We use the service, then we grade it.
We don't aggregate anonymous reviews. We use the service and grade it — every claim below is checkable. Three axes, scored A to C, in a fixed order — Craft · Cost · Care. A grade of AAA means all three earned an A, and every letter comes with the condition that would move it.
How the Auteur Rating works →Craft
Does it actually do the core job?
The first way a service betrays a founder: the feature works in the screenshot and not in your account.
Cost
Is the money structure honest and predictable?
The second betrayal: the invoice is not the number you agreed to.
Care
Does it treat a small customer like a person?
The third betrayal: something breaks and nobody is there.
How this works: we only grade services on The Founder Stack that we have used first-hand, and we never grade our own. Where we have a commercial relationship it is disclosed on the review itself, next to the rubric that produced the grade. Grades are not for sale.