About KotoVPN
A VPN review site built on one rule: every number has to be reconstructible by the reader.
The problem this exists for
Search for a VPN and you get pages of scores with no arithmetic behind them. A provider is 9.8 out of 10; another is 9.6. Nobody explains what separates them, and the ordering correlates suspiciously well with commission rates. The scores are not calculated, they are asserted.
KotoVPN publishes the rubric first. Seven criteria, fixed weights, one written reason per score stating a checkable fact. If you disagree with a weighting, the inputs are all on the page and you can redo the sum.
What we cover
11 providers, in English only. That is a deliberate limit. A site that publishes the same page in twenty machine-translated languages is not serving twenty audiences, it is filling an index. We would rather maintain one set of pages properly than twenty sets badly.
What we refuse to publish
- A speed figure nobody measured
- A claim that a provider works with a named streaming catalogue, which changes weekly
- A rating with no stated inputs
- A “no logs verified” claim, because nobody outside the company can verify it
- A page generated purely because a keyword permutation exists
How to check us
- Open any review. Multiply each raw score by its weight, divide by ten, add the seven results. You should get the number in the heading.
- Open the evidence table. Every row links to the page the fact came from and the date we read it.
- Check the affiliate disclosure. If the providers we earn nothing from are buried at the bottom of the ranking, stop trusting the ranking.
Where we are weak
Being honest about the rubric means being honest about its limits. Right now the scores rest entirely on documented facts, because our own measurements do not exist yet — the lab is empty and says so. Facts also drift: a price checked last month may be wrong today, and an audit can be superseded. Everything carries a checked date for that reason, and the corrections page logs what we got wrong.
How we are funded
Affiliate commission on some outbound links, disclosed per provider and per link. No sponsored posts, no paid placements, no payment for a score. The disclosure page names every provider that pays and every one that does not.
Contact
Corrections, disputes and questions: the contact page.