How we review apps

This page explains exactly how an Apptizo review is produced, from the moment we decide to cover a product to the moment it is published.

Selection

We pick products for one of three reasons: (1) a category leader has shipped a meaningful update, (2) a reader question or trend in our newsletter inbox has surfaced a need we have not yet covered, or (3) a smaller product is winning on a specific axis (privacy, price, depth of feature) that we want to test. We do not let vendor PR teams set our calendar.

Test setup

Each review is performed on the platforms we claim to cover — typically a real iPhone or Android phone used for daily work, an M1 or M2 Mac, and a Windows machine when relevant. We do not test in clean sandbox installs only; we use the same device, with our own data and our own daily apps, that we would use as a normal user.

What we measure

Setup friction — minutes from first launch to first useful action;
Feature completeness — against the category leader and against a representative budget alternative;
Performance — battery cost on a two-year-old device, storage footprint, perceived latency on common actions;
Privacy posture — what data the app sends, to whom, inspected with Charles Proxy or a comparable tool;
Total cost — not just the headline price but a full year of realistic use including in-app purchases, optional cloud storage and family sharing where applicable;
Support & longevity — release cadence, response time of support, the vendor’s policy on price increases for existing users.

Duration of testing

Two weeks of daily use is the minimum, with a target of four weeks for category leaders and password managers. Where we publish a same-day review of a major release (a new iOS version, a major rewrite of a popular app), we say so clearly in the article and follow up with a longer review later.

Scoring

Apptizo scores are honest, not inflated. Our scale starts at 7.0 because we do not publish reviews of products that score below that threshold — if a product is bad enough to deserve a 5, we simply do not give it our oxygen. Scores are decomposed into four sub-scores (Privacy, UX, Value, Performance), each on the same 7.0 to 9.4 scale, and the overall score is their weighted average.

Updates

Reviews are reviewed by a human editor every 12 months (or sooner when a major update ships). The “Last reviewed” date at the bottom of each article tells you how fresh the claims are.

Submitting a product

Pitches for reviewable products: hello@apptizo.com. Please include a free or press licence so we can test the full product. A pitch is not a guarantee of coverage.