Email Vendor Selection Review Methodology and Policy

At Email Vendor Selection, we help business owners and marketers make sense of complex products and services, and make them easy to review and compare. So you can make the best choices and focus on growing your business.

And so there is only one way to do that. We’re committed to giving accurate, trustworthy, and valuable insights about software. This is why we base our reviews and guides on solid research, data, and hands-on testing.

How we review tools

Before we even begin testing, we research what our readers want to use, their budget, and what they think is important in the software. Then we set the criteria for what makes the best tools.

Here’s an overview of our software review process:

1. We pick tools based what people use and prefer in the market. And of course the knowledge and experience of our expert team members.
2. We sign up for a fresh account for each software we review. If a tool doesn’t have a free plan or trial, we contact them asking for an account.
3. We test features and usability. As we’re testing, we take detailed notes on our experience. Including the features we like, any issues we run into, and anything that feels confusing.
4. We take original screenshots and video of the software during testing. This is to show how features work and support our research.
5. We test customer support with questions to see response times and accuracy.
6. We verify reviews with experts and the in-house team. Often we’ll do multiple rounds of reviews and a double pass to fact-check and verify our review. 
7. We monitor pricing pages and product updates to keep our articles up-to-date.

Research and review scoring

We know that objective data carries weight when reviewing products and services. Our data comes from primary and secondary research. We extensively research and test the products. Studying their features, pricing, pros, and cons.

At Email Vendor Selection, we tests and do research surveys to get our primary data. Then, we convert this data into meaningful score rankings, descriptions and ratings

In the total score, we include objective ratings when we give an overall score. We aren’t making up numbers. We use weighted scores to create a total score, which is based on all the below.

Ease of use is based on how easy it is to get started, onboarding support, and navigation. This includes testing how much effort and time it takes to complete tasks the software was designed for.

Pricing and value are comparative scores. We compare prices with the value a product delivers and to competitor prices.

Functionalities are based on having a feature included or not. Features included in a plan are rated higher than paid add-ons. We highlight the main features of different software categories:

• For email marketing and marketing automation software, the email editor, templates, and automation deserve their own score. 
• We highlight sales automation for CRM platforms. 
• For ecommerce tools, we dedicated separate scores for ecommerce integrations and functionality. 
• When testing SMS marketing software, we score bulk messaging and SMS automation individually.

Editor, templates, and design options scores are based on how many templates the product has, how the designs look, how customizable the templates are, and how convenient it is to match templates for a brand.

Marketing, sales, and SMS automation scores are based on automation templates, the ability to build complex automations, and if the tool has a visual workflow editor or not.

Customer service scores include the depth of the knowledge base, different formats of self-help content (articles, videos, tooltips), support channels, support availability, and reply time of support agents.

Integrations look at how many relevant third-party tools users can connect and sync data with.

Bulk messaging for SMS marketing software includes how simple SMS sending is, how many countries you can send texts to, and scheduling and personalization options.

Our Rules of Engagement and Code of Integrity

• Our views can’t be bought. We never accept payments from companies to influence our reviews. 
• We don’t buy shares or make targeted investments in the tools we review.
• To keep things unbiased, we’ve also never taken outside funding. And we’re not planning to. 
• We’re always open to feedback. Whether you’re a reader or a software company, feel free to share your thoughts on our reviews. Your input helps us improve.

These rules help us stay focused on what matters: giving you honest, well-rounded reviews that cover both the good and the not-so-good parts of each tool.

How do you make money? 

That is a very good question and we looove talking about it. While other sites try to hide it, we love to show it.

Selection guidance services

• We make money through software selection guidance service, in which we do RFPs for bigger senders and enterprise companies that like expert guidance.

Market research and enterprise based.

• Vendors will ask us to review their software in private, to get honest feedback and suggestions for product development.
• We get commissioned to do independent software customer interviews and customer research for software. On the content side, we write industry guides and guest posts.
• VC investors ask for industry knowledge and market insights, especially when there is M&A involved. And from time to time, we also get asked to help do software onboarding or migrations.

All of these come at no cost to you as a reader, and don’t influence editorial decisions, or impact our product recommendations, or any advice we offer in our content.

