How we research & choose
This page explains exactly how our articles are put together, so you can judge how much weight to give them.
1. Research-based, not hands-on (yet)
Our current articles are research-based. We haven’t run lab tests or long-term hands-on trials of the products on this site, and we say so on every article in a “How this page was made” note. If we add hands-on testing in the future, we’ll say clearly which pages it applies to and what we did.
2. Sources we use
- Official pricing pages for prices, plan limits and what each tier includes.
- Official help-center and documentation pages for details pricing pages leave out (credit costs, language support, commercial-use terms).
- Manufacturer spec pages and support documents for hardware specs such as battery life, water resistance, codecs and storage.
- Published lab measurements from named review outlets (for example SoundGuys) when we mention performance such as noise cancelling or measured battery life. We attribute every such figure to the outlet that measured it and link the source.
- Reputable news reporting for company events such as acquisitions or product shutdowns.
We list every source at the bottom of each article. When an official figure isn’t available (for example, when a price varies by region and is only shown in-app), we say so and label any third-party figure as third-party.
3. Verifying pricing
Each article shows the month we last checked pricing (and, for hardware, specs) (currently October 2026). Prices are in US dollars unless noted; some vendors publish prices only in other currencies or vary them by region, and we flag that. Always confirm the price at checkout, because vendors change plans often.
4. How we choose what to include
- The product must be actively sold and supported when we publish.
- We organize picks by use case (“best for developers”, “best free option”) rather than one overall score, because the right choice depends on what you’re doing.
- We include products with no affiliate program when they’re a good fit, and we note discontinued products instead of quietly recommending them.
5. What we never do
- Claim hands-on testing we didn’t do.
- Make up star ratings, test scores, statistics or user quotes.
- Accept payment to include or rank a product.
6. Updates and corrections
We update articles when pricing or features change and show the last-updated date at the top. Found an error? Tell us via the contact page.