Eight criteria, published weights, a dated verdict, and a flag that tells you how deep we tested. Here is the system.
Why distraction surface counts most
A reading tool has one job: get out of the way. Every store hook, notification, streak badge, and infinite settings menu is surface area for the exact brain pattern this audience is managing, so distraction surface carries the heaviest weight. We count the escape hatches: how many taps from the page to somewhere that isn't the page.
The rubric
| Criterion | Weight | What we measure |
|---|---|---|
| Distraction surface | 20 | Escape hatches from the reading surface; store hooks; notification defaults |
| Start friction | 15 | Time to First Page, protocol below |
| Quality | 15 | Voices for TTS and audio; screens for devices; parsing for read-it-later |
| Format and library fit | 15 | Library borrowing, file formats, import paths, ownership |
| Retention support | 10 | Highlights, notes, resurfacing, export |
| Price honesty | 10 | Trial terms as written vs as experienced; we cancel and document |
| Accessibility | 10 | Text scaling, spacing controls, screen reader behavior, contrast |
| Staying power | 5 | Update cadence, company signals, lock-in risk |
What is Time to First Page?
Time to First Page is the seconds from opening a tool for the first time to actually reading or hearing your own content, timed cold: fresh install or fresh account, default settings, a real book or article you brought. Three runs, median published. Account walls, upsell screens, and forced tutorials all count against the clock, because they are the experience. Unmeasured tools show "Not yet measured", never a guess — which is what every tool on the site shows today.
Verdicts
SHELF IT: buy or install; it earns a permanent place. BORROW FIRST: real merit, real caveats; trial it, use the library, or buy one credit before subscribing. LEAVE IT: your attention deserves better, and the review says exactly why.
Confidence flags
Every score carries a flag: Hands-on tested, Desk review (provisional), or Community-sourced with the number of reports stated. A desk-review flag is a receipt, not an apology; the score updates after hands-on and the changelog logs the change.
Prices, corrections, and the money
Subscription prices recheck monthly on high-traffic pages; every review shows the date. Corrections land within 72 hours of an email to our published address and get logged. Affiliate links exist and never touch a verdict; the full policy is at editorial policy. Books link to Bookshop.org first, because independent bookstores should outlive this website.
Where the rubric is applied
Every score on the site comes from this page: the toolkit collects them, the category hubs rank them, and the reviews show the criterion-by-criterion math.