Editorial guidelines

Write so anyone can read it

• We aim for words a 12-year-old knows. Our code measures every page, and a page that is too hard to read fails.
• Short sentences. One idea in each one.
• The answer comes first. The detail comes after.
• We explain a solar or software word the first time we use it.
• We change the words around a fact to make it plain. We never change the fact.

Every claim needs a source

• Every price and feature links to the page it came from, with the date we read it.
• If a company says something we could not check, we say that too.
• If we don’t know, we write “we don’t know”. We don’t fill the gap with a guess.
• Numbers on the site come from our data, not from a writer typing them in. When the data changes, the numbers change with it.

Treat every company the same

• Every product page has the same parts, in the same order.
• We write down what a product does not do as clearly as what it does.
• A company can’t pay us, and it can’t ask us to remove a finding. It can send one reply, and we publish it next to the finding.
• Products made by the publisher’s group are checked and scored by exactly the same rules. Their review pages say who makes them.

Rules for comparisons

We have not published any comparisons yet. When we do, these rules apply.

• We only compare two products when our data shows real differences between them.
• We show what is the same as well as what is different.
• We say who each product suits. We don’t name a winner.
• We never compare lenders head to head. Picking a loan for someone comes close to money advice, and the law controls that.

Rules for best lists

We have not published any best lists yet. When we do, these rules apply.

• A best list picks one tool for each job, such as “best for big solar farms”.
• It picks by how deep the tool’s checked features go for that job. The rule is printed on the page.
• No stars, no quality scores and no 1-2-3 order. Those need checked user reviews, and we don’t have enough yet.

What we never write

• Praise words with nothing behind them, like “best-in-class”, “leading” or “powerful”.
• Made-up ratings, reviews, user counts or quotes.
• Paid wording dressed up as our own view. If we ever add paid spots, they will look different and say so.
• Fake urgency, like “prices go up soon”.
• Claims about a company we can’t show a source for.

How we use software to write

Software helps us build pages from our data and check the writing. It does not supply facts. Every fact must already be in our data, with a source and a date. A person reads the pages that changed before they go live.

When a page changes

• Each fact shows the date we last read it.
• If we got something wrong, we fix it and add it to the corrections log.
• We don’t quietly remove a finding because a company did not like it.

Found something that breaks these rules? Tell us.