Our Trusted Review Sites

Who Are They?

Buyers Guide, as you may have guessed, has created a buyer’s guide to help consumers make smarter purchasing decisions. Their goal is to highlight helpful, data-driven information that allows users to pick out great products that meet their specific needs. Since their inception, they’ve thrived by quickly and efficiently connecting would-be purchasers to the right products, as well as by providing targeted, helpful information to help make the best buying decision for whatever their readers are looking for.

How Do They Work?

The site tends to stick to a regular Top 10 format for most of their reviews. That being said, the site is very easy to understand; simply search for a category that fits what you’re interested in, and then each category you click on will take you to a very easy-to-understand article including the best products in the category and a buyer’s guide to outline all of the considerations you should have before making a final purchase decision.

What is Their Review Process?

Buyers Guide relies on data to write their reviews. As they write on their site, “every day, our algorithms crunch thousands of user decisions, and we match your results to what people just like you are searching for.” Needless to say, this is a pretty unique approach in the world of product reviews. Their team also spends hours and hours looking through forums, consumer reviews, and ratings, all to feed to data through to produce the numbers necessary to come up with the best products in each class.

What Can We Learn from the Review

Probably our favorite part of the site is how simple and concise each review is. Click on anything on the site and you will come to a very similarly formatted write-up. This consists of a list of the top products ranked best overall at the top and then descends from there. This ranking will include a star rating alongside a 1-10 rating, then a short list of key features and a link where to buy. Below the list will the the actual shopping guide, which is also very precise and will outline everything you need to think about when you’re in the market for the product or service featured.

Who Are They?

Based out of New York, Best Products is a site that covers a wide variety of products from tech to parenting to beauty products. They research products, conduct hands-on tests, interview industry pros, study market research, review consumer feedback, and write all their findings into digestible yet comprehensive reviews. They’ve reviewed more than 200,000 products since they launched.

How Do They Work?

Their site is broken out into 5 categories: Tech, Beauty, Home, Appliances and Fitness. Each of their reviews are tailored to the specific product and will often include a best overall, best value, most compact, best for travel, etc.  Each product being reviewed will have a thumbs up and thumbs down section along with a detailed description and a reason they chose it for that category.

What is Their Review Process?

Best Products’ team of editors boasts that they spend more than 400 hours per week doing research for their reviews. They don’t use an algorithm or software to choose their products — they’re all hand-picked and researched or tested by their team. From start to finish, their process takes three months. The first month is the research phase. Their editors spend time researching new, best-selling, and highly rated products available in the market and pick 10 to 20 different versions to test in house. The second month is for testing, during which their editors are given ample time to use the product in their daily lives. The third month is for ensuring they’re presenting our findings in a digestible format for our readers.

What Can We Learn from the Review?

Although Best Products departs from the top 10 strategy, there is still a lot that can be learned from this site. Each article will list out all of the products, with number one being the “best overall” pick and includes the key features and a write-up going more in-depth about the product. However, the subsequent picks are not in descending order from best to worst, but rather each product will have a label for best in a certain circumstance. For instance when rating sunscreen, there will be the best overall pick, but the other products on the list will be labeled best mineral-based lotion, best for darker skin tones, etc. Next, they will include a “what to consider” section that will quickly outline each key factor that should be thought about before making a decision. This is followed by their “how we tested” segment.

Who Are They?

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews offers thorough, unbiased, and independent advice on what to buy. They cover hundreds of products every year and at this time of writing currently boast 15,886 products tested and reviewed since their inception. This site focuses heavily on tech products and covers TV’s, Audio, Computers, Gaming, Cameras, and some appliances.

How Do They Work?

The site is broken out into Reviews, Best Of Lists, Versus and Hands On sections. The reviews are very in-depth and cover every aspect of the product in question. For instance, a laptop review will cover the design, screen, performance, battery, availability, specs, etc. Their “best of” sections act more as a top 10 list where they list pros/cons of each and a 5-star rating system.

What is Their Review Process?

