How Veritaset ranks

Method 0.2.2 · applies to the website, the API and the MCP connector

A ranking people and AI assistants can check: the same public rules for every brand, applied to sourced facts, with nothing for sale.

Design principles

The code is the method

The rules on this page are the code that ranks every page, API answer and connector reply. Nothing runs that is not published: no hidden weights, no manual overrides.

Same rules for every brand

Money never enters the ranking: no fees, commissions or paid placement, and no brand is treated differently.

Total cost for your use

We rank on what a plan really costs you over a year, including promos, fees and your trips, not on the headline price.

Facts, not guesses

Every fact links to its source and check date. What an operator doesn't state is marked unknown; what we compute from law is labelled computed.

Reproducible

Same need, same dataset version, same method version: same result, every time. Anyone can rerun it from the open data.

Honest about gaps

We say which brands and facts are missing, and why, instead of implying we cover the whole market.

How a ranking is computed

Filter

Keep only plans that meet every need: data, minutes, SMS, eSIM or 5G, contract, prepaid, budget and eligibility. Unknown counts as not met.

Monthly cost

Average the price over 12 months: promo months at the promo price, the rest at the regular price, plus one-off fees.

Travel cost

Add each trip: free inside the EU up to the plan's EU allowance, then the surcharge; outside the EU the cheapest operator pass or travel eSIM.

Order

Cheapest effective monthly cost first. Ties: more data, then fewer caveats, then name. Every result lists why it fits.

effective €/month = (promo price × promo months + regular price × remaining months + one-off fees) ÷ 12 + yearly travel cost ÷ 12 EU allowance not stated by the operator = 2 × monthly price excl. VAT ÷ €1.10 per GB (EU Roaming Regulation, 2026 rate, capped at the domestic bundle)

Worked example

Someone needs 20 GB and 100 minutes a month, spends two weeks in France and one week in the US each year, using about 1 GB a day abroad. Of 142 plans, 59 meet the need. The top three:

#	Plan · source	Price/month	Trips (per year)	Effective €/month
1	Digi Mobiel 30 GB checked 2026-10-12	€5.00	FR: roam like at home (stated EU allowance 30 GB) · €0.00 US: Ubigi United States 10 GB / 30 days · €14.00	€6.17
2	Digi Mobiel 40 GB checked 2026-10-12	€7.00	FR: roam like at home (stated EU allowance 40 GB) · €0.00 US: Ubigi United States 10 GB / 30 days · €14.00	€8.17
3	Yoin 30 GB checked 2026-10-12	€10.00 promo €7.00	FR: roam like at home (stated EU allowance 15 GB) · €0.00 US: Ubigi United States 10 GB / 30 days · €14.00	€8.17

Computed live from dataset 0.2.0 with method 0.2.2. Ask the connector the same question and you get the same answer.

What never enters the ranking

Payments of any kind: commissions, referral fees, advertising, sponsorship.
Popularity, clicks or what other people chose.
Brand size or reputation.
Facts we could not source: they are marked unknown and count as not met.

What we learned from others

UK energy comparison (Ofgem Confidence Code). Accredited comparison sites must be independent of suppliers, give impartial results and meet standards of accuracy and reliability, and show all tariffs unless the user chooses fewer. We hold ourselves to the same bar and publish what we don't cover. Ofgem

EU criteria for independent telecom comparison tools (EECC Art. 103). Operational independence, objective criteria, accurate data with the time of last update, a broad range of offers and a way to report errors. Every one of these is built into how Veritaset works. EECC Art. 103

Twitter's open-sourced algorithm (2023). It showed the risk of publishing part of a ranking: without the weights and production code, nobody could verify it. Our ranking has no hidden weights: the published rules and open data are the whole of it. TechCrunch

Changes

Every change to the rules gets a new method version, is listed in the changelog, and is announced before it takes effect. Spot a flaw? Tell us.

