Trust framework

We will never take money from a broker. Ever.

BrokerMap is independent. The Trust Score formula is public. Every data refresh cadence is public. Where we're unsure, we say so. This page is the contract.

The pledge
  • We will never accept money from a broker. Ever.
  • No affiliate links. No referral codes. No CPA.
  • No sponsored placements in rankings, ever.
  • No paid editorial. We disclose every revenue source on this page.
  • If we ever break any of the above, we'll archive the violation publicly here.
The formula

Five signals. Weighted. Public.

Every score on this site is a weighted average of five signals. Here's what they are and how much each one moves the number.

35%
Regulation

Tier-1 regulators (FCA, ASIC, CySEC, MAS) score 100. Tier-2 score 60. Offshore-only 25. Multi-licensed brokers are scored at the highest tier they hold for SEA clients — not the highest tier on their website.

25%
Price competitiveness

Average EUR/USD spread plus commission, normalized against the market median. Wider than median? Lower score. Tighter? Higher score. Updated hourly.

15%
Local accessibility

Country availability across SEA, count of supported local payment rails (PromptPay, GCash, FPX, DuitNow, USDT), and minimum-deposit accessibility. Lower minimums score better, capped.

15%
Aggregated review sentiment

Embedded Trustpilot and WikiFX scores, weighted by recency and review count. When sources disagree by more than 2 points, we flag it on the broker page rather than averaging through it.

10%
Data transparency

Frequency of license cross-checks, freshness of spread data, time since last regulator action. Brokers we can't easily verify get penalized; brokers with rich public data get rewarded.

Weighting at a glance
35%
25%
15%
15%
10%
RegulationPrice competitivenessLocal accessibilityAggregated review sentimentData transparency
Data freshness

How often we re-verify each thing.

DataCadenceSource
Live spreadsHourly snapshotsManual + scraper
Spread historyWeekly aggregationSnapshot rollups
Regulator filingsOn regulator publicationWatcher cron + manual
Country availabilityMonthlyManual + broker page scraper
Payment methodsOn changeManual + broker page scraper
Composite Trust ScoreDailyMaterialized view
Sustainability

How we'll eventually make money.

None of these affect rankings. None of them involve money from brokers. We'd rather close the site than break that.

Now
$0

Audience build. Free newsletter as lead magnet.

+6mo
Newsletter

Free tier scales. Paid tier piloted (~$15-25/mo).

+12mo
Sponsorships

Banks, exchanges, payment providers, regulators. Disclosed. Never broker money.

+18mo
Data API

B2B tiers ($99-1k/mo) for fintechs and researchers.