How we review

Every review on this site is a forensic, due-diligence investigation written for the owner of a US business with 1 to 100 employees who is deciding whether to sign with a company, stay with it or leave it.

What we investigate

1. Backend and infrastructure. Who actually processes, carries or delivers the service; what the company owns versus resells; and what that means for rates, support and your money.
2. Pricing in practice. Published rates against what customers report paying, with every recurring or annual fee in dollars and how increases are notified.
3. Contracts. Term length, auto-renewal and the notice window, early termination fees, liquidated damages, personal guarantees, reserves and holdbacks, quoting the agreement where we can find it.
4. Hardware and lock-in. Equipment sold or leased, non-cancellable leases, whether equipment works with another provider, and software dependencies that make leaving hard.
5. Risk and funds. Underwriting, holds, freezes, terminations, reserves, chargebacks and funding speed.
6. Complaints and reputation. Patterns in BBB complaints, Trustpilot, Reddit, independent review sites and court or regulatory records from the last two years, with dates, dollar amounts and how the company responded.
7. Regulatory and legal. Lawsuits, enforcement actions, ownership and leadership.
8. Competitive position. A comparison table against the main alternatives on pricing model, recurring fees, contract terms, hardware openness and best fit.
9. Verdict and exit. Who the company suits, who should avoid it, questions to ask before signing, and a step-by-step exit plan.

Evidence rules

• What a company publishes is kept separate from what customers and third parties report, and each is labelled.
• Allegations are attributed to their source and dated, never stated as fact.
• Where evidence is thin, missing or conflicting, we say so. Industry norms are labelled as norms, not findings about the company.
• Primary sources come first: the company's own terms and pricing, court filings, regulator records and complaint databases. Review sites are secondary.
• Sources are numbered in the text and listed in full at the end of every review, with the date we accessed them.

Companies without enough public information

We still list them. Where we cannot support a full review we say so, and we ask anyone who has worked with the company to get in touch.

Corrections

If a company or a reader shows us that something we published is wrong, we correct it and note the change. Email hello@bestforsmallbusiness.reviews.