Methodology
How we review
Our reviews are built on transparent research, not hype or pay-to-play. We cover two different kinds of thing — consumer products you buy off a shelf, and prescription services you sign up to — and we do not review them the same way. This page explains what we look at in each case, what we don’t do, and how to read our conclusions.
Consumer products
For every product we review, we research the same core criteria so our write-ups stay consistent and comparable:
1Third-party lab testing & transparency
Does the brand publish current third-party Certificates of Analysis (COAs)? Are they easy to find and matched to the product and batch?
2Ingredients & sourcing
What’s actually in the product, where the key ingredients come from, and how clearly the brand documents them.
3Dosage & clarity
Whether the amounts per serving are clearly stated and easy for a reader to understand and follow.
4Price & value
The real cost — including cost per serving or per unit of active ingredient — relative to comparable products.
5Brand transparency & track record
How openly the company communicates about its products, manufacturing, returns, and customer support.
6Customer experience signals
Patterns in publicly available customer feedback — what buyers consistently praise or complain about.
How we research
- We review the brand’s own product pages, ingredient lists, and published lab reports.
- We compare claims against reputable third-party and scientific sources.
- We look at the broader pattern of publicly available customer feedback rather than any single review.
Prescription and telehealth services
A telehealth provider is not a product, so we do not review it like one. There is no Certificate of Analysis to check and no cost per serving to work out. What there is, instead, is a set of things a service either states plainly on its own site or does not. These are the six we look for:
1What is actually prescribed
Whether the medication is an FDA-approved product or a compounded preparation, and whether the service says so plainly rather than leaving it to be inferred. Compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide are not FDA-approved and are not generic versions of the brand-name drugs.
2Who evaluates you, and where
Whether prescribing is done by a US-licensed clinician, whether the intake is asynchronous or a live consultation, and which states the service actually covers. We check the service’s own published statements, not its marketing.
3Safety information published
Whether contraindications, boxed warnings and side-effect guidance appear on the service’s own pages, and whether they match what the FDA prescribing information says. A service that omits a boxed warning is telling you something.
4The terms you are agreeing to
Renewal interval, notice period for cancellation, whether a refund is possible once a prescription has gone to the pharmacy, and what happens to your subscription if you stop treatment.
5Whether the claims are supportable
We read the service’s marketing language against the FDA labelling for the medication it prescribes. Language that implies a compounded product is equivalent to a brand-name drug is not supported by the FDA.
6What the service does not say
Gaps are findings. If a service never names the pharmacy that compounds its medication, never states the form of the active ingredient, or never publishes its cancellation terms, we say so instead of filling the gap with a guess.
About the ratings on provider reviews
Where we publish a rating, it is out of five and it is described as based on our analysis. It summarises the six criteria above — how much a service publishes, how clearly, and how well its claims line up with the labelling. It is not a clinical judgement, not a measure of outcomes, and not a recommendation.
Sometimes we withhold the rating entirely. When we do not have enough published material to score a service fairly across all six criteria, we describe what the service offers and leave the number off. A score we cannot stand behind is worse than no score. Two of our current provider reviews are written this way.
What we don’t do
- We don’t publish numeric scores (such as “9.4/10”) unless they are backed by a defined, disclosed testing process. We would rather explain a product clearly than reduce it to a number we can’t stand behind.
- We don’t accept payment for placement or ratings. No brand can buy a better review.
- We don’t make medical claims. We do not state that any product treats, cures, or prevents a health condition.
- We don’t present lab testing we didn’t do. If we describe testing, we did it; otherwise we cite the brand’s third-party results.
- We don’t give medical advice or decide eligibility. Whether a prescription treatment is appropriate for you is a decision for a US-licensed clinician who has evaluated you.
- We don’t publish results claims, before-and-after images, or weight-loss figures for any service we review.
- We quote prices only with a source and a date. Prescription pricing changes and varies by state, plan, and dose — when we cite a number, we link straight to the brand’s own pricing page and note the date we read it.
Independence and affiliate links
Some reviews include affiliate links, and we may earn a commission if you buy through them — at no extra cost to you. This never affects which products we cover or what we conclude. See our Affiliate Disclosure for details.
Keeping reviews current
Products, prices, and lab reports change. We date each review and revisit our most important ones regularly so the information stays accurate.
Last updated: June 2026 · Questions about our methodology? Contact editorial@balanzgm.com.