Methodology
How Afterstack scoring works — 0 to 100, never a payout
Afterstack quizzes are live for CRM, Support, Sales engagement, Recruiting, Marketing, and Knowledge. The number you see is a fit score, not a marketplace award and not a review-site import. Specialists never enter it.
What this page answers
This guide is the buyer-facing version of the methodology page. A published fit score is 0–100: the share of a perfect match on those answers. Hard filters run first. Survivors move on published 1–10 attributes, matching features, and the replacement bonus. 100 means every rewarded signal is maxed. The leader is not re-indexed to 100. Affiliate programs, claimed profiles, paid placement, and migration-difficulty labels are forbidden in that payload. We show five leads and three also-consider products. Ties break alphabetically. An empty result is a valid result.
The firewall
Affiliate programs exist so we can disclose commercial relationships and route `/go/[slug]`. They are not scoring inputs. Broaden Your Reach and paid placement cannot buy inclusion on quiz results. Field-level sourcing is on data provenance. The canonical rules live on methodology.
- Whether a product is in the catalog or on quiz results is editorial.
- The order of a scored shortlist is the fit weight sum. The published number divides that sum by the perfect-match ceiling for those answers.
- Migration Agent complexity and specialist matching use editorial stack tags, not payouts.
Hard filters, then soft scoring
Filters run first: free plan, self-host, email or voice when you require them, AI as a dealbreaker (typically a 7+ AI-native bar), and the tool you are replacing. The incumbent you mark is removed. Soft scoring then moves the number on published attributes such as ease of use, AI-native, implementation speed, and value.
A catalog can be live without a quiz. We only ship a quiz after a curated vendor floor. CRM, Support, Sales engagement, Recruiting, Marketing, and Knowledge have cleared that floor. Take a quiz from the hub.
Badges are labels, not awards
Product pages may show AI-Native, Migration-Ready, and Quiz Top Match. They are Afterstack-native methodology labels — not imported review-site badges. Details: methodology § Afterstack badges and AI-native vs AI-bolted.
Specialists sit outside the ranker
Services partners never enter `scoreCategory`. When to escalate covers stack matching. The specialist directory is complementary to software matching.
Questions teams actually ask
Why is a score of 100 rare?+–
100 is a perfect match for the answers: every rewarded attribute at the top of the scale, every matching feature, and the replacement bonus when you are leaving a tool. Catalog products land below that ceiling. The number is absolute for that quiz, not slid so the leader reads 100.
Do affiliates change Afterstack ranks?+–
No. The scorer serializes only fit fields and throws if an affiliate key or migrationDifficulty appears in that payload.
Do first-party reviews change ranks?+–
No. Reviews and product questions stay unpublished until editorial review. They do not move a quiz order.
Is Quiz Top Match a live result for my team?+–
No. It means a non-incumbent is the default #1 on a canned replace shortlist. Take the quiz for your constraints.
Keep going
Open the quiz hub- MethodologyVendor selection, quiz floors, badges
- Afterstack badgesAI-Native, Migration-Ready, Quiz Top Match
- Data provenanceWhat we refuse to import
- Quiz hubAll live scored quizzes
- Advertising disclosureSponsored links are not scoring inputs
- Vendor listing rulesWe do not sell a quiz rank
- AI-native vs AI-boltedThe crop competitors blur
Trust: How we rank · data provenance · disclosure
More Afterstack guides
Capped editorial set. We do not sprawl this into a cloned directory.
- CRMReplace Salesforce with an AI-native CRMHow Afterstack scores Salesforce alternatives: 0–100 against a perfect match, hard filters, no affiliate weight. Compare Attio vs Salesforce, then plan the cutover.
- Customer supportLeave Zendesk for AI agents — only if resolution is the jobWhen an AI support agent is the Zendesk leave path, and when you still need a desk. Sierra vs Zendesk, Ada vs Zendesk, scored alternatives, Migration Agent. Affiliates never rank.
- Sales engagementOutreach vs an AI SDR: sequencer seats or digital workersLeave Outreach for an AI SDR only if the pod is the job. 11x vs Outreach, Clay for research, scored sales-engagement alternatives. Affiliates never rank either side.
- RecruitingGreenhouse alternatives when recruiting needs an AI-era ATSAshby vs Greenhouse for the ATS leave path, Eightfold when matching is the job. Scored recruiting quiz, Migration Agent. Affiliates never rank. Ashby’s editorial AI-native is 7/10 — an honest label.