How we research, test, and score every review
This is the actual internal process every AEOToolList review follows — not a marketing summary of it. If a review or comparison contradicts something below, that's a bug; tell us via contact.
Where our facts come from
We rank sources by how much we trust them, and use each tier for what it's actually good for:
| Tier | Source | Use for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Firsthand testing (our own trial/demo account) | The core of every review — mandatory, not optional |
| 2 | Vendor-direct materials (pricing pages, docs, changelogs) | Facts like price and feature existence — never verdicts |
| 3 | Review aggregators (G2, Capterra, TrustRadius, Gartner Peer Insights) | Sentiment patterns to verify firsthand, never to quote directly |
| 4 | Practitioner communities (Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube) | Leads on edge cases, to be verified before repeating as fact |
| 5 | Industry/analyst publications | Terminology and trend context for glossary and guide content |
Our workflow, step by step
- 1
Trial the tool firsthand before reading other reviews of it.
- 2
Pull dated facts from the vendor's own site; cross-check against aggregators.
- 3
Verify recurring aggregator or community complaints in our own trial before repeating them as fact.
- 4
Write the verdict in original language from our own test notes.
- 5
Cite anything not self-generated — stats, quotes, screenshots.
- 6
Keep a source log (claim → source → date checked) so quarterly refreshes stay honest and cheap.
Guardrails we hold ourselves to
- No scraping of G2, Capterra, or vendor sites in violation of their terms.
- Vendor briefings, extended trials, or any provided access are disclosed, not hidden.
- Every published fact traces to something checked this quarter — not to background knowledge or a hunch.
- Legal pages (privacy, terms, affiliate disclosure) come from a real template service or legal counsel, never from general research.
Where each type of page comes from
Reviews and comparisons are never ghostwritten from someone else's roundup. The tools index and category pages are aggregated from our own published reviews; comparisons are synthesized entirely from reviews we've already written, not new outside research; the glossary and guides turn industry terminology into original, plain-English explanations. About, this page, and our contact page are internal factual content — no external research involved. Legal pages are the one exception: those come from a real template service or legal counsel, never from general research.