Which? symbols, logos and ratings

Best Buy

The Best Buy recommendation is synonymous with Which?. This coveted recommendation is awarded only to products and services proven to serve you the best in our independent lab tests and expert assessments.

These top-rated products have all satisfied or exceeded our expert criteria, based on the results of rigorous comparative tests and analysis carried out by Which?.

Our Best Buy recommendation is 100% independent - no company can nominate its own products for a Best Buy award. Our tests are based on criteria and benchmarks set by impartial experts, so you can be sure that the only thing influencing our recommendations is our meticulous research.

Products that we know to have poor reliability, based on our owner surveys, are not awarded a Best Buy even if they score well in our tests.

Don't Buy

Unlike other reviews websites, we are able to name and shame the worst products we come across as Don't Buys. We're able to make Don't Buy warnings based on our robust lab tests and due to our complete independence.

At best, a Don't Buy product will prove a waste of money - at worst, it could be a threat to your safety, as our tests of smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors and child car seats have all shown.

Don't Buy warnings are typically given to products with an overall test score of less than 45%, but may also be awarded when serious health and safety issues are detected by our tests.

Great Value

Our Great Value recommendations are there to help you buy a trustworthy product or service without spending more than you need to.

The products we endorse as Great Value don't always score quite as highly as Best Buys or Which? Recommended Providers, but they still come highly commended as a cheaper choice, typically costing at least 20% less than the average price of all products or services featured in its category on Which.co.uk. 

Eco Buy

Our Which? Eco Buy recommendation helps you make more eco-conscious buying decisions. It highlights products that will have the least environmental impact out of all the models we've tested, while still performing well. To earn our Eco Buy recommendation, a product must achieve an overall test score of 60% or higher and:

• come from a brand whose products, according to our large-scale surveys, aren't likely to develop faults or break down quickly.
• Use energy efficiently.
• Use water efficiently (if applicable).

We use slightly different criteria for our Eco Buy recommendation depending on the type of product we're putting under the microscope. When we test laundry detergents, for example, our experts assess the ingredients used, the packaging it comes in and how transparent manufacturers are prepared to be.

Editor's Choice

We award Editor's Choice in certain product reviews categories where standard product testing in laboratories isn't the best approach to finding and recommending the top products. These categories are typically those that involve gathering subjective user opinions on products (such as when we assess photo books), or where we are only testing one important characteristic of a product, such as uncovering the longest lasting lipsticks.

Just like a Best Buy award, our Editor's Choice recommendation is 100% independent - no company can nominate its own products or services for an Editor's Choice award, or pay to be assessed by our experts. Because of our independence, you can be confident that the only thing that influences our recommendations are our rigorous test and assessment criteria.

Which? Recommended Provider and Eco Provider

Though Which? is famous for product testing, we also investigate and assess everyday services such as energy companies, insurance providers, and travel and broadband firms.

The best companies are awarded our Which? Recommended Provider logo - an award that's typically based on our own assessment benchmarks, customer scores, and star ratings gathered through our regular surveys to give you more confidence when choosing a company or service.

As with all our recommendations, no company can nominate its own products or services for a Which? Recommended Provider award. We choose the companies that we assess using an independent selection process, and measure their performance in areas important to consumers using robust and impartial methods such as customer surveys and expert analysis of companies' terms and conditions.

Which? Recommended Providers are awarded in a number of financial product and service categories, as well as in utility and technology service categories, such as broadband.

Our Which? Eco Provider recommendation meanwhile is on hand to help you identify the companies with the best green credentials to give you the power to make more eco-friendly choices.

To recommend Which? Eco Providers, our experts analyse the most important sustainability considerations in each sector we investigate. To name the more eco-friendly energy companies, for example, we awarded the highest marks to firms that supply 100% renewable energy to all customers, generate renewable energy and/or contract directly with companies that do, among other key areas.

Subscriber-only content

Which? is an independent not-for-profit organisation. We are retain our independence by never accepting display advertising and are instead predominantly funded by Which? members' subscriptions to our website, app and magazines. While a lot of the advice on our website is free for all to use, our expert verdicts on the best and worst products and service providers are only available to Which? members.

When you see the symbol shown above, it means that only Which? members are able to view the information behind the symbol. To view this exclusive information, members will need to log in, or new members can join Which? now to get instant access.

First Look

You'll see this logo on some of our product reviews - it indicates that the review has been produced based on a hands-on product trial by one of our product experts, rather than a full lab test.

New products launch all the time, and full lab tests can take several weeks to complete. Publishing first look reviews enables us to give you our expert verdict on the latest products before lab tests have taken place or completed.

We also publish first look reviews for products where lab testing wouldn't be appropriate, where it wouldn't be cost-effective, or for products that are still an emerging technology. Some products are also so new that there are not enough rivals for us to test them against yet, and so a hands-on trial is the fairest way of us delivering you our verdict.

The products that we First Look at are often unveiled at shows or are lent to us by the manufacturer and then returned. We always aim to buy and fully lab-test the products that we first look as soon as we're able to, so we can deliver our definitive verdict.

Only products that are robustly lab tested or assessed are awarded Which? scores, ratings or logos such as Best Buy - that's why we do not award scores or ratings alongside our first look reviews.

About our endorsements

Brands that achieve a high enough score to be recognised with one of our logos or awards are offered the chance to use our logos on their product's packaging, adverts or other promotional materials. This enables the company to share its achievement beyond our website and magazines to help consumers everywhere spot great quality products. This opportunity is only available to brands once our independent review process has been completed, and it never influences our review asessments.

Customer score

When we review brands using customer surveys, we calculate an overall 'Customer score, which is based on customer satisfaction with the brand and likelihood to recommend. Satisfaction and recommendation contribute 50% each to the overall Customer score, and a respondent must answer both questions for their answers to contribute towards a Customer score. For both satisfaction and recommendation, we apply a weighting to each response according to the scales below. This approach rewards excellence by giving greater weight to the top box scores.  

Star ratings

Star ratings are calculated independently of each other. We calculate the overall mean for each brand then use analysis of variance techniques to split the mean scores for all brands into statistically equivalent groups. Each brand will then have a star rating from one (worst rating achievable) to five (best rating achievable).

We publish star rating results on a scale of 1-5 stars:

• 1 star = very poor
• 3 stars = fair
• 5 stars = excellent

However in the survey respondents are asked to rate measures on the 1-7 star rating scale below:

• 1 star = very poor
• 4 stars = fair
• 7 stars = excellent