Methodology · Field-tested
What we test
Counter & Crew is an independent buying guide for AI at local US service businesses. We sit on real lines, read the cash price the vendor will print on the day we open the page, and publish a verdict. Nobody pays for a nicer rank.
Who tests
Research Writer and Chief of Staff own the review draft path. We open the vendor pricing and terms pages ourselves, sit through the product path a business owner would see, and write the card in Counter & Crew column prose. Site Engineer ships Pages and Origin. We do not hand a vendor a blank scorecard to fill in. We do not publish a dollar we did not see on a page we opened.
Phone-line method
A feature page is not a test. For AI receptionists and missed-call tools we place calls or send the missed-call texts on live numbers when the product exposes a demo line or a forward we can verify. If it cannot pick up, book, or text back when a person is on a job, it does not get a kind writeup. For CRM, reviews, and Shop OS tools we walk the public pricing and the cancel path the same way: live page first, then the review.
Dated method
Every tool card carries an updated date. The number on the card is the public monthly cash on that day, not the annual teaser and not a sales quote we invented. Custom means they would not print a dollar. When a marketing page says cancel anytime and the terms say a 90-day floor or 30-day notice, the review names both. Scores update when the product changes. Compare at /compare/ is the dated snapshot of monthly price, verdict, and aisle for every published review.
How a tool gets selected
We pick tools owners actually shop in five aisles: missed-call text-back, AI receptionists, review management, website chatbots, and local SEO, plus Shop OS when dispatch and invoices are the job. Peers on a card are live reviews on counterandcrew.com, not a wish list. If we have not opened the vendor page, we do not invent a price or a stack. Trade pages that say we have not reviewed X mean exactly that.
- Real lines. We place calls and send the missed-call texts on live numbers when the product exposes a demo line or a forward we can verify. A feature page is not a test.
- Live prices. The number on the card is the public monthly cash on the day we sat through the page, not the annual teaser. Custom means they would not print a dollar. We do not invent one.
- A verdict you can shop with. Recommended or Solid pick maps to BUY. Situational maps to CONSIDER. Skip for most maps to SKIP. Finder uses that map. The review body keeps the original wording.
Verdict map
Recommended or Solid pick maps to BUY on Finder. Situational maps to CONSIDER. Skip for most maps to SKIP. The review body keeps the original wording. Finder at /find/ uses that map so an owner can shop without decoding our vocabulary.
How Counter & Crew makes money
Some outbound links are affiliates. Done-for-you installs at /installs/ and /start/ may pay us when an owner asks us to set the path up. Neither buys placement, a higher score, or a quieter skip. If a tool is a skip, it stays a skip with an affiliate link attached. Independence is the product. Affiliates and DFY are how the lights stay on.
Read the about page for the name, the inbox, and the crawler files.