⚡ Sudden cardiac arrest takes ~350,000 American lives each year — survival can exceed 70% when a shock is delivered within 3 minutes. Get CPR + AED trained →
Find My AED →
Home
›
About
📖 Who We Are · What We Do · Why It Matters

We test AEDs so you don't have to guess which one will save a life.

AED Best Brands is the independent editorial authority on automated external defibrillators. We test 23 FDA-cleared devices every year. We don’t take paid placements. We don’t write sponsored reviews. We tell you which AED is right for your school, your office, your gym — and which one isn’t.
Founded 2024 · Last updated 2026-06-14

Our mission

Sudden cardiac arrest kills ~350,000 Americans every year. Most of those deaths happen outside a hospital — in homes, offices, gyms, schools, churches, restaurants. Survival drops 7–10% for every minute that passes without defibrillation. If a shock is delivered within 3 minutes, survival can exceed 70%.

An AED in the right place at the right time is the single highest-impact piece of life-safety equipment most facilities will ever buy. But the AED market is confusing: six major manufacturers, 14+ device models, 58+ pad and battery SKUs, state laws that change yearly, distributor pricing that varies by 20%, and grey-market resellers selling devices that may not be FDA-cleared.

What we exist to do: help buyers — facility managers, school nurses, gym operators, business owners, parents — confidently choose the right AED for their environment, deploy it correctly, maintain it predictably, and train their team to use it. Without confusion, without manufacturer spin, and without paying us anything.

🔬

Devices tested

23 FDA-cleared

⏱️

Test cycle

6 months

👥

Reviewers

4-person panel

🏆

Award categories

12 winners

🚫

Paid placements

Zero

How we started

AED Best Brands was founded in 2024 by a team that had spent a decade in adjacent corners of the U.S. AED industry — emergency medicine, compliance research, fleet operations, and editorial publishing. The thread that pulled the founding team together was a shared frustration: every buyer they spoke to had the same questions, and nobody was answering them straight.

Facility managers wanted to know which AED their school district should buy — and got a 200-page state mandate PDF. Small-business owners wanted to know what an AED would cost over 5 years — and got a sticker price that was 70% of the real number. Parents wanted a home AED — and didn’t know that one model is FDA-cleared without a prescription.

So we built the site that answers those questions. The editorial voice, the test methodology, the Medical Advisory Board, and the award categories were all shaped around one principle: buyer-first, always. We are independent of every AED manufacturer. We answer to readers, not advertisers.

What we cover

AED Best Brands covers six major U.S. AED manufacturers and the 58+ products across their catalogs:
What we reviewWhat we don't
FDA 510(k)-cleared AED devices from authorized U.S. distributorsGrey-market imports, white-label clones, non-FDA-cleared devices
Replacement pads + batteries from manufacturer-authorized sourcesThird-party "compatible" consumables with no manufacturer endorsement
Training devices and curriculum from AHA-aligned programsOnline-only "AED training" without practical components
State AED mandate compliance and Good Samaritan lawInternational AED markets, EU CE-mark devices, non-U.S. regulations
OSHA workplace AED guidance and ADA accessibilityIndividual patient medical advice or prescription services
FDA recall status and MAUDE-database trackingManufacturer marketing claims unsubstantiated by clinical evidence

What makes us different

There are other AED review sites. Most are operated by distributors who, unsurprisingly, recommend the devices they sell. A few are operated by individual blogs without medical review. We hold ourselves to a higher standard — and we publish exactly what that standard is.

Five things that make us different:

  • Buyer-first, not manufacturer-paid. Our award winners are picked by our editorial team and Medical Advisory Board. No manufacturer pays for placement.
  • Editorial firewall. Reviewers have zero visibility into commercial relationships. We disclose this hard separation in our Editorial Policy.
  • Real test cycle. Every device on this site went through a 6-month test cycle — purchase, usability, stress, maintenance simulation, comparative scoring. Not a spec-sheet summary.
  • Medical Advisory Board review. Every editorial article is reviewed by named credentialed clinicians before publication. Meet the Board.
  • We say “no.” Critical reviews of devices we don’t recommend. Real warnings about wrong-pad SKUs. Honest cost-of-ownership math that includes the hidden 30% of the real cost.

The team

Our editorial team is small by design. We’d rather have four people who deeply know AEDs than 40 freelancers each writing one article. The names below are the people who actually decide what goes on this site.

AS

Ayaan Ahmed Shohan

Editor-in-Chief · Founder

Founded AED Best Brands in 2024 after 10+ years across medical-device editorial, compliance research, and life-safety publishing. Sets the editorial direction. Final sign-off on every award.

SR

Dr. Sarah Rodriguez

MAB Chair · Emergency Medicine

Board Chair of the Medical Advisory Board. 18 years EM attending. Reviews every device verdict and CPR walkthrough.

JM

James Morrison, NRP

EMS Reviewer

National Registry Paramedic + Flight Paramedic. Reviews pro-grade AED content (LIFEPAK 1000, ZOLL AED Pro).

PT

Dr. Priya Tanaka

Pediatric EM Reviewer

Pediatric emergency physician. Reviews all pediatric and K-12 deployment content.

Have a question for the editorial team?

Whether it’s a correction, a clarification, or just feedback — we read every message and respond within a few business days.
Get in touch →
Scroll to Top