LexicostEverything this site says about a vendor comes from that vendor's own public pages. We save the exact words, the page, the plan they apply to and the date we read them. Click any vendor figure on the site and you see all four.
Where facts come from
We read the vendor's pricing page, its documentation, its terms and its changelog in a real browser, including the parts behind plan switches and "show more" links. A price on a blog, a review site, a competitor's page or another price tracker is not a source here, however often it is repeated.
Each fact is then read a second time by a second reader that has not seen the first answer. A fact shows "confirmed by a second reader" only after both agree with the page.
What "Not publicly listed" means
It means we read the vendor's pricing, documentation and terms pages and did not find it. It does not mean the vendor lacks the feature or charges nothing. We only write that a vendor does not offer something when the vendor says so itself, and then we quote it.
When a vendor's own pages disagree
It happens often: a pricing page shows three plans and the billing documentation still lists a fourth. We do not choose. Both statements are kept with their sources and the cell says the vendor's pages disagree. Ask the vendor which one applies before you rely on either.
Prices carry their conditions
A price without its plan, region and billing period is not much use, so we do not store one. If a rate applies only on an annual plan, or only above a spend the vendor does not publish, the cell says that.
How long a fact stays good
Prices and billing rules are read again within 45 days, features and limits within 90, definitions and legal references within 180. A fact past its date is struck through until it has been read again. If a vendor announces a change, we read the page again at once.
What the "published" figure is
For each vendor we count how many of the comparison's facts it states on its own pages. It measures how much a buyer can learn before a sales call. It says nothing about how good the product is.
What we do not do
We do not test products, so we cannot tell you which voice sounds best or which agent handles a difficult caller. Where a page recommends vendors for a kind of buyer, it checks published facts against a stated list of requirements, shows each check, and lists the vendors it could not confirm separately from the ones that fail a requirement. Nothing is scored or ranked.
We do not give legal advice. Pages about calling rules state what the regulator's own text says, with the date, and stop there.
The calculators
Every calculator uses rates a vendor publishes, shows the formula, and lets you change every assumption. Where a vendor does not publish a rate the calculator needs, it asks you for the number and says the vendor does not publish it. The arithmetic is covered by automated tests, and the worked example on each page is one of those tests.
How a page is made
A page goes through five separate steps. Facts are gathered from the vendor's pages. They are read a second time without sight of the first answer. The page is written from those facts only. It is edited. Then every source is opened again and each sentence is checked against it before the page is kept. The date on a page is the day of that last check.
Who pays for it
Lexicost has no commercial relationship with any vendor named on this site. If that changes, this paragraph and every page that names the vendor will say so, and no figure, order or match on the site will change for it.
Mistakes
When something we published turns out to have been wrong, and not merely out of date, the page carries a dated correction and it is listed on the corrections page. Vendors and readers can report an error there.