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Our methodology
Our tech score is built from three parts, and each one carries a real weight. Cost counts for 40% of the total, and the offer a brand puts forward counts for 40%. Trust makes up the remaining 20%. Because cost and offer sit side by side at the same weight, a cheap price cannot rescue a weak deal, and a generous deal cannot hide an expensive one. Trust matters, but it is the smallest of the three shares, so it adjusts a ranking rather than deciding it on its own.
Think of it as paying for a service and reading what you actually receive. You are judging two commercial sides at once, then sanity-checking both against signals about who stands behind the product.
Every brand earns a full review and a profile from the same working method, so the pages stay comparable. We read official brand pages, regulator registers and other cited sources, and each fact on a page traces back to the one you see listed. Nothing here comes from guesswork or from a claim we took at face value.
One publishing rule shapes what you see first: partners are listed first in every ranking, then by score. Partner status changes position, never points. The score and the sourcing are what you can check, and the ordering is there so you know exactly how to read it.
This page explains how ShieldCue scores and ranks providers.
What we cover
This site compares VPN, antivirus, password managers, identity protection, background checks, privacy tools, secure email, data removal, encrypted storage, security keys, parental controls, home security.
What we score
Every provider is scored on a scale of 1 to 10 on the criteria below. The overall score is the weighted average of these criteria.
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Cost | 40% |
| Offer | 40% |
| Privacy | 20% |
How rankings are ordered
Rankings apply the following priorities in order; a later priority only breaks a tie in the earlier ones:
- Providers with a paid offer serving the current view come before those without one.
- Within each of those groups, providers available in your country come first, followed by those marked unavailable.
- Within each availability group, providers marked as lacking a required licence come after the others.
- Where these priorities tie, affiliate network links come before our own referral or direct partner links.
- Among network offers, an offer explicitly listing your country comes before a broad default offer. Within each of those groups, known expected commission per click comes before unknown values, and higher expected commission comes first. Ties are broken by commission terms (lifetime, revenue share, then per sale or lead) and then higher payout. For referral or direct partner offers, only explicitly listing your country breaks the commercial tie; their payout is not used as expected commission per click.
- Only after all the earlier priorities tie do rated providers come before those marked "not rated yet", followed by higher overall score.
When no country is selected, eligible active offers serving at least one country qualify for the paid group, including offers limited to particular countries. We use the highest recorded expected commission per click across an offer's base value and country values. When a country is selected, its value is used where recorded, otherwise the offer's base value applies.
A provider with a lower score can therefore appear above one with a higher score because of the earlier priorities. Featured cards and sponsor strips sit outside the ranking. A booked placement is labelled "Sponsored"; when none is booked, the featured card shows a partner picked by the commission it pays us, labelled "Featured".
Countries
Global rankings list every relevant provider. When a provider does not accept customers from your country, we mark it and point you to an alternative. Country pages list only providers available in that country.
Sources
Facts come from each provider's own website and documents, public registers, affiliate network listings and other published sources, including independent reviews. Each fact on a page shows its source link and the date we checked it. When a provider publishes no country list, its countries come from its affiliate programme listings, and the page says so. The editorial policy explains how facts are checked.
Keeping it current
Scores change when the facts behind them change. A ranking is published once at least five providers in it are scored, and a provider gets a review page once enough of its key facts are confirmed. Spot a mistake? Write to [email protected].
This page is written by the ShieldCue Editorial Team.