Editorial policy
Independence
Expat Checked is independent research by Hiveminds. No provider pays to be included, to be ranked higher or to be described in a certain way. We do not use affiliate links and we earn nothing when you contact or hire a provider.
We do not contact providers while we research them, and we do not accept information sent to us as a substitute for a published source.
How rankings are made
Rankings come only from the scoring model in our methodology. The model reads the facts in our datasets and computes a total score for each provider. No one at Hiveminds can move a provider up or down by hand. A change in a ranking always follows from a change in a fact or in the published method.
When we change the method, we raise its version number and record the change in the version history on the methodology page.
Paid visibility in the future
Expat Checked carries no paid placements today. If we ever offer paid visibility, these rules apply:
- It is labelled as paid wherever it appears.
- It never changes a score, a ranking, a “Best for” label or the facts on a profile.
- It is never offered as a condition for inclusion or for a correction.
- We announce it on this page before it starts.
Conflicts of interest
We never list Hiveminds in a guide, and we do not cover categories in which Hiveminds itself offers services.
Before we publish a guide, we compare every candidate with the domains measured in Hiveminds Lens, the platform Hiveminds uses to measure visibility in AI assistants. If a provider in a guide has a relationship with Hiveminds, the guide says so in its disclosure. That provider is scored by the same rubric as everyone else.
We keep categories out of scope when a conflict cannot be handled with a disclosure.
Tone
We compare providers on published criteria. We describe what a provider publishes and what it does not, without judging its motives. “Does not publish prices” is a fact; we leave it at that.
Corrections
Anyone, including a provider, can ask for a correction at info@hiveminds.nl. We check the request against the source. If the source supports it, we correct the dataset and update the date on the guide. The procedure is described on the methodology page.