About this directory
What this site is
Actually Good Tools is a directory of software tools ranked by one thing you can check for yourself: the security headers each tool’s website sends. Anyone with a free account can submit a tool (the account requirement keeps spam bots out). Once it is listed we scan its website, grade the result, and that grade decides its place.
How the ranking works
Every listed tool’s website is scanned for nine security headers, each worth a set number of points out of 100. Higher scores rank higher; ties are listed alphabetically. Every tool is scanned again every week, so a vendor who fixes their headers moves up without asking anyone. The full rubric, what each missing header exposes, and how buyers use this in an RFP are on Security & RFPs.
The ranking used to be community upvotes. Hardly anyone voted, so a ranking built on them said very little. Votes already cast are kept, as the privacy policy explains, but they no longer affect anything.
The weekly rundown
Once a week we email a rundown of the ranking: the top ten by security grade, the tools whose grades changed since the last one, tools added that week, and any new comparison pages. It is generated from the same numbers you can see on this site. There is no editorial thumb on the scale, and no sponsor can buy a mention in it.
When you confirm, we send you the rundown as it stands that day as your first issue rather than making you wait for the next Monday; after that it is once a week like everyone else.
You only get it if you asked for it: with the email form on the home page, or the box on the submission form (that one emails you a confirmation link first). There is no box ticked in advance anywhere on this site. Every issue carries a one-click unsubscribe, and you can unsubscribe here at any time. What we hold and how to get rid of it is set out in the privacy policy; you can download or delete your data yourself, without emailing anybody.
Moderation
Submissions are reviewed only to remove spam. Anyone can post any website; nothing about a listing is bought. The security scan is the only thing that moves a tool up or down.
Affiliate links
Some outbound links on this site are affiliate links: if you sign up through one, we may earn a commission from that company at no cost to you. Every one of them is labelled affiliate link on the tool’s page, right next to the link, and the link text is always the tool’s real domain so you can see where you are going before you click.
An affiliate link never buys placement. It is attached to a tool that was submitted and reviewed like any other, and it changes nothing about how the tool is ordered: the ranking is the security scan and nothing else. If a tool with an affiliate link is above one without, it is because its website sends more of the headers we check.
We do not accept payment to add a tool, to keep one listed, or to mention one in the weekly rundown. If a listing were ever sponsored it would carry its own sponsored label, and that would not move it either.
Comparison pages
The comparison pages are AI-assisted: generated from each tool’s listing data and its security-header scan. We have not hands-on tested the tools, and every comparison page says so on the page itself.
What the grade covers
The grade is a single, narrow, automated signal: which of nine security headers a tool’s website sends. It says nothing about the product’s overall security, how it stores your data, or how well each header is configured. The full explanation is here.
Ownership
Actually Good Tools is owned and operated by DevOpser LLC (devopser.io).