How the Deal Meter works

The Deal Meter is our score for today’s price, from 0 to 100. It starts from the store’s own discount, and then our own record of the price decides how high it can go.

The labels

• Decent Deal — 30 and up. Under 30, a product comes off our list; its price record is kept.
• Solid Deal — 70 and up, and only with a real cut in our own record (below).
• Scorching Deal — 90 and up.
• Perfect Deal — 100, and nothing else.
• No cut yet — the label a Decent score carries while today’s price is not at a cut in our own record (a new low, or our low again), whether the price has never been cut or has gone back up since. A score that would be Solid or higher without one is held at the top of Decent.

Where the score starts

Every listing starts from its discount — the store’s figure, as the badge on the card prints it — placed among the other listings of the same kind that we track: a discount in the middle of its kind starts at 50, the deepest of its kind at 80, the shallowest at 20. AliExpress listings are compared with AliExpress listings, the brand stores’ own catalogues with their own, and listings on Amazon with listings on Amazon; a kind with too few listings of its own is placed among all the listings of its class. For a few kinds we set the usual discount, or a shift in points, by hand (AliExpress 3D printing gear: 10 points down; AliExpress 3D printers: a usual 64% off, 10 points down; the brand stores’ 3D printers: a usual 15% off, 5 points up; AliExpress baby gear: 10 points down; AliExpress batteries & BMS: 10 points down; AliExpress soldering & bench tools: 10 points down; AliExpress bikes & scooters: 10 points down; AliExpress building sets & models: 10 points down; AliExpress cameras: 10 points down; AliExpress camping & hiking: 10 points down; AliExpress car care: 10 points down; AliExpress car diagnostic & repair tools: 10 points down; AliExpress car parts & accessories: 10 points down; AliExpress car stereos & CarPlay: 10 points down; AliExpress chargers & power banks: 10 points down; AliExpress cleaning Appliances: 10 points down; AliExpress costumes & dress-up: 10 points down; AliExpress heat press & cutting: 10 points down; AliExpress craft tools: 10 points down; AliExpress E-readers: 10 points down; AliExpress fitness gear: 10 points down; AliExpress furniture: 10 points down; AliExpress retro handhelds: 10 points down; AliExpress headphones: 10 points down; AliExpress amps & DACs: 10 points down; AliExpress home Appliances: 10 points down; AliExpress home decor: 10 points down; AliExpress home security: 10 points down; AliExpress hubs & docks: 10 points down; AliExpress keyboards & mice: 10 points down; AliExpress kitchen Appliances: 10 points down; AliExpress laptop & phone stands: 10 points down; AliExpress laptops: 10 points down; AliExpress laser engravers: 10 points down; AliExpress lights & lanterns: 10 points down; AliExpress luggage & bags: 10 points down; AliExpress measuring tools: 10 points down; AliExpress monitors & displays: 10 points down; AliExpress motorcycle gear: 10 points down; AliExpress routers & networking: 10 points down; AliExpress office machines: 10 points down; AliExpress scopes & optics: 10 points down; AliExpress pet supplies: 10 points down; AliExpress phone cases: 10 points down; AliExpress power stations & solar: 10 points down; AliExpress power tools: 10 points down; AliExpress projectors: 10 points down; AliExpress RC cars & planes: 10 points down; AliExpress SBC & maker kits: 10 points down; AliExpress shoes: 10 points down; AliExpress bluetooth speakers: 10 points down; AliExpress home Audio & Video: 10 points down; AliExpress tablets: 10 points down; AliExpress toys & games: 10 points down; AliExpress watches: 10 points down; AliExpress pool & water sports: 10 points down; AliExpress wigs & hair: 10 points down), and the score starts from there.

What our price record adds

• Up to 20 points for how far today’s price is under the highest price we have recorded for the same listing — for a brand store’s own catalogue or a listing on Amazon, only the part of that drop beyond its own discount, which the start already counts. A move under 3% is treated as noise, such as the exchange rate, not as a price change, and adds nothing.
• 10 points while today’s price is a new low that a real cut reached in the last 5 days.
• 15 points when the same product costs more at another store or seller, and at least 70 in all once our record also shows a cut.

What takes points away

• 10 points when the same discount has stood for 30 days: by then the “was” price is a label, and the sale price is simply the price.
• 10 points when the seller’s rating is under 90%.

What the score cannot claim without our record

Solid and above need a real cut in our own record of the price — a new low, or our low again. Without one, the score stops at the top of Decent and the label says “No cut yet”. Scorching and Perfect also need at least 5 price checks and a drop in our record: a store’s discount alone never gets there.

The “% off” is the store’s; the line beside it is ours

The small pink “35% OFF” tag on a photo is the store’s figure, measured against its own “was” price, which we may never have seen charged. The line beside it — “No price cut since Sep 28”, “Cut 9% on Oct 22”, “7% above our low since Oct 21” — is our own record, and “Lowest we have seen” over a score means today’s price is the lowest in it. Each deal’s page shows that record in full.

What never goes into it

What a store pays us. Commission is not an input to the score, nor to the order of any list on the site, whatever it is sorted by. The votes under the meter do not move the score you see either: we use them to check the meter and to find deals that have ended.

The numbers on this page are the ones the meter runs on today.