The short version
GoodFirms is a research-led marketplace with a documented ranking algorithm and paid placement sold alongside it. Agency Review Guide is an editorial directory with a published scoring methodology and no paid placement at all.
Both publish their methods, which puts GoodFirms in a smaller group of directories worth taking seriously. The real question for a buyer is where the money sits relative to the ranking, and how much of each profile you can trace back to a source.
What GoodFirms publishes about itself
GoodFirms is unusually open about how it works, and it is fair to say so.
Its about page states it was founded in 2015, that 14,000+ enterprise buyers use it to source partners for $10K-$1M+ engagements across 130 countries, and that it earns from sponsored placements and PRO Verified plans, "both clearly labeled on listings and profiles." The same page states the Leader Matrix and star ratings are "100% algorithmic."
Its research methodology page documents the Leaders Matrix algorithm as a two-axis scoring system plotting each firm on Core Competencies and a 360-Performance View, covering 80,000+ firms, at algorithm version v3.2. The Leaders Matrix itself is the top 20 performers in a category.
Listing is free. Its PRO page states every firm goes through the same four-step research verification, and that PRO "adds visibility, leads, and tools - never a higher rating."
Where the money sits
This is the part to read carefully before you trust a top-of-page result anywhere.
GoodFirms sells position directly. Its sponsors page offers "premium placement at the top of category pages, search results, and Top X lists," advertises live inventory of every position with roughly 15 slots per category page, and prices individual positions — the page shows, for example, a Software Development US position #2 at $799 per month. Its help centre lists two paid sponsorship tiers, a Start-up Plan and a Sponsored Plan, both including priority listing.
To be precise about what that does and does not mean, on GoodFirms' own account: sponsorship buys where an agency appears, not its star rating or Leaders Matrix score, and sponsored slots are labelled.
Agency Review Guide sells no placement of any kind, as our sponsorship policy states. There is no sponsored slot at the top of a category page, no paid position in a ranking, and no paid tier that changes what a profile looks like. Where an affiliation exists, it is labelled on the page it appears on.
Our own disclosure, since this is a comparison we wrote about ourselves: Agency Review Guide is published by the team behind The Branded Agency, which is listed here and scored under the same methodology as every other agency. That is disclosed on its profile. Read this piece with that in mind.
Two different kinds of ranking
Both sides score, but they score differently.
GoodFirms ranks algorithmically at scale — 80,000+ firms, updated on a documented schedule, with the score computed from category specialisation and performance signals including reviews. The strength is coverage and consistency. The weakness of any algorithm at that scale is that a signal can be gamed, and reviews are the usual pressure point.
Agency Review Guide scores a much smaller set editorially against a published 100-point methodology, and an editor writes out the evidence and the trade-offs for each ranked position. The strength is that you can read the reasoning for a placement. The weakness is coverage: we only rank what we can research and source.
| | GoodFirms | Agency Review Guide | | --- | --- | --- | | Model | Research-led marketplace | Editorial directory | | Ranking basis | Leaders Matrix algorithm, two axes | Published 100-point methodology, editor-scored | | Firms covered | 80,000+, per its methodology page | Researched set across eight markets | | Paid placement | Yes — labelled sponsored slots, priced per position | None | | Paid tier for agencies | Free listing plus PRO | No paid tier | | Effect of paying on rating | None, per GoodFirms | Not applicable | | Founded | 2015, per its about page | Not comparable — see disclosure above |
Reviews
GoodFirms' help centre describes a two-part review verification process, including identity verification using the reviewer's business email.
We hold reviews for moderation, ask for verification consent, and publish the reviewer's role and company without exposing their contact details. Ratings sit alongside the methodology score; they never replace it.
Which one to use
- **Use GoodFirms if** you want broad coverage across software, development and marketing categories, and you're willing to read past labelled sponsored slots to the algorithmic ranking underneath.
- **Use Agency Review Guide if** you want a shorter, sourced shortlist where no position was bought — the same comparison we ran for Sortlist and Clutch — and the reasoning for each placement is written out.
- **Use both if** you're briefing a real project: take the breadth from GoodFirms, then check the names you like against independent sourced research.
What we could not verify
GoodFirms does not publish a single fixed price list for sponsorship — position pricing varies by category, country and slot, and the figure above is one example shown on its sponsors page rather than a standard rate. It also does not publish the full formula weights behind every axis in a form we could independently check. Those are marked as not published rather than estimated, for the reasons set out in do agency profile listings boost SEO?. GoodFirms' buyer, country and firm counts are its own self-reported figures, reported here as its claims.