Trusted Reviews has a very comprehensive review process for each product they take a look at. In their own words, “we use industry standard tests, in properly equipped facilities, to evaluate products in order to compare them properly against each other.” So how does this work in principle? First, they select products based on meeting one of three criteria: what’s new and interesting, what readers are searching for online, or what readers are buying. Next, they request the products from the manufacturers, or occasionally buy the products themselves. Afterwards comes the tests themselves. These obviously vary depending on the product, but they will use standard tests whenever possible to compare key features and asses the accuracy of manufacturer claims, and then conduct in-person testing for each feature to give a realistic idea of performance.

What Can We Learn from the Review?

You can reliably see a lot of the same information review to review. This will include a star rating, a short pros and cons list , and then a longer-write up about the product. These write-ups are usually worth the read, and will give you what you want to know about the features of the product, but they are not easy to sift through if you just want to know a very specific piece of information.

Who Are They?

Digital Trends boasts they are the largest independent premium technology publisher in the world. Focusing on the best products and services available, they claim to interact with over 100 million people per month. Their mission is to “guide their audience through an increasingly complex digital world by humanizing technology and filtering out the noise.” When it comes to tech reviews, this is one of the most popular and reputable sites out there.

How Do They Work?

The site has a ton of content, all relating to the newest and most popular technology products. On top of reviews, they also have buying guides and news posts that they release regularly. They separate their reviews into Best Of, Deals, and Product Review categories. They claim integrity by ensuring editorial staffers and freelancers cannot accept compensation of any kind in exchange for a review, news coverage, or inclusion in an article or video.

What is Their Review Process?

Digital Trends’ review process is not exactly standardized and does differ from product to product. They do not outline an exact process anywhere on the site, but do include a short “how we test” section in specific articles. To this end, the testing process almost always includes the reviewers testing everything themselves in an attempt to put the product in question through the paces to see where it shines and where it is lacking.

What Can We Learn from the Review?

Digital Trends has a very standard format for their “best of” articles. Each product included will include a star rating, pros and cons list, and then a decently long write-up consisting of a “why you should buy this,” “who its for,” and “Why we picked X.” In addition, most products will also have a dedicated, in-depth write up; these focused write-ups include an enormous amount of information about every relevant specification of each product. We have no doubt you could spend a few good hours reading through all of the information they give for every product comparison article.

Who Are They?

TopTenReviews has been writing about consumer products for 16 years. As stated on their site, they are built around buying advice, and helping you to understand what you’re buying and the choices you have. They cover a very wide range of products and topics and insist each of their posted reviews has been written by experts in their respective fields.

How Do They Work?

Most reviews on the site cover the top choices in a specific category of products. They do a very good job of providing as much information as possible including a superlative list, buyers guide, specifications, deals and reasons to buy or avoid. They use features, ease of use, price, durability and the level of customer support provided by the manufacturer to formulate a score for each product.

What is Their Review Process?

TopTenReviews has a team of expert writers and reviewers with a great base of knowledge in each area of consideration. They work with their editorial team to identify products based on several factors, including cost, availability, popularity, etc. They then reach out to manufacturers to request no-strings-attached samples or products available on loan. With products in hand, the reviewers begin a meticulous review process, including using most products just like a regular consumer would be expected to, as well as some standard tests that allow comparison between the products in each category.

What Can We Learn from the Review?

Although TopTenReviews does not get too granular in their product categories, they do a great job of recommending the best overall product for the average person. Their star rating along with the pro and cons list is super helpful when it comes down to making a decision. The fact that they are reviewing the products themselves does give them the edge on some of the other review sites. They also provide custom categories for some products as well which helps in our aggregation of information.

Who Are They?

Launched back in 2007, and later acquired by TechMediaNetwork in 2013, Tom’s Guide has been providing product reviews across several categories, but with a definite focus on tech.

How Do They Work?

The main focus of the site is on product reviews and buying guides, but they also feature news and how-to articles. That being said, you will find plenty to read on tech news, such as the latest shows coming out, or how to speed up your home internet. However, our main interest is in their product reviews and buying guide section, which are all formatted largely the same way and are quite easy to follow.

What is Their Review Process?

