Comparison methodology
Aethyn publishes vendor comparison pages. We are not an independent review site. This page states how those rankings are scored, what we refuse to claim, and how corrections work.
What we score
Weights sum to 100. Every criterion must be checkable from a public page. Scores are the arithmetic of the published weights — not invented composites like “9.4/10”.
| Criterion | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing transparency | 20 | Per-GB or per-IP rate on a public page without a sales call |
| Entry commitment | 15 | Minimum spend or plan to get a working credential |
| Targeting granularity documented | 20 | Country / city / ISP / state / ZIP in the vendor’s own docs |
| Session control documented | 15 | Sticky support and a stated TTL range |
| Self-serve availability | 10 | Sign up, pay, and get credentials without sales |
| Trial or refund policy published | 10 | Published trial terms or refund policy |
| Protocol + integration surface | 10 | HTTP/SOCKS5 and documented SDK/API |
What we refuse to rank on
We do not rank on success rate, latency, or pool size, because we have not published a test that would let you check those numbers — and neither has anyone else in a typical vendor table. Vendor IP counts are attribution only (“X states N IPs”) and are not scored.
Competitor facts must be quoted from that provider’s own published pages, linked and dated. Aethyn numbers must be numbers we publish. We do not invent competitor prices as adjectives (“Budget”, “Mid”) while giving ourselves a hard number — either every price cell is a linked figure, or the price column is omitted.
Retrieval dates
Each comparison page records a retrieval date for competitor public pages (for example, “retrieved 2026-08-10”). Re-verify before you treat a cell as current — vendors change pricing and branding.
Corrections
Email factual corrections to support@aethyn.io. We verify, update the page, and append a dated changelog row on the article.
Related rankings
Criteria-based residential vendor comparison using this methodology.