How We Score
By Benchelo Editorial Team
This page gives our criteria and weights for each of our 3 categories. Weights add to 100 in each table. We use the weights to order products in a comparison. We do not publish a numeric product score on a researched page.
What "Researched comparison" means
A researched comparison is built from vendor documents, pricing pages, changelogs, public reviews and published benchmarks, each listed with a check date. That is the only type of comparison we publish now. We do not buy, run or measure the products ourselves, we do not claim to, and we never present third-party benchmark data as our own test result. Because our evidence is published material, we publish verdicts and tables, not numeric product scores. A score would imply a measurement we did not make.
Web hosting criteria
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Price and renewal terms | 25 |
| PHP workers, object cache and database limits | 25 |
| Storage, bandwidth and visit limits | 15 |
| Backups, staging and security tools | 15 |
| Support channels and response terms | 10 |
| Migration and ease of move | 10 |
| Total | 100 |
Website monitoring criteria
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Price and what the first paid plan includes | 25 |
| Check interval and monitor count | 20 |
| Status page, custom domain and subscriber limits | 20 |
| Alert channels and escalation | 15 |
| Private pages and access controls | 10 |
| Data retention and integrations | 10 |
| Total | 100 |
Website builder criteria
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Price and the first plan that takes payments | 25 |
| Forms, booking and gallery tools for the trade in the article | 25 |
| Templates and service area or location pages | 15 |
| Storage, bandwidth and collaborator limits | 15 |
| Support channels and help content | 10 |
| Move away terms and content export | 10 |
| Total | 100 |
Evidence sources
For each product we check, in this order: the vendor pricing page, the vendor plan or limits documentation, the vendor changelog, published benchmarks from named third parties and public reviews on established review sites. A claim needs 1 primary source, the vendor page, or 2 secondary sources. If sources conflict, the vendor pricing page wins for price and the vendor documentation wins for limits, and we note the conflict in our working records.
How an order is set
We sort by the weighted criteria for the article angle. A membership hosting article weights PHP workers and object cache first because logged-in traffic drives the pick. A status page article weights subscriber limits and private pages first. Ties go to the lower renewal price. Paid status plays no part at any step.