Editorial standards

How we review

Every product on Rankeno is scored on the same fixed 1–10 rubric, by the same rules, and no score is ever for sale. This page explains exactly how that works — how products are selected, what each score band means, how we keep scores consistent, how corrections are handled, and how store links and featured placements are kept apart from editorial judgement.

Step one

How products are selected and prioritised

What ends up on the site, and in what order.

We cover apps and games on iOS, Android, Steam and PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox. Two questions decide what gets reviewed next: would a real reader plausibly search for this, and can we say something specific about it? Products that clear both — new releases in categories our readers browse, updates to products we have already reviewed, and titles readers and developers ask us to look at — go into the review queue.

Within the queue, priority goes to products where a score comparison matters most: crowded categories where store ratings are noisy, products with recent major updates that change the picture, and products readers ask about directly. Any developer can submit an app or game; a paid submission buys a place in the queue and nothing else — the same rubric, the same scale, the same editorial standard as everything else, and a score the developer cannot see in advance or appeal.

We do not review everything. A product with no published listing we can verify, or no way to check the claims it makes, waits until we can. Fewer reviews we stand behind beat more reviews we cannot.

Step two

The 1–10 scoring rubric

One scale for every category, so a 7.8 in one category means the same thing as a 7.8 in another.

Each product is scored 1–10 against a fixed set of criteria for its category: how well it does the job it claims, design and usability, performance and reliability, value for money, and privacy and safety. The criteria are identical for every product in a category, and the review shows the breakdown, not just the headline number. The bands mean:

9–10
Best in class. The strongest option in its category on the evidence we checked; we would recommend it without meaningful caveats.
7–8.9
Recommended with caveats. Genuinely good at its job, with specific weaknesses the review names plainly.
5–6.9
Fine for a specific need. It works, but most readers have a better option unless the review names the niche it fits.
Below 5
Not recommended. It fails at what it claims to do, or a competitor does the same job clearly better.

A score is an editorial judgement against this rubric, not an average of store ratings, and it is never adjusted for anyone.

Step three

How scores are assigned, kept consistent and recalibrated

The same evidence, the same criteria, the same bands — and a check against reality.

Our editorial team scores every product from the same research base: the product's store listing on every platform it ships on, its documentation and release history, pricing and in-app purchase structure, permissions and privacy disclosures, and public user feedback over time — not just the launch reviews. Every claim in a review traces back to that evidence.

Consistency comes from the rubric doing the work: identical criteria within a category, written band definitions instead of gut feel, and the score breakdown shown on the page so a reader can see where a number came from and disagree with a specific part of it rather than the whole.

Scores are also checked against reality. We recalibrate against real store ratings: when our score sits far from what a large body of player experience reports — in either direction — that gap is a signal to re-examine the evidence, and the review is updated when the re-examination changes the verdict. Products are re-checked when they ship a major update, change their pricing model, or are removed from a store, and the catalogue is re-verified on a rolling schedule.

Step four

Corrections policy

If we are wrong about a fact, we fix it and say so.

Anyone can request a correction — a reader, a developer, anyone else — by writing to contact@rankeno.com. Include the page, the specific claim you believe is wrong, and a source we can check. Developers get exactly the same treatment as readers.

What gets fixed: factual errors — a price, a platform, a feature list, a score breakdown that no longer matches the product — are corrected, and a dated correction note is added to the page. A verdict that a product update has genuinely changed is re-reviewed under the same rubric and re-scored, with the update noted. What does not get changed: a score or verdict nobody has shown a factual problem with stays as it is. Disagreement with a judgement is welcome and we read all of it, but it changes a score only when the evidence does.

We aim to acknowledge correction requests within a few days and to publish verified fixes promptly; complex re-reviews take longer, and the page shows when it was last updated.

Step five

How the 'Get it' buttons work, and what they do not do.

Every review's "Get it" buttons link to the product's page on the Apple App Store, Google Play or the store it ships on, through our own/outredirect. The destination is always the official store listing for the exact product the review is about — never a search page, an ad, or a different product.

Some of these outbound links may be affiliate links, which can earn us a small commission at no cost to you if you install or buy through them. Which links are affiliate links does not depend on the score: a product we scored 4 gets the same treatment as one we scored 9. Affiliate participation never influences what we cover, how a product is scored, or where it ranks — and if that ever stops being true, this page is where we would say so first.

Featured placements, if a developer purchases one, are a separate thing entirely: they are commercial placements, they are visibly labelled as promotional wherever they appear, and paying for one never raises a product's editorial score, moves it up a chart, or changes its review. Scores are not for sale.

Step six

Two different things on this site, and we keep them visibly separate.

An editorial score

Assigned by our editorial team under the rubric above, from evidence we gathered ourselves. It is not bought, cannot be appealed to a higher number, and is recalibrated against real store ratings. It lives on the review page, in the charts, and in every comparison.

A featured placement

Purchased visibility — a developer buying a spot to be seen more often. It is always labelled as promotional or sponsored on the page, it never appears disguised as an editorial pick, and it has no path into a score, a chart position or a comparison verdict.

The short version: money can buy attention on Rankeno. It cannot buy a score. Questions about any of this go to contact@rankeno.com — or read more about who we are.