Readers say it out loud in forums: ranked roundups in this market are widely assumed to be paid placements, and the ordering usually reflects commission rather than testing. The busiest discussions are not about which name won a list; they are people asking how to tell a real operation from a disappearing one, and those threads draw far more replies than technical ones do. So this page hands you criteria for comparing IPTV subscription service providers instead of a ranking. Every question below produces an answer you can verify from a checkout page, a terms page or a single support message, and any provider that dodges three of them has told you something useful. We include our own answers so you can hold us to the same test.

1. 1Rankings reflect commission more often than testing
2. 2Trust, not features, is the top purchase blocker
3. 3Criteria you can verify beat any ordered list

Seven items, in the order they matter. One: the price stated in dollars for a stated period, not a tier chart. Two: how many streams run at once. Three: whether installs are separate from that cap. Four: the refund window, in days, and whether it is paid in money. Five: an uptime figure with a number attached. Six: which payment methods are accepted. Seven: whether a paid test exists at all. Ours read $120 for twelve months, one to five streams, unlimited installs, seven days on plans with the trial excluded, 99.99% uptime, card payment, and a $5 trial lasting 24 hours. Write the seven down and fill the column in for anyone you consider.

1. 1Price, concurrency, installs, refund window
2. 2Uptime as a number, payment methods, a paid test
3. 3Fill the same seven in for every candidate

Three recur often enough to treat as decisive. Crypto-only payment removes your chargeback route, which is precisely why it appeals to sellers who expect complaints. Refunds offered as store credit or gift cards are not refunds; money that cannot leave the seller's ecosystem is a retention tool. Refusing any test at all, paid or otherwise, means the seller would rather you commit blind. Add a fourth softer signal: urgency pressure at checkout, countdown timers and expiring discounts exist to stop you doing the checks on this page. None of these prove fraud on their own, but two together are enough to spend your money elsewhere. We take card payment, refund in money, and sell a $5 test.

1. 1Crypto-only payment removes the chargeback route
2. 2Gift-card refunds are store credit, not refunds
3. 3No test at any price means commit blind

An honest answer and a number. Some failures are yours to fix: a single dead channel is a source problem at the far end, a whole group failing is server-side, and everything failing points at your line, the player or the session. Switching away and back separates them, because instant recovery means the session stalled rather than the connection. But some buffering is oversold capacity on the seller's side, and no setting on your television touches it. A provider that blames your internet by default is describing one cause out of several. That is where a published uptime figure earns its place: ours is 99.99%, roughly 53 minutes across a year, and you can hold us to it.

1. 1Scope the fault before accepting an explanation
2. 2Oversold capacity is not something you can configure around
3. 3Ask for uptime as a number, not a promise

Size is a weak proxy for quality, but it is not meaningless. A seller with 31,000+ subscribers has enough load to expose problems and enough revenue to keep capacity ahead of demand, while a very small reseller sits on someone else's infrastructure with no control over it and no way to absorb a bad month. Catalog scale is similar: 54,000+ live channels and 219,577+ VOD titles across 190+ countries indicates real aggregation rather than a repackaged list. Neither number tells you the service is right for your household. Both are checkable, which is more than most claims in this market manage, and they belong alongside the seven questions instead of replacing them.

1. 131,000+ subscribers, 54,000+ channels, 219,577+ titles
2. 2Resellers inherit problems they cannot fix
3. 3Scale supports the answers; it does not replace them