About Top Ten Reviews
Top Ten Reviews has been writing about the best consumer products and services for almost two decades. Our goal is to help you live better, smarter, and healthier in your day-to-day lives. We cover a broad range of topics - from gas grills to vacuum cleaners - but everything we put onto our site has been written and edited by experts in their fields. In fact, we often ask professionals to check our reviews, features, and guides to make sure that the advice we offer is the best you'll read. After all, if we don't get it right, we aren't fulfilling our aim to help you live better and you're less likely to trust our reviews and come back to our site.
Our site is built around buying advice, and helping you to understand what you're buying and the choices you have. There’s more choice than ever when it comes to parting with your money. Whether you’re looking to buy something for your home, work, or the backyard, sifting through loads of information and learning about something from scratch takes a long time. Sure, it would be awesome if you could all fill your cart with the ten best products, take them home, try them out and return the nine you don’t want. Unfortunately, none of us have the time.
Not only do we filter the best products and services for you, via our buying guides, but we also give you a detailed breakdown of each one in our individual reviews. We also create features around each topic to help you understand some of the more technical terminology, and to give you general tips that will not only help you make that buying decision easier, but will also give you perspective on other ways to live better.
Meet the team
How we work
We’ve assembled a team of writers and reviewers who each bring specialized skills and expertise, along with a group of editors who have great knowledge of each content area. We monitor trends, follow industry news, rub elbows with thought-leaders and keep an eye on new advancements in home, services and technology to decide what we review and cover on site.
Our Editorial team picks apart the data they gather to identify products and services of note. Their selections are based on a number of factors, including cost, availability, popularity, etc. Sometimes they’ll suggest a few dozen products for review; sometimes more. When the final list is complete, our reviewers reach out to manufacturers in search of no-strings-attached samples or products available on loan. Most manufacturers are happy to provide samples – never mind the possibility of a bad review – because they believe in the quality of their products. In some instances, when a product sample is not available, we head to the store and shell out the cash to pick it up just like you would.
With products in hand, our reviewers begin the meticulous review process, which includes using most products just as you would, as well as some standard tests that allow us to compare products in a category. Think battery life for your phone or laptop, or cleaning power of a washing machine. This ensures we’re able to identify and communicate each product’s strengths and weaknesses in a way that makes sense to you.
Among other things, our tests gather data on features, ease of use, durability and the level of customer support provided by the manufacturer. We use these to formulate a score for each product and factor in price too. Often there might not be an 'overall best' product in a category because each has its own strength and weaknesses. In these cases we work out which one is going to be best 'for most people'.
On some occasions we use our expertise and garner other expert advice and user reviews to craft lists of the best products that we can't review right now. We make it clear when this is the case, and will try to ensure we fully review a product when we can get our hands on it. Examples of this will be hot tubs and swim spas, where we research carefully, speak to other experts and trawl the internet for user reviews and forum complaints, and how they were dealt with by the manufacturer.
For more information on our reviews process, visit our How We Test page.
How we make money
We’re serious about editorial integrity. We want to make sure you are happy with the product or service Top Ten Reviews has recommended because we want you to come back next time you need advice.
In most cases we make money when you click a link and buy a product. After a cooling off period we’ll be given a small percentage of what you paid in what is called an 'affiliate fee'. As affiliate fees are mostly standard we won’t try to push you towards buying one product over another, or to any particular retailer. We want to make sure you get the right product or service for you.
Once our reviews are complete and published, our commercial staff may pursue various means of developing additional revenue. That may include traditional advertising, sponsorships, or lead generation. Sponsored content is clearly marked. Find out more about Top Ten Reviews content funding.
To be clear, these methods of monetization in no way affect the review score that a product, service, or company receives. Ever. We do not accept commercial funding or individual payments to include a product or service for review, or to change any aspect of the review content or score. Ever.
We use these various revenue streams not only to support our staff, but also to purchase products for review, to outfit our offices with the best tools and equipment for testing and to continue to expand the number of products and services we review.
Editorial independence
No outside party determines what products we review or the content of our reviews. Top Ten Reviews accepts advertising and enable visitors to purchase the items we evaluate through the use of buy buttons. However, these revenue relationships are handled by the Future ad-sales and e-commerce teams, and neither they nor advertisers are permitted to influence our coverage.
TopTenReviews is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (which regulates the UK's magazine and newspaper industry). We abide by the Editors' Code of Practice and are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism. If you think that we have not met those standards and want to make a complaint please contact [email protected]. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, or if you would like more information about IPSO or the Editors' Code, contact IPSO on 0300 123 2220 or visit www.ipso.co.uk.
Affiliate & Advertising Disclosure
We always aim to provide unbiased editorial created by our journalists and writers. We also need to pay our teams and website costs so we make money in a number of ways. We sometimes use affiliate links to products and services on retailer sites for which we can receive compensation if you click on those links or make purchases through them. From time to time we also publish advertorials (paid-for editorial content) and sponsored content on the site. When this is the case the content is clearly marked as sponsored or promoted, so you’ll always know which content is editorial and which is not. Future PLC is our parent company and has an in-depth terms and conditions page with a lot more information that you can read right here.
Privacy policy
Top Ten Reviews is part of Future PLC. We are both fiercely committed to protecting your privacy. Please have a look at our in-depth privacy policy to find out more.
