About ToolSieve
ToolSieve publishes software comparisons for people who hate marketing fluff. A sieve keeps what is useful and lets the rest fall through. That is the whole editorial policy.
Most software comparison pages are written backwards: pick the tools with the highest affiliate payouts, then find reasons to rank them first. You can tell because the renewal prices are missing, the free plan limits are vague, and nobody is ever told not to buy anything.
We do it the other way around.
The method
- 1.Prices come from the source. Every price is checked against the vendor’s live pricing page or official documentation, and each comparison shows the month it was last verified. When vendors publish only adjacent tiers, we interpolate and say so.
- 2.Renewal prices are a headline criterion. Intro pricing is a customer acquisition cost; the renewal is the real price. It gets its own column in every table.
- 3.Every tool gets a “who should not use this”. Including the ones we recommend. Weaknesses are compiled from user reviews and community complaints, not from vendor comparison charts.
- 4.Incentives are auditable. We disclose that links are affiliate links, and inside the comparisons we tell you roughly what each vendor pays affiliates, so you can check our rankings against our incentives yourself. Tools with no affiliate program are included when they deserve to be.
How the site makes money
Affiliate commissions, and eventually newsletter sponsorships. When you buy through a link marked as an affiliate link, the vendor pays us a commission. It costs you nothing extra and it does not move the rankings. The full policy is on the affiliate disclosure page.
Corrections
Vendors change prices without telling anyone. If a number on this site is stale, tell us and we will fix it and note the change. The fastest way is to reply to any issue of the newsletter.