How We Review Brands
‍at NoCramming

Not sure you can trust our reviews when you’re looking for an academic help platform, AI writing tool, or a tutoring website? Let us give you a peek behind the curtain as to how we review every platform – and what makes our evaluations a valuable resource in your decision-making process.

Our General Approach

To write an exhaustive and balanced review, we rely on three cornerstones in our research.

First-Hand Experience

We place orders for essays (without revealing that the order is for a review, of course), tinker with AI tools, or take on the role of a learner on tutoring websites. We also reach out to customer support ourselves to see it in action. The largest chunk of our review is based on this first-hand experience.

Online Reputation

Even if our experience was great, we know it’s not a given that all customers can say the same about theirs. So, we check out reviews on independent platforms (Sitejabber, Review.io, ResellerRatings, Trustpilot) and social media (e.g., Reddit) and factor them in during our assessment.

Fine Print

The devil is in the details, as they say. We read the Terms and Conditions and other policies to ensure the claims elsewhere on the website are truthful and you won’t get ambushed by surprise fees or a non-existent money-back guarantee.

How We Review Essay Writing Platforms

What happens when we decide to review this or that essay writing service? Here’s all the work that our reviewers put in to write each review:

  1. We begin with browsing the website, tinkering with the calculator if there is one, and reading the fine print (Terms & Conditions, Revision Policy, Refund Policy, Privacy Policy, etc.). We can usually identify some red flags at this stage (e.g., discrepancies between the refund claims on the website and in the policy documents).
  2. We look into available reviews from other customers to gauge what potential issues we should look out for. This step also informs one of our scores.
  3. We try to reach out to customer support before placing an order, usually with a question about the available payment methods or how to choose a writer.
  4. We create an account with a single-use email address to place an order for an essay; it can be a five-page one for a college class or a three-page one for high school. If the platform charges extra for ‘top writers’ or equivalent, we stick to the ‘basic writer’ option. At this stage, we pay attention to the ease of placing the order, writer selection and responsiveness (if applicable), and potential surprise fees.
  5. We receive our essay, assess its quality, and double-check its originality and human-written content score (more on it below). We also request revisions if the essay warrants them – and, of course, we pay attention to whether we get our order on time.

Our Assessment Criteria

Based on our first-hand experience and research, we rate every essay writing service on a scale from 0 to 5 across six criteria: price, quality, features, support, ease of use, and reputation. The overall score for each service is the average of the six criteria-specific scores.

Price

To rate a service’s pricing, we assess:

  • Rates. This is the core question: How much will your paper cost you? We compare rates based on the selected academic level, urgency, and discipline. It’s a plus when a service charges the lowest rates within five to seven days, as opposed to ten, 14, or even 20.
  • Free service and extra fees. If the service charges additional fees for originality reports or top writers, it’ll negatively impact the score. We believe that a service should provide formatting, originality and AI reports, and unlimited revisions at no extra cost.
  • Available discounts and promo codes. If you can save a buck using a promo code for first-time customers or by ordering multiple pages, we’ll count that as a plus for the service’s score.
  • Refund policy. We read the policy itself to see under which conditions you can claim a refund and how much you should expect to get back if you do. The more comprehensive and generous the refund policy is, the better.

Quality

Is the paper worth the money? To answer this question, we have to assess the paper quality. To do so, we take a look at the essay we receive from the service.

Here’s our checklist for determining whether the essay is indeed top-notch:

