How MyPoolsGuide rates pool companies

Every company on MyPoolsGuide is rated independently. The Rating is produced by our own scoring system from a mix of public records, the company's own published information and customer reviews we collect and read ourselves, recalculated every month and reviewed by our quality team each year. No company writes its own Rating, and no company can pay for one.

Each listing shows one number, the Rating, plus at most one annual award and the License verified mark when the state record supports it. That is the whole of it. No paid placement sits inside a ranked list anywhere on this site.

What goes into a MyPoolsGuide Rating?

The Rating is a number out of 5 built from what customers report. We read every review of a company and record what it says about five things: whether the company shows up, keeps the water right, communicates, bills fairly and stands behind its work. Recent experience counts most, a long steady record counts for something, and a business in good standing counts too.

• Shows up. Visits kept, on time, week after week, without going quiet.
• Quality of work. Water clear and balanced, equipment handled properly, nothing left half done.
• Communication. Easy to reach, tells you what was done, answers the question you asked.
• Billing. Charges what was quoted, no surprises, nothing billed after you cancel.
• Stands behind the work. When something goes wrong, it comes back and makes it right.

A review that says nothing about one of these neither helps nor hurts on it. Replies written by the company are never scored. A company with a short record is held closer to the middle until it has earned more, and a company whose recent year is well below its past is rated on the recent year. How these are weighted, and the reading itself, are proprietary to MyPoolsGuide and are not published.

Can a company pay to rank higher?

No. Nothing about a company's Rating, its awards, its license mark or its position on any page is for sale, and it never has been. There is no arrangement under which a company can pay MyPoolsGuide for a better Rating or a higher place in a ranked list, and any featured listing the site ever shows will be labeled as one and sit apart from that list. A company that claims its listing gets to correct its own contact details and describe its services. It does not get to touch its Rating.

Companies are listed whether or not they know we exist. Most of the directory has never spoken to us. That is deliberate: a list that only contains companies who opted in is an advertising channel, not a rating.

What does Best in {City} mean?

Best in {City} is an annual award. Once a year we look at the twelve months of customer experience just ended and name the one company based in each city whose customers had the best year. It needs a full year of reviews, no serious complaint in that year, a business in good standing, and every winner is reviewed by our team before it is named. It is held for the year and carries the year in its name.

A company competes in the city it is based in, not every city it drives to. The award can sit above a company showing a higher Rating: the Rating is the long view, and the award is this year. A company in its first year can win it if it clears the bar. A business running genuinely separate branches is a separate listing per branch, and each branch competes in its own city.

What is Our Pick?

Our Pick is the company in each city we would call first. It is decided on the same twelve months of reviews as Best in the city, under the same conditions, but weighted toward what makes a pool company easy to live with: it shows up week after week, it stands behind its work, and it answers the phone. It always goes to a different company than Best in the city.

Our Pick is read from what customers write, not from star counts. The reading is proprietary and is not published.

Why does a listing say Newly listed?

Newly listed means the company does not yet have enough customer reviews for us to publish a Rating with any confidence. It is not a judgment on quality, and every company starts there. Newly listed companies sit together at the end of each city list and pick up a Rating automatically once they have enough reviews behind them. Neither award can go to a Newly listed company.

What does License verified mean?

License verified means the company matches an active Florida pool contractor license in the state's own records, which we check ourselves rather than take the company's word for. The license number, type, holder and expiry appear on the listing, and disciplinary history is checked and would be noted if found.

Routine cleaning and chemical service do not require a contractor license in Florida. Repairs, equipment replacement and resurfacing do. A company without the mark is not being called unlicensed: it means no active state record could be matched to it with confidence.

Where does the data come from?

From publicly available business records, the companies' own published information, official Florida state licensing data, and customer reviews that MyPoolsGuide collects and reads itself. Those inputs are combined by our own scoring system. The reviews we read, and the reading we do, are ours; the Rating exists because of that work rather than being a copy of a number published elsewhere.

A company is only listed once at least two independent sources confirm it actually services pools. Supply stores, pool builders that do not service pools, and solar, plumbing or air conditioning contractors carrying a secondary pool category are excluded. Each company is listed on one city page: the city it is based in. That is the listed city nearest its address, or the city its owner names once the listing is claimed, and it is the only city where the company can win an award. A city page shows the year's award winners first, then every rated company by Rating, and Newly listed companies up to 30 in all. Until a company claims its listing, MyPoolsGuide writes its About section from the data, never lifted from its marketing copy; once claimed, the company can replace it with its own words. The reviews shown on a listing are a few chosen because they describe the work, shown with their month and star count.

What can a company change about its listing?

A company that claims its listing can update its About section, logo, photos, services and specialties, its primary city and the other cities it serves, hours, phone number, website, email address and social links, and can answer up to six questions MyPoolsGuide writes. It can send its license number, which shows only after MyPoolsGuide checks it against the Florida state record. It can also ask to be removed from the directory. Every change is recorded. A company cannot change its Rating, either award, its license record, its review data or its position on a city page. Those come from the data, and they are recalculated whether the company likes the result or not.

Can a company display its award?

Yes. Best in {City} and Our Pick are dated awards, decided once a year and held for that year. A winner is free to show it on its own website and marketing. It cannot be bought, it cannot be requested, and the next year it has to be earned again. A company that disputes one can write to us: we re-check the record by hand, and the data decides.

A dated award reflects where a company stood in the year it was earned. It does not expire, and it does not carry forward.

How often are Ratings reviewed?

The Rating is recalculated every month from a fresh pull of the records, so it moves as reviews come in. The two awards in each city are decided once a year, reviewed by our team, and do not change in between. The current data was collected on November 1, 2026, and every listing shows the date it was last updated at the foot of the page.

Ready to compare companies? Start from your city page. Run one of them? Claim your listing.