How We Rank
The scores and rankings of companies on BestCompany.com are calculated from our proprietary “Best Rank” algorithm. We do not have any relationships with companies that guarantee their ranking or score, and we never will.
Like many sites, we may be compensated through affiliate relationships with the companies on BestCompany.com. However, our "Best Rank" algorithm is powered by real consumer reviews, ensuring that our rankings remain honest and unbiased.
The Algorithm
Our “Best Rank” algorithm is composed of the following criteria and their respective weights:
- Average Score of Reviews
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The average 1-5 star score of a company’s published consumer reviews.
- Volume of Reviews
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The total number of reviews that have been published about a company.
- Responsiveness to Reviews
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A company’s responsiveness rate to its consumer’s reviews that have a star rating score of 3 or lower.
Requirements and Details
- A company must have at least 10 reviews to receive an overall score.
- Because we believe a company’s recent reviews are generally more relevant than its older reviews, the reviews published over a rolling 6-month period carry more weight in calculating a company’s overall score.
- Best Company requires that consumers must have had a meaningful interaction with a company to be eligible to submit a review for that company. However, Best Company also provides review solicitation services for companies (some of which are free and others which require a monthly subscription) in which Best Company independently verifies that the reviewer is or was a paying customer of the company. Reviews from verified paying customers carry more weight in calculating a company’s overall score.
- The score a company receives for the volume of reviews criteria is calculated using a normalized curve based on the number of reviews for all of the companies in a given industry.
- To receive the full score for this criterion, a company must respond to all of its reviews scored 3 stars or lower within 14 days of those reviews being published on its profile. Companies can still receive a partial score if they respond to reviews outside of the 14-day window, but that score degrades the longer they take to respond to the review. Only reviews received over a rolling 90-day period are evaluated when determining a company’s responsiveness score.
- While the Best Rank algorithm is constantly running, the overall scores and rankings on BestCompany.com are updated on the 1st and the 16th of each month.
Disclaimer: If Best Company finds a company is engaged in questionable or fraudulent business practices, is consistently flagged for unethical review solicitation, or is unable to service new consumers in a timely manner, its overall score will receive a penalty until it has resolved the issue. Any such penalties will be disclosed on the company's profile page.
