How we score
Every pick in a Subrupt buying guide gets a score from 0 to 10. The score is a formula, the same in every guide, and the picks are listed from the highest score down.
The four parts
Almost every guide uses these weights. A guide that uses other weights shows them in its own "How we picked" block.
- 40%
Price
We take the plan a typical buyer picks (usually the standard or middle plan, not the cheapest teaser plan) and compare it with the average price in the category. The price score is 10 − (price ÷ category average) × 7, kept between 0 and 10. A plan at the category average scores 3. A plan about 43 percent above the average, or more, scores 0.
- 30%
Features
Each category has a short list of features that matter for it, for example a kill switch and audited no-logs for VPNs. The feature score is the share of that list the product has, times 10.
- 15%
Free tier
A free plan you can actually use scores 10. No free plan scores 0.
- 15%
Editor fit
Our 0 to 10 judgment of how well the product fits what the guide is about. It is the only part that is opinion, so its weight is kept small and shown on every guide.
When a product has no price in US dollars, we leave price out and scale the other three parts up so they still add up to 100 percent.
Savings
The "Save $X/yr" figure compares the typical plan with the category average, over a year. It is not a comparison with the vendor's own list price, so we cannot make it look bigger than it is.
Prices
We copy prices by hand from each vendor's pricing page and check them again when we update a guide. Each guide shows the date. A weekly job also flags vendors whose pricing page changed, so we know which guides to look at. Things you pay once a year, such as tax software, are shown per year, not per month.
What we do not do
We do not test every product by hand, and we do not claim hours of testing. Some links are affiliate links, and a vendor can pay us when you sign up through one. That never changes the formula, and no vendor can pay to move up.
See a mistake? Write to info@subrupt.com. More about us on the About page.