Editorial policy
How prices are read, how verdicts are made, and how the guides are written.
Where prices come from
Prices come from two places: product feeds that retailers publish for shopping sites, read every morning, and public shopping listings for the same product at other stores, checked on a rolling schedule. Every price on the site shows the store it came from and the date it was read. We do not scrape retailer websites and we do not estimate prices.
How a product is matched across stores
A comparison is only shown when we are confident it is the same item. For products sold in several colours or sizes, the other store’s listing must name the same colour and size. A listing for a different colour, a different model year, a bundle, an accessory or a special edition is rejected, and we would rather show one store than a wrong match. Marketplace sellers, auction sites and resale listings are excluded.
How the verdict is made
Buy now means today’s price is the lowest we have recorded for the item and has either dropped recently or held. Fair means the price is inside the range where it usually sits, or that we have not tracked it long enough to call it a low. Wait means it is at or near full price. The range bar under every verdict shows the lowest price we have seen, the usual range, and full price, and the price history below it shows every reading.
How guides and reviews are written
Guides are written by our research desk from product specifications, manufacturer documentation, owner reviews across retailers, and the price history we keep. Where a writer has used a product, the piece says so. Where they have not, the recommendation rests on the design, the track record and the price, and the piece is written to make that clear. We name what we would buy and what we would skip. Nothing in a guide is paid for, and a brand cannot buy a place in a ranking.
Corrections
If a price, a match or a fact is wrong, tell us at [email protected]. Price errors are usually corrected at the next morning’s reading; factual corrections are made in the article with a note.