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How we rank

The Prestige Index is computed from your votes. Here’s the process, step by step.

The process

01

Head-to-head vote

You see two companies. Tap the one you consider more prestigious. No scales, no long lists — just a single pairwise choice.

02

ELO update

The winner’s rating goes up, the loser’s goes down. The size of the change depends on the gap: beating a higher-rated company yields a bigger gain.

03

Live ranking

Rankings update in real time. The list is a direct reflection of community votes, with no editorial tweaks.

Details

Why pairwise?

Pairwise comparisons are easier and more consistent than rating many companies at once. We only ask: “A or B?” — and feed that into the system.

ELO in plain terms

Each company has a number (new companies start at 1500). Win a battle → your number goes up; lose → it goes down. Beating a stronger opponent moves the needle more than beating a weaker one. Same idea as chess ELO.

Bribed & Boosted (boost_value)

Pay $1 to add +1 ELO (we increment boost_value). Multiple people can boost. When boost_value > 0 we show “Bribed & Boosted (+X ELO)”. Use “Hide boosted” on the Rankings page to see the vote-only ranking.

Data & transparency

Company data is community-sourced via Add Company. We don’t scrape or merge external datasets. For privacy, see our Privacy page.

Support the rankings

$1 = +1 ELO. Multiple people can boost; we show "Bribed & Boosted (+X)" when boost value > 0.

Boost on the platform