Trust score methodology
How we make money: Some vendors listed are affiliate partners, meaning we earn a commission on sales referred through our links. Affiliate status does NOT influence a vendor's trust score — scores are calculated only from the objective criteria published below. Affiliate partners are marked with an asterisk (*).
Every vendor receives a score out of 100, computed mechanically from the seven operational criteria below. The criteria are factual and verifiable. They measure how a vendor operates as a business — they never measure or imply anything about product effects or outcomes.
Vendor Trust Scorecard
Full side-by-side breakdown of every vendor — printable / save as PDF.
Criteria and weights
| Criterion | Weight | What we measure |
|---|---|---|
| Third-party COA / testing | 32% | Publishes independent lab Certificates of Analysis (identity & purity) for its batches. Weighted highest — for research compounds, verified testing is the primary trust signal. |
| Ship reliability & speed | 18% | Track record of order fulfillment and transit times reported by buyers. |
| Refund policy | 12% | Offers a documented refund process for failed or incorrect orders. |
| Reship policy | 12% | Reships or replaces orders lost or seized in transit. |
| Payment options | 10% | Breadth of accepted payment rails (more options = more buyer flexibility). |
| Years active | 6% | Length of operating history under the same brand. Weighted low — in this niche reputable vendors frequently launch new domains, so tenure is a weak trust signal. |
| Support responsiveness | 10% | Speed and quality of customer-support replies. |
| Total | 100% |
How scoring works
- Binary criteria (COA published, refund policy, reship policy) score all-or-nothing.
- Scaled criteria (ship reliability, support responsiveness) are rated 0–10 from documented order and support records, then normalized.
- Payment options reach full marks at four or more accepted rails.
- Years active reaches full marks at eight or more years under the same brand.
- Affiliate status is excluded from the formula. Partners and non-partners are scored identically; partners are marked with an asterisk (*).
- Scores are recomputed whenever a vendor's underlying facts change.
Current vendor scores
We publish a numeric score only once a vendor's operational attributes are verified. Vendors we haven't verified yet are shown as Unrated rather than given a fabricated number.
* Affiliate partner — does not affect the score.