How I test and rank tools
Every ranking in the Best AI Tools guides is editorial. Vendors can't pay for a position, and an affiliate link never moves a tool up or down.
What decides a rank
Each tool is used on the job the guide covers, on a free plan or trial where there is one, and scored out of 10 on five things:
- 01
Fit for the job
Does it do the job the guide is about, for a B2B team, without a workaround?
- 02
Quality of the output
Run on real tasks from that job, not the vendor's demo.
- 03
Setup and day-to-day use
How long it takes a team to get value, and what it needs from them.
- 04
Pricing and value
Current published pricing, free plan or trial, and what the paid tiers add.
- 05
Integrations and data
Whether it fits the tools a team already runs, and where its data goes.
What never decides a rank
- Payment, sponsorship or a Spotlight booking
- Affiliate commission, or how much a programme pays
- Free accounts, gifts or early access
- A vendor asking, however politely
Keeping guides current
- Each guide shows when it was last updated, and when its tools were last tested.
- Pricing and plans are rechecked at every update, because they change often.
- A tool that gets worse, or is shut down, comes off the list.
Paid is always labelled, and never ranked
The guides are free to read. Vendors have two ways in, and only one of them leads to the ranking.
Some “Visit site” buttons are affiliate links: they earn a commission if you buy, at no cost to you, and are labelled “Affiliate link”. They are chosen after the ranking, never before it.
The full rules are in the Partner & Editorial Policy. I don't sell, swap or insert links, and I don't publish guest posts for links.
Built a tool that belongs in a guide?
Send it in. It goes into the queue for the guide's next update and gets tested like every other tool. It's free, inclusion isn't guaranteed, and no payment is accepted for it.
Want guaranteed, labelled visibility instead? See sponsorship options.