Our editorial standard

HomeBaseStack Certified™

A published bar a tool has to clear to earn our recommendation — measured the same way for everyone. It can't be bought, and plenty of good tools don't pass. That's what makes it mean something.

Never paid for Re-reviewed quarterly Published criteria

Certification is currently provisional — granted on the criteria we can assess today. Security, reliability, and documentation are verified during full hands-on testing (August 2026), when provisional badges become full. Vendors can never pay for or influence certification.

The nine standards

What a tool has to prove

Every certified tool is held to the same nine standards. Six we assess now from our StackScore criteria; three require the full audit and are verified before a badge becomes permanent.

How certification works

A transparent bar, not a vibe

No mystery, no favoritism. A tool earns provisional certification when it clears both of these, drawn straight from its published StackScore.

The pass rule

Clear the bar on the whole, and on every essential

Overall StackScore ≥ 78/100. The tool has to be strong on balance, not just in one flashy area.
No essential criterion below 65. Ease of setup, value, integrations, support, and scalability all have to clear a floor — so a tool can't buy its way in on raw power while being miserable to use.

That second rule is why a genuinely powerful tool can still miss: if it's hard to set up, it fails the ease floor. A certification everyone passes would be worthless — so this one has teeth.

The results, in the open

Who passes — and who doesn't

Every tool we cover, run through the rule. The tools that miss are shown with the exact reason, because hiding the failures is how ordinary affiliate sites lose your trust.

See the scores behind the badge

Certification is built on StackScore™ — our transparent 100-point rating. Explore the full breakdown for every tool.

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