How we review software
Every score on DocPicker is an editorial rating calculated with the formula below. It is not an average of user reviews — we don't collect or display user ratings — and no vendor can pay to change it.
The five criteria
| Criterion | Weight | How it's calculated (1–5) |
|---|---|---|
| Features | 35% | Each category has a fixed list of key features (for example, OCR, redaction and forms for PDF editors; templates, audit trail and API for e-signature). Score = 1 + 4 × (share of those features confirmed on the vendor's site). Features we cannot confirm earn nothing. |
| Value for money | 25% | Starts at 2.5. +1 for a permanent free plan, +0.5 for a free trial, +0.25 if a one-time licence is sold. Starting price vs. the median of the product's main category: ≤ 75% of median +1, ≤ median +0.5, ≤ 150% of median 0, above that −0.5. Capped at 5. |
| Ease of use | 15% | The editor's judgement from onboarding, documentation, plan structure and interface, on a 1–5 scale. This is the only subjective input, which is why it carries a low weight. |
| Platform coverage | 15% | 1 + 4 × (number of supported platforms, max 5) ÷ 5. Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, web, iOS, Android — only those listed on the vendor's site. |
| Pricing transparency | 10% | 5 when every plan has a public price; reduced in proportion to "contact sales" plans; 2 when no prices are published. |
The overall score is the weighted sum, rounded to one decimal. Each review shows its own breakdown, so you can check the arithmetic or re-weight it for your situation — if price matters most to you, sort a category by price instead.
How prices and features are verified
- We use only the vendor's own website: pricing pages, product pages, help centres and official app-store listings linked from them. We don't copy prices from other review sites.
- Prices are recorded in US dollars as shown to US visitors, with the billing period exactly as the vendor states it ("per user/month, billed annually", "one-time").
- Each review stores the source URLs and the date of the check, shown as "Prices verified" on the page.
- If a fact can't be confirmed on an official page — a plan price behind a sales form, an app that isn't listed — we leave it out rather than guess, and say so on the review.
Update policy
The whole catalogue (25 products) is re-checked at least every 90 days, and individual reviews sooner when a vendor announces a pricing change or a reader reports one. When something changes we update the data and the verified date together. If you see an outdated price, tell us — we check the vendor's page before changing anything.
What we don't do
- No paid placement. Vendors can't buy a position, a badge or a review.
- No affiliate links. Links to vendor sites are ordinary links marked
nofollow; we earn nothing from clicks or purchases. - No fake social proof. We don't show star ratings from users, review counts or testimonials. The only rating on the site is our own editorial score, labelled as such.
- No favourites. Every product — including the best-known names — goes through the same template and the same formula.
Who does the work
Reviews are written and checked by Daniel Reyes. Read more on the About page.