How we rank — and what the badges actually mean
A directory is a trust product. This page is the whole method, in the open, so you can hold us to it: how a listing gets in, how its cost is worked out, how the order on a job page is decided, and how we make money. Short version: rankings are never sold, and a vendor cannot pay to change a verdict.
01True Solo Cost — the number we lead with
Vendor pricing pages are not comparable: one bills per seat, one per resolved conversation, one per task, one per credit. True Solo Cost normalises every agent to the same buyer — one person, no team — at two stated volumes per job (for example ~50 and ~200 resolved conversations a month for support agents; 1,000 and 10,000 runs a month for automation platforms). The scenario is printed at the top of every job page, and each listing shows its low and typical figure, the billing unit it was converted from, the date we checked, and a link to the vendor’s official pricing page.
We only ever take a price from the vendor’s official pricing page — never from another directory, a review site, or a sales call. If a vendor publishes no price, the listing says “Pricing not published — quote only” and we leave the cost blank rather than guess. When a price changes, the checked date moves with it.
02The Solo-Ready Score
Every listing is scored on the four things a solo founder feels first:
Those scores roll up into the Solo Fit verdict on every card — Solo-Ready, Small-Team Ready or Technical — with the catch stated in plain words. Ranking inside a job page weighs solo fit first, then True Solo Cost at typical volume, then pricing clarity. Affiliate relationships, where they exist, never change the order.
03The badge ladder
Listed
The agent exists, is live, and serves the job on its page. Basic facts verified against the vendor’s own site.
Checked
Everything in its listing — pricing, billing unit, plans, integrations — verified line by line against the vendor’s official pages on the checked date shown. Every launch listing on this site is at least Checked.
Tested
We signed up and ran the job’s standard test with our own account and published the notes — what worked, what broke, how long setup really took. Tested is earned only by doing the work; it cannot be bought, and paying for a faster review never changes the outcome. Hands-on testing begins after launch, so no listing carries Tested yet — when one does, its test notes are linked from the listing itself.
04What gets a listing dropped
Agents are removed or never listed when they shut down, retire the self-serve product our readers would buy, go enterprise-only with sales-led pricing, or publish pricing we cannot verify from an official source. The first seeding wave dropped several well-known names on exactly those grounds — the build log keeps the receipts.
05How we make money — the disclosure
Some outbound vendor links on this site are affiliate links (marked rel=“sponsored”): if you sign up through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate status never changes a ranking, a score, or a verdict, and agents with no affiliate programme are listed and ranked on exactly the same terms. Later we may sell clearly-labelled Featured placements and a newsletter sponsorship; Featured will always be visually separate from the ranked list, never inside it.
Spotted a stale price or a wrong claim in a listing? Vendors can claim their listing and send corrections; readers can use the same route. Corrections with a source are applied and the checked date is updated.