How We Rate Services and Products

By Ethan Tompson│Updated July 27, 2023.

At InvestmentDoctrina, we provide readers with informative guides to investments and personal finance. We observe financial products and services as well as personal finance and investment strategies.

Overview

Our Philosophy

The nature of our services requires utmost transparency. We make our services independent, unbiased, consistent, and informative. 

We strive to give our readers the whole picture to let them make informed decisions. If we find disadvantages of specific services, we mention them in our reviews

Our Methodology

We use star ratings to reflect the quality of finance and investment-related services and products. InvestmentDoctrina makes star ratings based on the proprietary methodology with the following principles.

  • Research. We conduct in-depth research, collecting dozens of data points from user reviews, media research, historical performance, and hands-on tests.

  • Transparency. We provide unbiased reviews, evaluating services and products based on measurable criteria.

  • Consistency. We evaluate products and services against a fixed set of criteria to achieve consistency across reviews.

Our Review Process

We review products and services in several stages.

  • 1

    Research. Our research team collects data about services and products, including business data, marketing data, media coverage, and user reviews.

  • 2

    Testing. Our quality assessment team conducts hands-on tests of financial products and services. We test financial and investment-related SaaS services and digital products using various subscription plans, including free trial subscriptions.

  • 3

    Longitudinal analysis. We access historical data on financial products and services to analyze their performance and evaluate customer satisfaction over time.

  • 4

    Data processing. Our review team connects data points, drives conclusions, and rates products and services based on research findings and hands-on tests.

  • 5

    Review completion. Our experts write, fact-check, and publish reviews.

Our Research Process

InvestmentDoctrina collects and evaluates the following information during the research stage.

Service Overview

At the beginning of the research, our team collects general information about the product, service, and the company behind it. We need this information to check whether the company is competitive and whether it benefits our readers. We collect and analyze the following information about investment-related companies and their products and services.

  • Operating history. Business type, foundation date, number of employees, and pivotal moments of the company’s history.

  • Market information. Industries and markets, customer base, revenue, key developments, and business cases.

  • Services and products. Scope of services and products, product lines, and pricing policies.

  • Regulatory compliance. Licenses and certifications, licensing history, and legal history.

Service Specifications

We collect information about service specifications from official resources, including company websites, product descriptions, promotional materials, customer support, and service documentation. We pay special attention to user protection policies to ensure they align with industry standards. 

We capture service information to check whether it aligns with our testing findings. InvestmentDoctrina collects and evaluates the following information about services and products.

  • Scope of services. Service specifications, including but not limited to volume, duration, product listings, and terms & conditions.

  • Pricing information. Payment options, free trial services, and pricing options, including but not limited to service costs and fees.

  • Cybersecurity. Data encryption, user protection, infrastructure security, and security compliance.

  • User experience. Cross-platform support and responsiveness.

Customer Service

Reliable customer service ensures a positive user experience. We collect information about a company’s customer service to ensure it aligns with industry standards and benefits our readers. We collect the following data about customer service.

  • Support channels. Email, chat, and phone support’s availability and response time.

  • Help center. Service coverage and documentation availability.

  • Learning materials. Education services and explanatory content, including product guidelines, how-to articles, blog articles, and educational courses.

Customer Feedback

We pay significant attention to customer feedback, including user testimonials on G2, Capterra, SoftwareAdvice, Trustpilot, and other review platforms. 

We also collect user feedback from forums and social media platforms, including Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

We strongly believe that user feedback is one of the best indicators of the service’s real state. We collect and evaluate the following information about customer feedback.

  • Activity and demographics. Feedback source, demographics data, and activity over time.

  • Tone. Positive & negative feedback, pros and cons.

  • Quality. Level of detail and informativeness.

Performance Benchmarks

Performance benchmarks are a set of standards or reference points used to measure and evaluate the performance of investments, financial products, or portfolios.

Performance benchmarks help our readers understand whether financial products and services perform well and generate profit over time. We retrieve performance benchmarks from various sources, including but not limited to the following.

Performance Benchmark Description
S&P 500 Index It represents the performance of 500 large U.S. companies’ stocks
Russell 2000 Index It tracks the performance of 2,000 small-cap U.S. companies
Nasdaq Composite It includes all common stocks and similar securities listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market
FTSE 100 Index It comprises the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
Nikkei 225 Index It measures the performance of 225 large, publicly-traded companies in Japan
Shanghai Composite Index It represents all stocks traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in China
S&P/ASX 200 Index It tracks the performance of 200 large companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange
DAX Index It represents the 40 largest and most liquid companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany
LBMA Index It sets the benchmark price for gold twice daily, known as the Gold Fixing or Gold Price. It is widely used as a reference rate in the gold market
NYSE Arca GDM It tracks the performance of companies primarily involved in the mining of gold and silver. It includes major gold mining companies from around the world
Financial data providers Bloomberg, Morningstar, FactSet, Yahoo Finance, and other services providing performance benchmarks for various investments

Our Testing Process

At InvestmentDoctrina, we observe investment-related online platforms, including software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms. These may include stock exchanges, crypto exchanges, portfolio management apps, marketplaces, cryptocurrency wallets, etc.

These reviews require testing of said platforms to deliver value to our readers. Our team applies a black box testing method while reviewing such services.

We apply this approach in several stages.

  • Security testing. We assess two-factor authentication, password settings, encryption certificates, account protection measures, and other customer protection features.

  • Performance testing. Our team evaluates page load speed, request processing speed, transaction speed, and malfunctions, including but not limited to downtime and system error frequency.

  • Usability testing. We evaluate system notifications and navigation memorability, and apply first-click interface testing.

  • Integrations testing. InvestmentDoctrina’s team reviews integrations interoperability, data sync, and errors.

Our Rating Weights

We rate services and products on a 5-star scale, where:

Excellent

Good

Average

Bad

Terrible

We assign the following weights to evaluation criteria when rating products and services.

Evaluation Criteria Weight (Total 100%)
Company overview 5%
Scope of services 20%
Pricing 10%
Performance benchmarks 20%
Cybersecurity 20%
Customer service 5%
Customer feedback 20%

How We Make Money: Advertiser Disclosure

InvestmentDoctrina.com is an independent investment review and personal finance information portal. We are committed to providing accessible and independent reviews. To align our services with our core values, we keep our information content free. We are also committed to utmost transparency about our business, including the way we make money. To sustain our business and keep educational content free, we may partner with products and services displayed on our website.

We may receive a commission when you click on certain links on our website, including links to products and services we are partnered with. While we may receive a commission from products and services displayed on our website, we keep our services unbiased. Our partnerships do not affect the quality of our services, including information content on our website. The order of information arrangement on our website is not a means of advertising and is not affected by our partnerships.