  • Content. A good paper breaks the subject down in detail, with extra points awarded to the service if the writer takes a fresh perspective on the essay’s topic. If we provide some ideas or a general outline for an essay, we expect the writer to build on those, of course.
  • Structure. An essay should adhere to the standard paper structure unless stated otherwise in our guidelines. That means an introduction with a thesis statement, three to five main body paragraphs with topic sentences and evidence, and a conclusion.
  • Sources. All sources mentioned in the order form should be used, while additional citations should come from reliable, reputable sources. All cited research must be peer-reviewed, and the number of sources used should match the number of requested sources.
  • Formatting. We expect the essay to be properly formatted, which involves the correct margins, font, type size, page numbering, title and reference pages (if needed), and indentation for the selected citation style.
  • Adherence to the guidelines. Nothing should contradict our initial guidelines, be it formatting or the use of specific sources.
  • Writing style. The tone of voice should match the expected writing style. For example, an expository economics essay would have to be rather formal and objective, as opposed to a creative writing assignment for an English class.
  • Correctness. We check the essay for typos, spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes, and other errors. Needless to say, a good essay should be error-free.
  • Delivery. We take into account whether the essay was sent to us in advance, on time, or late.
  • Originality and human-written content. The essay must be at least 90% original; we conduct two separate checks on each essay. It should also contain no AI-generated content; we check for it, as well.

Features

This evaluation criterion concerns the available range of services on any given platform. To rate it, we take into account the covered:

  • Service types (custom writing, proofreading, editing, rewriting, calculations, problem-solving, etc.)
  • Paper types (essays, lab reports, term papers, etc.)
  • Subjects (English, nursing, philosophy, law, etc.)
  • Academic levels (high school, college, Master’s, PhD)

Support

This is the score we give for the quality of customer support. When testing it ourselves, we pay attention to:

  • Available support channels (phone support, email, live chat)
  • Response time at different times of day (especially late in the evening) and on weekdays vs weekends
  • Response quality, i.e., whether the agent was polite, respectful, and friendly and whether they gave a thorough answer to our query

Ease of Use

To evaluate the service’s ease of use, we analyze our whole customer journey, including:

  • Information availability: Does the website present all the information about its services you may need?
  • User-friendliness: Is it easy to navigate the platform and place an order?
  • Order form: Is it comprehensive and easy to understand?
  • Available payment methods: Are all common payment methods covered? Is there PayPal and Venmo support?

Reputation

This assessment criterion is fairly straightforward: we take into account the service’s reviews on independent platforms like Sitejabber, Reviews.io, and ResellerRatings. We also browse social media platforms like Reddit to see some less structured feedback from existing customers.

How We Review AI Writing Tools

As AI writing tools started rising in popularity among those needing academic help, we decided to add them to our scope of work. Of course, as you may guess, the reviewing process differs somewhat as there are no writers to chat with, for one.

Here’s how our team members approach reviewing AI writing tools:

  1. We browse the tool’s website, read the fine print, and scout customer reviews when preparing to test the tool. We pay extra attention to pricing, subscription cancellation terms, and customer support availability. We note down any red flags we come across in customer reviews or on the tool’s website.
  2. We create an account if required and tinker with the tool. This tinkering typically involves generating a whole essay on a specific topic. But, depending on the tool, it can also include trying the tool’s other features, like rewriting an existing draft, paraphrasing a paragraph, or checking the text for plagiarism with the built-in checker.
  3. We assess the quality of the AI-generated text and other output from the tool (e.g., the quality of the paraphrased text or plagiarism check accuracy). We pay extra attention to potential hallucinations in the text and run plagiarism and AI checks on it.
  4. We contact customer support to inquire about the payment methods or subscription terms to assess the response time and quality.

Our Assessment Criteria

Just like with essay writing platforms, we derive the general score by calculating the average of six scores across the same criteria. However, since AI writing tools differ from essay writing platforms, some criteria differ in their composition.

Price

To see how affordable this or that tool is, we take into account:

  • Subscription fees themselves and how they compare to the value provided and competitors
  • Differences between plans and their limitations (e.g., word count, range of features)
  • Free tier availability and its limitations
  • Free trial availability, duration, and limitations
  • Available discounts, including lower subscription fees for annual billing
  • Refund availability and amount

Quality

When assessing the quality of AI-generated text, we pay attention to:

