How we read prices

What a price on Enterpricey is, where it comes from, and how fresh it is.

What a price here is

Every price is a figure a public page or a public document showed on a stated day: the vendor's own pricing page first, then public-sector price lists, marketplaces and resellers, each labelled as what it is. We record the figure as it was shown, in the currency it was shown in, with what it is billed per (a user, a host, a gigabyte), the period and the billing term. Nothing is averaged, rounded or estimated, and a price we could not read is left out rather than guessed.

Where it comes from

Each price links to the page it was read from, and the page's sources list every capture with the day and time it was taken. Every capture we use is fingerprinted, and the fingerprint can be shown on request.

How fresh it is

Every vendor page behind a price is read again once a day. When every price on it is still there, the page says when it was last checked. When a price is gone or the page moved, a review reads the vendor's pages in full and records what changed; the old figures stay in the record, so the history of a price is on its History tab. A page that says it was checked more than two days ago is one we could not read since.

Prices in other currencies

Some vendors show a price only in euros, pounds or another currency. We keep that figure as shown. Beside it, so it can be compared with dollar prices, we give "about $" at the European Central Bank's reference rate of the day. That figure is a guide, not the vendor's price.

Who does the reading

Software agents read the pages and write the records; code checks every record before it is saved (a price needs a captured source, records are only ever added to, never rewritten) and re-reads the pages daily. Product names, the list of vendors and the categories are kept by a person.

Found something wrong?

Every page has a "Report an error" link. Tell us what the vendor's page shows and we read it again.