Data methodology
How we collect and
verify price data
NearbyPrices operates a two-sided data model. Prices come from two sources: businesses submitting their own rates, and consumers reporting what they have actually paid. Both are verified, timestamped, and attributed.
2,300+
service categories
7,723
UK locations
Two-sided
business + consumer data
The process
How price data reaches the page
01
Business price submissions
Businesses list themselves and submit their own price ranges directly. Each submission is tied to a verified business entity — at minimum, contact-verified. Price ranges are timestamped and attributed on the page so users can see exactly who submitted what and when.
02
Consumer price reports
Consumers submit prices they have actually paid, received as a quote, or verified firsthand. Submissions require email verification before going live. We store only the first half of a postcode (e.g. CF11), a username or first name, and a SHA-256 hash of the email address — never raw personal data.
03
Moderation & approval
Every submission passes through a moderation queue before appearing on the site. We check for outliers, plausibility, and potential spam. Approved submissions are marked as verified and attributed with their submission date.
04
Estimated ranges
Where no real submissions exist for a category and location, we display an estimated price range derived from external sources: ONS data, trade body surveys, and national price benchmarks. These are clearly labelled with the source name and marked as estimated — never presented as verified local data, and never included in schema markup.
05
Data confidence scoring
Each page displays a data confidence level — Estimated, Low, Medium, or High — based on the number of verified submissions. Low starts at 1 submission, Medium at 3, High at 10 or more. The confidence bar is visible in the price hero on every page.
06
Radius fallback
When a location has no local data for a given service, we surface the nearest data within that category's radius tier — transparently labelled with distance and a link to the source location. We never present data from a different location as if it belongs to the searched area.
Our principles
What we will and won't do with data
◎
Transparency first
Every price on the site shows who submitted it, when, and from where. Estimated data is always clearly distinguished from real submissions.
⬡
No incentivised reviews
Businesses cannot pay to have negative data removed or positive data promoted. Our directory is free to list in, and data integrity is non-negotiable.
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Source attribution
Estimated price ranges always show the source name. Editorial content cites reputable sources — ONS, Which?, trade regulators, Welsh Government — with direct links.
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Schema accuracy
We only include real, verified submitted prices in schema markup. Estimated ranges appear on-page but are excluded from structured data to ensure search engines surface only genuine data.
Data confidence
What each confidence level means
The operator
Who runs NearbyPrices
NearbyPrices is operated by Automated Europe Limited, a company registered in England and Wales. We are a Wales-first platform with a particular focus on providing price transparency for consumers and businesses across Wales and the wider UK.
Questions about our data, methodology, or a specific submission? Use the submit a correction link on any price page, or contact us directly.