Skip to content
ProductArena

How Sift’s scores are calculated

The full audit trail, recomputed from the verdict data at build time through the same code that produced the leaderboard: verdict × quality × story weight per cell, cells sum to dimension scores, dimensions blend into the PA Score. Every number on the product page is reproducible from this page alone; for why the formula looks like this, see the methodology.

verdict factors: full ×1.0 · partial ×0.6 · disputed ×0.3 · none ×0.0 · n/a excluded from both sides · cell points = weight × quality × factor · cell max = weight × 10

PA Score9/100

Agent-ready 9.7 × 0.30 = 2.91

API quality 0.0 × 0.20 = 0.00

Openness 14.4 × 0.20 = 2.88

Built-in AI 5.3 × 0.15 = 0.79

Automation 16.2 × 0.15 = 2.43

(2.91 + 0.00 + 2.88 + 0.79 + 2.43) ÷ (0.30 + 0.20 + 0.20 + 0.15 + 0.15) = 9.02 ÷ 1.00 = 9.0

Scores are stored to 1 decimal; the product page’s pills round to whole numbers for display. Each dimension below shows the stories, verdicts, and cited evidence behind its number.

Agent-ready9.7/100×0.30 of the PA blend

Outside-in: can YOUR agent reach and drive this product — API, MCP, CLI, headless runs, agent docs.

Point an agent at llms.txt or agent-oriented docsweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Run the product headlessly / in CI for automationweight 2

2 (weight) × 4 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 4.8 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/events-api/overview“Sift easily integrates into your existing systems using modern REST APIs, Javascript snippet, and SDKs for iOS and Android.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/events-api/overview“What actions your users are taking, usually key user lifecycle events (e.g., creating an account, placing an order, posting content to other users, etc.). You will send this data from your application to Sift via our REST API.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/decisions-api/overview“What actions your business is taking in response to users (e.g., approve an order, block and event due to fraud, cancel order due to chargeback, etc). You will also send this data from your application to Sift via our Decisions API.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/tutorials“Because Sift gets smarter the more data it has about your business, you can jump start your integration by backfilling a few months worth of historical data.”

Plug MCP servers into this product so it can use their toolsweight 3

n/a — not applicable to this product: excluded from numerator and denominator

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Connect an agent via an official MCP serverweight 3

3 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 30 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/events-api/overview“Sift easily integrates into your existing systems using modern REST APIs, Javascript snippet, and SDKs for iOS and Android.”

Use an official CLIweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Drive the product through a documented public APIweight 3

3 (weight) × 6 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 10.8 of 30 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/events-api/overview“Sift easily integrates into your existing systems using modern REST APIs, Javascript snippet, and SDKs for iOS and Android.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/events-api/overview“What actions your users are taking, usually key user lifecycle events (e.g., creating an account, placing an order, posting content to other users, etc.). You will send this data from your application to Sift via our REST API.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/decisions-api/overview“What actions your business is taking in response to users (e.g., approve an order, block and event due to fraud, cancel order due to chargeback, etc). You will also send this data from your application to Sift via our Decisions API.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/score-api/overview“Sift represents this risk with a score between 0 and 100, where risky events have higher scores.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/tutorials“Workflows enable you to make risk-based decisions in real time during key events. Follow this guide to create your own custom Workflow.”
  • [community] https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/items/7744861“Early user feedback: 'I have been integrating it for a day or so. The documentation is slightly confusing and they've had a few minor bugs in their UI, but support has been really good thus far.'”

Issue scoped/least-privilege API credentials for an agentweight 2

n/a — not applicable to this product: excluded from numerator and denominator

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Build against official SDKsweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Subscribe to events via webhooksweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Agent-ready = 15.6 ÷ 160 × 100 = 9.7

API quality0.0/100×0.20 of the PA blend

The programmable surface once an agent is there — machine-readable spec, interactive docs, sandbox, versioning discipline.

Explore an interactive API reference with runnable examplesweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Download a machine-readable API spec (OpenAPI or equivalent)weight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/events-api/overview“Sift easily integrates into your existing systems using modern REST APIs, Javascript snippet, and SDKs for iOS and Android.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/events-api/overview“What actions your users are taking, usually key user lifecycle events (e.g., creating an account, placing an order, posting content to other users, etc.). You will send this data from your application to Sift via our REST API.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/decisions-api/overview“What actions your business is taking in response to users (e.g., approve an order, block and event due to fraud, cancel order due to chargeback, etc). You will also send this data from your application to Sift via our Decisions API.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/tutorials“Workflows enable you to make risk-based decisions in real time during key events. Follow this guide to create your own custom Workflow.”

