This page explains how Grain of SaaS researches and writes about software, so you can judge how far to trust each article. Last updated: November 1, 2026.
Two labels: source-based and hands-on
- Source-based: built from first-party pricing pages, product pages, documentation and support articles. We have not used the product ourselves, and the article says so near the top.
- Hands-on: based on our own use of the product. We state the date, the plan or trial we used, and whether the vendor provided access. Screenshots in these articles come from our own accounts.
Sources
- Vendor pricing and product pages, checked on the date shown in the article.
- Documentation and support pages, which are often more precise than marketing pages.
- Independent user feedback as a signal of common problems. We do not copy review text.
- Where sources disagree, we keep the disagreement visible instead of guessing which one is right.
What we compare
We use the same checklist across a category so tools can be compared fairly:
- Setup time and ease of use
- Features that matter for the stated use case
- Pricing transparency, including limits, add-ons and what changes between plans
- Integrations and export options
- Support and documentation
- Value for money at realistic usage, not only the entry price
AI visibility tools: the ten-prompt test
For AI search visibility tools, we describe a fixed set of ten buyer-style prompts to run in each tool and compare against saved manual results. Our guides say clearly whether we ran it or are only describing how you should run it.
What we will not do
- Invent test results, screenshots, scores or accuracy figures.
- Let vendors review an article before it is published or pay for a better verdict.
- Hide a limitation we found, or call a tool “best” without saying for whom and why.
Updates and corrections
Every article shows when it was last researched. Pricing and features change often, so we recheck articles regularly and note when something has changed. To report an error, use the contact page.