How we test
every exchange.

Cryptocurrency exchange reviews are one of the most affiliate-saturated corners of the internet. Most "reviews" are thinly-disguised marketing — written from press releases, with rankings driven by who pays the highest commission. We try to do this differently. Here's exactly how.

1. We open real accounts on every platform

Before we publish a review, we open an actual account on the exchange. We go through the full KYC process — uploading ID, verifying address, completing biometric checks where required. We note how long it takes, what's required, and how the user experience feels.

This is the most fundamental thing that separates us from listicle sites: we have used every exchange we recommend. We hold accounts that have been verified, funded, and used to trade.

2. We use real money

After verification, we deposit our own funds — typically a few hundred dollars equivalent in fiat or crypto. We then execute multiple trade types: market orders, limit orders, conditional orders where supported. We trade major pairs (BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT) and at least one altcoin pair to test liquidity at different market depths.

We test the withdrawal process by withdrawing both crypto and (where supported) fiat back to our own accounts. We note how long withdrawals take, what fees are charged, and whether anything unusual happens (manual review delays, address verification requests, withdrawal locks).

We deliberately submit at least one customer support ticket per platform — usually a non-urgent question — to assess response time and quality.

3. We score across five criteria

Every exchange is scored from 0.0 to 5.0 on five dimensions:

• Fees — spot maker/taker fees, withdrawal costs, hidden spreads, fee discount availability, and overall cost competitiveness for typical retail volumes.
• Security — historical track record (hacks, incidents, response quality), cold storage practices, insurance funds, Proof-of-Reserves audits, regulatory standing, and account-level security features.
• Assets — number and quality of coins supported, fiat currency options, stablecoin coverage, derivatives availability, and listing quality (does the platform list scam tokens?).
• Usability — interface design, mobile app quality, onboarding speed, learning curve, advanced trading features, and overall polish.
• Support — response time, channel availability (chat, phone, email), language coverage, technical knowledge of support staff, and quality of self-service resources.

4. We calculate a weighted overall score

Overall scores are not simple averages. We weight categories by their importance to the average international retail user:

• Security: 30%
• Fees: 25%
• Assets: 20%
• Usability: 15%
• Support: 10%

We prioritise security highest because a cheap exchange that gets hacked is worse than an expensive one that doesn't. Fees come next because they're the most direct cost users experience. Asset selection and usability complete the user experience, with support providing the safety net.

5. We re-test every six months

Cryptocurrency exchanges change constantly. Fees get cut, security incidents happen, new features launch, regulatory situations evolve. A review that was accurate in January may be wrong by July.

We re-test every exchange we cover at least every six months — re-running trades, re-submitting support tickets, re-checking fee schedules, and verifying regulatory status. The "Last reviewed" date on every review page tells you when we last did this in full.

If something significant happens between formal re-tests (a major hack, a regulatory action, a leadership change), we update the relevant review immediately rather than waiting for the next cycle.

6. Editorial independence

We earn affiliate commissions when readers sign up through our links. We are completely transparent about this. We are also completely transparent that affiliate payouts do not influence our scores or rankings.

We have refused to publish positive reviews of exchanges we judged unsafe, even when offered significant commission rates. We have included strong criticisms in reviews of exchanges we ultimately recommend, because we think honest assessment serves readers better than puffery.

Sponsored content — when present — is clearly labelled. We do not run "native advertising" disguised as editorial reviews. If an exchange pays for a banner placement on our site, that placement does not affect their review score.

What we don't do

We don't review exchanges we haven't used. We don't include exchanges in rankings because they offered us higher commissions. We don't downplay security incidents or regulatory problems. We don't recommend exchanges that we think are likely to harm users, regardless of how much money we could make from the referral.

We also don't pretend to be perfect. Crypto moves fast and we sometimes get things wrong. If you spot an error in a review, please let us know and we'll correct it.