Methodology
Every ranking on this site comes from one of two measurement programmes. Each ranking says which one it uses, when the measurements were taken, how the criteria are weighted, and what was not measured.
Audit of published claims
The audit measures what a panel says about itself, not what it delivers. Each criterion is a check that anyone can repeat in a few minutes from the panel's public pages, logged out and without an account. Every panel in an audit is checked on the same day, and each result is recorded as pass, fail or unverified.
The criteria are fixed before any panel is scored and are not changed afterwards. Each criterion carries a weight, the weights add up to 100, and both the weights and every panel's result on every criterion are published with the ranking.
Scoring
A panel's score is the sum of the weights of the criteria it passes. A fail or an unverified result adds nothing, so the highest possible score is 100.
Panels are ranked by score, highest first. When two panels have the same score, the one with fewer unverified results ranks higher. If they are still level, they are listed in alphabetical order of name. Every rank in an audit is computed this way, and the site does not build if a published rank differs from the computed one.
October 2026 audit criteria
These are the criteria for the October 2026 audit, fixed before any panel was scored. Results are published with the audit.
| Criterion | What we check | Pass when | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-consistency | Do the large numbers on the homepage agree with each other | No contradiction | 10 |
| Services aimed at third parties | Search the services list for report, negative, dislike, downvote | None found | 15 |
| Refill terms readable before ordering | Open any service: is a window, trigger and scope visible before payment | Window and trigger stated | 15 |
| Unverifiable superlatives | Count best, cheapest, #1, fastest, most trusted, guaranteed on the homepage, applied to itself | 5 or fewer | 10 |
| Homepage promise vs terms | Homepage says guaranteed or safe; terms say no guarantee or not responsible | No contradiction | 15 |
| Legal identity disclosed | Terms, privacy or footer name the legal entity and a jurisdiction or address | Both present | 10 |
| Refund conditions stated | Terms state when money is returned, not only no refunds | At least one concrete condition | 10 |
| Contact without an account | Email or form reachable logged out, with a stated response time | Channel and time stated | 10 |
| Domain age (RDAP) | RDAP query for registration date | 3 years or more | 5 |
Purchase test (planned)
The purchase test measures what panels actually deliver: real orders placed with each panel under the same conditions, with delivery and retention recorded at fixed checkpoints after each order. It is planned, and its results publish from November 2026. Until then, no ranking on this site uses delivery data.
What every ranking includes
- A named author with a profile page.
- The date of the last update, shown on the page.
- The method, stated in the first paragraph.
- The ranking as a table, before the rest of the text.
- The weight of every criterion.
- A measurement date for every figure.
- What was not measured, and any panel dropped from the test.
- Answers to the questions readers ask most.