How we review
We do the homework you'd do before buying, so you don't have to. Like any careful buyer, we read the independent lab tests, the expert reviews and what users say, then sum up where they agree and where they don't. We don't run our own tests.
What we read
We use four kinds of source, in this order of weight:
- Independent testing labs. Organisations that test products under controlled conditions and publish their methods, such as AV-TEST, AV-Comparatives and SE Labs for antivirus.
- Expert reviews. "Best of" guides and reviews from established publications and review sites.
- What users say. Recurring likes and complaints from user reviews. We show these next to a product but they never change its score.
- News and community discussion. Used for context, such as a product being withdrawn or banned. Never scored.
A source must be independent of the products it reviews, explain how it reaches its verdicts, and have been updated in the last 18 months. No single publisher group makes up more than half of the expert sources in a guide.
How the consensus score works
Each guide turns the evidence into a score out of 10, shown as stars in the summary table. The score combines:
- Lab results: each lab test becomes a score out of 100. Threats that get through count more than false alarms, because a missed threat can do real damage.
- Expert rankings: where each expert source places the product.
- Breadth of agreement: how many expert sources include the product at all.
The weights depend on the category. Where several fresh independent lab tests exist, lab results count for half the score. Each guide's "How we score" section gives its exact weights and rules. To be ranked, a product needs enough evidence: for antivirus, at least two lab tests and a place in at least three expert lists.
What users say
We only show user feedback for a product when we have read enough of its reviews to see a clear pattern: at least 20 reviews, with each point raised by at least 5 of them. If there aren't enough reviews, we say nothing rather than guess. We don't show star ratings on their own.
Popularity
The popularity dots show how widely used a product is, based on how many people have rated its app. Popular isn't the same as good, so popularity never affects the score.
Money and independence
Some links on our pages are affiliate links: if you buy through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Commission never affects which products we include or the order we rank them in. Prices come from affiliate network price feeds and show the date they were checked, with the renewal price next to the first-year price.
Quotes and corrections
We quote sources briefly, word for word, and link to the original. Every quote is checked automatically against the source page before publishing. If a publisher asks us not to quote them, we remove their quotes.
We update guides when new lab tests or expert reviews appear, and note each ranking change in the guide's "What's changed" section. If you spot a mistake, tell us at hello@benchmarkbuyer.com and we'll fix it.