How we research and test tools

Sources we use

• Government and official sources first: the IRS, SSA, SBA, state Secretary of State sites, HealthCare.gov, GOV.UK and the CRA.
• Vendor pages for pricing and features, read on the date shown, because prices change.
• Labor statistics (BLS) for pay benchmarks where they exist.

How we verify numbers

A fee, rate or threshold only appears after we've read it on the official source. We link that page and show the date checked. If a source is unreachable or unclear, we write "Not verified" and link the official office instead of estimating. Our LLC cost table works this way state by state.

How we evaluate tools

We judge software against what a one-person business needs:

1. Cost at solo scale: the free tier and the price at 1, 1,000 and 10,000 contacts or customers, where relevant.
2. Time to set up: can one person get it working in an afternoon?
3. Lock-in: can you export your data and leave?
4. Fit: does it replace another tool or add one?

What "tested" means

We only call a tool "tested" when an editor has used it hands-on, and the page says when. Otherwise we say the review is based on the vendor's documentation and public pricing. As of 21 Oct 2026, our tool pages are documentation-based reviews; hands-on testing notes will be added with dates.

Estimates

Startup costs and time-to-first-sale figures on idea pages are editorial estimates for a lean, one-person start, and are labelled that way.