How ranking works.
Trustgent ranks providers on earned verification level, record count, and recency — and nothing else. Paying changes nothing. This page proves it, with a live calculation from the same ranking function the index uses.
Every other directory in this market sells the top of the list — sponsorships, paid tiers, pay-to-play placement. Trustgent does not, and cannot. Ranking is earned, never sold. The ranking function reads exactly three signals, and the plan a provider pays for is not one of them. It is not a tunable weight; it is not an input at all.
Three earned signals. Frozen.
The list of signals ranking may read is a frozen enumeration, asserted on every change in continuous integration. Adding to it is a public, reviewed amendment — never an operational decision.
Verification level
The earned position on the L0–L5 spectrum. It dominates: a higher level always outranks a lower one, whatever the record count. Earned through evidence, never bought.
Record count
How many active, verified records a provider has — weighted by their level, and bounded so volume can never cross a level boundary.
Recency
How recently the provider was last verified. Fresher evidence ranks higher; it decays on a fixed half-life. Bounded, so it can never outweigh level.
- The plan a provider pays for
- Any subscription, fee, or spend
- Featured or sponsored placement
- Lead purchases or credits
- Reputation, deal volume, or revenue
A free, outcome-verified provider outranks a paid, unverified one.
Below are two providers scored by the exact function the index uses. One is on the free plan with a single outcome-verified (L5) record. The other pays for the top plan and has fifty listed records — but only a claimed (L1) listing. The scores are computed at page render; the inputs are fixed so you can reproduce them.
1 outcome-verified record. Pays Trustgent nothing.
Ranks first.
50 listed records, claimed only. Pays for the top plan.
Ranks below — by 3,955,000 points.
Why it can never be close: verification level contributes 5×1,000,000 = 5,000,000 for the L5 provider versus 1,000,000 for the L1. That ~4,000,000-point gap is structural — record count and recency are both bounded below a million, so no amount of volume, recency, or spend can lift a lower level past a higher one. And the plan was never on the scoreboard to begin with.
Not a promise. A guarantee.
“We don’t sell ranking” is what a directory says. Here is why it is true on Trustgent regardless of who says it:
- The plan is unreachable.A provider’s plan tier physically lives on a separate billing record. The ranking function is not given it and cannot read it — there is no parameter to pass.
- The signal set is frozen. Ranking may read only
{verification_level, record_count, recency}. That enumeration is checked on every change. - The firewall is tested continuously.A shadow-ranking test recomputes every provider’s rank with and without every commercial signal — plan, spend, reputation, deal volume — and fails the build if any of them moves a single score.
- Change requires an amendment. Widening what ranking can read is an out-of-band, publicly-reviewed change to the constitution — never an operational or commercial decision.
Tools and reach — never position.
Paid plans unlock software and channel access: rating-invites at scale, analytics, a branded profile, the embeddable badge, and the qualified-lead feed. They make a verified provider more effective. They do not, and structurally cannot, move a provider up the list.
Common questions about ranking.
Can a provider pay to rank higher on Trustgent?
No. Ranking reads only earned verification level, record count, and recency. Plan tier, fees, and spend are not parameters of the ranking function at all — it is impossible to pay for a higher position. A free-plan, outcome-verified (L5) provider always outranks a paid-plan, claimed-only (L1) provider.
Does Featured or sponsored placement change the ranked list?
No. Trustgent has no paid placement inside the ranked index. If a labelled ad unit ever exists, it is clearly marked, never interleaved into the ranked results, and excluded from the data answer engines and journalists cite. The ranked list is earned output only.
Then what do paid plans buy?
Tools and channel access — a rating-invite flow at scale, analytics, a branded profile, the embeddable badge, and the qualified-lead feed. Plans buy software and reach. They never buy verification level, ranking, or match-eligibility.
How do we know the firewall actually holds?
It is enforced in code, not policy. The ranking function can read only a frozen set of three signals; plan tier physically lives on a separate record the function cannot reach. A continuous-integration test recomputes every provider's rank with and without every commercial signal and fails the build if the result ever changes. Widening what ranking may read requires an out-of-band, publicly-reviewed amendment — never an operational decision.
Browse the index. The order is earned.
Every provider is placed by the same function shown above — the one no amount of spend can bend.