How We Test Software

Every review on Workflow Times follows the same method, so a score in one category means the same thing as a score in another. This page explains that method: how we use each tool, how we score it, how we handle lifetime deals and what happens when something changes.

We sign up like you

We create accounts the same way any customer would, through the public sign-up page. We don’t ask vendors for special demo accounts or guided tours, because those hide the parts that matter: onboarding, upgrade prompts, limits on the free plan and how easy it is to cancel.

If a vendor offers us extended access to test paid features, we may accept it, but we still go through the normal sign-up and billing pages so we see what you’ll see.

Same tasks, every tool

For each category we write a set of real tasks that a small business would actually do. In project management that might mean setting up a client project, assigning work, tracking deadlines and sharing progress. For a CRM it might mean importing contacts, building a pipeline and logging follow-ups.

Every tool in the category gets the same tasks, and we use it over a couple of weeks rather than an afternoon. That’s long enough to get past first impressions and notice the small frictions that add up in daily use.

How we score

Each tool is rated out of ten on five things, which are weighted and combined into one overall score:

Ease of use (25%) — how quickly a new user gets value, and how the tool feels day to day.
Features (25%) — whether it does the jobs in our task set well, not how long its feature list is.
Value (20%) — what you get for the money, including how useful the free plan is and how costs grow with your team.
Support (15%) — help docs, onboarding and how you reach a human when you need one.
Integrations (15%) — native connections to common tools and how well it works with automation platforms.

What the score words mean

Exceptional (9.3 and up) — best in its category for most people.
Superb (8.8 and up) — an easy recommendation with minor trade-offs.
Great (8.0 and up) — a strong choice for the right team.
Good (7.0 and up) — does the job, with clear weaknesses to weigh.
Fair (below 7.0) — only worth it in specific situations.

The testing board

Our homepage shows a testing board so you can see what we’re working on. It has three columns:

To try — tools we plan to test, often suggested by readers. Nothing here has been scored yet.
Testing — tools we’re actively using with our task set. Reviews may be in progress.
Recommended — tools that finished testing and earned a recommendation for at least one kind of user.

A tool can also finish testing without being recommended. In that case it still gets a review that explains why.

Lifetime deals

Lifetime deals from marketplaces such as AppSumo and RocketHub are usually for young products, so we add four checks on top of the normal review:

Refund window — how long you have to get your money back, and whether that’s enough time to test properly.
Roadmap — whether the plans are public, specific and actually being shipped.
Founder track record — what the team has built before and how they handle questions and complaints.
Data export — whether you can get your data out if the product stalls or closes.

We’re open about the risk: a lifetime deal is only as good as the company’s lifetime. Read more in are lifetime deals worth it.

Keeping prices current

Software prices change often. We re-check pricing regularly and show the date it was last checked next to every pricing table. If you see a price that doesn’t match the vendor’s site, tell us and we’ll update it.

Money never moves scores

We earn commissions through some links, as our affiliate disclosure explains. Commissions never change a score, a ranking or a recommendation. Scores are set from the method above, and a tool without an affiliate program can rank first.

Corrections

When a tool changes or we get something wrong, we update the review and its date. If a change is big enough to move a score, we re-run the relevant tasks before changing it. Report errors through our contact page.