Editorial Standards

WrenchStack is an independent research publication covering the software and services that trades and field-service businesses buy. We are not a software vendor or a lead broker, and our listings, scores and rankings are not for sale. These are the standards every page on this site is held to. If a page falls short of them, email hello@wrenchstack.com with its URL.

How we research

Every vendor goes through the same documented process before it's published, regardless of whether we have a commercial relationship with it:

1. Identify. Vendors enter the directory through our own research or a vendor's submission, not by paying for placement.
2. Collect from primary sources. Pricing comes from the vendor's own public pricing page where it has one; where a figure comes from another source, such as HomeAdvisor's membership fee from the FTC, the entry says so; features and integrations from the vendor's own product pages and documentation.
3. Check reputation at the source. Reputation warnings come from regulator orders, court records, BBB profiles and vendors' own terms, not from forum sentiment. We do not show third-party review scores: software tool pages link to G2 and Capterra, and lead-generation, insurance, payroll and marketing-agency pages link to BBB and Trustpilot.
4. Score consistently. Every field-service software tool is scored with the same published WrenchStack Fit Score™ formula and weights. Lead generation, insurance, payroll and marketing agencies are grouped into tiers by published rules that use verified facts only; the other categories are listed without a score or tier.
5. Write and review. Each review is drafted, checked against the standards on this page, and published with a verification date.

The full step-by-step timeline and the scoring weights are documented on our methodology page, which is versioned and carries a public changelog.

How we verify

• Pricing is dated. Every US vendor entry carries a verified date, and software tool pages mark a price verified more than 90 days ago with an amber or red freshness marker.
• Primary sources win. When a vendor's claim contradicts its own public page, we publish what the public page says until the page changes.
• No fabricated signals. We do not invent review counts, ratings, or testimonials. Where we have no first-party reviews for a tool, we say so rather than manufacture them.
• Quote-only pricing is labeled. When a software vendor publishes no price, the listing says "Custom quote"; in the other categories the listing says in words that the price is quoted or not published. Pricing notes carry no third-party price estimates.

Our sources

Primary sources are vendors' own pricing pages, product pages, documentation and terms. Third-party sources for reputation include the FTC, CFPB, SEC, state attorneys general and insurance regulators, court records and BBB profiles. Tool pages link to G2 and Capterra reviews, but we do not copy their scores or use them in rankings. When we attach a reputation warning to a vendor, we cite the documented basis for it; if we cannot read the source, we do not publish the warning.

How reputation flags work

Some vendors carry a reputation warning. Each one must trace to a source we could read: a regulator order or settlement (for example, from the FTC, CFPB, SEC or a state attorney general), a court record, the vendor's BBB profile, or the vendor's own terms (for example, a contract that is hard to exit). The warning names its source. A warning that rested only on forum posts, or on complaint text we could not read, is removed. Whether a vendor pays us does not enter into it, and vendors that pay us nothing are listed on the same terms as everyone else.

Independence and how we make money

When you sign up with some vendors through our links, we may earn a commission or a referral reward: of the 127 software tools, 6 have a tracked affiliate or referral link. Commissions and referral rewards do not influence what we publish: the same Fit Score formula (for software), the same tier rules, the same reputation standards and the same editorial scrutiny apply to every vendor, affiliate partner or not. See our disclosure page and the per-vendor affiliate ledger on the methodology page. We also sell pricing benchmark reports to software vendors. Every buyer is listed in the report ledger with its Fit Score, rank, award and reputation flag when it ordered and today. Whether a vendor bought a report is not an input to any listing, Fit Score, ranking, award or reputation flag, or to whether a product is listed.

Corrections

If we get something wrong (a price, a feature, a claim), we correct it once the error is confirmed against a primary source. Spotted one? Email hello@wrenchstack.com with the page URL, what's wrong and a primary source if you have one.

Who is accountable

WrenchStack is run by one person, who does the research, the scoring, the vendor correspondence and the sale of pricing benchmark reports. Because those roles are not held by different people, the safeguards are in the method: the Fit Score is a published formula applied to vendors' own public pages; every report buyer is listed in the report ledger with its Fit Score, rank, award and reputation flag when it ordered and today; and no report is quoted, invoiced or sold to a vendor while an evaluation, correction, pricing question, dispute or reputation-flag review with it is open, or within 30 days after the latest verdict, correction or reputation-flag email we sent it. Editorial questions and accountability, including any claim that a report sale affected a listing, go to hello@wrenchstack.com. Learn more about WrenchStack.

Keeping 127 tools across 21 trades current

Coverage at this scale only stays useful if it stays fresh. We use data tooling and automation to track pricing and structure information across the directory, and verification runs to re-verify pricing and re-evaluate reputation flags. Each US entry shows its latest verification date on its own page, and the verification log counts US entries by the month they were last verified. The standards on this page govern what gets published. The tooling helps us hold the line at scale, it doesn't replace the judgment.