How ranking works

• Category pages and best-of lists are ordered by each app’s organic score, from 0 to 100.
• Search results are ordered by how well an app matches your words, then by organic score.
• AI recommendations are ordered by how well an app fits what you asked for, then by organic score.

Every organic list carries the same caption: “Ranked by relevance. Payment never changes this order.”

Four signals, weighted and added up. All of them come from free listing data and visitor feedback.

Quality · 65%

User ratings, averaged so that a handful of 5-star votes can’t outrank a well-reviewed app: every app starts as if it already had 10 ratings of 3.8, and real ratings pull it from there. When an app has an editorial rating, that counts for 40% of this signal.

Feedback · 15%

Answers to “Was this recommendation helpful?” from the last 90 days, one per signed-in account with a confirmed email (never from the app’s own team), scored conservatively: a few votes move it a little, many consistent votes move it a lot. Apps with no votes sit in the middle.

Completeness · 15%

Six checks anyone can complete on a free listing: a tagline, a description of at least 40 characters, a pricing summary, at least one platform, at least three features and at least one integration.

Freshness · 5%

A small nudge toward listings that are kept up to date. It halves for every 180 days without a real change to the listing’s tagline, description, pricing, platforms, features or integrations. Verifying ownership, and saves that change nothing, don’t count.

Scores are recalculated by a scheduled job, so a change to a listing can take a little while to show.

We search an app’s name, tagline, description, categories, platforms, features and integrations. Close spellings of an app’s name still match, and an exact or starting match on the name ranks higher. When two apps match equally well, the higher organic score goes first.

When you describe what you need, an AI model turns your words into requirements: a category, features, integrations, platforms, budget and so on. If the model is unavailable, a simpler parser does the same job. The model never ranks apps and never sees sponsorship data.

Ranking is then done by fixed rules. Each app earns points for how well it fits, out of 100, counting only the parts your request mentions:

Features · 30

How many of the features you asked for the app lists.

Category · 25

Whether the app is in the category you described.

Integrations · 15

How many of the tools you named it connects to.

Platforms · 10

Whether it runs where you need it (web, Mac, iPhone…).

Budget · 10

Whether its listed pricing fits the budget you gave.

Quality · 10

The organic score above. It always counts, and only a little.

Open source · 5

Only when you ask for open source.

Team size · 5

Fit for the team size you mention.

Keywords · 5

Whether the listing matches other words in your request.

A sponsored option may appear after the AI’s picks, in its own perforated box marked “Sponsored · Paid placement — not part of the AI's recommendations.” It is never one of the picks and never written in the AI’s voice.

• Payment of any kind: leaderboard bids, sponsorships, launch boosts or priority review.
• A Pro plan. Pro adds profile features and buyer insights (anonymous totals of what buyers ask for) only. A company can improve how it ranks only by making its free listing and facts more complete and accurate, which is free on every plan.
• Verified owner status. Verification is free and only shows who controls the domain.
• A position on a sponsored leaderboard or in a sponsored tray.
• Profile extras: screenshots, videos, changelog entries, announcements or custom buttons.
• Traffic, including clicks and impressions on paid placements.
• Affiliate commissions.

This is enforced in code, not just in policy: the modules that rank apps and parse AI requests can’t read billing, bidding or sponsorship data, and automated tests check that on every change.

Paid placements are fetched separately and shown in their own boxes with a dashed edge and a square tag that names them. They never enter an organic list, grid or carousel. If an app is both sponsored and organically relevant, it can appear twice on a page; its organic position doesn’t move.

Sponsored leaderboards

Each category also has a sponsored leaderboard. It is the one place where order is bought: position is set by total promotional spend, and every row is tagged. It is labelled as sponsored everywhere and is never linked from the main navigation.

Read the advertising disclosure

Wrong prices, missing features or claims that don’t hold up all affect what you see. Report the listing and we’ll review it.