Every product looked at is personally tested by the staff at Tom’s Guide as it pertains to the item in question. If it is a new computer, they will be running benchmarks on how fast it runs and how much battery it goes through; if it is a fitness watch they will be running laps. The eventual rating is always formulated with the duel purpose of answering the question “is this a good choice for readers?” as well as “who should buy it?”

What Can We Learn from the Review?

There are a few key things we can learn from each review. First and foremost, Tom’s Guide gives a star rating for each product. They explain their star rating best-

• 5 stars = Practically perfect
• 4 stars = Totally worth it
• 3 stars = Worth considering
• 5 stars = Meh
• 2 stars = Not worth the money
• 1 star = Laughably bad

So basically, if Tom’s Guide gives you a rating below 2 stars, they are telling you not to buy it. Additionally, they give best picks and specific use-case recommendations. Maybe the phone they are talking about doesn’t have all the top features, but it might be the best option for someone looking to stream movies. When it comes to the buying guides, most articles are structured the same way; there will be a ranked list of the top products in the category based on their star rating; there will be a list of specs and a short “reasons to buy/avoid“ section; there will be a brief write-up detailing the finer points of each product, and finally there will be a section about how the testing was performed, what to look for when making a choice, and usually another segment or two giving more product-specific advice.

Who Are They?

Reviewed.com is a very straightforward product testing company. Focusing on science-backed recommendations and discovering every benefit available, they put in the groundwork to give their best take on each product they look at.

How Do They Work?

While the heart of the site is of course product reviews, the site itself is broken up into a few different sections: Deals, The Best Right Now, Award Winners, How-Tos, and Videos

• Deals is a mix of articles highlighting any price drops on products they have either reviewed or have noticed in the market place, as well as tips and tricks for saving money and milking every benefit from a service
• The Best Right Now is of course their buying guide section of the site, and is the bread and butter of their product testing.
• Award Winners is simply listings of their own top picks across all of the categories of products
• How-Tos is their blog section, comprised of advice articles on many different household issues
• Videos is exactly what it sounds like – all of their video articles. This is a mix of blog type articles as well as product reviews and “best of” lists.

What is Their Review Process?

Reviewed.com relies on their own team of experts to personally test everything they write about, and they are very transparent about this. They even own their own testing lab able to control temperature and humidity, trap light, and isolate sound. Every test looks completely different of course, whether they are building an airtight chamber in the lab to test out air purifiers or whether they are shoveling snow to test shovels.

What Can We Learn from the Review?

There are a couple different things we can learn depending on the review. When reviewing a specific product, the article is usually a pretty open-ended write-up about the basics (what to know before buying, factors to consider, features to look out for, etc.) As for the “best of” articles, there is usually a pretty clear-cut style. For the most part you can expect to see a ranked list right at the top. This is followed by  the top few picks broken out by superlatives (best overall, best value, etc.) This section includes a short write-up of the tester’s experience with the product followed by a few pros and cons. Next is the “how we tested” section. This section is always interesting to say the least, as they layout the qualifications of the testers and then breakdown the exact process of how they tested. Finally, there is a more expansive “what you should know” section at the bottom, giving more general information.

Who Are They?

CNET (Computer Network) is an enormous content site that focuses on tech and electronics. Founded back in 1994, the site has grown to around 94 million visits per month. They not only write tons of content including news, guides, and reviews, but have also expanded to include video and podcasts.

How Do They Work?

The site wears a lot of different hats these days. The site itself is broken up into different categories; there is definitely a focus on technology, but they also put out articles on things like finance, wellness, and culture. The articles themselves are also quite diverse, and sometimes give out info, like breaking down the new features on an upcoming phone, or actually give a review, either of a single product or a line of products in a category.

What is Their Review Process?

CNET staff tests everything themselves, and to that end will both request products to look at as well as consider unsolicited products that are sent in. They mention that on average they will keep the product in question for about 60 days, and from there undergo an impartial review process by their expert reviews staff. Many products are actually tested in the CNET labs, which of course they own and operate themselves.

What Can We Learn from the Review?

The review category is split into four different sections: Reviews, Best Products, Versus, and Award Winner. “Reviews” are assessments of single products, “best products” look at a number of different products and put out a superlative list (best overall, best value, most affordable, etc.), “versus” compares two products and lists all of their relative strengths and weaknesses, and finally “award winners” are products that CNET have given their own award to. The organization is obviously very different in all of these different sections, but in each of them you can expect to see a comparison of the price and specs of each product as well as a short write-up and a guide where to buy.

