This page explains where our numbers come from and how the rankings and ratings on GroupBuyReview are decided.
1. Prices are checked by hand
For every provider we read the public price of each tool and plan on the provider’s own website, note the currency (₹ or $), the billing period and the product page, and record the date we checked. If a provider shows two different prices for the same plan, we leave it out until we can confirm which one applies at checkout.
2. Prices are normalised before sorting
Providers bill per day, week, 28 days, month, year or “lifetime”. To compare like with like we convert each price to a monthly US dollar figure: daily × 30, weekly × 52 ÷ 12, every 28 days × 365 ÷ 28 ÷ 12, yearly and lifetime ÷ 12, and rupees at a fixed rate shown under each table. The table still shows the provider’s own price and period; the conversion is only used to order the rows.
3. Tables are ranked by our combined score
Every comparison table lists one row per provider (its cheapest plan for that tool), ranked by the combined score below, best first; on a tie the cheaper provider goes first. The cheapest provider is always labelled “Cheapest”, wherever it ranks. Affiliate commissions and paid listings never change the score or the order.
4. How the combined score out of 10 works
Every provider gets a score from 1 to 10, worked out from facts we can check and recalculated daily and whenever prices change:
| Part | Points | How it is scored |
|---|---|---|
| Price | 0–3 | Where the provider sits, on average, in each tool’s cheapest-first list (cheapest = 3). |
| Uptime | 0–2 | Whether the provider’s website answers, checked by us every 10 minutes over the last 30 days: 99.5% or more = 2, 99% = 1.5, 97% = 1, 95% = 0.5, less = 0. Until we have 3 days of checks, every provider gets a neutral 1. |
| Age | 0–2 | How long the provider’s domain has been registered (from the domain registry): 5 years or more = 2, 3 years = 1.5, 1 year = 1, under a year or unknown = 0.5. |
| Refunds | 0–1 | A written refund window = 1; conditional or partial refunds = 0.5; not stated = 0.25; “no refunds” = 0. |
| Payments | 0–1 | PayPal or card payments (buyer protection) +0.5; local methods such as UPI or wallets +0.25; three or more methods +0.25. |
| Transparency | 0–1 | Public contact details +0.35; a refund-policy page +0.3; five or more tools priced +0.35. |
Uptime measures the provider’s own website, not the shared tool account behind it. When our editor has used a provider and rated it by hand, that rating replaces the calculated one. We do not publish speed or access figures we have not measured; where something was not tested, we say so.
5. What a group buy is, and the risks
A group buy shares one paid tool account among many users. It is much cheaper, but it breaks most vendors’ terms of service, features are usually limited, accounts can be suspended, and other users may see what you do. Every comparison page explains these trade-offs next to the prices, together with the official price and cheaper legal options.
6. Corrections
Prices change often. If you see a wrong price or policy, tell us on the Contact page and we will re-check it.