Methodology

How we assess Australian PED vendors

Every vendor is scored against the same published metrics, using only information a buyer could find themselves. We take no payment from vendors and use no affiliate links.

Last reviewed: September 2026

Metric definitions and weighting

Overall quality score 100 points: A single score out of 100 combining every metric below: purity testing 25 points, shipping and returns policies 20, review evidence 20, website quality 15, money-back guarantee 10, catalogue breadth 10. Scores of 70+ are rated Strong, 55-69 Adequate, 40-54 Mixed, below 40 Weak.
Purity testing (HPLC) 25 points: Published where certificates or batch results are openly available; On request where the vendor states results are supplied to buyers on request. These score identically — withholding certificates publicly is a normal defence against other labs reusing them as their own. Not published means no testing evidence was locatable; Not offered means purity certification does not apply to what is sold.
Policies 20 points: Shipping and returns assessed separately as Strong, Adequate, Limited or Not published, based on whether terms are specific, complete and locatable before checkout.
Verified reviews 20 points: The highest review count attributable to a named, checkable source. On-site counts are recorded but discounted to 60% of an independently hosted count, since the vendor controls them. Unquantified claims such as 'thousands of happy customers' are excluded. Volume is capped at 2,000 reviews, beyond which extra volume adds no score.
Website quality & navigation 15 points: Scored out of 10 on information architecture, search and filtering, clarity of product information, page performance and whether policy pages are findable.
Money-back guarantee 10 points: Yes where an unconditional guarantee is published; Conditional where it is bounded by time, condition or product type, or where the vendor's own pages state conflicting windows; No where none is offered.
Products offered 10 points: Distinct product listings counted in the vendor's catalogue at the time of assessment, excluding variants of the same item. Recorded as not published where no total could be counted. Breadth is capped at 60 listings.
Integrity flags Outside the score: Issues we verified ourselves that sit outside the main score. A flag means we observed behaviour that could mislead search engines or visitors — for example forwarding one web address to another, hiding pages from search results while keeping them visible to people, or showing different content to Google than to human visitors. We describe what we saw and why it matters; we do not guess the vendor's reason. A flagged vendor can still score well on the other metrics; the flag exists so readers weigh both.

What every assessment covers

— Homepage, catalogue and individual product listings, counted rather than estimated
— Shipping, returns, refund and guarantee pages, or their absence
— Any published lab results, certificates of analysis or testing-on-request wording
— Review counts on the vendor's own site and on independent review platforms
— Whether the same claims appear consistently across the site's own pages
— Technical checks on how the site presents itself to search engines versus visitors

What we cannot verify

— We do not buy, test or independently assay any product, so we cannot confirm what is in a vial
— We cannot confirm that on-site reviews are genuine, only that they are vendor-controlled
— We cannot confirm whether a published certificate matches the batch actually shipped
— We cannot verify delivery times, customer service quality or dispute outcomes
— Terms change without notice — anything here reflects the assessment date only

Scoring is comparative, not a safety rating

A high score means a vendor publishes more checkable information than its peers. It does not mean a product is safe, legal for you to obtain, or that it contains what the label says. We do not purchase or assay products, and no score here should be read as a recommendation to buy.

See the vendor comparison for current scores, or request a correction if you believe an assessment is wrong.