How we compare
Each comparison on productscompared.co.uk answers one buying question for a UK shopper. The score is built from the amazon.co.uk listing, the review evidence attached to that listing, and public sources a UK reader can check. It is not a laboratory test, and it is not a promise that a product will suit you.
What a page is based on
- The live or recorded amazon.co.uk listing: title, brand, price, stated specifications and the star rating with its review count.
- Review text, where we have it, read for repeated problems and repeated praise. A rating with a handful of reviews is not treated like a rating with hundreds.
- Public UK sources when the product needs them: GOV.UK, the Health and Safety Executive, manufacturer documents aimed at the UK, and the product label. We name the source on the page.
- Conflicts stay visible. If two fields on a listing disagree about weight, size or contents, we do not average them into a cleaner number.
We do not buy every product and test it on a bench. Where a page depends on a measurement we did not make, it says the figure comes from the listing or from a named source.
How the order is decided
Each comparison publishes its own criteria and weights, because a splitting wedge and a lawn feed are not judged the same way. Typical criteria are how clearly the listing states the specification, how deep the UK review evidence is, whether a safety or legal point is documented, and what you pay on amazon.co.uk at the time of research.
Two labels are fixed:
- Best overall is the strongest match across the criteria on that page.
- Best value is the strongest match once price is given more weight. It is not automatically the cheapest listing.
A manufacturer cannot buy a higher place. The share of paid rankings is zero. Sponsored placements, where a page has them, are marked Ad and sit outside the editorial order.
What we will not do
- We do not invent a review count, a star rating or a price.
- We do not treat a German or US listing as evidence of the UK price or the UK review count.
- We do not present an editorial score as a personal trial.
- We do not hide the date. Each comparison shows when it was last updated.
Prices and shop links
Prices are in pounds and include VAT when amazon.co.uk shows them that way. They change. A shop button goes to amazon.co.uk with the tag pcuk26-21. A purchase through that link can earn us a commission. The commission does not set the rank. See the affiliate disclosure.
Who checks the page
The Products Compared editorial team checks the comparison before it is published: the sources, the criteria and the claims in the first screen. Outside experts, where a page names one, are a research source. They do not write the ranking and they are not on the staff. The editorial page explains that split.