About
Choosing software should not take a week.
Ranked on Merit tests tech tools and tells you which one to choose for your job, with the scores and weights on the page so you can check our reasoning.
Why this exists
Most "best tools" lists are rewritten pricing pages, ordered by who pays the most. They rarely say what was tested, how the order was decided or when anyone last looked. We think a ranking should show its working, and that a reader should be able to disagree with our weights and still use our scores.
What we publish
- Rankings
- The best tools for a job, tested side by side and ranked by a published score.
- Head to head
- Two or three tools people choose between, scored on the same rubric.
- Buying guides
- How to choose a kind of tool: what matters, what does not and what to test.
What we cover
- AI assistants
- Chat assistants, meeting note-takers, AI search and the AI features inside everyday apps.
- Developer tools
- Coding assistants, editors, hosting, databases and the services developers build on.
- Productivity
- Notes, tasks, calendars, email and the apps that run a working day.
- Design and media
- Design tools, image and video editors, transcription and audio.
- Security and privacy
- Password managers, backups, VPNs and the tools that keep accounts safe.
- Business software
- Website builders, CRMs, email marketing, forms and the software small teams run on.
How we work
We test hands-on wherever we can and label the rest. We never invent results, quotes or prices, and we correct mistakes openly. The full rules are on How we test.
Follow along
New rankings appear on the front page, in the index and in the RSS feed.