  • Writing style. Does the text come across as human-written or too robotic? Does it follow the conventions of the selected paper type (e.g., essay, term paper, lab report) in terms of structure and vocabulary?
  • Content. We analyze the generated text to see if it sticks to the point or contains irrelevant information. We also evaluate how well the tool broke down the topic itself and whether the text is comprehensive enough.
  • Correctness. We check the text for grammar and punctuation mistakes, as well as for misused words, clanky sentence structures, or bogus phrases.
  • Hallucinations. AI models are prone to making up false facts and presenting them as truth. So, we pay extra attention to any potential factual mistakes in the generated text.
  • Formatting. Is the text formatted according to the specified citation style? That is, if you can request the text to adhere to a specific style – sometimes, it’s not an option.
  • Sourcing. Does the text contain any citations? Are the sources reputable, up-to-date, reliable, and accessible? Are the citations themselves relevant?
  • Originality. We run plagiarism and AI checks using trusted third-party tools to verify the uniqueness of the generated text. Ideally, the originality should remain over 90% and AI involvement should remain at the lowest level. 

Overall, a good rule of thumb to assess the quality of AI-generated text is to see how much reworking it needs after the tool is done with it. If we see that you’d need to spend an extra couple of hours working on formatting, sourcing, and originality, it’ll downgrade the tool’s score in paper quality.

Features

AI writing tools may differ wildly in functionality, but we believe that more doesn’t always mean better. So, we assess not just the range of features available but also how helpful and effective they are.

Those features can include:

  • Paraphrasing and rewriting tools
  • Summarizing tools
  • Text editing features
  • Built-in plagiarism and AI checkers
  • Automatic formatting tools
  • Support for calculations, problem-solving, and code generation

When it comes to the core feature, – generating text from scratch, – we assess the range of settings we can use to fine-tune the output. Those can include specifying the paper type, formatting requirements, sources to use, etc.

Support

As with reviewing essay writing services, we assess customer support quality by analyzing its:

  • Availability: Can you contact someone around the clock, or are you limited in time?
  • Channels: Can you reach a company rep by phone, email, or live chat?
  • Self-service options: Are there FAQs or knowledge bases where you can find answers to run-of-the-mill questions?
  • Ease of contact: Do you have to waste time with an AI chatbot first before you can reach a human agent or jump through other hoops?
  • Response speed: How fast did we get a response to our message?
  • Response quality: Was the response polite, friendly, and comprehensive enough to resolve our query on the first go?

Ease of Use

When reviewing AI writing tools, we assess the overall experience by taking note of:

  • Generation speed. We expect an AI tool to generate text in a matter of seconds, just like you.
  • Bugs and errors. If the tool returns an error in response to a prompt or the user interface is buggy, we’ll downgrade the tool.
  • Ease of getting started. We check whether it’s easy to get started with the tool. Social login options or starting without an account are a plus. Requiring credit card details for the free trial is a source of friction, in contrast.
  • Payment methods and cancellation. The more payment methods the tool offers, the better. We also check whether it’s easy to cancel a subscription.
  • Limitations. Being substantially limited in the word count, supported paper types, or citation styles will negatively impact this score.

Reputation

We rely on user reviews to rate the AI writing tool on its reputation. However, AI writing tools are usually reviewed on somewhat different platforms than essay writing services. We check out Trustpilot, Reddit, and AppStore and Google Play Store reviews if the tool offers mobile apps. Depending on the tool, we may also be able to find user reviews elsewhere (e.g., G2).

How We Review Tutoring Websites

Tutoring websites, our third review category, also require a somewhat different approach to evaluating what they have to offer – and their value for money. To craft a comprehensive review, our team members typically follow these four steps:

  1. We browse the website to understand the range of services available and pricing and read the terms and conditions and other policy documents. We finish up this step with a search for user feedback on independent platforms.
  2. We create an account to check out the ease of getting started with the website and analyze the limitations and advantages of the experience.
  3. We test the services provided. That can involve going on a test call or video lesson if the platform offers those, browsing learning materials if there are any, or asking questions on a forum. Whatever service the website offers, we test it.
  4. We reach out to customer support with a question on payment methods or something else to assess the response quality and speed.

Our Assessment Criteria

We rate every tutoring website across the same six criteria, from price to reputation. The overall score is the average of those six scores.

