AI Tool Viability Scores
Before you build a workflow around an AI tool, it helps to know whether anyone is still looking after it. Every tool on RightAIChoice is scored 0–100 on how well maintained it is, how much real users discuss it, and whether its site is still live — measured on a rolling cycle, not self-reported by the vendor. It is not a prediction that a tool will shut down; it is a summary of what we can actually observe today.
How We Score
Each tool is evaluated across 5 signals. The weighted sum produces a single 0–100 score. Higher = more evidence that someone is actively maintaining it and people are using it.
What the vendor publishes
30%Five things a real product tends to have and an abandoned one does not: public documentation, a changelog, tutorials, integrations with other tools, and more than one pricing tier. Nobody maintains a changelog for a dead product. This is read from the vendor’s own site, so it cannot be gamed by us.
How much people discuss it
25%Real mention volume across Reddit, Hacker News, YouTube, Product Hunt, app stores, review sites and forums — 165,855 mentions in total. A tool nobody talks about anywhere is a risk regardless of how polished its homepage looks.
Is the site actually up
25%We probe every tool’s homepage on a rolling cycle. If it stops resolving, the score is capped — no combination of other signals can show a healthy badge for a product whose own website is gone. Only the homepage counts: a moved documentation page is not a dead company.
What users actually think
10%The share of real user comments that are positive, averaged across the sources we found them in. Shown separately on each tool page with the quotes behind it.
Recent verified activity
10%Product news and releases — counted only where we have confirmed the source URL genuinely exists. Unverified items are excluded entirely rather than trusted at a discount.
Score Scale
The vendor publishes real documentation and pricing, the site is live, and people are actively discussing it. About a third of the catalog.
The site is live, but we see thinner evidence — less published detail, or little discussion anywhere. Usable; worth a backup plan. The largest group, because for most tools this is genuinely all we can see.
Usually the tool’s own homepage no longer resolves when we probe it. Check before investing time — and tell us if we have it wrong.
Safest AI Tools
Most At-Risk AI Tools
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI tool viability score?▾
A viability score is a 0–100 rating of how well maintained and how widely used an AI tool is. It combines five signals: what the vendor publishes (30%), how much people discuss it (25%), whether the site is live (25%), what users think (10%), and recent verified activity (10%). It is not a prediction that a tool will or will not shut down.
Why do AI tools shut down?▾
Common industry causes include running out of funding, being a thin layer over another provider's model and getting undercut when that provider ships the feature natively, larger platforms absorbing the capability, and category oversaturation. Note that these are observed causes of shutdown across the market — they are NOT the signals our viability score measures. The score rates observable maintenance, traction and liveness; it does not attempt to predict shutdown, and we hold no funding or ownership data.
How often are viability scores updated?▾
Scores are recomputed three times nightly, oldest first, so every tool is re-scored every few days. There is no event-driven recalculation: a score changes when the underlying signals change — when a site stops resolving, when new mentions appear, or when the vendor publishes something new.
Build your AI stack with confidence
The Stack Planner recommends tools with strong viability scores so your workflow doesn't break when a tool disappears.
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