About The Build Standard

Who publishes this

The Build Standard is a small independent editorial team that scores website builders against a single published rubric. We are not a platform, an agency, or a reseller. We do not build sites for clients, and we do not sell services to the companies we score. The output is one document, revised monthly: a 40-point standard applied identically to every platform in scope, with the arithmetic shown rather than asserted.

The work is deliberately narrow. Six criteria, fixed weights, one total out of 40, and a headline score derived from that total by division. We publish rankings, criterion-level scorecards, and the reasoning that connects the two. We do not publish opinion pieces about platforms we have not scored.

The editorial promise

Every score is derived from the published criteria and nothing else. A platform's position is the sum of six numbers, each attached to a stated weight, each defensible against documented capability or published pricing. No score is adjusted for commercial reasons, and no commission rate is an input to any criterion. If a scoring decision cannot be explained by pointing at the rubric, it does not belong on the site.

We also try not to overclaim. Where a figure comes from a third-party dataset, the dataset and its date are named. Where sources conflict, the range is stated rather than resolved by preference. Where something could not be confirmed, it is described as an estimate at the time of checking and is not used to move a score. We do not fabricate hands-on measurements, and we do not publish user testimonials.

Independence

The Build Standard is not affiliated with any platform scored. No vendor has an ownership interest, an editorial role, or advance sight of a score. Placement in the standings is not for sale, and no platform has ever been offered a position, a criterion score, or a change to the rubric in exchange for anything.

The site is funded by affiliate commissions. Some links to the builders we score are affiliate links, and a purchase made through one may pay us a commission at no additional cost to you. This is worth being precise about: the commercial terms across these six platforms differ by an order of magnitude, and a ranking built to maximise revenue would not look like this one. The programs, rates and cookie windows are set out in the affiliate disclosure.

Corrections

Prices change, features ship, and figures go stale. When something here is wrong, we want to know. Send the page, the figure and the source, and we will check it against the vendor's own documentation. Confirmed errors are corrected rather than quietly edited: if a correction changes a criterion score, the total and the revision number change with it, and the change is recorded. Corrections requested by a vendor are handled exactly like corrections from anyone else — verified against a source, or declined. Use the contact page to reach the editors. Corrections are read first.