Full rules as plain text (method 0.2.2)

Veritaset ranking method v0.2.2 1. Which plans are considered. Every consumer SIM-only and prepaid mobile plan sold in the market that is currently available (to anyone or to new customers). Discontinued plans, handset bundles, business plans, multi-line discounts, pay-per-use tariffs without a bundle and credit top-ups are excluded: the last two have no fixed monthly price to compare. 2. Hard filters. A plan fits only if it meets every stated need: monthly data, national minutes and SMS (unlimited meets any amount; an unknown allowance meets none; ad-supported free data counts at its stated maximum and is labelled), eSIM and 5G when required (unknown counts as no), contract and prepaid tolerance (a 1-month initial term that can be cancelled monthly is not a commitment), budget, and eligibility (a bundle-only price counts only if the person has that bundle; an age-limited plan only if their age qualifies). 3. Cost over the horizon: 12 months, or the minimum contract length if that is longer (a 24-month contract is averaged over 24 months, so a promo for the first 12 months counts for half). (promo price x promo months + regular price x remaining months + one-off fees) / horizon + yearly travel cost / 12. A promo without a stated duration is assumed to last the horizon, and this is flagged. A promo whose take-by date has passed is ignored and the regular price is used. A lower price that only some customers get (with a bundle, below an age, with number porting) is recorded but not used, unless the person qualifies through the eligibility rules in step 2. 4. Travel cost per trip (each trip counted once a year, data use spread evenly over its days): a. EU/EEA, and the UK or Switzerland when the plan includes them: no base cost. Data used in a month beyond the plan's EU allowance is charged at the operator's stated surcharge, or at the regulated maximum (EUR 1.10 per GB excl. VAT in 2026, EUR 1.00 from 1 January 2027) when none is stated. b. The EU allowance is the operator's stated figure, never more than the domestic bundle. When the operator does not state one, the regulatory minimum from the EU Roaming Regulation is used: 2 x monthly price excl. VAT / that wholesale cap, never more than the domestic bundle. Such figures are always labelled "computed", never shown as the operator's own. c. Outside the EU: free if the plan includes the country. Otherwise the cheapest of (i) the operator's own roaming passes for that plan, honouring per-day pricing, maximum paid days per month and monthly caps, and (ii) any travel eSIM in the dataset covering the country (usable with any plan), repeated as often as needed to cover both the days and the data (one package type at a time; mixing sizes can be slightly cheaper). Free data (included allowances, ad-supported plans) cannot be bought in bulk: it covers a trip only if its daily or monthly cap is enough. If nothing covers the country, EUR 5 per GB is assumed and shown as an estimate. d. If travel is not stated, the result lists it under missing_inputs instead of guessing. 5. Order. Cheapest effective monthly cost first. Ties: more data, then fewer caveats, then brand name. 6. Freshness. Every fact carries the URL it was checked at and the date. Facts checked more than 14 days ago are flagged as stale. 7. Independence. No operator can pay for placement. Veritaset has no commercial relationship with any operator; if that ever changes it will be disclosed on every page, and such data will never be an input to ranking. 8. Determinism. The same need, dataset version and method version always give the same result. 9. Overview tables. Each country's "cheapest" table shows, per row, the first result of this method for the need below, and nothing else: no row is placed by hand. - "Data only, no calls needed (1 GB+)": at least 1 GB, no minutes needed, no travel. - "5 GB+": at least 5 GB, at least 100 national minutes, no travel. - "20 GB+": at least 20 GB, at least 100 national minutes, no travel. - "50 GB+": at least 50 GB, at least 100 national minutes, no travel. - "100 GB+": at least 100 GB, at least 100 national minutes, no travel. - "Unlimited data": unlimited data, at least 100 national minutes, no travel. 10. Conflicting sources. When an operator's own sources disagree and the conflict cannot be settled from its contract summary or price list, the plan keeps the most specific value and is labelled "sources disagree".