Five criteria, fixed weights, and a minimum amount of testing before anything is published. Every scorecard on this site links here.
Each product is scored from 1 to 10 on five criteria. The criteria are weighted, the weights are the same for every category we cover, and the weighted average is the number at the top of the review. We do not round up. A product cannot earn a recommendation on price alone, because value is worth 15 percent and performance is worth twice that.
We set the criteria before testing begins and we do not change them to suit a result. When a category genuinely needs an extra measurement, for example battery range on an e-bike, it is scored inside performance and the testing note says so.
What the product does when measured, against the job it is sold for. This is the only criterion with a bench behind it.
Whether it keeps working. Physical products get a drop test, a thermal cycle where it applies, and a teardown of the serviceable parts. Software and services get uptime tracking and two deliberate failure tests.
How it behaves on day 30, not day one. We log the time spent fighting the product rather than using it, and we score against the alternatives in the same category, not against an ideal.
We file a minimum of five real support tickets per review as an ordinary customer, never as press, and we time every reply. We also plant 50 questions in the documentation and count how many are answered correctly for the shipping version.
Price against the category median for comparable capability, including the accessories and tiers you will actually need. A cheap product that forces a $200 purchase to be usable is scored at $200 more.
The sliders start at the scores from our Meridian CRM review. Move them to see how the weights change the verdict.
Weighted average, truncated to one decimal. This is the same arithmetic we run on every review.
No review publishes before 30 days of use. Roundups require the same per product, which is why they take a season.
We buy at retail wherever a retail channel exists. Loans are disclosed in the byline and returned inside 30 days. See the independence policy.
Support is scored from tickets filed under a personal name and a personal card, never as press.
A score can move after a significant update or a repeated failure in the field. Never for a complaint, a correction request, or an advertiser.
When a score moves, the old number, the new number, and the reason sit at the top of the review with the date.
If a manufacturer disputes a measurement, we retest on a second unit and publish both the result and the exchange.