Editorial Policy

Independence

Retarate is not monetized (see Affiliate Disclosure). No vendor pays for placement, for a better score, or for removal of unfavourable information. No vendor previewed or approved their review before publication.

Methodology comes first

Our scoring methodology (see How We Rate) is written and published before scores are calculated, and the same criteria and bands are applied identically to every vendor. Once frozen for an edition, weights and criteria are not adjusted to change a result. Any revision to the methodology gets a new version number and a visible changelog entry, and every vendor is re-scored under the new version.

Editor's Pick is a designation, not a guarantee

Where we designate an "Editor's Pick," that label reflects our published methodology and the publicly available evidence reviewed as of the stated date. It is an editorial judgment about relative transparency. It is not regulatory approval, medical advice, or a guarantee of product authenticity, purity or safety, and we say so on every page where the designation appears.

Evidence standards

We label every material claim with an evidence level: Verified, Partially verified, Vendor claim, Could not verify, or Not publicly disclosed. A vendor's own statement is never presented as an established fact. Absence of evidence is recorded as "no evidence found," not treated as proof of wrongdoing.

Scope limits

We do not attempt to verify product purity, authenticity, or clinical safety directly — we are not a laboratory and do not take physical possession of any vendor's product. Where a vendor publishes third-party testing documentation, we describe what is published and note whether it is independently checkable, not whether the underlying result is true.

Corrections and updates

Material factual errors are corrected promptly and logged on Research Updates. Vendor data is re-checked periodically; each page shows its last-verified date.