Awards & judging criteria
How the jury decides.
Every site — submitted, nominated or discovered — is judged the same way, against the criteria on this page. Nothing here is a black box: the weights, thresholds and score bands below are exactly the ones applied.
The awards
Site of the Day
The single best new website of the day. One per day, every day.
8.0+ overall
Winner
Every site scoring 8.0 or higher overall joins the winners' archive.
8.0+ overall
Honorable Mention
Submitted sites scoring 7.0–7.9: strong work that narrowly missed the bar.
7.0 – 7.9 overall
Winners get a permanent page with the jury's review, an embeddable badge, a link back to their site and a place in the category, style and technology collections.
Four criteria, weighted.
35%
Design
Visual craft — typography, layout, colour, imagery, hierarchy and polish.
- Typography with character and rhythm
- Composition, grid and whitespace
- Colour and imagery used with intent
- Consistency and finish down to the details
25%
Innovation
Originality — a distinctive idea, art direction, interaction or use of technology. Polished templates score low here.
- A distinctive concept or art direction
- Interaction that serves the idea
- Storytelling and pacing
- Technology used in service of the work, not for its own sake
20%
Usability
Clarity of purpose and navigation, readable content, responsive layout and performance signals.
- Purpose understood within seconds
- Clear navigation and content hierarchy
- Readable, responsive layouts
- Fast first response and sensible page weight
20%
Accessibility
Semantic structure, text alternatives, legible contrast, declared language and respect for motion preferences.
- Declared language and mobile viewport
- Text alternatives for images
- Semantic headings and landmarks
- Legible contrast and respect for reduced motion
What the numbers mean.
Scores are calibrated against these bands, so an 8 means the same thing on Monday as it does on Friday. Most well-made websites land between 5.5 and 7.0.
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 9.5 – 10 | Landmark work that will influence the industry. Almost never awarded. |
| 9.0 – 9.4 | Exceptional — a memorable idea executed flawlessly. |
| 8.0 – 8.9 | Award-worthy — distinctive and highly crafted, with only minor flaws. |
| 7.0 – 7.9 | Strong and professional, but conventional or let down by notable flaws. |
| 5.0 – 6.9 | Competent but generic or template-driven. |
| 0 – 4.9 | Weak, broken or unfinished. |
The process.
№ 01
Discovery & submissions
Sites arrive from creators, nominations and design-gallery feeds we monitor.
№ 02
Automated checks
We load the live page and reject parked domains, placeholders and pages that aren't standalone websites.
№ 03
Technical audit
We measure the HTML: language, viewport, headings, landmarks, alt text, labels, metadata, response time and technology.
№ 04
Visual review
We capture a screenshot. The jury judges design and innovation from what it can actually see.
№ 05
Scoring
Each criterion is scored 0–10. Accessibility is anchored to the measured audit. The overall score is the weighted sum — calculated, not guessed.
№ 06
Publishing
Winners are published at a steady pace (3 per day). The first each day is Site of the Day; extra winners are scheduled for the next free day.
Fair play.
- Results can't be bought. When reviews become paid, payment buys a review — never a score or an award.
- Don't talk to the judge. Pages containing text aimed at AI reviewers, or asking for a score, are disqualified.
- Live, public and finished. We don't review placeholders, login walls, parked domains or listings on other platforms.
- Content policy. No adult, gambling, hateful, deceptive or harmful content.
- Winners stay honest. We re-check every winner daily. Sites that go offline or are parked are removed from the archive.
Questions
Who — or what — is the jury?
Reviews are performed by an AI jury: a vision-capable model that reads the criteria on this page, looks at a screenshot of the site and a technical audit of its HTML, then writes scores and a critique. The award itself is decided in code from those scores, using the thresholds published here.
Can a site win more than once?
No — a site wins once, and winners can't be resubmitted. Sites that weren't selected can be resubmitted after the cooldown period.
Why didn't my site get a screenshot-based review?
Occasionally a screenshot can't be captured (heavy bot protection, very slow pages). The jury then judges the HTML alone and can award at most an Honorable Mention.
Will submissions stay free?
Reviews are free during launch. As the awards grow they'll move to a paid model — and paying will buy a review, never a result.
Ready? Submit your site — free during launch.
Submissions open · Free during launch
Built something exceptional?
Put it in front of the jury. Every submission gets scored on design, innovation, usability and accessibility — with specific notes you can act on.
- ✓ Jury review in about 60 seconds
- ✓ Winners get a page, an embeddable badge and a backlink
- ✓ Not selected? You still keep the detailed review