Ethics Policy

Six rules

• 1
  The same method for every provider. We earn commissions on some links, and those relationships never change a score, a rank or a featured position. Position is determined entirely by weighted editorial score.
• 2
  Full affiliate disclosure. When a provider has a configured affiliate link — including a per-provider override while sitewide affiliateActive stays false — every page with those links carries a clear disclosure. Those outbound links use rel="sponsored nofollow noopener noreferrer". Affiliate relationships never affect our scoring or recommendations.
• 3
  Public data only. Scores are based on publicly verifiable information — provider documentation, published SLAs, independent benchmark reports. We do not claim to run first-person lab tests we haven't run.
• 4
  Weight version control. Scoring weights are versioned. Any change requires a new version number, a reason, and a dated entry in the version log below. This prevents retroactive score manipulation through silent weight changes.
• 5
  No fake urgency. We will never display countdown timers, "limited time" deal badges, or fabricated scarcity to manipulate purchasing decisions.
• 6
  No dark patterns. No pre-ticked boxes, no hidden upsells, no confusing opt-outs. We collect no personal data beyond what Netlify's infrastructure handles for page serving and Google Analytics 4 aggregate measurement with Google Consent Mode (analytics cookies only if you allow them).

Scoring weight version log

Every change to scoring weights is recorded here permanently.

Affiliate disclosure status

As of 2026-10-05: Kamatera, UpCloud, Hostwinds, DigitalOcean, and ScalaHosting are active partnered providers on bestvpsmatch.com. Visit buttons for Kamatera, UpCloud, Hostwinds, and DigitalOcean use /go/kamatera, /go/upcloud, /go/hostwinds, and /go/digitalocean with rel="sponsored nofollow noopener". ScalaHosting Visit buttons link directly to https://www.scalahosting.com/#a_aid=8udhxyw3p6as1 with the same rel. Every other provider links to its official homepage. Citation links stay on plain official pages, without the tracking fragment. VPSServer is an approved CloudWM program and is not one of the 16 scored providers, so it has no rank and no comparison-table row. Its tracked link is VPSServer. We earn a commission when you buy through some links on this site. Those partner Visit buttons show an Affiliate badge linking to this page. The sitewide affiliateActive flag in data/site-config.js remains false, and savings or deal badges stay off. Scoring weights are unchanged. Scores stay independent of these commercial relationships. ScalaHosting's factor scores were recalculated from public pages on 2026-10-16, which moved its rank and moved Hostwinds from rank 15 to rank 14.

Visit buttons for Kamatera, Hostwinds, UpCloud, and DigitalOcean use /go/kamatera, /go/hostwinds, /go/upcloud, and /go/digitalocean. Those paths are Netlify 302 redirects to the tracking URLs in site-config: CloudWM for Kamatera, aff=10522 for Hostwinds, the existing UpCloud promo signup URL, and the DigitalOcean Awin URL. ScalaHosting Visit buttons stay on https://www.scalahosting.com/#a_aid=8udhxyw3p6as1 because a Netlify 302 drops that fragment. Citation links are plain official pages. These Visit buttons use rel="sponsored nofollow noopener". DigitalOcean is an active partner. Scores, ranks, and verified dates are unchanged.

Visit Kamatera →Visit Hostwinds →Visit UpCloud →Visit DigitalOcean →Visit ScalaHosting →

Added 2026-10-15: DigitalOcean Visit CTAs use /go/digitalocean (rel="sponsored nofollow noopener") on the homepage and on pages where DigitalOcean is already a pick or comparison subject: /cheapest-vps-hosting, /best-vps-for-developers, /best-vps-for-docker-and-homelab, /do-you-need-root-access-for-ai-agents, /hetzner-vs-digitalocean, /digitalocean-vs-linode, /best-vps-for-ai-agents, /best-vps-for-game-servers, /best-vps-for-wordpress, and /best-vps-for-forex-trading. Kamatera Also scored cards (84/100, not a rank change) added the same day on /cheapest-vps-hosting, /best-vps-for-developers, /best-vps-for-docker-and-homelab, /do-you-need-root-access-for-ai-agents, /vultr-vs-hetzner, /hetzner-vs-digitalocean, and /digitalocean-vs-linode use /go/kamatera. Scores and rankings are unchanged by these additions.

last_updated: 2026-10-05

What we will never do

Regardless of future commercial relationships:

• Change a provider's score because they became an affiliate partner
• Remove a provider from rankings because they declined partnership
• Suppress negative findings to protect a commercial relationship
• Use first-person language implying tests we haven't run
• Display fabricated user reviews or testimonials