How We Review Products
Every time we rank products on Dadzilluh, we use a system we call Dad Math. It's not fancy. It's not secret. It's a scoring system that weighs the things dads actually care about so rankings reflect real decisions, not ad budgets.
The four factors
Every product gets scored on four things. The weight of each factor changes depending on the category — a life insurance policy cares more about value; a diaper bag cares more about ease of use. But these four always show up:
How fast can you set it up? How much ongoing effort does it take? We're dads. We have maybe 20 minutes of free time. If it takes a weekend to figure out, it loses points.
What does it cost? What's the value? Is the cheaper option just as good? We always check whether the premium version is worth it or if the budget pick does the job.
Could you set this up at 10pm after the kids are down? Does it work without reading a manual? If the learning curve is steep, that's a problem.
The gut check. If my friend asked "what do you use for X?" would I actually say this product? If not, it doesn't make the list.
How scores work
Each product gets a score out of 10. The weights shift by category. A life insurance review might weight "saves money" at 40%. A baby carrier might weight "ease of use" at 40%. We show you the exact weights on every roundup page so you can see our logic.
The product with the highest total score gets the top spot. Simple.
About affiliate links
Some of the links on Dadzilluh are affiliate links. If you click one and buy something, we might earn a small commission. It costs you nothing extra.
Here's the important part: affiliate commissions never affect rankings. We score products using Dad Math first. Then we check if the brand has an affiliate program. If they do, great. If they don't, the product still keeps its rank.
We'd rather recommend the right thing for free than the wrong thing for a commission. Trust is the only thing a site like this has.
How we research
For every roundup, we do three things:
Use it ourselves. If we can buy it, we buy it. If we can sign up for a free trial, we do. First-person experience always comes first.
Check the data. We look at third-party sources: manufacturer specs for gear, independent testing, app store ratings for software, and industry data for financial products. When we cite a fact, we link to the source.
Read what other dads say. Reddit threads, Amazon reviews, parenting forums. Real users catch things professional reviewers miss. We pay attention to the one-star reviews, too.
AI disclosure
We use AI tools (including Claude and ChatGPT) as research and writing assistants. AI helps us draft, organize, and build faster. But every fact is verified against the original source. Every recommendation comes from real experience and research. AI helps us work faster; it doesn't decide what we publish or what we recommend.
We're not perfect. If we get something wrong, tell us: marc@dadzilluh.com