How We Test

Tikevo reviews are written by a named editorial team that tests products firsthand. We don't aggregate scores from other sites, we don't scrape affiliate feeds, and we don't rank products we haven't used. Every byline on this site belongs to a real reviewer who spent real weeks with the product in question — and every affiliate relationship is disclosed.

Our testing process

  1. Selection. We choose products based on category research and reader demand — what people are actually shopping for, not what's paying the highest commission this month.
  2. Acquisition. Products are purchased at retail or loaned by manufacturers. Loans are always disclosed in the review, and loaned units don't get a favorable score for being loaned.
  3. Duration. Testing runs weeks to months depending on the category. A blender we can judge in two weeks; a mattress takes three months; a stroller takes a full season.
  4. Comparison. Every product is benchmarked against its direct category peers. A product is only as good as what it beats, and we name the competition.
  5. Documentation. We take photos, keep notes, and record measurements where they matter — decibels, grams, battery minutes, stitch counts. Our evidence lives in the review, not in a spreadsheet.
  6. Verdict. We rate on a 1–10 scale and publish honest pros and cons. If we can't recommend a product, we say so.
  7. Updates. Reviews are re-tested when products change meaningfully — new firmware, new formulation, new generation. The publish date isn't the end of testing.

Ratings scale

9–10 — Best in class.
Category leader. Buy with confidence.
7–8 — Strong recommend.
Excellent product with minor trade-offs.
5–6 — Good with caveats.
Solid choice for the right buyer. Read the cons.
3–4 — Skip unless specific need.
Underperforms peers. Only worth it for a narrow use case.
1–2 — Avoid.
Fails at what it promises.

What we don't do

  • We don't aggregate scores from other review sites.
  • We don't accept payment for positive reviews.
  • We don't test products we haven't used.

More

Read our full affiliate disclosure for how commissions work and why they don't influence scores. Meet the editors behind the bylines on the Our Reviewers page.