Editorial Methodology

This page explains how we research equipment financing companies, what goes into our ratings, and where our numbers come from. If you have a question about a specific review, email support@equiprates.com and we will explain our reasoning.

How we pick which lenders to review

We focus on equipment financing companies that actively serve US small businesses, fund deals between roughly $5,000 and $5 million, and either lend directly or operate as a known broker network. We deliberately skip merchant cash advance companies that market themselves as equipment lenders, since the products are not comparable.

We also avoid covering lenders we cannot get useful information on. If a company will not publish basic terms, has no customer reviews, and has no third-party data available, there is not much we can honestly say about them.

What goes into a review

Every lender review covers the same core areas so they can be compared side by side:

• Loan range and equipment types. Minimum and maximum loan size, and which equipment categories the lender funds.
• Credit requirements. Minimum credit score and the credit profile their underwriting actually targets.
• Time in business and revenue requirements. What the lender expects before they will look at the application.
• Approval speed and process. Realistic timelines from application to funding, not marketing claims.
• Rates and fees. Published rate ranges when available, or estimated ranges based on customer reports.
• Repayment terms. Available term lengths, payment frequency, and prepayment treatment.
• Documentation. What paperwork applicants need to provide.
• Pros, cons, and best-fit borrowers. Honest tradeoffs and who the lender actually works well for.

The 5-point rating

Each lender gets a rating out of 5, broken down into five categories that we weight equally:

A 4.5 from us does not mean a lender is great for everyone. It usually means they are strong for a specific borrower profile. The "Best for" and "Consider alternatives if" sections of each review do more of the work than the headline rating.

Where our numbers come from

We try to be specific about sources. Most of the data on the site comes from:

• Lender websites, application portals, and public rate sheets.
• Better Business Bureau (BBB) records and complaint patterns.
• Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) industry reports.
• Federal Reserve and SBA published rate data.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) for industry and location pages.
• Borrower reviews aggregated from Trustpilot, Google, and industry forums.

When a lender does not publish rates, we estimate ranges based on customer-reported terms and similar lenders in the same space. We mark those ranges as estimates.

How often we update

Lender reviews are revisited at least every six months and any time we notice a material change, like a new rate sheet, a credit minimum change, or a new product. The "Last updated" date at the top of each review reflects the most recent revision. Location pages get refreshed when state programs, lender lists, or major economic data change.

Affiliate disclosure

Some lenders we review pay us a referral fee if a reader applies through our link and gets funded. We disclose those relationships with a "Partner" tag on the lender and in our About page. Affiliate status does not affect ratings or rankings. A lender that does not pay us a referral fee can still rank higher than one that does, and that has happened in our current rankings.

Corrections

If we get a fact wrong, we fix it and note the correction at the bottom of the affected page when the change is material. Email support@equiprates.com with the issue and we will get back to you.