Accurate, reliable reviews help small businesses succeed with the best digital products and services. Digital.com industry experts share reviews you can trust using extensive hands-on testing and research on product quality and user sentiment.
When you learn about products on Digital.com, you’ll find out what’s good — or not — about the product, with reviews around key performance areas, first-hand experiences, and a range of investigative techniques to truly understand the brand. You’ll get a recommendation for whether a product is right for you, whether you’re researching digital products for a hobby, small business, or major enterprise.
How Digital.com Reviews the Best Products
Digital.com rates providers in five major categories:
Providers on each category page are considered best in class based on Digital.com product reviews.
However, our industry experts use a unique methodology for each type of product. Below, you’ll see a a breakdown of how we review software in different categories.
How We Review Website Builders
- Customization options: Can you change the look and feel of a template or add your own code?
- Ease of use: Is the navigation intuitive with built-in tools, such as an in-app photo editor?
- Value: Can you get a free plan or trial to give the builder a test drive? Are there extensive features on paid plans that justify the cost?
- Security: What does the website builder do to keep your site and your customers’ data safe?
- Templates: Are the templates attractive, updated, and generally high quality? Can you find many to choose from?
- Support: Can you get help when needed, whether it’s from a human or support center articles?
- Recent improvements: Has the builder done anything lately to step up its offerings?
How We Review Web Hosting Providers
- Plan value: What plans are available, and do they offer a good value?
- Ease of use: Is the dashboard easy to navigate?
- Support: How fast can you get help when needed, and is support genuinely helpful?
- Features: What features does the host offer, and how do they compare to similar competitors?
- Security: Does the host offer SSL certificates, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack protection, backup services, and scans for viruses and malware?
- Speed and uptime: Does the provider offer a fast, stable environment for your website? How does it perform in tests, and what kind of servers does the hosting company use?
- Recent improvements: What has the host done lately to update its technology and services?
How We Review Ecommerce Platforms
- Value: What do you get for each plan — and does it hit that sweet spot of cost ratio to features?
- Ease of use: Is it simple to use the platform with intuitive tools, familiar interfaces, and supportive tutorials or tours?
- Features: Does the platform offer tools that support your business, including marketing integrations, plug-ins, reporting, and management? How effective are the features?
- Security: Which measures does the platform take to protect your business? Does it offer Payment card industry (PCI) compliance and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates?
- Support and improvements: How well does the platform help when you need it? And will it continue to grow with your needs?
How We Review Sales and Marketing Software
- Sale management: Does the platform offer sales tools to help with lead management and closing deals? What are its features?
- Ease of use: Is the platform simple to set up and use?
- Customization and automation: Can you tailor the software to your business needs?
- Integrations and analytics: Does this software integrate easily with other business tools, and will its reporting features fit your needs?
- The support provided: How easy is it to get help?
- Free trial: Is a no-cost trial or demo offered?
How We Review Business Communication Tools
- Standard and advanced features: videoconferencing, voicemail, business text messaging or SMS (short message service), virtual receptionists, seamless call transfer between devices, call forwarding, automatic call forwarding, as well as a desktop and/or mobile app.
- Customer support: provider’s communication channels, business contact hours, and helpfulness, and noted any positive reviews about their customer support
- Third-party integrations: third-party integrations sync with tools that you use frequently, like a CRM, ERP, SMS and fax, cloud storage, and more.
- Security and privacy: redundancy architecture, high-level encryption, advanced account management, multiple servers and data centers in different locations, data center audits, and multi-factor authentication
- Uptime percentage: unplanned outages, technical or infrastructural issues, and other challenges may interrupt the service, leading to delays and differences in uptime.
- Demo or free trial: free trials or demos allow a company to test run a service before committing to it.
- Overall cost: various fees, the availability of free trials or plans, discounts, and monthly versus annual pricing differences, price per installation, or cost per user.
A Note on User Sentiment
While our experts perform extensive hands-on testing, it’s unfair to base product recommendations entirely on our experience. In addition to testing, Digital.com may use user ratings, reviews, and direct feedback from readers to evaluate products.