HostList Showcase
How Showcase judges sites
Methodology version 1.0. Every published entry cites this page, and every number below is the same constant the scoring code runs on.
The 60/40 split
A Showcase score is out of 100: 60 points come from an independent jury, 40 from machine measurement of the live site. The measured 40 is the structural difference from jury-aesthetic awards; two of the seven award types (Performance Distinction and Accessibility Distinction) exist only because of it.
| Component | Weight | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Visual design | 20 | Jury |
| User experience | 15 | Jury |
| Content | 10 | Jury |
| Originality | 10 | Jury |
| Responsive | 5 | Jury |
| Jury subtotal | 60 | |
| Performance | 15 | Measured |
| Accessibility | 10 | Measured |
| SEO | 10 | Measured |
| Best practices | 5 | Measured |
| Evidence subtotal | 40 |
The jury
At least 5 independent jurors score every judged entry, each across the five criteria above. With seven or more submitted scores, the highest and lowest juror totals are excluded before averaging, so one outlier cannot carry or sink an entry. Jurors confirm independence on appointment, disclose conflicts, and an assignment with a conflict is excluded from scoring entirely.
The measured 40
Performance, accessibility, SEO and best-practices scores are Lighthouse category results for the submitted live URL, run through the PageSpeed Insights API on mobile. Multiple runs are taken and the median per category is used, so a single noisy run cannot decide the outcome. Evidence screenshots are captured by HostList at a fixed viewport of 1440x864 at 2x; submitter-supplied imagery is never used as evidence.
Selection
Selection requires a total score of at least 70, a jury score of at least 36 of 60, and a measured accessibility score of at least 70. An inaccessible site cannot be selected regardless of how it looks.
Submitters may hold up to 3 active entries per cycle, each in a different industry. Entries need the consent of every named party (client, agency) before review begins, and rights to the work must be confirmed by the party that holds them.
Awards, locking and revocation
Seven award types exist: Selected, Monthly Finalist, Site of the Month, People's Choice, Performance Distinction, Accessibility Distinction and Site of the Year. Results are locked before awards publish, and locking is one-way. A published award can be revoked with a recorded reason; revocations stay visible in the audit trail rather than quietly disappearing.
Paid influence is structurally zero: sponsorship buys no points, no selection and no award. Where a commercial relationship exists between HostList and any credited party, it is disclosed on the entry itself.
People's Choice integrity
When public voting is enabled for a cycle, each vote requires email verification through a single-use link, one vote counts per verified identity per cycle, and ballot bursts from a single device fingerprint are flagged for review. Flagged votes are never silently dropped; invalidation is an explicit, logged decision, and suspicious spikes pause the award until reviewed.
Selected work is published at hostlist.io/showcase. The methodology version appears on every entry, and material changes to this document ship as a new version, never as silent edits.