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How the Top 10 lists are ranked, and what is never for sale

By Kai Greenspan, Founding Editor

Every ranked list on DebtTechIndex ranks what each vendor states on its own public website. It measures disclosure, not quality. Nothing on a list says a product works, a compliance control operates, or a customer is satisfied. There are no reviews, no ratings, no analyst opinion and no popularity data here, and none is used. A category whose method has not yet been published lists its products alphabetically and says so.

The facts

For each ranked category we publish a short list of core facts, five to eight, in order, on the guide itself. Each is either specific to the buyer of that category in the United States receivables market (meaning a regulation the product states it controls, a collections-system integration it names, or a US customer in this market it names) or one of the facts buyers ask every vendor for in their own RFPs: prices with figures, a named security audit, and public API documentation. Besides the core facts, every product is checked for seven evidence pages that are the same in every category: a product page naming the product, a security page naming a certification in text, public API documentation, an uptime or service level figure, prices with figures, a page naming a US customer in this market, and a page naming its integrations one by one.

What counts as a fact

A fact counts only when a person at DebtTechIndex has read it on a public page and it is in a checkable form: a named system, a printed level or figure, a named customer with its own page, a document. A sentence that two careful readers interpret differently does not count; we do not break the tie, but the vendor can, by publishing the fact in plain words. Every fact on a row links to the page it came from and shows the date it was read.

The order

A guide lists only the top ten positions and nothing else. Products are ordered by how many core facts they state, then by which core fact comes first in the published order, then by how many of the seven evidence pages they publish. Products equal on all three share a position; we do not break ties by name, by date or by any hidden rule. Every product tied for tenth is listed, so a guide can show more than ten products when there is a tie. A product that does not reach the top ten, including one that states no core fact, is not on the guide; it stays on its category page and its own record. One row per company. A Top 10 with seven ranked products shows seven; we do not pad a list.

What the ranking cannot see

A vendor that keeps its facts behind a login, or does not publish them, ranks as if it had not stated them, because it has not. "Not publicly stated" means exactly that; it never means "does not have." A specialist that states the core facts ranks above a platform that states many other things, and a specialist may be the right choice for a narrow need.

How a vendor moves

By publishing. A vendor can point us to the page that states a fact we have not found, with the quote, at no cost. A person checks it; if it holds, it is labeled as vendor-supplied and checked, with the date, and counts the same as any other fact. A statement without a public page is shown as a vendor statement and does not count. A fact later found untrue is removed, the row moves, and a dated note stays on the record.

What never affects it

Membership, sponsorship, lead agreements, advertising spend, vendor popularity, and click volume do not alter the order of any list, comparison values, source labeling, verification status, or editorial summaries. No payment changes a fact, a date, a core set, an order rule or a state.

Changes to this method

The core facts for each category are reviewed once a year, and any change is announced on this page before it takes effect. Positions computed under a previous set are not restated; the date on every row says which reading it reflects.