How we review software
What a statement about a product has to rest on, what we call the different states of knowing, and what these pages never do.
Last updated 29 September 2026Evidence labels
Every page about software shows an evidence label: which of these ways of knowing were actually used for the products on it. They are independent. Reading a vendor’s website says nothing about whether anyone used the product, so they are not steps on a ladder and there is no total.
The claim was read on the vendor’s own product and pricing pages, on the date shown.
The product’s documentation or help centre was read, which states behaviour that marketing pages do not.
Independent user reviews were collected and summarised, sourced and dated, and kept apart from what the vendor says.
A named person used the product, on a stated date, for a stated purpose.
A practitioner ran a real estimating workflow through the product and the record says who and what.
The last two labels need a record of who did what and when. A page cannot claim them on the strength of a sentence, and a test fails the build if a record is missing a name, a date or a description.
The three states of a claim
- Stated by the vendor. Read on its site, with the page and the date recorded. The only state that may appear as a statement about the product.
- Not found in the sources reviewed. The vendor’s site was checked and says nothing on the point, and the record lists the checks that found nothing. We write exactly that, and never “does not offer”: not found is not the same as does not exist. It is not the same as “no”: a vendor that does not print a price may well have one; a page reports that it is not published rather than guessing at the number.
- Not checked. We have not looked, or could not determine it. It is never shown as a fact and never as a negative.
Prices
- A price is what the vendor prints on its own pricing page, quoted as printed, with the date it was read. It is not converted, estimated or rounded.
- A pricing page with no prices on it is recorded as exactly that, and “contact us” is not a price.
- A price that appears on a directory, a comparison site or a review is not repeated as the vendor’s price. It is looked for on the vendor’s own site, and if it is there it is quoted from there.
- A price is recorded as unpublished only after at least two separate checks, and the checks are listed in the record: the vendor’s pricing page, and a search of the vendor’s own domain and of Google for the vendor’s name with “pricing”, opening every result on the vendor’s domain. Looking for a page called “pricing” is not enough: on 29 September 2026 that shortcut led this site to say two vendors published no price when each stated one elsewhere on its own site. See the corrections log.
- We publish no “typical cost of” a category of software.
What we never do
- Rate, score, star or rank a product, or name a “best”. A number would imply a measurement that has not been made.
- Write “we tested” or “in our experience” about a product nobody here has used.
- Blend user reviews into the vendor’s own claims. If user sentiment is ever included, it is sourced, dated and kept in its own block.
- Accept payment or an affiliate arrangement in exchange for inclusion, placement or wording.
Independence and the owner’s interest
Calcumetryx has a commercial interest in construction estimating software beyond this website. No vendor on this page has paid for inclusion, placement or wording, no link here is an affiliate link, and no product connected to this site’s owners is listed, recommended or compared on this page.
If a product connected to this site’s owners were ever compared, it would be labelled as such, held to the same evidence rules, and not placed first by default. If a page could not meet those conditions the product would be left off it.
Vendors: how to have an entry corrected
If you represent a vendor and a statement about your product is wrong, write to us with the page address and a link to your own page that shows otherwise. We will read it, correct the statement if it is wrong, and record the change. We do not change wording for payment, and a correction request is not an opportunity to buy placement. See the corrections policy.
What is covered at present
6 products across 4 categories, most recently read on 29 September 2026. No product has reached the hands-on or expert-workflow label.
The rest of how this site works
- Editorial policy — What Calcumetryx publishes, the evidence a page needs before it goes live, and how advertising and the owner’s commercial interest are kept out of the content.
- Sources and data — Which sources a number may come from, which it may not, and how every external figure on the site is recorded and dated.
- Corrections policy — How to report an error in a calculation, a guide or a statement about a product, what we do about it, and the public log of changes.
- Who makes this site — Who publishes Calcumetryx, how AI assistance is used in drafting, and what credentials are and are not claimed.