Shop for a pergola and you will find ten "best pergola" lists that each crown a different winner, and hardly any of them tell you how they picked it. We do it differently.
What we do
We compare 38 louvered pergolas from 10 brands on numbers anyone can check: build, wind rating, how the louvers turn, what comes in the box, the written warranty, price per square foot of shade and the ratings of real buyers on Amazon.com. From those we work out a score from 0 to 10. The rules are all in How we score.
What we don't do
We have not put these pergolas up ourselves and we never claim to. You won't find lab tests, award badges or paid placements here. When a maker does not publish a figure, we write "not published" instead of guessing one.
How the site pays for itself
When you buy through one of our links, the retailer pays us a small commission. You pay the same price. The commission has no effect on the score or the order of the lists, because the code works those out from the data. Read more in our affiliate disclosure.
Spotted a mistake?
Makers change models and prices every spring. If you spot something wrong, send us a message through our contact form. We check the source and fix the entry.