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Selectopicks

Rating methodology

Every score on this site comes from the same four-part rubric. Here is the whole thing.

Last reviewed 2 September 2026

Every product on Selectopicks is scored out of 10 against the same four-part rubric. The weights do not change between brands, and they do not change because of a commercial relationship. Rank on a category page is a function of score and nothing else.

The weights

  • Performance, 30%. Does the thing do its job well? Measured by hands-on use where we can buy the product, and by documented, verifiable performance data where we cannot.
  • Features, 25%. What you actually get at the entry price, not what appears on the highest tier of the pricing page. Features locked behind an upgrade are scored as absent from the plan we quote.
  • Value, 25%. Price against what is delivered, modelled over the full term rather than the introductory offer. A first-year discount that triples on renewal is scored on the renewal.
  • Support and trust, 20%. How reachable support is and how useful the answer is, plus company conduct: billing and cancellation terms, refund windows, transparency, and regulatory or enforcement history where it is on the public record.

How prices are verified

We take the price from the vendor's own pricing page, record the date, and cite the page in the review. Every price on the site carries the date it was last verified. If a vendor publishes a range rather than a fixed rate, we publish the range, because inventing a single number would be more precise than the truth.

Renewal pricing is treated as part of the price. Where a vendor advertises a first-term rate and renews higher, the review states both, and the value score reflects the renewal.

What we do when we cannot verify something

We leave it out and say why. A brand that has not been fully assessed appears on the category page marked as a draft, with no score, no price claim and no review link. It is better to show an incomplete list honestly than to fill the gaps with numbers nobody measured.

When scores change

Scores are not permanent. We re-check pricing on a rolling cycle, and a score can move when a vendor changes prices or plan contents, when support quality changes, when a company's conduct changes, or when a competitor's improvement changes what counts as good in the category. Where a score changes materially, the review says what moved it.

What a score is not

A score is a comparison inside one category, not an absolute judgement. An 8.4 in one category and an 8.4 in another are not interchangeable, because the criteria that matter differ. Read the category page for the shortlist and the review for the reasoning, and treat the number as a summary of both.