Methodology
How We Collect and Check Data
Every number on HissingKitty comes from one of six sources. Each shows its count or source beside it. Here is where each comes from, what we check, what we show and what we never show.
- Companies tracked
- 81
- Anonymous bills
- 19
- Approved reviews
- 19
- Listed alternatives and builders
- 9
- Cost estimator answers
- 4
- Published stories
- 2
The Six Sources
| Source | Where it comes from | What we check | What we show | Never shown |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anonymous bills | Buyers who use the Build vs. Buy estimator or the renewal check and share what they pay. | Typed amounts outside a sensible range are ignored. No name, email or company is stored with a bill. | Median yearly bill, lowest to highest, with the number of bills. Shown from the first bill. | Who shared a bill, seat counts or cost per person. |
| Reviews | Teams who pay for the software, through the review form. | Every review is approved before it goes live. A review with a work email can earn a Verified badge. | Star rating, the review text and a company size range. | Names or emails. Reviews are anonymous. |
| Listings and votes | Makers of AI-native tools and companies that build custom software, through the listing form. | Every listing is approved before it goes live. Votes are limited as described below. | Name, website, one line, optional starting price or typical build quote, and vote score. | The contact email on a listing. |
| Estimator answers | The Build vs. Buy estimator: how much of a tool a team uses and what bothers them most. | Saved without name, email or company. | How much of a tool teams use, and reasons teams leave, each with its count. | Any single team's answers. |
| Stories | Named sources: the team itself in writing, or published reporting we can link to. | Each number is tied to its source, and our own math is labeled. Stories go live only with a recorded approval date. | The full story, its sources and a summary of its numbers on related company pages. | Numbers we can't source. |
| Published prices | The vendor's own pricing page. | We record the source link and the month we checked it. | Plan names and list prices, with the source and date. | A price without its source. |
When Numbers Show
Every data point shows right away, with its count. A median of one bill says "1 anonymous bill". We don't wait for five, and we don't round a small sample into a trend.
The one exception is the category label. "Build it", "Build part of it" and "Keep paying" come from answers to "Would you do it again?" once a category has 10 or more: Build it at 70% or more Yes, Keep paying at 50% or more No, otherwise Build part of it. Below that, the label is marked as the editor's view.
How Company Pages Are Built
What teams pay
The median of every anonymous bill for that company, with the lowest and highest. Seats are used only inside the estimator and never shown.
Why teams leave
Each approved review is matched against a fixed list of reasons, and each estimator answer adds the pains that team picked. One review can mention more than one reason. The reasons we look for:
- Price grows with use
- Paying for what they don't use
- Slow and clunky
- Can't see what drives revenue
- Locked into a contract
- Hard to connect to other tools
- Needed feature costs a higher plan
How much of a tool teams use
From the estimator question "How much of it does your team actually use?" with four answers, from almost all of it to very little. The headline is the share answering about half or less.
Cost to switch and cost to build
Cost to switch is the median starting price a month from AI-native listings that shared one. Cost to build is the median typical quote from builders that shared one. Until a builder shares a quote, the page shows build times from published stories instead.
How Listings Are Ranked
- Listings are ordered by score: up votes minus down votes. Ties go to the newer listing.
- Voting needs no sign-in. Each browser and each network gets one vote per listing. Changing your vote replaces it.
- A network can cast up to 30 votes an hour across all listings. Unusual voting is flagged for review.
- Network addresses are stored only as a one-way code made with a private key, never as the address itself.
- There is no paid placement. A listing's rank comes from votes only.
How Stories Are Written
- Every story starts from a named source: the team in writing, or published reporting we link to.
- Each number says where it came from. Our own math, like turning a monthly saving into a yearly one, is labeled as ours.
- Each story includes when the approach won't work, so readers can weigh both sides.
- A story goes live only once its approval date is recorded.
Estimates
The Build vs. Buy estimator is the only place estimates appear. It uses typical build costs for each category, a 12% yearly renewal increase and the numbers you enter. Reported results describe those teams, not a promise about your costs.
Corrections and Removal
If something is wrong, tell us what and where through the contact page. We fix errors, and anyone who added a report, review or listing can ask us to remove it. Vendors can request corrections like anyone else, and can't pay for changes.
Common Questions
Why do numbers show from the first data point?
Hiding a number until there are five hides real information. Every number on the site shows its count instead, so you can judge how much weight to give it.
Where do the Build it, Build part of it and Keep paying labels come from?
From answers to "Would you do it again?" once a category has 10 or more. Build it at 70% or more Yes, Keep paying at 50% or more No, otherwise Build part of it. Below 10 answers the label is marked as the editor's view.
Can a vendor pay to change or remove something?
No. Vendors can't pay to change, rank or remove a report, review or listing. They can ask for a correction through the contact page like anyone else.
Are any numbers estimates?
Only in the Build vs. Buy estimator, and they are labeled there. Company, category and research pages show reported data only.