is read from the product’s own page, never from another comparison site. The page text we read is kept, stored under the SHA-256 hash of that text, so a figure stays checkable months after the source page has changed. What we could not verify is reported as not recorded, with the reason, instead of being filled in. How we check what we publish sets out the whole chain.

What we do not claim

• I have not used most of these tools in production. Where a page tells you what a tool is like day to day, it is reporting what the vendor documents or what buyers report — never an experience I am claiming to have had.
• I do not accept payment for placement, and no vendor sees a page before it is published.

Who writes it

One person decides what goes on these pages: Cedric, Editor and operator. Who writes this lists what that involves and what it does not.

How the site makes money

Some outbound links are affiliate links. Where a page carries one, a disclosure appears at the top of that page, computed from the links themselves rather than written by hand. Recommendations are decided before monetisation is considered, and a tool with no affiliate programme can win. Affiliate disclosure.