How We Rank Products

This page explains exactly how we choose what to recommend, what we do and do not test, and how we are paid. If anything here is unclear, email contact@buyerrank.com and we will answer.

The short version

• We do not accept payment for a ranking position, a favorable review or a link.
• We do not let manufacturers see an article before it is published.
• We say plainly when we have not tested a product ourselves.
• Every product we recommend has a section explaining what is wrong with it.
• We are funded by affiliate commissions, and they are disclosed on every article.

Our process, step by step

1. We work out what the decision actually turns on

Before looking at a single product, we identify the two or three specifications that separate a good purchase from a regret in that category. For a chest freezer it is baskets, defrost drain and ambient temperature rating. For a car seat it is fit in your specific vehicle. For a robot mower it is slope rating. Everything else on the box is secondary, and most buying guides never get to this step at all.

2. We build a candidate list from the whole category

We start wide — current models from established brands, newer entrants, and the products that keep appearing in owner discussions — then remove anything discontinued, poorly supported, or sold without a clear warranty. We also remove products that do not do what their category name implies: evaporative coolers sold as air conditioners, for example, or mini PCs marketed as gaming desktops.

3. We read the reviews written after month three

First-week reviews measure packaging and delivery. Durability problems, noise complaints, and customer-service failures appear months later. We look for patterns across many long-term reviews rather than reacting to any single dramatic one, and we weight complaints that recur across different buyers far more heavily than isolated ones.

4. We check specifications against the manufacturer’s own documentation

Marketplace listings are frequently wrong about dimensions, capacity, materials and ratings. Where we can, we verify against the manufacturer’s specification sheet or manual rather than the retail listing. Where a figure is a manufacturer claim measured under ideal conditions — slope ratings, decibel levels, can capacities — we say so in the article rather than repeating it as fact.

5. We give each pick a role instead of a score

We do not rank one to ten, because a product that is wrong for your situation is not a worse product — it is a product for someone else. Each pick gets a role: best overall, best for small spaces, best on a budget, best for a specific use. A guide written this way works for readers with different constraints, which is how buying actually works.

6. We write the drawbacks

Every recommendation in every guide has a “what to watch out for” section, and it is not padding. If we have not found real drawbacks for a product, we have not researched it hard enough. This is also the most useful part of a guide: knowing who a product is wrong for is what stops you buying the wrong one.

7. We revisit and update

Product lines change and models get discontinued. We return to our guides, update them, and when a recommendation changes we say what changed and why rather than quietly swapping it out.

What we test, and what we do not

We are a small editorial team, and we are straightforward about this: we do not lab-test every product we write about. Most of our guides are based on manufacturer specifications, the physical constraints of each design, and patterns across long-term owner reviews. When a recommendation is based on research rather than hands-on use, we say so in the article itself, not just here.

We think that is more useful than the alternative, which is pretending. A guide that is honest about its method lets you weigh it properly. A guide that implies testing it did not do does not.

How we are paid

BuyerRank is free to read and carries no paywall. We are funded by affiliate commissions: when a reader follows one of our links to a retailer and buys something, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to the reader. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

The important part is what that does not buy. We decide which products to feature before looking at whether a retailer has an affiliate program. We are free to write critically about any product we link to, and we frequently do. A commission is the same regardless of which product in a guide you choose, so there is no incentive to push one over another — and if the honest answer is that you should buy a smaller, cheaper product, or none at all, we say that.

Full details are on our Affiliate Disclaimer page.

On prices

We deliberately do not publish fixed prices. Prices on Amazon change constantly, a price quoted in an article is out of date within days, and Amazon’s own program terms prohibit affiliates from caching pricing. Where price matters to a recommendation we describe it in relative terms — budget, mid-range, premium — and ask you to check the retailer for the current figure.

The standards and agencies we read

When a product can burn, cut, carry a child, hold water or run on a lithium-ion battery, we do not invent the safety advice. We read the agency that regulates it and we link to that page in the guide, so you can check the current wording yourself. These are the sources we go back to most often.

Corrections

We get things wrong. When we do, we want to hear about it: email contact@buyerrank.com with the article and the correction. We verify corrections and update the page, and for anything substantive we note the update at the bottom of the article rather than changing it silently.

What we will not do

• Take payment for a ranking position or a favorable review.
• Let a brand approve an article before publication.
• Quote prices as though they were fixed.
• Claim to have tested something we have only researched.
• Hide that we earn commission.
• Recommend a product we would tell a friend to avoid.