Pricing transparency
Can a buyer understand initial, renewal and add-on costs without archaeology?
The score is a structured warning system, not a halo.
Provider trust scores summarise operational characteristics. They do not tell every user to choose the highest number. Case fit still outranks the index.
A provider can score highly and still be wrong for you. A lower-scoring provider can still be the right choice when the situation justifies it.
Portability
Can data, content, domains and operations move without being rebuilt from ash?
Exit clarity
Are cancellation, transfer and deletion consequences documented?
Documentation quality
Are official instructions current, specific and operationally useful?
Security maturity
Are controls, account recovery and security responsibilities visible?
Support operability
Can a normal business resolve problems without heroic escalation?
Renewal fairness
Are renewals and post-introductory economics understandable?
Evidence coverage
How much of the score is backed by current primary-source evidence?
How scores are governed
Each score carries a confidence level, review date, next review date and known limitations. Evidence quality limits confidence. Missing primary-source evidence caps the score rather than being filled with optimism.
What changes a score
New pricing, policy, portability, security or support evidence can raise or lower dimensions. Changes should be recorded in the recommendation timeline and reflected in the next public trust report.
How evidence coverage works
Evidence coverage measures SignalBridge research completeness, not provider quality. Each provider is assigned an operating model, and only dimensions relevant to that model are included. Website backup and restoration is relevant to hosted builders and managed hosting, but not to a registrar and DNS service assessed only in that role.
Every covered dimension requires an explicit mapping to one or more active evidence records. Broad keyword matching is not accepted. A missing dimension means SignalBridge has not yet assembled sufficient evidence; it does not automatically mean the provider publishes nothing.
Coverage can rise when research improves even if the provider itself has not changed. Overall trust and fit scores must still be judged separately.