We may earn a commission when you click or buy through links on our site without any extra cost to you. These commissions don’t affect our editors’ evaluations.

We also hate pushy affiliates that try to get you to buy things you don’t need or aren’t really a good fit. Just hate it, especially from people who don’t know the tools inside out, maybe never even used them. Argggh! But the affiliate model works very well. It’s simple, there are no costs for site visitors, and it allows us to say what we want and pick software that is best for you. Otherwise, we don’t sign up for their affiliate program.

For our software top list articles

When we write our software top lists (like free SMTP servers, best SMS marketing services, email verification tools, or CRM platforms), we follow the same hands-on process to make sure our recommendations are genuinely helpful.

Often, we’ll find more tools than are in the list, so we start out with a long list and research customer reviews to create the shortlist of best ones.

We sign up for accounts and review the software ourselves here as well. This is essential to know how the tool works, features are real, and spot any quirks or issues along the way. 

Here’s a list of features we test in email marketing tools:

If the tools we’re reviewing tie to specific teams or industries, we check in with our teammates and experts who use them regularly. This makes sure we’re highlighting the most relevant and useful options. 

When we were writing the best email marketing tools for Shopify, for instance we made sure to only include tools with a Shopify integration and researched the Shopify Marketplace. We tested all the ecommerce features that store owners need and expect an ecommerce email marketing tool to have.

For our software alternatives articles

Before we start writing a post like HubSpot alternatives, we take time to really understand the tool we’re talking about and why people are looking for something new. Maybe the pricing no longer fits their budget, the interface or templates feel outdated, or they simply need features the current software doesn’t have.

We sign up for an account so we can explore the tool ourselves and see what it really offers.

Then, we compare our experience with what other users are saying. This can be from directly interviewing (ex-)users. We also read recent reviews on trusted review sites (like G2 and Capterra) but filter out the fake reviews there and validate what has been said. We’re not judging the software based on a one-off bug or a bad day.

Once we have the full picture, we pull together a list of alternative tools that actually solve the problems users are having.

For example, when we put together our list of the best Mailchimp alternatives, we didn’t just throw names on a page. We tested each one, reviewed user feedback, and picked the best tools.

Our goal is to recommend tools that not only work well but also make your job easier.

Expert and Industry Insights

We love learning from people who use the tools we’re reviewing. That’s why we reach out to industry experts to hear what they think based on real experience. Their insights add valuable context and help us see beyond just the features. It also helps us understand how tools perform in specific industries or team setups, which we then pass along to you.

Feedback from Users and Customers

Real user reviews give us a window into how products work in day-to-day use. We dig into customer feedback to see what people like, what frustrates them, and how the product holds up over time. This helps us evaluate how intuitive a tool is, how responsive the support team might be, and whether the product really delivers on its promises. It also makes sure we’re not basing our opinion only on our own experience.

Analysis by Comparison

We don’t just look at one product in a vacuum. We compare it to others offering similar features. This helps us understand what makes each one stand out and where they might fall short. By lining them up side by side, we can spot key differences that might make one a better fit for certain needs. Whether it’s pricing, ease of use, or specific features, we highlight what really matters.

Industry Standards

We always keep industry best practices in mind when reviewing a product. This makes sure the tools we recommend meet modern expectations for performance, security, and usability. It also helps us gauge how a product is keeping up with trends or falling behind. Our goal is to recommend tools that help you stay competitive and current.

Real Use Cases

We like to get hands-on and try out practical scenarios with the tools we review. This shows how the software works in a real business setting, not just how it looks in a demo. These examples make it easier to picture how the product helps with everyday tasks or challenges.

Frequent Updates

Marketing tools change fast. And we stay on top of those changes. We regularly update our content to reflect new features, pricing changes, or major product updates. That way, you’re not reading outdated info when making decisions.

Including Reader Feedback

We care about what our readers think. Your stories and feedback help shape our future reviews and keep us on the ball. If you’ve used a tool we’ve written about, we’d love to hear your experience, good and bad. Your voice helps make our recommendations stronger and more helpful for everyone.