Who Are They?

The granddaddy of reviewers, Consumer Reports started way, way back in 1936 and has not only been providing incredibly in-depth analysis of countless products but has also been holding corporations to account and striving to pass consumer-protection laws based on the findings of their research. They are completely independent and non-profit and they currently stand at six million members. That being said, this is a subscription service. While we know many people cannot justify around $10 per month to read reviews, we can at least rest assured that the information coming from Consumer Reports is completely unbiased.

How Do They Work?

The group buys and tests everything themselves, and at this point they have quite a lot of resources to do it. At the time of writing, they boast 63 state-of-the-art labs, over 130 researchers, engineers, scientists, and testing experts, and spend over 30 million dollars on the testing, reviewing, and rating process.

What is Their Review Process?

The process itself changes depending on the products on mind, but of course everything is personally bought and tested with their own experts and within their own facilities. Furthermore, Consumer Reports combines their lab testing with surveys of product owners to put together their final write-up with everything you need to know.

What Can We Learn from the Review?

The reviews are all very straightforward. Depending on the category, you will see a list of top contenders with a rating next to them that is further broken down into relevant factors going into each decision. For example, if you were buying a dishwasher, those categories might include washing strength, level of noise, energy consumption, and ease of use. You can then click on any item for an in-depth analysis of the product, including a ratings scorecard, the features and spec, and finally the price and where to buy.

Who Are They?

Per their website, the ultimate goal of FinanceBuzz is to democratize financial independence. How do they do it? They put out a mix of different content, including educational financial guides, financial product reviews, and more traditional blog post on the same topics.

How Do They Work?

As mentioned above, FinanceBuzz puts out a mix of straightforward product reviews as well as educational posts with less of an emphasis on making a purchase. The amount of content can be a little overwhelming, but their site makes it easy to navigate between the articles they put out on financial literacy and the more focused reviews they put out on financial products and services

What is Their Review Process?

Their process is a little inscrutable, but we know they have a team of experts on staff that handle the research and writing of each article, and those contributors are prominently featured on the site, with open invitation to communicate for interviews, quotes, and commentary

What Can We Learn from the Review?

For the most part, each category on the site is split into 3 sections: guides, reviews, and best of. That being said, what we can learn varies depending on the product in question and the section of the site it was written in. Guides are of course the most open ended with varied content and organization. Reviews are also varied, but for the most part will give a quick summary of every product being reviewed followed by a longer write-up giving information on what the product is, how it works, an FAQ, etc. Finally, the “best of” section is a little more organized, giving a list of superlatives for everything included. For example, if we take a look at the “Best Mortgage Lenders” article, we will see the list broken down into: best for first-timers, best for veterans, best for refinancing, best customer service, etc.

Who Are They?

First launched back in 2011, Gear Hungry is actually a digital magazine that is currently owned by Lola Digital as of 2019. Despite being a part of a larger group now, Gear Hungry continues to focus on crafting buying guides for online shoppers. While “gear” is the bread and butter of the site, they have their hands in a pretty diverse category of products. You can get the latest breakdown on folding knives and camping grills, but you can also find guides on clothing and toys.

How Do They Work?

As mentioned above, Gear Hungry is all about reviews and buying guides. The site itself is pretty simple – pick a category, and then choose either product or buyer’s guide. The product articles are deep dives on a single product, and the buyer’s guides go over multiple products in a single category.

What is Their Review Process?

The site follows a few basic steps when conducting their research. First, they aggregate consumer reviews in order to determine the top-rated products in the category they want to write about. Next, they interview experts to find out the preferred products are from the people using them most. After that, it’s onto more interviews and meetings with brands to find out which products are coming out soon and ideally test them before release. Finally, the products are given out to experts for personal testing.

What Can We Learn from the Review?

What we can learn depends on the type of article. For a product review, you will get an overview of the specs right at the top of the page, followed by a detailed writeup describing the qualities and considerations of the product. Sometimes these are broken into different sections, or sometimes it is one long writeup. These articles can definitely be informative, but of course you are only getting information on one item and have nothing to compare it against.

