Whichapp Research Methodology

Whichapp Research Methodology

Source hierarchy, claim taxonomy, scoring rules, freshness policy, and correction process.

Version 1.0 • May 2026

Every claim on Whichapp is scored against a five-tier source hierarchy, with vendor marketing ranked last and statutory sources ranked first. Claims are tagged as verified fact, sourced data, or editorial judgement, and editorial judgement is capped at 30% of any page. Freshness policy forces a review on price, coverage, and regulatory claims at fixed intervals, and corrections are published with a dated note rather than silently amended.

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Overview

Whichapp Research collects, scores, and publishes market intelligence about payroll providers, EOR platforms, global payroll services, and UK payroll software. Every published finding links to its source. Every statistic states its sample size and observation date. Every estimate is labelled as an estimate.

This page tells you the rules governing what Whichapp Research publishes, how it scores evidence, how it handles missing data, and how you can submit a correction.

Source hierarchy

Whichapp Research ranks evidence sources in five tiers. Higher tiers override lower tiers when sources conflict. When you see a source reference on a research page, it maps to one of these five tiers.

1. Official government or statutory source: legislation, official regulatory guidance, government agency publications. Used for country obligation data (minimum wage, payroll deadlines, severance rules).
2. Provider pricing page or official documentation: the provider’s own published pricing page, official product documentation, or press release. Used for pricing, feature, and coverage claims.
3. Provider-published data sheet or contract template: downloadable resources published by the provider. Used where a pricing page alone is insufficient.
4. Whichapp field research: systematic observation and recording of provider-published information at a specific date. Used where no formal pricing page exists but pricing is discoverable.
5. Whichapp estimate or model: a calculated value based on disclosed inputs and documented assumptions. Always labelled explicitly as an estimate. Never presented as a provider disclosure.

Claim taxonomy

Every claim in a Whichapp Research publication must use one of these seven wording classes. Deviations are treated as publication errors.

Confidence levels

Every data record carries one of three confidence levels:

• High: sourced directly from official legislation or a provider’s published pricing page, verified within the last 30 days.
• Medium: sourced from provider documentation or field research, or high-confidence data observed more than 30 days ago.
• Low: sourced from secondary references, or where primary source could not be confirmed. Displayed with a caution label. Not used for legal certainty language.

Freshness rules

Stale records are labelled “Verification required” and suppressed from live index table rankings until refreshed. Stale country compliance data is not used for legal certainty language under any circumstances.

Missing data policy

Where data is not publicly available, Whichapp records the field as “Not disclosed” rather than estimating or omitting it. “Not disclosed” is itself a finding. It tells you that the provider does not publish this information publicly. Whichapp does not publish estimates to fill missing provider pricing fields.

Index scoring methodology

The Pricing Transparency Index assigns a rating of High, Medium, or Low based on a provider’s composite disclosure across eight fields: public price availability, starting price amount, pricing model clarity, setup fee disclosure, FX markup disclosure, contractor pricing disclosure, payroll pricing disclosure, and minimum contract term disclosure.

• High: provider publishes a clear starting price and discloses at least three additional fee categories.
• Medium: provider publishes some pricing information but leaves significant fee categories undisclosed.
• Low: provider does not publish a starting price, or discloses fewer than two fee categories.

Ratings are applied by Whichapp researchers and reviewed quarterly. Providers may request a re-review by submitting updated public source documentation.

Correction policy

Whichapp maintains a correction process for providers and third parties who identify factual errors. Corrections are accepted when accompanied by a verifiable public source. Whichapp does not remove evidence-backed observations solely on a provider’s request, only on verified correction. Superseded values are retained in the dataset change log with the date of correction.

If you spot a factual error, use the contact form with the dataset name, the specific field, the current value, the correct value, and the public source URL. Whichapp targets a 5 working day response for correction requests.

Commercial neutrality

Whichapp Research is funded by referral revenue from provider comparison pages, not by research subscriptions or provider sponsorship. Research findings are produced independently of commercial relationships. No provider pays for inclusion in or exclusion from Whichapp Research outputs.

Providers with commercial relationships are subject to the same evidence standards as all others. When you rely on Whichapp Research for procurement decisions, you can treat all provider scores as independent.