Most buying advice is written by people who never used the thing.

Before the Cart looks at one product at a time. What it actually does, who it is for, who it is not for, and what it costs once the introductory price ends. When the answer is that you should keep your money, we say that.

There is a moment, right before you buy, when you stop reading the sales page and start looking for someone who will just tell you. That moment is the entire reason this site exists.

How we review

We start from the claim, not the sales page Every product is sold on a promise. We write the promise down in plain words first, then work out whether the product delivers it. A sales page tells you what the seller wants you to feel. The claim is what can actually be checked.
We say who it is not for Almost every honest review has a group of people who should not buy. A review that recommends a product to everybody is not a review, it is an advertisement with paragraphs.
We publish the real price The introductory price, what it renews at, what the upsells are, and what happens if you cancel. Most disappointment with a purchase is not about quality. It is about a price nobody mentioned until month two.
We link to the source of every number If we say something is faster, cheaper or more effective, the number comes with a link to where it came from. If we could not verify it, we say that instead of rounding it up.
We update and we retract Products change, companies change, and sometimes we are wrong. When that happens the page gets changed with a dated note explaining what changed, not quietly edited.

What we will not do

These are firm. They cost us money and they are the reason this site is worth reading.

No health claims, ours or theirs. We do not cover products sold as treating, curing or preventing a human medical condition, and we never repeat a health claim as if it were established. Where we look at a supplement, we examine the claim rather than pass it on, and we say plainly when there is nothing behind it.
No medical advice. We are not doctors and not vets. When a decision belongs to a professional, we say so and send you to one rather than filling the gap ourselves.
No before and after. No transformation photos, no results you should expect, no testimonials presented as typical.
No invented urgency. No countdown that resets, no last chance that comes back next week, no stock number we cannot verify.
No review of something we cannot examine. If we could not get access to the product or verify it properly, there is no review. An opinion assembled from other people's reviews is not a review.
No paid placement. Commission never buys a position, a score or a kind word. Where two products both work, we say so, even when one pays more.

How this is paid for

Through affiliate commissions, disclosed at the top of every page and again next to every link. When you buy through a link here, the seller pays us a share of the sale and you pay the same price you would have paid anyway.

That model has an obvious conflict built into it, and pretending otherwise would be insulting. The rules above exist to hold the line: we do not review categories we consider harmful, we do not rank by commission, and we tell you when not to buy. If a review here never told you to keep your money, you would be right to stop trusting it.

Reviews

Reviews are published as they are finished, one at a time. We would rather have four pages worth reading than forty assembled from press releases, so this list grows slowly on purpose.

Dog probiotics: how to read the label before you buy

What CFU counts actually mean, why the dose is by your dog's weight, and how the main options differ. The guide we wanted and could not find. Read it

PawBiotix: what we could and could not verify

A dog probiotic sold on the promise of five extra years. We looked at what is behind that number, what the six bottle package actually costs, and who should skip it entirely. Read it