Editorial Policy

1. Our editorial principles

NetReckon exists to help people choose software and AI tools with confidence. Everything we publish is written for the person making that decision, not for the companies we cover and not for search engines. Five principles guide our work:

• Accuracy. We check facts against primary sources, and we say so when information could not be confirmed.
• Independence. Our findings reflect what we learn about a product. No vendor, sponsor or partner can buy or influence them.
• Fairness. Every product and every reviewer is held to the same standards, whether or not they have a commercial relationship with us.
• Transparency. We explain how our content is made, who made it, and how NetReckon earns money.
• Usefulness. We cover limitations as clearly as strengths, because the drawbacks are often what decide a purchase.

2. Who creates our content

NetReckon content is created by our in-house team of researchers, editors and moderators. Each role has a clear responsibility, and a named person is accountable for every page we publish. You can read about the people behind NetReckon on our About page.

Every article and profile shows who wrote it, who reviewed it and when it was last updated. Author pages list each writer’s background and areas of expertise.

3. What we publish

NetReckon publishes four main types of content. Each follows the standards in this policy.

Sponsored placements are not editorial content. They are always labeled, as explained in section 9.

4. How we research products

Every product profile starts with our own research. We do not copy a vendor’s marketing copy, and we do not publish a profile until it has been checked by an editor.

Sources we use

• Hands-on use. Wherever possible, we sign up for the product and use it, usually through a free plan or trial, and capture our own screenshots.
• Official documentation. Help centers, feature pages, API documentation and terms of service.
• Public pricing. We record prices from the vendor’s own pricing page and note the date we checked them.
• Changelogs and release notes. To understand how the product has changed and how actively it is maintained.
• User feedback. Reviews on NetReckon and patterns we see across public user discussions.

We cross-check information across these sources. Where sources disagree, we rely on the most recent primary source and note the difference if it matters to buyers.

What every profile includes

• A plain description of what the product does and who it is for
• Starting price and plan structure, with the date prices were checked
• Key features, based on what we could confirm
• Highlights and limitations, given equal prominence
• Alternatives that people commonly compare or switch to
• The author, the reviewing editor and the last-updated date

5. How ratings and rankings work

User ratings

A product’s rating on NetReckon comes from published user reviews. Reviewers give an overall rating and separate scores for ease of use, features, value for money and customer support. We show the number of reviews next to every rating, so you can see how much feedback it is based on. Our team never edits a reviewer’s score.

Category leaderboards

Leaderboards rank the tools in a category using a consistent set of factors, applied the same way to every product:

• User ratings — the overall score and the four sub-scores
• Volume and recency of reviews — recent feedback reflects the product as it is today
• Our research assessment — feature depth, pricing clarity, ease of getting started and quality of support, based on our own evaluation
• Product activity — how actively the product is maintained and improved

Leaderboards are reviewed regularly and whenever a product changes significantly. When we name a tool “best” for a purpose, the page explains why, with evidence from our research.

6. User reviews and moderation

Anyone can review a product on NetReckon, as long as the review is based on their own genuine experience of using it. Before a review is published, it goes through two checks:

1. Automated checks. We verify the reviewer’s email address and look for signs of misuse, such as duplicate content, multiple reviews from the same person, or unusual patterns of activity on a product.
2. Human review. A member of our moderation team reads every review and confirms it meets our review policy.

What we remove, and what we don’t

Vendors may invite their customers to leave a review, but invitations must be neutral. They cannot ask only happy customers, and they cannot offer anything in return for a positive rating. Vendors and users can flag a review they believe breaks our rules, and our team will investigate.

7. Guides, comparisons and news

Articles on the NetReckon blog follow the same research standards as our profiles, plus a few additional rules:

• Named authors. Every article shows who wrote it and links to their author page.
• Editor review. An editor checks every article for accuracy and fairness before it is published.
• Evidence for recommendations. In comparisons and “best of” lists, we explain why each tool is included and who it suits, using our own testing and research. We do not build lists only from other people’s reviews.
• Sources linked. We link to the primary sources behind important facts, such as official announcements and documentation.
• News is verified. News articles are based on official sources, and we clearly separate what has been confirmed from what has been reported or expected.
• Dates shown. Articles show when they were published and when they were last updated.

8. How we use AI

We use AI tools to help us work efficiently across a large and fast-moving catalog. People remain responsible for everything we publish.

Where AI helps

• Gathering and summarising product documentation, changelogs and pricing pages
• Spotting changes on products we already cover, so profiles can be updated
• Helping structure drafts and check them for consistency
• Flagging user reviews that may need closer inspection

Where AI is not used

• AI never writes, edits or rates user reviews
• AI does not decide ratings, rankings or the final assessment of a product
• AI-assisted content is never published without being fact-checked and approved by an editor

9. Independence and how we earn money

NetReckon is free for everyone who uses it to research software. We earn money from software vendors who choose a paid listing plan:

• Featured Listing — a verified badge, a period of homepage visibility and increased visibility across relevant categories
• Premium — priority placement in relevant categories, homepage visibility, social media promotion and banner creatives

These plans buy visibility. They do not buy a better opinion. Every paid placement is labeled as sponsored wherever it appears, and links in paid placements carry a rel="sponsored" attribute, in line with Google’s guidelines.

Our partnerships team, which works with sponsors, is separate from our editorial team and has no role in editorial decisions. Full details are in our advertising disclosure.

NetReckon does not use affiliate links. If that ever changes, they will be disclosed here first, labeled where they appear and tagged rel="sponsored".

10. Conflicts of interest

To keep our work impartial, everyone on the NetReckon team follows these rules:

• Team members must tell us about any financial interest in, or close relationship with, a company we cover. They do not research, write about or moderate reviews for that company’s products.
• We may accept free access to a paid plan so we can test a product properly. This does not affect our assessment, and we do not accept gifts or payment from vendors in return for coverage.
• Team members may not write reviews of products on NetReckon, and they may not ask others to do so on their behalf.

11. Working with software vendors

We welcome information from the companies we cover, because it helps keep profiles accurate. Vendors can:

• Submit their product for a free listing through our Get Listed page
• Send factual updates, such as new features, pricing changes or corrected details
• Flag a user review they believe breaks our review policy

We verify all vendor-supplied information before using it, and our editors decide what appears on the page. Vendors do not write, approve or preview their profiles before publication, and they cannot request changes to our assessment of their product.

12. Updates and corrections

Software changes quickly, so we keep our content current:

• Profiles and articles are reviewed at least every 6 months, and sooner when a product releases a major update or changes its pricing.
• Every page shows the date it was last updated.
• When a product is discontinued, we mark it clearly or remove it from our leaderboards.

Reporting an error

If you spot a mistake, please contact us and tell us which page it is on. A member of our team will review your report within two business days. If we find an error, we correct it promptly, and for significant corrections we add a note to the page explaining what changed. Read our full correction policy.

13. Contact our editorial team

This policy is reviewed every six months. If you have a question about how we work, or a concern about any content on NetReckon, we would like to hear from you.