Editorial Policy
How scores are made — and what can't influence them
This page documents the rubric behind our 0–100 scores, the rules writers follow, and the process for correcting mistakes. It applies to every review, comparison and guide on the site.
The Store Scorecard — the exact formula
Four metrics, all collected from the official Apple App Store catalog (U.S. storefront) on the check date printed on each page, combined with fixed weights:
| Metric | Weight | Source | Normalization |
|---|---|---|---|
| Community rating | 40% | App Store average star rating | Linear map: 3.80★ → 0, 4.95★ → 100, clamped |
| Adoption | 25% | App Store ratings count | log scale: 1 rating → 0, 600,000 → 100, clamped |
| Freshness | 20% | Days since last store update | ≤7 days → 100; then −1 point per 2.5 days; floor 0 |
| Listing transparency | 15% | Does the store description print dollar prices? | Yes → 100 · paid-tier language but no prices → 40 · neither → 20 |
Overall = 0.40·community + 0.25·adoption + 0.20·freshness + 0.15·transparency, rounded to the nearest integer. The formula is fixed: it produces the same number for the same data, for any app on the site. Apps without a U.S. App Store listing are profiled but not scored, and say so on their page.
The editorial overlay
Numbers can't tell you which app suits you. Each review adds research in our own words: developer background, advertised features, localization approach, and positioning. Editorial observations are marked as such, never mixed into the numeric scorecard, and a claim we can't verify is labelled “not verified” instead of guessed.
Independence rules
- No developer, studio or platform pays for coverage, scores, or placement.
- We buy our own subscriptions. If a service grants press access, it is disclosed on the review.
- Referral links, where used, never change scores, verdicts or ranking order.
- Writers may not hold equity in, or do paid work for, an app they cover on this site.
Update cadence
Every review shows a last checked date. We re-verify the full index at least quarterly, and immediately after major version releases. Comparisons are re-run whenever either app's review is updated. Stale entries older than 120 days are flagged in the index.
Corrections
Errors are fixed on the record: the page gets a dated correction note describing what changed and why. Report an error via the contact page; we aim to respond within two business days.
AI use
Draft assistance is used for proofreading and formatting only. Every sentence published here is reviewed, verified and signed off by a human editor, and all testing is performed by people using real accounts on real devices.