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Editorial policy

A directory is only worth using if you can tell how it was put together. This page is the short version of the rules we hold ourselves to — including the parts that cost us money.

Who maintains this

iSoulChat is maintained by a small editorial team. We do not publish invented author personas: what we publish instead is a working contact address for every part of the site — general questions and corrections at hi@isoulchat.com, rights and removal requests at support@isoulchat.com. Every message is read.

What we will never do

How a site gets in, and where it lands

Sites are added by hand after we open the product, read its pricing page, and check that the features we record actually exist rather than being roadmap promises. An entry appears in every category it genuinely fits. Position inside a category comes from the editorial score described in how we test, never from who pays us.

Prices, and the honesty problem with dates

Companion pricing changes constantly, and most review sites never revisit their numbers. We publish two different things and never blur them: the sticker price from the public pricing page, and the effective monthly cost where a longer plan works out cheaper. Entries we have personally checked carry the date we checked them. Entries we have not checked say “Pricing unverified” until we get to them — which is why the hand-verified count on the homepage is small and moves slowly.

Affiliate links and conflicts of interest

Some outbound links may earn us a commission. Where that is the case, the link is marked as sponsored and disclosed before you click it, and the fact that a link pays us never affects listing, scoring or ordering. Read the full affiliate disclosure.

Corrections

If a price, a feature or a claim is wrong, tell us and we will re-check it. Corrections from users are as welcome as corrections from the companies involved, and are handled the same way. The submission form is the fastest route.

AI tools

We use AI tools for drafting, structuring and consistency-checking the catalogue. They do not assign editorial scores, they do not establish facts about a product, and they never produce a verification date. Everything on the site presented as checked by hand was checked by a person.

Editorial policy — common questions

Can a company pay to appear in the directory?

Listing is free and cannot be bought, and there is no expedited review. The only paid slot that exists is a clearly labelled sponsored placement, which sits outside the ranked list. A sponsored placement never changes an editorial score, and it never changes the ordering of a category or a best-of list.

How are prices collected, and what does “unverified” mean?

Prices are first compiled from each product’s own public pricing page. Until one of us has opened the product and confirmed the number by hand, the card says “Pricing unverified” and no verification date is shown. We do not backfill a plausible-looking date to make the catalogue look finished — the date is only worth something if it is real.

In what order are sites ranked?

Category pages and best-of lists are ordered by our editorial score, with editor’s picks lifted first, then by name to break ties. The score weighs conversation quality most heavily, then features that change daily use — memory, voice, image and video — then value for the price you actually pay, then platform coverage. Payment plays no part in it.

How fast are corrections made?

Corrections from users and from the companies involved are treated the same way and are welcome either way. Pricing errors and factual mistakes are re-checked and fixed as a priority; we would rather publish a correction than let a wrong number stand.

Do outbound links earn you money?

Some do, and every one of them is marked as a sponsored link and disclosed before you click. Whether a link earns us money has no effect on whether a site is listed, how it scores, or where it appears in a ranking.

Is any of this written by AI?

AI tools help with drafting, structuring and checking the catalogue for internal consistency. They do not decide scores, they do not decide what is true about a product, and they do not generate verification dates. Anything presented as “checked by hand” was checked by a person.

How do I report a mistake or ask for a page to be changed?

Use the submission form, or email hi@isoulchat.com for general corrections and support@isoulchat.com for rights and removal requests. Describe what is wrong and, where you can, link to the page that shows the correct information.