How PickLogic Recommends Products

Every recommendation on PickLogic comes from a weighted scoring engine that matches your answers to product strengths. No opinions, no sponsored placements, no hidden biases. Here's exactly how it works.

How the Scoring Engine Works

When you take a PickLogic quiz, you answer 5 questions about your needs, preferences, budget, and priorities. Behind the scenes, each answer activates a set of scores for every product in the quiz. Your final recommendation is based on the weighted combination of these scores.

You answer 5 questions. Each question targets a different dimension of your needs: use case, scale, budget, technical requirements, and top priorities. These dimensions are chosen because they're the factors that most differentiate which product is best for a given person.

Each answer has pre-assigned scores. Every product in the quiz has a score (0-100) for every possible answer. For example, if you select "Under $10/month" as your budget, a product like Hostinger (which starts at $2.99/mo) might score 98 on that dimension, while Kinsta (which starts at $35/mo) might score 20. These scores are based on our research into pricing, features, and product positioning.

Scores are weighted by question importance. Not all questions matter equally. In our hosting quiz, "What matters most to you?" carries the highest weight because it captures your core priority. Budget carries less weight because even expensive products can be the right choice for the right person. Typical weights are shown below.

Weighted scores are summed. Each product's final score = (Q1 score × Q1 weight) + (Q2 score × Q2 weight) + ... + (Q5 score × Q5 weight). The products are then ranked by total score, and your top 3 matches are displayed with their match percentage.

Typical Question Weights

Each quiz assigns different weights based on which questions are most predictive for that category. Here's a typical distribution:

Primary use case

25%

Top priority

25%

Technical needs

20%

Scale / traffic

15%

Budget

15%

We intentionally give budget a lower weight. A $5/mo product that doesn't meet your needs is a worse value than a $50/mo product that does. Budget still influences the recommendation, but it doesn't override fit.

How We Select Products

Each quiz features 5 products chosen to cover the full range of needs in that category. We select products based on three criteria:

Market representation

The 5 products should represent different approaches to the problem. In web hosting, for example, we include budget shared hosting (Hostinger), managed WordPress hosting (WP Engine), cloud hosting (Cloudways), premium managed hosting (Kinsta), and a balanced option (SiteGround). This ensures that regardless of your answers, there's a product that genuinely fits.

Product quality

We only include products we'd feel comfortable recommending. Every product in our quizzes is actively maintained, has a reasonable track record, and delivers on its core promise. We don't include products just because they have affiliate programs.

Data availability

We need reliable pricing, feature, and positioning data to assign accurate scores. Products with opaque pricing, inconsistent feature sets, or frequent pivots are harder to score accurately and may be excluded.

How We Assign Scores

Product scores are based on publicly available information: official pricing pages, feature documentation, independent reviews, and our own analysis. We evaluate each product against each possible answer on a 0-100 scale:

90-100: This product is an exceptional fit for this answer. It's specifically designed for this use case or price point.

70-89: This product handles this well but isn't specifically optimized for it.

50-69: This product can do this but it's not a strength. There are better options for this specific need.

Below 50: This product is a poor fit for this particular need. It might still win overall if it scores highly on other dimensions.

Affiliate Links and Independence

PickLogic earns revenue through affiliate commissions when you sign up for a product through our links. This is how we keep the tools free.

However, affiliate commissions never influence our scoring. The scoring engine is deterministic: the same answers always produce the same recommendation. We don't boost products that pay higher commissions, and we don't penalize products that don't have affiliate programs.

If we added a product with no affiliate program and it was the best fit for your answers, it would still be recommended as the #1 match. We'd rather give you the right recommendation and earn nothing than push a worse product for a commission.

How We Stay Current

Software pricing and features change frequently. We monitor our quiz products for changes and update scores accordingly. Key things we watch for:

Pricing changes — when a product changes its pricing, we update both the displayed price and the budget-related scores across all quizzes and calculators.

Feature additions or removals — major feature changes (like adding or removing a free tier) can shift scores significantly and trigger an update.

Market shifts — when a new product becomes significant enough to warrant inclusion, or when an existing product declines in quality, we adjust the quiz lineup.

Limitations

Our quizzes are designed to give you a strong starting point, not a final decision. Some limitations to be aware of:

5 products per quiz. We can't include every product in a category. If a product isn't in our quiz, it doesn't mean it's bad — it means it didn't make our top 5 for coverage and quality.

5 questions per quiz. We optimize for speed (60 seconds) over exhaustive evaluation. A 20-question quiz would be more precise but most people wouldn't finish it. Our 5-question format captures the dimensions that matter most.

Scores are point-in-time. Products evolve. A recommendation that's perfect today might be less ideal in 6 months if a product changes direction. Check the "Updated" date on each quiz page.

If you have questions about our methodology or think a score should be adjusted, we welcome feedback.