Editorial Policy

matched.ie exists to help people in Ireland choose better — starting with VPNs, and expanding into broadband, mobile and energy. This policy sets out the standards every piece of content on the site is held to: how we pick what to cover, how we research and test it, who is accountable for each verdict, and where our information comes from. It’s the same standard whether a page earns us a commission or not.

Our independence

Our reviews, ratings and rankings are our own editorial opinion, reached independently of any commercial relationship. A provider cannot pay for a higher ranking, a better score, inclusion in a “best of” list, or a softer verdict. We regularly rank products that earn us nothing above products that do, and we recommend against providers we don’t rate — because the ranking follows the evidence, not the revenue.

The site is funded by affiliate commissions, and we’re upfront about that: the detail is in our affiliate disclosure. That funding keeps the site free to use; it never buys a place in our results.

What we review & rank

We choose what to cover based on what Irish readers are actually trying to decide — not on who has an affiliate programme. For each category we aim to include the providers a reasonable person would shortlist, plus the notable challengers and the ones worth warning about.

• Inclusion is editorial: a product doesn’t need a commercial relationship with us to be reviewed or ranked, and having one doesn’t earn it a place.
• Rankings are built for a specific need (“best for streaming”, “best for privacy”, “best value”), so the same providers can legitimately place differently on different pages.
• Where a product isn’t right for most people, we say so clearly rather than quietly leaving it off.

How we test and score

Every verdict is produced to a published, repeatable method — the full detail lives in how we test. In short, we score each provider across consistent dimensions (for VPNs: speed, streaming access, privacy and logging, ease of use, server network, support and value), weight them for the use case, and let that drive the score and ranking.

We’re honest about the basis for every claim. Where a result comes from our own hands-on use, we say so. Where a figure comes from the provider, an independent security audit, or published third-party testing, we attribute it. We do not invent testing hours, fake a lab, or present desk research as first-hand testing — being straight about how we know something is part of the review, not a footnote.

Named experts & fact-checking

There are no anonymous verdicts on matched.ie. Each category is owned by a named specialist who is accountable for its reviews and rankings — you can see who covers what, and their background, on our team page. Every review is checked by the matched.ie editorial team for accuracy, fairness and consistency with our method before it goes live.

Author biographies reflect real, verifiable experience. We don’t inflate credentials or claim endorsements we don’t have.

Sources, accuracy & updates

We put real effort into being accurate, but this is a fast-moving space — prices, plans, features and policies change often. To keep content trustworthy:

• Product facts — pricing, features, ratings — come from a single maintained source of truth per category, so the same figure appears consistently everywhere on the site.
• Each page shows an “Updated” date that reflects its last substantive review, and we revisit rankings as the market moves.
• The provider’s own website is always the final word on current price and terms — we tell readers to confirm there before they buy, because there can be a short lag before we catch a change.

How affiliate links work

Some outbound links to providers are affiliate links: if you subscribe after clicking one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This is how a free, independent site pays for the testing and research behind it.

Corrections & feedback

We’d rather fix a mistake than defend one. If you spot an error — an out-of-date price, a feature we’ve got wrong, a claim that no longer holds — please tell us through our contact page. We verify reports and correct substantive errors promptly, and the page’s update date reflects the change. Reader feedback genuinely shapes what we test and cover next.

Our use of AI

Our judgement, testing and rankings are made by people, not generated by a model. We may use software tools to help with research, drafting or checking, but a named specialist is responsible for every verdict, and everything is reviewed by the editorial team before publication. We don’t publish AI-generated reviews as if they were tested by a human.