This is where the buyer’s guides come into play. Each article will feature their top picks at the top. This is not a 1-10 list, but rather a list of superlatives to consider: best overall, best for beginners, best for kids, etc. Below this list is a longer breakdown of each product mentioned above, which a summary of the item in question as well as the key features and specifications.

If you scroll all the way past this, you will get to a brief paragraph tailored to each buying guide that includes: Why you should trust us, Who this is for, How we picked, and features to look for.

Who Are They?

Founded back in September 2011, Wirecutter has made a name for themselves by testing and reviewing countless products to give recommendations for everything you could possibly need. As of 2016, they have been acquired by the New York Times. At a glance, you might think tech when you hear the name Wirecutter, but a quick glance at their product categories will show you that they have their hands in everything from home & garden to mattresses and cars.

How Do They Work?

The content on the site is essentially split into two different sections: a tips & tricks section with articles such as “How to Clean Hardwood Floors,” and a “the best of X” section with articles such as “The Best Duffle Bags.” They additionally have a “Deals” section, but for our purposes we are looking at the former two. Now here is the downside – as we mentioned in the last section, they were acquired by the New York Times. This unfortunately means that Wirecutter is now hidden behind the New York Times subscription paywall. Great news if you’re already a subscriber, but if not, then you are limited to reading a few articles a month.

What is Their Review Process?

Each Wirecutter product review/comparison takes a similar approach to the review process, and all of it is performed by their own staff of writers. First, the writers complete a scout report for each category: who is this for, who are the biggest brands in the space, who are the authoritative sources on the topic, what is the most important thing to look for. Next, the writers look all over the internet – both at retailers carrying the products such as Amazon, as well as forums and message boards of enthusiast groups – to come up with their final list of contenders to consider in each category. Finally they try and answer those most pressing questions by testing everything themselves! It can take months to review a single category, and this might include hiking hundred of miles to test boots or running a Roomba through an obstacle course for hours at a time. Frankly, sometimes the best part of the review is just learning the crazy steps they took to run every product through the ringer.

What Can We Learn from the Review?

In short, we can learn a hell of a lot from each Wirecutter review. They are often incredibly long and detailed. This can be perfect if you want to know every consideration before dropping over $1,000 on a new washing machine, but you might not want to be reading a novel on your phone while you’re at the store deciding on your next toothbrush. All of that being said, the writeup is very formulaic and easy to pick through. It consists of several sections:

• The picks – This first section just gives the info we want to know; “Our Pick” is of course Wirecutter’s top choice for most people; “Runner-Up” is the second best choice, usually better than most of the competition with a couple setbacks; “Budget Pick” is the best choice for a lower price range than most other models in the category; and lastly “Upgrade Pick” is their choice for the best higher-end model that won’t be best for everyone, but will certainly offer more bells and whistles for those looking to spend some extra money on it.
• Why you should trust us – This section does a quick breakdown about the expertise of the authors and whichever sources they consulted
• How we picked and tested – This is usually lengthy section is where they describe in detail how they picked the products to consider and how they actually tested them. In our opinion this section is always worth a read, not only to make sure that the ratings make sense, but also just to get a sense of how you might expect the products to hold up.
• Flaws but not dealbreakers – A description of all the anticipated problems consumers might have with each item on the list
• The competition – the final core section in which the writers discuss the products they didn’t look at and why

Sound like a lot? We agree. While we love how informative Wirecutter’s reviews are, we also value getting the lowdown on the products we want to buy in just a couple minutes. Add in the fact that they are now behind a paywall – let us do the heavy lifting for you.

Launched back at the end of 2014, bestreviews.com has been putting out expert reviews on an incredibly wide variety of products, including everything from apparel and electronics to pets and travel. These reviews have certainly struck a chord with their audience, they are now up to 300,000,000 customers!

How Do They Work?

The site boasts a decently sized blog focusing on specific products, home solutions, and points of interest every consumer should know. However, the main function of the site (and the reason we are so interested) is their incredibly expansive catalogue of product and service reviews. These are written in a very standard, easy to follow formula that give you everything you need to know after just a few minutes of reading. Once you’ve read one review, you know exactly what to expect for the next one

What is Their Review Process?

