Our methodology

How we test and score supplements

The Test Bench exists to answer one question honestly: is this supplement worth your money? This page explains who we are, how we run a review, and how we keep our verdicts independent from the affiliate links that fund the site.

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Who we are

The Test Bench is an independent review publication operated by Halden Park Media, LLC, based in Spokane, Washington and online since 2018. We are not owned by, partnered with, or paid by any supplement manufacturer to write favorable reviews. Our small team has one job: buy products at retail, put them through a consistent routine, and write up the result in plain language.

Reviews are led by Priya Raman, MS, RDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist who oversees our scoring and checks every health-related claim before it goes live. Where a review includes hands-on testing notes, those notes come from a member of our team using the product as directed. We are clear about the limits of that: one person’s experience is a single data point, which is why we pair it with a much larger pool of user reviews.

How we research a product

Every review starts with the source. We read the official product label and website for the ingredient list, directions, pricing, guarantee and manufacturer details, and we take those facts as they are published rather than guessing. When a formula is a proprietary blend, as Ignitra is, we say so plainly and do not invent milligram amounts that the brand has not disclosed.

We then gather user feedback from public sources, look for patterns in what buyers consistently say, both good and bad, and summarize it. The percentages and themes you see in our reviews are an editorial estimate compiled from that feedback. They are meant to give you an honest community picture, not a laboratory measurement, and we present them that way.

The eight things we score

Each product is rated out of 5 on eight criteria, which combine into the headline bench score. We weight real-world experience (effectiveness, tolerability and value) more heavily than presentation.

1. Effectiveness - does it do what it claims, based on testing and user reports?
2. Energy & focus - the most commonly reported day-to-day effect.
3. Digestive comfort - how the gut tolerates it, especially early on.
4. Tolerability - freedom from jitters, crashes and side effects.
5. Ease of use - dosing, capsule size and how easy it is to stick with.
6. Value for money - cost per serving against what you get.
7. Label transparency - are amounts disclosed? Proprietary blends lose points here, every time.
8. Guarantee & refund experience - how long and how genuine the money-back policy is.

We deliberately keep label transparency in the mix even though it lowers scores for blended formulas. A product can work well and still be marked down for not telling you how much of each ingredient you are getting, and we think you deserve to see that tension rather than have it smoothed over.

Our testing period

For supplements that are meant to build up over time, we test for a minimum of six to eight weeks, because anything shorter cannot fairly judge a product that the maker says takes months to work. We follow the label dose exactly and avoid deliberately changing diet or exercise during the window, so the notes reflect the supplement itself as closely as a single-person trial can.

Editorial independence and how we are funded

The Test Bench is reader-supported through affiliate links. When you click a link to a manufacturer’s official site and buy, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That is the entire business model, and we are upfront about it because hiding it would undermine the point of an honest review.

Crucially, commissions do not buy a better score. We rate proprietary blends down, we publish critical user reviews next to the glowing ones, and we will tell you when a product is overpriced or oversold even though we earn more when you buy. If a product is not worth it, the most useful thing we can do is say so. For the full legal detail, see our affiliate disclosure.