What we publish, and what we do when we are wrong

What gets published

Every listing must meet our research and sourcing standards before publication. Automated checks enforce required information and evidence. Read the full research methodology.

Every entry clears the same quality bar, whoever found it.

One thing does differ, and it is about consent rather than quality. A company that submits itself is vouching for its own claims, so we may publish from its own pages where nobody independent has covered it yet, with those sources shown. A company we found asked for nothing, so we will not publish an assessment sourced only to its own marketing. If the wider world has not written about them yet, we wait.

We include limitations that matter to buyers: missing features, unclear pricing and restrictions that only become apparent after signing up.

Sourcing

• Facts come from primary sources, the product itself, its own documentation and pricing pages, its repository, its public filings.
• Prices are transcribed with the date they were read, because they move and a stale price presented as current is a lie by omission.
• Where we could not establish something, the field is empty. We do not fill a gap with a plausible guess.
• A published entry is re-checked whenever we detect a problem with it: a link that stops resolving, a page that falls below our bar, or a correction from the company itself. It is re-verified at least every 90 days regardless. The page shows when it was last checked.

Automated research and drafting

Entries on CitedIndex are researched and drafted by automated systems working to the standard on this page. The standard, the quality gate and every editorial decision that this page describes are owned by people.

Automated research can make mistakes or miss context. Check the linked sources and verification dates when making a decision, and use the correction process below to flag anything we should review.

Corrections

Anyone can report an error. You do not have to be connected to the tool and you do not have to prove your case before we will look. Write to corrections@citedindex.com and point at the page.

• We reply within 3 working days, including when the answer is that we are keeping what we published and why.
• A confirmed factual error is corrected at source, so every page derived from it changes too.
• Material corrections are recorded publicly — every tool entry carries a dated "What changed, and what we read" record, so a corrected fact appears there as an entry rather than being quietly edited away.

Right of reply

If you run a listed tool and think our assessment is unfair rather than inaccurate, send us your response and we will publish it on the entry, in your words, next to the finding it answers. We will not edit it for tone. This is offered in every case, including the ones where we decline to change what we wrote.

Removal

We take an entry down on these grounds:

• The tool no longer exists or has been discontinued — we retire it with a note rather than deleting the history.
• The entry is substantially about an identifiable person rather than a business, and they ask us to remove it.
• The facts are wrong and cannot be corrected into something worth publishing.
• The law requires it, or a court orders it.
• Publishing it would expose a live security or safety risk.

We do not take an entry down on these grounds:

• The assessment is accurate and the company would prefer it were not public.
• A competitor ranks higher.
• Someone is willing to pay. There is no price at which we will remove an accurate finding, and any offer to that effect will be declined in writing.

A removal request always gets a written answer with the reason, and the right of reply above stands whether we grant it or not.

Money, and where it touches the page

CitedIndex earns from advertising, paid listing placement, paid express review (which includes a followed website link and, optionally, a sponsored article) and email digest sponsorship. Paid listing placements appear in a distinct advertising section, followed by organic results, rather than being mixed through them. Every paid placement and display unit carries the word Advertisement as visible text beside the name it belongs to. Buying exposure does not buy our recommendation.

What money does not reach is the assessment, and that boundary is absolute. No payment changes a verdict, a researched fact, a "best for" or a "not for", a stated limitation, an exclusion or the quality gate; no payment decides whether an entry qualifies at all, or which pages we write; and nothing about a competitor’s entry is purchasable at any price. How we rank states the order in full, including how much weight payment carries in it.

Where an outbound link earns us anything, that is disclosed on the page carrying the link. If you find a commercial relationship that is not obvious from the page itself,tell us.

Who is accountable

CitedIndex Editorial is responsible for what Cited·Index publishes, including corrections, right of reply and removal decisions.