How we rate, and why you can trust the score
We rate every platform on the same scale, we only publish a price once we can confirm it, and we tell you plainly how we make money. Here is exactly how the score is built — and the lines we don't cross.
How we score
Every platform gets a single overall score out of 5, built from four dimensions we apply identically across sites, cam, creators, networks, vr, ai. We don't grade on a curve, and a commercial partnership never moves a number.
The tier system
The overall score derives a tier — Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum. The tier is never stored or hand-set; it's calculated from the score every time a page renders, so the badge and the number can never drift apart.
Bronze
Silver
Gold
PlatinumScore bands, provisional and under confirmation: Bronze 3.5–3.9 · Silver 4.0–4.4 · Gold 4.5–4.7 · Platinum 4.8–5.0 (bands under confirmation).
Why only Gold & Platinum glow
The metal bolt is the score. Only the two top tiers carry a soft glow — it's a deliberate prestige signal, so a top-tier platform reads as top-tier at a glance and the glow can't be mistaken for decoration lower down.
How we review
Reviews are built from publicly-knowable information — the platform's own member-facing experience, pricing and policies. We never re-host content that sits behind a paywall or a member login.
We test the platform
We evaluate each platform hands-on against the four dimensions — from its public, member-facing experience, not from a press kit.
We score, then write
All four dimensions are rated before any partnership conversation. The overall score derives the tier — nothing is hand-set.
We verify, then track
A price or deal is only published once we can confirm it. Our checks re-run over time and stamp each deal with when it was last verified.
Our trust policies
These are the rules the whole site is held to. They exist so you can trust the score even though we earn a commission when you sign up through our links.
Validate before publish
A price or deal is only shown when we can confirm it. If we can't verify it, it is flagged and never presented as a firm price — you see "re-checking" or "unconfirmed," not a stale number dressed up as current.
No fabrication, ever
We don't invent prices, scores, review counts or results. If we don't know something, we say so. An honest "unconfirmed" is always better than a confident guess.
Affiliate links, disclosed
Outbound deal links are cloaked for tracking but always disclosed, and marked rel="sponsored nofollow". Commission never affects a score or a ranking — we test and rate first; commercial terms come after.
No explicit content
Zero explicit imagery and no previews anywhere on the site. All artwork is brand or abstract. We review platforms; we don't re-publish what's on them.
The line we don't cross
A partnership never changes a score, a ranking, or what we write. If a top-rated platform offered us nothing and a mediocre one offered double, the top-rated platform still ranks first. Independence is the only thing that makes a review worth reading.
Who we are
Throbbs.Reviews is produced by the Throbbs editorial team — a JM Media Partners brand. We're an independent review desk: we test and score platforms, verify their deals, and maintain the niche guides. The rating method on this page is the same one applied to every listing across the site.
Want a platform reviewed, or have a question about how we rated one? Get in touch → or browse the reviews →
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