How we rate
Every number on this site traces to a device database, a documented cost model, and documented weights. This page is the documentation.
The PetScore
PetScore is a 0–100 editorial score across five weighted axes, applied identically to all 14 devices in the database:
- Capability25%
- Does it actually do the job — cleaning, tracking, feeding, watching — and how well, relative to its category?
- Reliability of design20%
- Offline resilience weighs heavily: devices whose core function survives an app outage, a dead cloud service, or a Wi-Fi hiccup rate higher than cloud-dependent designs.
- Total-cost honesty20%
- How close the sticker is to the true cost. Required subscriptions, paywalled headline features, and proprietary consumables (lock-in) all cost points here — transparency earns them back.
- Pet-fit flexibility20%
- Multi-pet handling, size and species range, microchip-level access control, and how gracefully it adapts to real households.
- Value15%
- Capability per 3-year dollar — judged against the true cost of ownership, never the sticker.
The true-cost model
Every device carries the same three-line receipt, computed identically:
- Device — typical street price, not MSRP and not a flash-sale price.
- Subscription — the midpoint of the plan range (cheapest annual billing to priciest monthly billing) × 12 or 36 months. Devices with a required subscription wear the paw-red SUB REQUIRED badge; devices with no subscription at any tier wear the sage NO SUBSCRIPTION badge. Optional subscriptions are included in the receipt when the paywalled features are the product's main pitch, and flagged as optional.
- Consumables — typical monthly spend on litter, liners, filters, batteries, mats. Proprietary consumables you cannot substitute are flagged as lock-in, because a refill with one vendor behaves like a subscription.
Year-1 total = device + 12 × (subscription midpoint + consumables). 3-year total = device + 36 × the same. Three years is our standard window because it approximates a realistic service life for app-connected hardware.
Where the numbers come from
Manufacturer published pricing, plan pages, and refill listings, checked against major-retailer street prices. Prices are typical street-price bands, not live quotes — they will drift with sales, and we correct them when they drift materially. Spot a stale number? Tell us — a correction recomputes every receipt, ranking, and verdict automatically.
Commissions and the firewall
PetTechVerdict earns affiliate commissions — including from Amazon — when you buy through our links. Scores and receipts are computed from the database before any link is attached; no brand sees, sponsors, or edits a rating. A device that requires a subscription keeps its SUB REQUIRED badge no matter how well its links convert.
Corrections
Pricing and spec corrections get priority over everything else — the database is the product. Contact us.