How the ranking works

Every Astra Shop ranking answers one question: which product would people who own it tell you to buy? Here is exactly how we get there.

1. Owners rate four things

Each category has four criteria (for tools: durability, value, performance and ease of use). Anyone who owns or has used a product can rate it from 1 to 5 stars on each one. No account, no email.

2. Every product starts with an early score

Before people rate a product, we give it a starting score per criterion based on its specs and on what public reviews repeat most. Each product page shows what that score is based on and its sources.

3. Ratings take over

We combine both with a weighted average: (5 × early score + sum of ratings) ÷ (5 + number of ratings). With few ratings, the early score matters more; as ratings come in, the community leads. Until a product has 5 ratings we label it "early score".

4. Comments become themes

We group what people write into likes and dislikes and show how many comments mention each one. Public review themes are shown separately and are never mixed with ratings from this site.

5. Keeping it clean

• One rating per product per person, and a limit per hour.
• A bot trap, and manual review of comments that include links.
• We never write or buy ratings, and no brand can pay to move up.