---
title: "Methodology — How VPSLedger Verifies VPS Prices"
description: "How VPSLedger collects, verifies and version-controls VPS plan data: official sources only, append-only price observations, unknown beats wrong."
canonical: https://vpsledger.com/methodology/
verified: 2026-09-10
format: text/markdown
html: https://vpsledger.com/methodology/
---

> Markdown alternate of <https://vpsledger.com/methodology/>. Generated at build time from the
> same dataset as the HTML page; prices verified 2026-09-10. Data is a build-time
> snapshot — no live API, no auth. Machine entry point: <https://vpsledger.com/ai/>.

# Methodology

## Sources: official only, for prices

Plan prices, specs and stock status are taken from official provider pages only. Each plan row records the exact `source_url` and the `checked_at` date. Third-party directories (e.g. FindHost, CC BY 4.0) are used only for provider-level metadata such as headquarters country, regions and official URLs — never for prices.

## Unknown beats wrong

When a third-party source conflicts with an official page (or the official page is unclear), the row is not published. Conflicting items go to a review queue and re-enter the dataset only after a fresh official-page check. Missing fields render as "Unknown" rather than guesses — never an empty cell and never a placeholder character.

## Prices are append-only observations

Every check appends a price observation (date, price, currency, billing period, source). Observations are never overwritten or deleted, so plan pages can show 30/90-day lows and medians once enough checks accumulate. A single observation is labelled "Current price" — no historical statistics are invented.

## Ranking rules are mechanical

Ordering uses explicit metrics: native price, monthly-equivalent price (for sorting across billing periods), RAM, vCPU, storage, price per GB of RAM and price per vCPU. Cross-currency comparisons use a fixed snapshot FX table and are marked as approximations. We do not accept payment for placement, and no provider is presented as "best".

## Build-time, versioned data

The entire dataset lives in the public GitHub repository as JSON, validated by a zod schema on every build. The site is fully static: if the build passes, the numbers you see are exactly the numbers in the repo at that commit.