How we review software

Research-based, and we say so

We have not used every product we review for weeks on end, and we will not pretend we have. Our reviews are research-based: we build them from what the company itself publishes and from what large numbers of users report publicly. Every review says this in one line near the top, along with the date we checked it.

You will never read "we tested", "in our testing" or a made-up story about using an app for a week on this site. If a review describes how something works, that description comes from the vendor's documentation or from consistent, widely reported user experience, and we try to make clear which is which.

Where our information comes from

• Official documentation and help centers. What the product does, which platforms it runs on, and its limits.
• Pricing pages. Plan names, monthly and annual prices, and the limits on each plan (minutes, storage, seats, AI credits).
• Changelogs and release notes. What changed recently, and how actively the product is maintained.
• Security, privacy and trust pages. Certifications the company says it holds, encryption, where data is stored, and whether your content is used to train AI models.
• Patterns in public user feedback. App store reviews, community forums and review sites. We summarize patterns that come up again and again; we do not quote individuals or cherry-pick one angry post.
• Reputable reporting. For things like lawsuits or acquisitions, we link to news coverage or court filings and describe allegations as allegations.

What we check in every review

• Who it is for, and who should skip it. Every review opens with a short verdict.
• Key features, described in plain words rather than marketing terms.
• Pricing, in a table, with the date we checked and a link to the vendor's pricing page.
• Strengths and weaknesses, both specific. A review with no weaknesses is an advert.
• Privacy and security: what the company states, without adding claims of our own.
• Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, web and mobile, including the gaps.
• Alternatives, so you can compare before you commit.

We do not give star ratings or scores. A single number hides the thing that matters most: whether the product fits what you need. We would rather tell you who it suits.

How we date prices and keep reviews current

Prices and plan limits change constantly, so every price on the site carries the month we checked it, written as "as of October 2026" (or whenever the check was made), with a link to the vendor's own pricing page. Where a vendor's page is unclear, for example when it shows two prices without saying which is monthly and which is annual, we say so rather than guess.

We recheck reviews when a product changes its plans, ships a major update, or when a reader tells us something is out of date. The "checked" date at the top of a review changes only when we have actually rechecked it.

No payments, no affiliate links, no sponsored placements

We do not take money, free subscriptions, affiliate commissions or paid placements from any company we review. Links to vendors are ordinary links. No one gets to read or approve a review before it is published, and no one can pay to be listed first in a comparison or roundup.

Our disclosure: we make Hark

External Software LLC, based in Greenville, South Carolina, makes Hark, a desktop app that records and transcribes meetings on your own computer. That means every meeting note taker we review (Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, Read AI, Bluedot and others) competes with our product. Those reviews carry a line near the top that says so, plainly, so you can read them with that in mind.

Because of that conflict, we hold competitor reviews to a stricter standard: we lead with what the product does well, we give its real prices and free plan limits, and when we mention Hark we also say where Hark falls short (for example, it transcribes English only, and on a Mac it records the microphone only). If a competitor is the better choice for you, the review should tell you that.

Spotted a mistake?

We would rather be corrected than wrong. If a price has changed, a feature is missing, or we have described something inaccurately, please tell us through our contact page. Include the page, what is wrong and, if possible, a link to the source. We check every report against the vendor's own pages and update the review, including the "checked" date, when we get something wrong.

Vendors are welcome to write to us too. We will correct factual errors, but we will not remove fair criticism or change a verdict in exchange for anything.

Browse all of our software reviews.