Bestreviews.com has a large internal team of testers, experts, and editorial staff that does their own research on each product being featured. According to the site, the staff picks the product in question based on consumer feedback and expert guidance, and then puts in many hours of research testing everything themselves. Finally, they share exactly how many different models they considered, how many consumers they consulted, and how many hours of research they put in.

What Can We Learn from the Review?

Our favorite part of the site is how easy it is to understand the data. Each review largely works the exact same way; right at the top of the page, the site puts up the 5 best products from the pool of models they looked at, with one getting the “best of the best” crown and another getting the “best bang for the buck”; next they do a quick writeup of the most essential strength of each of the top products with a pros and cons list right underneath; finally, this top five list is followed by a very detailed writeup including things such as key considerations when making a purchase, key features to look out for, and prices and tips when you’re ready to buy.

Who Are They?

NerdWallet Started way back in 2010 with a heavy focus on the world of finance. As they state on their site, their goal is to provide the tools, information, and expert insight to navigate life’s financial decisions. This is not intended for Wall Street brokers to find the newest no-limit black card or learn the latest tax loophole, but rather it is for the rest of us to learn how to find the answer’s to the most common financial questions: securing a loan based on your credit score, getting some tips on how to budget based on your income level, etc.

How Do They Work?

The site wears a few different hats; they offer financial planning tools such as a calculator tool for everything from mortgage amortization to airline miles; they also have a very robust “guides & tips” section which features articles on saving money, understanding different financial institutions and tools, and of course giving their take on some available products; finally, they offer their top picks of different financial products such as credit cards, mortgages, and loans. This last section is what really piques our interest – real products, real expert ratings and reviews.

What is Their Review Process?

Unfortunately, NerdWallet’s review process is a little inscrutable. We know they rely on an in-house team of experts to research each article and product. These experts rely on authoritative sources such as interviews and government/ industry websites and documents. The team is quite large at this point, consisting of over 100 editors and writers, and they are very confident in their fact-checking methods and welcome readers to reach out about any potential mistakes. However, we don’t know exactly how they assess each product being reviewed. Although when it comes to finance, we are more interested in the facts and figures involved, and not as much as how a credit card fits in your wallet or how many pages an auto loan takes up.

What Can We Learn from the Review?

There is no simple answer to what data is included in each review. NerdWallet splits their reviews into a “best of the best” category as well as a “compare and review” category. One consistency is a star rating for each product being reviewed. This rating is determined by a formula that takes multiple factors into account depending on the product in question. For example, their credit card ratings are based on factors including the type of card, rates, fees, and rewards offered. Additionally, there is always a pros and cons section, a product details section, and a personal take from the site on why they like each thing on the list. All in all, there is a ton of data to digest, and it varies by the product, but don’t worry, that’s what we are here for.

Who Are They?

Founded in 2010, The Penny Hoarder has turned into one of the largest personal finance websites in the nation. With upwards of 17 million readers a month, they have certainly struck a chord with their helpful tools and articles about maximizing your household income.

How Do They Work?

After a decade of operations, The Penny Hoarder has amassed a very large variety of content pertaining to personal finance. They have a few tools comparing things such as insurance providers and tax programs, but the main focus of the site are their blog posts. These consist of just about everything: listicles ranking the best of certain products and services, direct expert advice, hot takes on the latest news in finance, etc.

What is Their Review Process?

The Penny Hoarder has a very large staff of both experts and writers to produce their content. The process to creating each article varies depending on the topic at hand. You might read about the top sites to make money on the side, and the writers will outline how they tried everything personally. You might read an article about different ways to recycle things for money, and it will include links to the various services they researched that can accomplish the task they’re writing about.

What Can We Learn from the Review?

What we can learn depends entirely on the article in question, and The Penny Hoarder publishes a very wide variety of articles. We might learn the personal experience of a writer who signed up for a few different financial services, we might learn prices and coverages for certain insurance services or credit card services, or we might just learn what to keep in mind before opening a bank account from a financial expert.