Editorial Standards

Research methodology

Every article is built from primary sources:

• Vendor documentation for product capabilities, pricing tiers, and feature claims
• Official policy (government publications, agency guidelines, statutory text) for legal, tax, visa, and regulated-industry topics
• Peer-reviewed research where articles touch areas with published academic literature
• Public technical specifications for hardware comparisons
• User reports from public community sources (forums, public reviews) for real-world reliability signals — used to add context on edge cases, never as a replacement for primary documentation

We do not republish or paraphrase content from other review sites. Where competing publications cover the same topic, we read them to understand what gap our article fills.

Honest-verdict requirement

Every review and comparison includes real limitations, trade-offs, and reasons to choose against the product. Reviews that read like marketing copy don't help readers — and we don't publish them.

This means:

• Single-product reviews include weaknesses and "when not to choose this"
• Comparisons pick clear winners for specific use cases — no "both are great" fence-sitting
• Alternatives lists exist precisely because the popular choice isn't always the right one
• Pricing tables show real total cost, including recurring fees and add-ons that vendor pages bury

Updates and freshness

Pricing, policy, product features, and regulations shift frequently. We address this in three ways:

1. Date-stamped articles. Every article displays its publish date. Articles in fast-moving categories include a "Last updated" line.
2. Year in titles. Articles where freshness is critical carry the current year in the headline ("Best X in 2026"). When the year changes meaningfully, we refresh.
3. Reader-flagged corrections. Found something out of date or wrong? Email hi@tinyctl.dev. Confirmed issues on high-traffic articles are corrected within 7 days and noted at the bottom of the affected article with the correction date.

Sources cited

For topics where accuracy is critical (legal, financial, immigration, regulated industries), articles cite primary sources directly — links to government pages, statutory text, official documentation. We don't summarize secondary commentary as if it were the original source.

Affiliate links and monetization

tinyctl.dev runs on two revenue streams:

1. Display advertising (Google AdSense). This is the primary revenue model and supports the free, no-paywall content policy.
2. Occasional affiliate links to products that are already recommended on editorial merit. When affiliate links appear, they are disclosed at the top of the article.

What we will not do:

• Recommend a product because it pays a higher commission
• Include an affiliate link in an article if the product wouldn't otherwise be recommended
• Hide the fact that a link is affiliate
• Accept payment in exchange for placement, positive coverage, or removal of negative coverage
• Publish "sponsored content" written by vendors

Many of the products we recommend have no affiliate program at all. Where the highest-quality option in a category has no program and the second-best has a generous one, we still recommend the higher-quality option.

Topics outside our scope

We do not publish:

• Investment or securities advice. Articles touching crypto or finance describe how things work, not what readers should buy or trade.
• Medical diagnosis or treatment guidance. Articles about wearables and health software compare device capabilities. They never interpret personal health data or recommend treatments.
• Individualized legal, tax, or immigration advice. Articles on these topics explain the rules and frameworks. They never tell a specific reader what to do in their situation. We point readers toward licensed professionals.
• Cryptocurrency trading or token recommendations.
• Anything requiring credentialed expertise we don't claim.

If you're looking for content in these categories, please consult a licensed professional.

Corrections policy

Errors of fact, broken links, outdated pricing, or unclear writing: email hi@tinyctl.dev with the article URL and a description of the issue. Confirmed errors are corrected within 7 days for high-traffic articles. Significant corrections are noted at the bottom of the article with the correction date.

Contact

All editorial inquiries, corrections, and topic suggestions: hi@tinyctl.dev

For legal notices, see Impressum. Privacy practices are documented in Datenschutz.