How we review
No mystery maths and no scores for sale. Here is the whole method.
By The Ireland Flings editorial team · Last checked
Who does the work
Reviews are written and checked by The Ireland Flings editorial team. It's a collective name for the small team behind the site, not a made-up expert: we'd rather tell you that than invent a persona with a stock photo. The site is published by Pearl Digital LLC, a limited liability company registered in the State of Wyoming, USA.
What we actually check
For every brand we read its own public pages: the homepage, pricing or upgrade page where one is public, terms of use, and the help centre articles about subscriptions and cancelling. We also read Apple's and Google's official pages on cancelling in-app subscriptions. Every page we rely on is listed in the Sources box at the bottom of each review and cancellation guide, with the date we checked it.
We read the Irish version of each site and the Irish App Store listing wherever they exist, and we only publish a price when it is shown in euro on a public page. We don't copy prices or claims from other review websites. If a price isn't shown on a public page, we say “check the current price on their site” rather than guess. When a page blocks us, we say we couldn't verify it and link to it.
The transparency score
Each brand gets five sub-scores out of 10. Each sub-score is tied to one yes-or-no fact checked on the brand's official pages. The overall score is the plain arithmetic mean of the sub-scores we could confirm, rounded to one decimal place. If we couldn't confirm a fact, that sub-score shows as “not confirmed” and is left out of the average. With fewer than three confirmed facts, a brand is not scored at all.
| Sub-score | The fact we check | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price transparency | Are prices shown on a public page before you sign up? | 10 | 3 |
| Ease of cancelling | Do the official help pages let you stop the renewal yourself, online? | 10 | 3 |
| Who runs it | Do the terms name the company that operates the service? | 10 | 2 |
| Safety tools | Is there an official photo or selfie verification feature? | 10 | 5 |
| Access | Is there an official iOS or Android app? | 10 | 6 |
Example: a brand with “yes” for prices, cancelling, operator and app, and “not confirmed” for photo verification scores (10 + 10 + 10 + 10) / 4 = 10.0. A brand with “no” for prices and “yes” for the other four scores (3 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10) / 5 = 8.6.
What the score is not: a measure of how many people use a site, how likely you are to meet someone, or whether you'll enjoy it. Nobody can honestly put a number on that. It measures how straight a brand is with you about money, cancelling and who runs it. The written review covers the rest, including who should avoid it.
How lists are ordered
Every list and “top 3” on the site is sorted by transparency score, highest first. Ties keep the order in which the guide discusses them. Whether we earn a commission from a brand never changes its score, its position or what we write about it.
Adverts
Some links are adverts and are labelled “Ad” before you click. Details are on our advertising disclosure page.
Keeping it current
Each page shows the date its facts were last checked. When a brand changes its prices, terms or cancellation process and we notice, we update the page and the date. Spotted something out of date? Email us from the contact page.
What we never do
- Invent reviews, ratings, user numbers or “people online now” counters.
- List a singles event with a date we didn't read on the organiser's own page.
- Show profiles or photos of people as if they were members of a site.
- Sell a better score or a higher position.
- Hide that a link is an advert.