The Final Score

Our Final Score is a much more accurate score given to each product ranging from 1-100 based on the rating it has (i.e. 4.5/5 stars), the number of reviews (i.e. 358 reviewers), and our expert teams’ input.

The problem with most product-focused websites is that you usually can only sort by “Most Reviews” OR “Highest Reviews”, which isn’t ideal when you’re trying to compare products.

This usually leaves you with a bunch of 5-star products with only a couple reviews or a 3.5-star product with many reviewers. Neither is what you as a consumer are looking for — instead, you probably want the “highest review that has a reasonable number of past reviewers”.

Tools Official’s Final Score is our solution to this.

How the Final Score is calculated

We use an in-house algorithm to calculate our Final Score based on three factors:

• The rating of the product (i.e. 3.5/5 stars) from multiple sources all over the web
• The # of people reviewing the product (i.e. 400 people)
• Our personal team of experts with thousands of hours spent reviewing products across industries

For example, when a review has high ratings (such as 5/5 stars) but low # of reviewers (i.e. 2 reviews), we weigh our final score lower since there aren’t enough reviewers to trust the rating yet.

Conversely, when a review has a high # of reviewers, our algorithm makes fewer adjustments to the Final Score accordingly.

The way the Final Score is curved is not equal for both negative and positive reviews — 1 person leaving a negative review is a lot more telling than 1 person leaving a positive review. Lastly, the Final Score is affected by our personal team of experts’ opinions on the matter, adding a human touch to the algorithm.

Final Score distribution

Below is a pie chart showing the estimated distribution of scores amongst all products on Tools Official. 34.8% of products get a Final Score of 81-90, about 28.4% get 91-100, 24.5% get 71-80, and 12.3% receive under a score of 71.

Potential flaws in the Final Score

The Final Score is not perfect although we strive for it to be as accurate as possible. Here are some possible issues with the algorithm:

• Since the Final Score is affected by multiple sources over the web, some brands may tamper with the ratings by only allowing high ratings to make it onto their website. We are aware of this and take measures to ignore biased or false looking reviews.
• For products that are inherently not reviewed often, the chance of it not being a good fit for your particular situation increases – for example, if reviewers are living in a different climate than yours. To offset this, we skip reviewing products that do not have enough legitimate reviews on it.

Please keep in mind that home tools are highly personal and what is perfect for one person may not be ideal for you. A product with a low Final Score can still be a good fit for you even though it is not for some others. Although the Final Score is a significant improvement to current rating systems out there today, we suggest taking it with a grain of salt.