VPN Matrix

Verified

Prove identity, edit your own entry. Price and limits below.
You pay for the badge and editing rights. Not for sort position or editorial goodwill.

The rule set

Six rules that apply to every verified record. They are part of the contract and cannot be negotiated one by one.

  1. 1

    Proof of identity comes first

    A company account is only activated after proof: either a TXT record on the provider domain or a confirmation by mail from exactly that domain. No proof, no account. After that a person from the editorial team approves the assignment, because proof of domain control shows control over a domain, not membership of this record.

  2. 2

    What the service includes

    A badge on the record, display of the logo including the trademark clearance this requires, a direct line to the editorial team and the right to edit your own record. Nothing else is included, and nothing else can be added.

  3. 3

    Suggestions give way to objections

    On a verified record the company can make changes, nobody else. So that this is not a free pass, everyone else gets the objection with evidence instead of the suggestion: anyone who believes a value is wrong reports it with a source, and the editorial team checks. Without evidence an objection is not accepted.

  4. 4

    Changes go live and are checked afterwards

    A provider change appears immediately, is marked in the changelog as changed by the provider and automatically enters the editorial review list. If the value contradicts independent evidence, we set the data point to disputed and show both sources. This veto is part of the contract and cannot be opted out of.

  5. 5

    Verified influences nothing

    Sorting, filters, the default selection and the way values are displayed do not know about the flag. This is not a statement of intent but technically enforced: the filter and sort logic has no access to the column, and a test breaks the build as soon as anyone changes that.

  6. 6

    Once it expires, it is gone

    If it is not renewed, badge, logo display and editing rights disappear on the due date, and the account loses its company role. The data stays exactly as it is. After that the record is an ordinary record again, and anyone can submit suggestions for it.

How the proof works

Proof via DNS is the usual route. Anyone without access to the zone can instead write from an address on the official provider domain.

  1. 1.Submit a request: provider, contact address and domain.
  2. 2.We generate a token and send it to the address you gave.
  3. 3.Publish the token as a TXT record on the domain.
  4. 4.We check the record automatically. The editorial team then decides on approval.

The record looks like this

vpn-matrix-verify=<token>

The token is part of the request and belongs to this case only. The record can be removed once approval is granted.

Alternative without DNS: a confirmation from an address on the official provider domain, sent to the editorial team. Free mail services and agency addresses do not count.

Price and payment

€149 net per year

Payment on invoice by SEPA bank transfer.

There is no payment processor. An invoice and a bank transfer are enough, the payment runs through the bank and not through a third party with processing of its own. That does not hold for the operation of the site itself: it runs on Cloudflare, Inc. in the United States, disclosed on the transparency page.

Every booking appears with provider, amount and date on the transparency page.

To the transparency page

Submit a request

The request is non-binding. It creates a token, not an invoice.

Request a verified record

We then generate a token for the TXT record and send it to the address you give.

Ideally an address on the official provider domain. The token goes there.

The domain only, without protocol and without path. The proof is expected on it.

We store provider, contact address and domain. You do not need an account for this.

Contract and terms

Service, rule set, veto clause, term and cancellation are set out in the draft contract in the repository at docs/verified-terms.md. The draft has not been reviewed by a lawyer yet, and the open points are marked there.

A data processing agreement is not required: we do not process personal data on behalf of the provider, we run our own editorial publication.

Common questions

Can I pay to remove a value I do not like?
No. You can change any value for which you have a source, and you can attach a statement of reply to any value. You cannot delete anything, and the editorial team can set any value to disputed with independent evidence.
Will my record appear higher up if I pay?
No. There is no ordering by quality or by payment. Providers appear alphabetically, criteria in catalogue order.
What happens to my changes if I do not renew?
They stay. Changes to the data belong to the data set, not to the contract. Only badge, logo display and editing rights go away.
Why can I not simply book an advertisement?
Because we do not sell advertising. The only way to spend money on this site is the verified record, and it changes nothing about the presentation.