Our Methodology
We Don’t Guess. We Show PROOF.
Every ProCritique review is scored against the same five-part method, so a rating means the same thing on every page — not a different feeling for every writer.
Where The Name Comes From
Pro, Meet Proof
“Pro” in ProCritique has always meant a professional, hands-on critique — not a rewritten spec sheet. The PROOF method is what that “Pro” actually delivers on every review: evidence you can check, not just an opinion you have to take on faith.
Same root, same standard — the method just makes it visible on every page.
The Five Pillars
How A PROOF Score Gets Built
Every review is scored 1–5 on each pillar below. The pillars aren’t vibes — each one maps to a specific, checkable question. Click a pillar to see exactly what we’re checking.
We price the real, total monthly cost — not the headline number.
- Mandatory add-ons the vendor sells separately (CDN, email, support tiers)
- What the free plan actually excludes
- Annual lock-in terms and renewal-price jumps
We look for evidence a reader could verify themselves, not a marketing claim.
- Public status-page and incident history, where one exists
- Real support-ticket or live-chat response tests
- How the vendor handled its last known outage
Scored from hands-on setup, not screenshots taken from the vendor’s own site.
- How long to first real result after signup
- Where the UI creates friction or confusion
- Whether documentation actually answers real questions
We test the vendor’s own headline claim directly, one claim at a time.
- The specific promise on the vendor’s homepage, checked as stated
- Where the tool over- or under-delivers against that exact claim
- Whether a cheaper alternative already does the same job
Only verifiable third-party evidence counts — nothing here is invented.
- Patterns across many G2, Reddit, and forum threads — not one cherry-picked quote
- Every quote sourced and linkable back to where it was said
- If we can’t verify a claim, we say so instead of stating it as fact
Try It Yourself
See A PROOF Score Come Together
Move the sliders to score a hypothetical tool across all five pillars and watch the overall Proof Score update live — this is the same math behind every score on the site.
On Every Review
What This Looks Like In Practice
Every review carries a PROOF breakdown alongside the written verdict, so the score is never a single unexplained number.
| Pillar | What we found | Score |
|---|---|---|
| PPricing Reality | Headline price excludes CDN, email, and DNS add-ons | 3.5 / 5 |
| RReliability | No public incident history; support replied in 6 minutes | 4.0 / 5 |
| OOnboarding | First site live in under 15 minutes, no docs required | 4.5 / 5 |
| OOutput vs. Claims | “Unlimited apps per server” claim holds up in testing | 4.5 / 5 |
| FField Evidence | Consistent praise for support across 40+ sourced reviews | 4.0 / 5 |
The Rules Behind The Method
What PROOF Commits Us To
- No score without testingIf we haven’t used the tool hands-on, it doesn’t get a PROOF score — only a flagged, unrated mention.
- No invented evidenceField Evidence quotes are always sourced and linkable. If we can’t verify something, we label it unverified instead of stating it as fact.
- Scores don’t move for affiliatesWhether we earn a commission has no bearing on any of the five pillar scores. See our Affiliate Disclosure.
- Reviews get re-scored, not left to rotPricing and features change — PROOF scores are re-checked on the same cadence as the review itself.
See PROOF Applied To A Real Review
Browse our latest reviews and comparisons to see the five-pillar breakdown in action.
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