Test against a sandbox environment without touching production dataweight 1

1 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 10 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Rely on versioned APIs with a documented deprecation policyweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

API quality = 0.0 ÷ 70 × 100 = 0.0

Openness14.4/100×0.20 of the PA blend

Can you leave, inspect, or self-host — data export, open source, portability.

Do everything through the API that I can do in the UIweight 2

2 (weight) × 6 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 7.2 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/events-api/overview“Sift easily integrates into your existing systems using modern REST APIs, Javascript snippet, and SDKs for iOS and Android.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/events-api/overview“What actions your users are taking, usually key user lifecycle events (e.g., creating an account, placing an order, posting content to other users, etc.). You will send this data from your application to Sift via our REST API.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/decisions-api/overview“What actions your business is taking in response to users (e.g., approve an order, block and event due to fraud, cancel order due to chargeback, etc). You will also send this data from your application to Sift via our Decisions API.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/score-api/overview“Sift represents this risk with a score between 0 and 100, where risky events have higher scores.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/tutorials“Workflows enable you to make risk-based decisions in real time during key events. Follow this guide to create your own custom Workflow.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/workflows-api/overview“Sift offers Workflows, a powerful rules automation platform, and Review Queues.”

Export all of my data in open formats and leaveweight 3

3 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 30 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Read the product's source under an open licenseweight 2

n/a — not applicable to this product: excluded from numerator and denominator

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Self-host the core productweight 3

n/a — not applicable to this product: excluded from numerator and denominator

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Openness = 7.2 ÷ 50 × 100 = 14.4

Built-in AI5.3/100×0.15 of the PA blend

Inside-out: how agentic the product itself is for its users — built-in assistants, autonomous features.

Get AI-generated insights and suggestions from my data inside the productweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/score-api/overview“Sift represents this risk with a score between 0 and 100, where risky events have higher scores.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/tutorials“Workflows enable you to make risk-based decisions in real time during key events. Follow this guide to create your own custom Workflow.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/workflows-api/overview“Sift offers Workflows, a powerful rules automation platform, and Review Queues.”

Set up automations that run autonomously in the backgroundweight 2

2 (weight) × 4 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 4.8 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/tutorials“Workflows enable you to make risk-based decisions in real time during key events. Follow this guide to create your own custom Workflow.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/workflows-api/overview“Sift offers Workflows, a powerful rules automation platform, and Review Queues.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/tutorials“Learn to set up custom Decisions, like Ban Account or Cancel Order, that are connected to real business actions in your backend.”

Delegate tasks to a built-in AI assistant inside the productweight 3

3 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 30 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Operate the product with natural-language commandsweight 2

2 (weight) × 0 (quality) × 0.0 (none) = 0.0 of 20 max

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Built-in AI = 4.8 ÷ 90 × 100 = 5.3

Automation16.2/100×0.15 of the PA blend

Depth of automation primitives — rules, scheduling, bulk operations, webhooks.

Perform bulk operations across many items at onceweight 2

2 (weight) × 3 (quality) × 0.6 (partial) = 3.6 of 20 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/tutorials“Because Sift gets smarter the more data it has about your business, you can jump start your integration by backfilling a few months worth of historical data.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/events-api/overview“What actions your users are taking, usually key user lifecycle events (e.g., creating an account, placing an order, posting content to other users, etc.). You will send this data from your application to Sift via our REST API.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/decisions-api/overview“What actions your business is taking in response to users (e.g., approve an order, block and event due to fraud, cancel order due to chargeback, etc). You will also send this data from your application to Sift via our Decisions API.”

Define rules that trigger actions automatically on eventsweight 3

3 (weight) × 5 (quality) × 0.3 (disputed) = 4.5 of 30 max

  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/tutorials“Workflows enable you to make risk-based decisions in real time during key events. Follow this guide to create your own custom Workflow.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/tutorials“Learn to set up custom Decisions, like Ban Account or Cancel Order, that are connected to real business actions in your backend.”
  • [claimed-docs] https://developers.sift.com/docs/curl/workflows-api/overview“Sift offers Workflows, a powerful rules automation platform, and Review Queues.”
  • [community] https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/items/7744861“CEO explains no-rules ML approach: 'we do not have any rules in our product... rules are rather easy for fraudsters to circumvent, and they require merchants to play whack-a-mole.'”

Schedule recurring jobs or workflowsweight 2

n/a — not applicable to this product: excluded from numerator and denominator

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Version, review, and roll back my automationsweight 1

n/a — not applicable to this product: excluded from numerator and denominator

no evidence cited — the verdict rests on absence of evidence, re-checked on refresh

Automation = 8.1 ÷ 50 × 100 = 16.2