How we curate

Most AI directories “curate” by accepting paid submissions and ranking alphabetically. Ours doesn’t. Here’s the actual editorial process, for anyone who cares about how the picks get made.

1. How a tool gets on the list

One of three ways:

• We’ve actually used it for paid work. Most listings come from tools we’ve genuinely tested against real client deliverables — not free trials, not demo accounts, real use over weeks.
• A reader we trust sent it. If a working practitioner emails us saying “this tool saved me X hours,” that’s a credible signal. We still test it before listing it.
• The vendor sponsored a placement. Sponsored listings get the same editorial bar as organic ones — if we wouldn’t recommend it unpaid, we won’t take the money. They’re labeled explicitly. See section 4.

2. What gets written about each tool

Every tool listing has:

• A one-line tagline (ours, not the vendor’s)
• A description of what it actually does and who it’s for
• A founder POV — our honest take, which is the part that takes the most time to write
• Current pricing (verified to be accurate at last_verified_at)
• The roles it serves (Bookkeeper, Solo Agency, E-com Op, Freelancer, Ops Manager) with scores
• A direct affiliate link via our /go/[slug] redirect (more in section 5)

3. The verification cycle

Every listing has a last_verified_at timestamp. Once a month, every tool gets re-checked:

• Does the homepage still load?
• Is the pricing on the page still what we say it is?
• Is the product still actively maintained (recent changelog, support replies)?
• Has the company been acquired, pivoted, or shut down?

If a tool fails any of these, the listing is flagged. If it’s broken or discontinued, we update the listing within a week or remove it. We don’t leave dead tools in the index to pad the count.

4. Sponsored placements

Yes, vendors can pay for placement. No, that’s not how most tools got here. Here’s the policy:

• Featured — tool appears higher in the Default view and on relevant stack pages. Editorial bar still applies. Labeled with aSponsored badge.
• Premium — tool appears at the top of the Default view and gets a dedicated newsletter mention. Editorial bar still applies (more strictly, actually — we don’t want a Premium pick to embarrass us). Labeled with aPremium badge.
• What we won’t do: hide sponsored placements as organic recommendations. Auto-list any vendor who pays without our review. Take money to remove a competitor from a stack page. Take money to write a positive POV.

The slow version of the question: would we have recommended this tool to a friend before the vendor offered to pay? If yes, sponsorship is fine. If no, we say no.

5. Affiliate disclosure

Most tools on this site have an affiliate program. If you click through and sign up, we earn a small commission — usually 10–30% of your first month or a flat $20–50 referral fee. This is standard in the directory category and doesn’t change what makes the list.

What it changes: we’re incentivized to recommend tools that convert. The honest mitigation is the editorial standard above — we’d rather recommend a tool with no affiliate program that’s genuinely the right pick than push someone toward a worse tool just because it pays better. The day we stop doing that, this directory becomes worth what every other one is worth: not much.

6. When you should ignore us

When you’ve actually used a tool in your own work and you disagree. Your experience always beats our recommendation. If something on this list is wrong for your context, email [email protected] and we’ll either update the listing or politely argue about it with you.

Have a question about the editorial process? Read the About page or email us directly.