How we rank

A verdict without its working is just somebody's taste. This page lays out how each ranking on CourseShortlist is assembled: the figures that count, the pages each one is read from, the rhythm of rechecking, and the rules that hold no matter what a platform would prefer. Find a recommendation you cannot trace back to something on this page and you have found a fault in our process, so tell us.

What goes into a ranking

The order rests on things that can be measured, weighted in the sequence below. No platform gets a score to one decimal place, because the day a site-wide sale starts or a course library is pruned, that decimal is already wrong. The ranking itself is the claim we stand behind; how much daylight sits between two neighbours is a judgement, and the review spells it out.

• Outside measurements first. When an independent party has measured what matters, that measurement leads. For learning platforms that means independent reviewers with published results and what they publish, never the learner counts and completion figures a platform quotes about itself.
• The price after the introductory offer. The figure that counts is what leaves your account once the trial month or launch discount has expired. When the renewal rate differs from the sign-up rate, both are shown. That series is kept in the Price Index, a benchmark we compile ourselves.
• What the catalogue actually holds. How broad and how good the courses are, judged against what someone trying to learn a skill genuinely needs, rather than a feature grid stuffed with items nobody opens.
• When free is enough. If auditing a course at no cost, or a free tier, gets most learners where they want to go, we say so in plain words.

The principles we hold to

None of these is a slogan. Each is a constraint built into the way the rankings get produced.

• Compared on merit. Platforms are set against each other on how well they teach, what the catalog holds, and what a subscription costs. No ranking here is paid for.
• Certificates weighed. Per platform we say which certificates carry weight with an employer and which amount to a downloadable PDF.
• Free options named. A lot of excellent teaching costs nothing. Where auditing a course for free gets you there, we say so, whether or not that suits us.
• Rechecked and dated. Course libraries grow and subscription prices shift, so every review is dated and rechecked on a regular schedule.

How fresh the data is

Nothing loses a careful reader faster than a subscription price that is a year old, so freshness is something the build does rather than something we promise. Every build re-reads the prices and recomputes the Price Index; monthly automated measurement is on its way, so a history of how subscription prices move will build up over time. That monthly record is what almost nobody else in this space publishes, and it is why this site is built to be cited rather than to go asking for links. Every data page shows a visible last updated date alongside a machine-readable feed, so the claim can be checked.

What we deliberately do not do

• No platform can pay to move up this list, and no position on it has ever been sold.
• Feelings, brand loyalty and the look of a logo do not move anything. Without data to point at, the order stays where it is.
• The renewal price, the small print and the cheaper alternative are never hidden to make a commission.
• Ratings are never invented. A star score appears only where real evidence sits behind it.

Where the money comes from, and why it cannot tilt the order

CourseShortlist costs nothing to use. The links on this site are plain links, and the order is decided on the inputs above, not on what a platform might pay.

Should we join a partner programme at some point, this page will say so. The ranking would still be built from the inputs above, with commission left out of the calculation. The full terms are in our disclaimer, and who runs the site is on our about page.

Hold us to it

Publishing a method only makes sense if the result can be checked against it. A ranking here that contradicts the data, or a subscription price that has gone stale, is a defect we want reported. The underlying numbers are exposed on purpose: the Price Index comes with a machine-readable feed, free to use under a CC BY 4.0 licence, so people and AI engines alike can verify the figures and reuse them with attribution.