How We Review AI Tools, and How to Get Yours Listed

What this site is for

There are a lot of AI tool directories. Most are a database with a submission form, where the listing that ranks highest is the one that paid most, and the descriptions are copied from the vendor’s own homepage.

We started AIToolsRecap on 18 March 2026 to do a narrower thing properly: publish what a tool actually costs, what its limits actually are, and what it is genuinely good at — with the numbers checked against the vendor’s own documentation rather than against other roundups.

That sounds obvious. In practice it is the whole job. Pricing pages load with the annual toggle already selected, so a tool advertised at $10 a month frequently bills $15. Credit allowances and usage limits are published in different places and often contradict each other. Models get discontinued and the comparison articles recommending them stay up for months. Most of what we do is catching that.

Where we are, as of October 2026

That last row of the free-tier figure is deliberate. Most people searching for an AI tool are looking for one they can try without a card, so we list those rather than filtering them out.

How we actually check things

Five rules, and they are the reason the pages take as long as they do.

1. Pricing comes from the vendor, never from a roundup

Every price we publish is read off the company’s own pricing page or help documentation on a stated date. We record which date, and on listings we store it in a verification field so you can see how fresh it is. If a figure is an annual-billing rate dressed up as a monthly one, we say both numbers.

2. We say where a claim came from

Benchmark results get attributed to whoever ran them. A score the vendor produced internally is labelled as internal. If the only evidence for a claim is the company saying so, the page says that.

3. We publish the limitation, not just the feature

Every tool section carries an honest limitation. Not a token one — the thing that would actually make you regret the purchase.

4. Corrections are free and we name who raised them

When someone tells us a page is wrong, we check it and fix it at no charge, whether or not they are a customer. If a vendor flagged it, we say so on the page. That is not a punishment; it is what makes the correction trustworthy.

5. Stale pages get rewritten, not quietly patched

A comparison recommending a product that has been discontinued is worse than no page at all. When a category moves, we rebuild the page rather than editing one line.

If you make an AI tool: how to get listed

Three tiers. The first costs nothing and it is a real listing, not a teaser.

Starter — free

• A public product page on the directory
• Eligible for community reviews
• Standard approval queue
• No card required

Create a free account and list your tool

Growth — $49 per year

• Everything in Starter
• Included in comparison pages, where buyers actually choose between tools
• Structured with schema markup for AI search engines
• Higher placement in category rankings
• Verified tool badge
• Submitted to Google Search Console for priority crawling
• Listing analytics dashboard
• Eligible for sponsored placements

Choose Growth

Authority — $99 per year

• Everything in Growth
• Full editorial review on your product page
• Founder spotlight feature
• Homepage priority placement
• Lead access unlock
• Dedicated support

Go Authority

What the paid tiers do not buy

Read this part before you pay for anything.

The Authority editorial review is a review, not an endorsement. We write the verdict, including the limitations, and the score is ours. Paying moves you up a category listing and gets you into comparison pages; it does not change what the review says. We do not publish paid review scores at any price.

Keeping your own listing current

If you are the company behind a listed tool, we can assign that listing to your own account. You then maintain the specification — pricing tiers, feature changes, limits — without emailing us every time something moves, and you receive our updates directly.

One thing stays with us: the verification stamp. A listing marked Verified means our editorial team checked it against the vendor’s documentation on a recorded date. That field does not transfer with the account, because if a company could mark its own listing Verified the word would stop meaning anything across the other 1,170 tools.

Contact us to claim an existing listing

If you want to review tools

Every product page carries a community review section, and any registered member can write one. Reviews feed the average score shown on the listing, which is separate from anything editorial.

What you get for writing one

Published reviews earn review points, on an editor’s approval rather than on submission:

Points are a reputation score, not a currency. They cannot be spent and they are not worth money. What they do is unlock permanent badge tiers and set your position on the public reviewer leaderboard.

We want to be plain about that, because plenty of sites run points schemes that quietly turn into store credit and then into a reason to post volume. Ours does not. Lifetime points are never reduced, so a tier you have earned is yours permanently — but the only thing a high score buys is that people can see you earned it.

