Rating & Scoring System
At Merchant Maverick, we evaluate many different categories of software and services for small businesses in the form of in-depth, unbiased reviews. In addition to detailed write-ups of each software platform or service, we assign an overall score out of 5 stars.
The scores we give are not an end-all, be-all verdict but serve as a guide for readers to learn which software platforms and services offer the most value for their particular business requirements.
Overall Star Rating
Our rating system is fairly granular and comprised of several different weighted layers, all of which roll up into a final star rating out of 5, rounded to the nearest tenth of a point.
Section Ratings
Reviews are divided into several sections, depending on the product being reviewed. The most common sections we use are Pricing, Features, Products & Services, Rewards, Rates & Fees, Customer Service, and User Reviews, but each review category varies slightly. POS software providers are rated differently than payment processors, which differ from lenders or credit cards.
Each top-level section’s score is given a specific weight. Let’s look at the POS rating criteria for an example. POS reviews are broken into the following sections:
- Pricing (40% of the total star rating)
- Ease Of Use (15% of the total star rating)
- Features (30% of the total star rating)
- Customer Service (10% of the total star rating)
- User Reviews (5% of the total star rating)
In this example, the highest weights go to key sections, like pricing and features. The customer support and user reviews sections, while important, are given less overall power to affect the final star rating. The scores for each section are displayed openly in the review and then combined to create a holistic rating for the product out of 5 stars.
The key sections of a review are broken down into a second layer of subsections.
Subsection Ratings
Every main section is broken down further into several subsections, each of which is weighted differently. The subsection scores are added up to calculate the total section score. For example, in the POS rating methodology, the Pricing section is broken into three subsections:
- Software Plans (40% of the total section rating)
- Hardware Options (30% of the total section rating)
- Payment Processing Fees (30% of the total section rating)
Each subsection is, in turn, broken down further.
The sub-subsection scores roll up to create the subsection scores, which then roll up into the section ratings. The section ratings are used to determine the total star rating.
Making Recommendations
No software or service is perfect. All have strengths and weaknesses that typically represent tradeoffs a business owner must weigh when making a selection. Some highly-rated software or services may not be a good fit for certain businesses for any number of reasons, while minimalist or niche software and services that would be excellent for niche industries may receive lower overall scores. Make sure to visit the individual section ratings to determine which things are most important to you. Software that scores highly in pricing may score low in customer support, for example. It’s best to use the section and subsection ratings as a guide to see how well the software or service meets your unique requirements.
Our most important recommendation is to read the full review — do not simply rely on the final score in making a decision. Businesses should be more concerned with the best fit rather than a perfect score.
That said, we generally don’t recommend merchants consider any software or services scoring below 3 stars. Most merchants should be able to find a higher-scoring option that is suitable for their needs.
