Every product on Pickly gets a 0–100 overall score built from four weighted pillars. Pillar weights shift by category — performance counts for more on a laptop than on a moisturizer — but the formula and inputs are always public.
Build quality, durability, benchmarks, expert reviews and reliability.
Price-to-performance ratio, warranty length and total cost of ownership.
Ease of use, design, ergonomics and aggregated user-review sentiment.
Reputation, customer support, sustainability, certifications and controversies.
Default weights are 30/25/25/20. Categories where one pillar matters disproportionately get tuned:
No score captures everything. We rely on public information; brands and products that disclose less may score lower than they "deserve" simply because we can't verify their claims. The score is a starting point, not a verdict — every product page links to the underlying specs, reviews and certifications so you can dig in.
The Pickly score is a 0–100 composite of four weighted pillars: Quality & Performance (30%), Value & Price (25%), User Experience (25%) and Brand & Trust (20%). Each pillar is scored from its own evidence, weights shift by category, and unverifiable brand claims never raise a score.
Star ratings collapse everything into a popularity signal, which is why a cheap product with thousands of enthusiastic early reviews can out-rate a better-built one that costs twice as much and lasts five times longer. A weighted composite forces each dimension to be scored separately and then combined deliberately.
It also makes disagreement possible in a useful way. If you care far more about longevity than price, you can read the Quality pillar and ignore our weighting entirely — the components are all on the page.
Specifications come from manufacturer documentation and UK retailer listings. Pricing comes from British retailers in GBP, tracked over time so a discount can be checked against a real 90-day history rather than an inflated reference price.
Certifications are checked against the issuing body's public registry where one exists — Leaping Bunny, the Vegan Society, Soil Association, Fairtrade Foundation, B Lab and FSC all publish searchable listings. A logo on packaging with no registry entry does not count.
Sentiment is drawn from verified UK owner reviews and weighted towards long-term ownership reports rather than unboxing impressions, because the failure modes that matter usually appear after month six.
Transparency bias is the big one: brands that disclose more can be scored more precisely, so a genuinely good but secretive maker may score lower than it deserves. We flag low-confidence scores rather than pretending to certainty.
Small British makers often cannot afford certification, so an uncertified independent is not automatically worse than a certified multinational. Certification is treated as evidence, not as the verdict itself.
Scores are a starting point for a decision, not a substitute for one. Every product page links to the underlying specifications, prices and certifications so you can check the working.
| Pillar | Default weight | Main inputs | Typical evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality & Performance | 30% | Build, benchmarks, durability, repairability | Manufacturer specs, teardown and reliability data |
| Value & Price | 25% | Price-to-spec, warranty, running costs | UK retailer pricing history in GBP |
| User Experience | 25% | Setup, ergonomics, day-to-day use | Verified UK owner reviews, long-term reports |
| Brand & Trust | 20% | Certifications, support, conduct | Registry look-ups, audits, published controversies |
Roughly: strong across all four pillars with no serious weakness. Scores above 85 are reserved for products that are excellent on quality and value and carry verifiable brand credentials; below 60 usually signals a specific, documented failing rather than a general lack of polish.
Because the dimensions matter differently. Benchmarked performance is decisive for a laptop and largely irrelevant for a moisturiser, where sourcing and brand conduct dominate. Published category weightings keep that adjustment visible instead of hidden.
Only verified ones, and only within Brand & Trust. A certification that cannot be found in the issuing body's registry is ignored, and no certification alone can lift a product with weak quality or poor value.
No. There is no paid placement, no sponsored ranking and no paid score review. Affiliate commission on outbound links is paid at the same rate whatever a product scores.
Pricing and sentiment refresh continuously, specifications are revisited when a new revision ships, and Brand & Trust inputs are reviewed quarterly or when a new audit, certification or controversy is published.
Email corrections@pickly.uk with the product URL, the disputed input and a verifiable source. Verified corrections are published within seven days with a dated note.