Price

When assessing the tutoring website’s pricing, we take into account:

  • Pricing model (one-time payment/subscription fee)
  • Fees themselves and how they compare to the quality of services provided and other tutoring websites
  • Savings opportunities, like bundles, annual billing, promo codes, and first-time customer discounts
  • Free trial availability, duration, and limitations
  • Refund availability and amount

Quality

This assessment criterion depends heavily on the services provided by the tutoring website. In our experience, they fall into one of three categories:

  • Live sessions with tutors (one-on-one or group video/audio calls)
  • Materials for studying at your own pace (online courses, pre-recorded video lessons, textbook answers, study buddy chatbots)
  • Forums or platforms where you can ask tutors questions

Of course, we can’t assess the quality of a live tutor session using the same indicators as we would for readily available study materials. Overall, if there is a tutor involved in any capacity, we evaluate their:

  • Communication skills. Does the tutor tailor their responses and teaching approach to our personal needs and preferences? Do they succeed at explaining challenging concepts in an easy-to-grasp way?
  • Subject matter expertise. Does the tutor possess the knowledge of their stated subject matter? Can they freely discuss the topic at hand?
  • Response time and quality. Did we get a response fast enough? Was it thorough and did it answer our question in detail?

If the platform provides study materials, we assess their quality by evaluating:

  • Accuracy. Needless to say, all materials have to be accurate and contain no punctuation, grammar, spelling, or factual mistakes.
  • Comprehensiveness. Available materials should cover any topic as in-depth as possible so that learners studying on their own can easily find all answers to their questions.
  • Comprehensibility. Materials should be put together in a way that’s easy to understand for learners of all levels.
  • Format diversity. Some learners prefer reading materials, while others find video lessons more efficient. A good tutoring platform should offer a mix of various formats to cater to learners with different needs.

Features

To rate the features of a given tutoring website, we assess the range of services it offers learners. Those can include:

  • Individual or group live sessions with tutors
  • Quizzes
  • Flashcards
  • Study-at-your-own-pace online courses
  • AI tutoring chatbots
  • Study groups
  • Bootcamps
  • Knowledge databases

Of course, the more diverse the features, the better. However, they also have to be worth the money to warrant a high score in this assessment criterion.

On top of that, we evaluate the range of covered subjects, from STEM to languages and arts. A wider range of subjects positively impacts the score.

Support

To evaluate the quality of customer support, we pay attention to:

  • Available support channels (phone, email, live chat, etc.)
  • Support availability (around the clock or during specific time windows)
  • Response time
  • Response quality: the response should be polite, error-free, and detailed enough to resolve our query
  • Available self-service options (FAQs, help centers, etc.)

Ease of Use

This criterion concerns the overall customer experience outside of the quality of live sessions with tutors or on-demand learning materials. To evaluate it, we take into account:

  • Ease of registration and third-party login availability
  • Available payment methods
  • Ease of cancellation if a subscription is involved
  • Intuitiveness of the order form if there is one
  • Mobile app availability on iOS and Android and website user experience on mobile devices
  • Bugs or errors spoiling the user experience
  • Ease of scheduling a call and communicating with the tutor (if applicable)

Reputation

Our search for user feedback starts at Trustpilot and Sitejabber; we also regularly check out other review platforms, mobile app reviews on AppStore and Google Play Store, if possible, and Reddit posts. Besides relying on those reviews to check for specific red flags, we rate the tutoring website using the average of all user ratings.

In Conclusion

While this is the standard breakdown of our reviewing process and scoring rules, sometimes, we have to tweak it a bit to match the offerings of a specific website.

For example, a tutoring website may essentially offer pre-recorded MOOCs to its users. So, we wouldn’t be able to test one-on-one lessons or custom answers to questions. Instead, we’d focus on thoroughly evaluating those online courses.

Our reviews are based on a combination of personal experience and customer feedback from independent sources.  Even when we’re presented with a somewhat unusual AI writing tool or tutoring website, we strive to walk a mile in the customer’s shoes – and give you a detailed account of our experience. We are committed to providing clear and balanced insights into the services we review. To achieve this, we carefully consider a range of perspectives, including including customer feedback from independent platforms.