How we review cold email tools

The conflict of interest, stated first

PureMail sells Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 inboxes for cold email. Several tools in the directory sell the same thing. We publish these profiles anyway because buyers keep asking us how the options compare, and the existing comparisons are all written by vendors who hide that fact. Ours does not: every competitor profile carries a disclosure, and the side-by-side table with PureMail is labelled as one vendor's table, not a neutral verdict.

What goes into a profile

• Published facts only. Pricing, minimums, mailbox types, setup time, DNS handling, IP location, warmup and integrations come from the vendor's own site, pricing page, help centre or terms. If a vendor does not publish a fact, the profile says "not stated" rather than guessing.
• A verification date. Every profile shows the day someone last checked those facts against the vendor site. Prices change; the date tells you how fresh the page is.
• Sources. The pages we relied on are listed at the bottom of each profile.
• Pros, cons and fit. Written for a cold email operator deciding where to put mailboxes and money. We say who a tool is for, who it is not for, and where it beats PureMail.

What we deliberately do not do

• No ratings copied from other sites. We never import G2 or Capterra averages, and we never mark up a rating that is not shown on the page. The only score on a profile is our own rubric score, explained below.
• No paid placement. Vendors cannot pay to be listed, ranked or removed.
• No affiliate links in the directory today. If that changes, affiliate links will be marked as sponsored and disclosed on the page.
• Links to vendors are citations, not endorsements. Every vendor link in the directory, competitor or partner, carries rel="nofollow". We link so you can check the source, not to pass authority. Any affiliate link would be marked sponsored.
• No trashing. A weakness is stated as a fact with the source, not as an opinion about the company.

How the PureMail score works

Each scored profile shows a PureMail score out of 5. It is the average of five criteria, each scored from 1 to 5 on what the vendor publishes, rounded to one decimal:

• Price and value. Published prices, effective cost per mailbox at 10, 30 and 100, no hidden fees. Unpublished pricing scores 1.
• Setup and control. Time to first send, DNS automation, domain options, sequencer connection, ownership of domains and mailboxes.
• Deliverability foundations. Mailbox type and its inherited reputation, IP policy, warmup path, replacement policy for blocked mailboxes.
• Terms and support. Minimum order, billing flexibility, refund and cancellation terms, support channel and hours.
• Fit for cold email. Built and permitted for outbound, integrations with sequencers, warmup and verification tools.

Three rules keep it honest. The score is based only on published facts, so a vendor that does not publish its pricing or terms scores low on those criteria and can raise the score simply by publishing. PureMail never scores itself. And the score is re-checked whenever the profile's facts are re-verified, so the date on the page applies to the score too. The score is emitted as review structured data because it is a genuine editorial review that is visible on the page; we never emit hidden ratings.

How pages are kept current

Each profile is re-verified at least twice a year, and sooner when a vendor changes pricing or a reader reports a problem. The "facts verified" date on the page changes when that happens. Alternatives pages and comparisons follow the same rule.

Corrections

If you work at a listed company and something on your profile is wrong, email [email protected] with a link to the source. We correct factual errors within a week and note the update on the page.