How we rank AI tools
Last updated:
Tiers on Siranq are opinions, written by people who use these tools. Here is what goes into them, so you can decide how much weight to give a placement.
What each tier means
- S: best in class right now. We would recommend it to most people in the category without caveats.
- A: excellent, with a clear trade-off such as price, lock-in or narrower scope.
- B: solid and worth a look for specific needs, but usually beaten by an S or A pick.
- C: works, but has a real drawback: thin free usage, recent changes that removed its main advantage, or less control than the alternatives.
- D: avoid for new work. Typically deprecated, in maintenance mode, or superseded.
What we look at
- Output quality on realistic tasks, not demos.
- Supervision needed: how often you have to step in and fix things.
- Price and free tier: what you actually get for $0, $10 to $30, and heavier plans.
- Momentum: active development, shipping cadence, and whether the vendor is investing in it.
- Lock-in and portability: open source, choice of model, exporting your work.
How we keep it current
We check every tool's name, status and starting price against the vendor's own site before each update and show the date at the top of every page. When a tool changes owner, name or pricing in a way that affects its value, it moves.
Independence
Sponsors can buy a featured slot. They cannot buy or influence a tier. We do not use affiliate links in the tier list.