Alongside the points:

• Badge tiers at rising point thresholds, displayed on your profile and on every review you write
• A place on the public leaderboard, which excludes staff accounts, counts only editor-approved reviews, and cannot be bought
• An email when your review goes live, linking to where it published
• Coverage in our newsletter, which reaches over a thousand subscribers

What makes a review worth publishing

Reviews go through an editor before they publish, and duplicate or low-effort submissions are removed rather than scored. What we look for:

• Say what you used it for. “Good tool” helps nobody. “Used it for 40 hours of podcast transcription and the speaker labelling broke on three-person calls” is worth reading
• Name the tier you were on. Most complaints about AI tools are really complaints about a free tier
• Say what it cost you. Credits burn faster than people expect, and the real monthly spend is the most useful number you can give
• Include the thing that annoyed you. A review with no downside reads as marketing, and we treat it that way

Reviews from someone connected to the product are welcome provided the relationship is disclosed in the review itself. Undisclosed ones get removed.

Create a free account to start reviewing

Advertising, and where it stops

We sell placement. We are upfront about it because the alternative — pretending we do not — is how directories end up with affiliate links disguised as rankings.

What is on offer runs from a $10 one-time sponsored link placement to editorial articles, comparison pages, category sponsor slots, a sitewide banner, and Monitored Coverage, where we track a product for twelve months and cover material changes as news. Full details and prices are on the advertising page.

The rules that apply to all of it:

• Sponsored content is clearly labelled, on the page and in the feed
• Editorial text is never altered for a sponsor. A sponsor slot sits alongside an article; it does not change a word of it
• The verdict stands. We write it, including limitations, and we do not revise it because a client dislikes it
• No paid review scores. The review score is independent and is not for sale
• Monitored Coverage is held to the same standard as unpaid coverage. Paying us to watch your product does not mean we only report the good releases
• If testing shows a product does not do what the marketing says, we tell the client before publishing and refund rather than publish something we cannot stand behind

Frequently asked questions

Does it cost anything to get listed?

No. The Starter tier is free and does not require a card. Paid tiers add comparison-page inclusion, schema markup, placement and an editorial review, but the free listing is a real page, not a placeholder.

Can I pay for a better review score?

No, and that is not a negotiating position. We do not publish paid review scores at any price on any package.

How long does approval take?

Starter listings go through the standard queue. Paid tiers are prioritised. If something is urgent, tell us and we will give you a real answer rather than an estimate.

My listing has the wrong price. How do I fix it?

Tell us and we will correct it for free, whether or not you are a paying customer. If you want to maintain it yourself, we can assign the listing to your account.

Do you accept guest posts or link exchanges?

No guest posts. External links in sponsored placements carry rel="sponsored" per Google’s guidance, and we do not offer followed external links on any package at any price. If followed links are the requirement, we are not the right site and we would rather say so than take the order.

Who writes the articles?

We do. Pricing is verified from vendor documentation before publication, every article carries its sources, and corrections are made publicly rather than quietly.

Why does the site cover so many free tools?

Because that is what people search for. About 78% of the tools listed here have a free or freemium tier, and we would rather reflect what readers are actually looking for than fill the directory with enterprise software nobody can try.

Can I spend review points on anything?

No. Points are a reputation score. They unlock badge tiers and your leaderboard position, and that is all they do — they are not credit, they are not worth money, and they cannot be exchanged for listings or placement. We would rather say that plainly than let anyone build up a balance expecting otherwise.

How many points do I need for the next badge?

Tiers start at 10 points and rise from there. Current thresholds and how many people hold each are shown on the reviewer leaderboard — we tune them as review volume grows, so the live page is the authority rather than anything written here.

Can I lose a badge?

No. Tiers are compared against lifetime points, which are never reduced. Once you reach a tier it stays.

How do I get in touch?

Through the contact page. Vendors, reviewers, and anyone who has spotted an error on a page are all equally welcome — the third one most of all.