Our Editorial Process

Reviews and comparisons on TheSmartFares are researched and written by our editorial team, not generated on demand for a single query. This page explains how that research is done and what it does — and doesn't — include.

How we research a provider

For every review we start from each provider's own pricing pages, plan documentation and terms of service, since those are the source of truth for what a plan actually includes and what it renews at. We then cross-check that against publicly available information: independent user reviews, support-community threads, uptime/status pages and official changelogs, to catch gaps between marketing copy and what customers actually report.

We do not run our own hosting benchmarks or claim in-house lab testing unless a specific article says so explicitly. Where an article describes typical performance, feature behavior or support quality, it reflects this aggregated research rather than a first-hand test by our team — we'd rather be upfront about that than imply testing that didn't happen.

Keeping reviews current

Providers change pricing, plans and features often. When we become aware a review is out of date — through our own periodic re-checks or reader feedback — we update the article and its dates instead of leaving it stale. Coupon codes referenced in reviews follow the same verification process described in About Us.

How we make money

TheSmartFares may earn a commission when you sign up through a link on the site, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial team decides what to cover and how to rank options based on the research above — commercial relationships don't change what we write.

Spotted something outdated?

If a price, feature or claim in one of our reviews is out of date, please let us know and we'll correct it.