Certification

What a Certification Attests

For one of a provider's plans, in one of its data-center countries:

• The purchase. A VoxelBench moderator buys the plan like any customer and records the evidence: an invoice or an order confirmation, a screenshot of the hosting panel, the amount paid, the order reference, and a proof code generated by VoxelBench.
• The benchmark. The moderator runs the VoxelBench benchmark three times on the server bought, each run producing its own scored report; the run with the median score becomes the certified report. When the runs are scheduled through auto-bench, they are at least an hour apart. The benchmark is filmed.
• The specs. The moderator compares the CPU, RAM and storage the provider announces with those detected on the server, and records a verdict. A certification is completed only when the specs match: a mismatch ends in a rejection.

A certification describes the plan as sold on that date, in that location. It says nothing about the provider's other plans or locations, about later dates, or about what a benchmark does not measure: network latency to players, uptime, support. How it compares with the other levels of proof is described in Levels of Proof.

Who Requests It

A provider verified by VoxelBench requests it, from its dashboard: Certifications, then New Request (or Request Your First Certification). The provider must first publish the plan in Offers (see Publishing Your Plans).

1. Plan to certify: one of your plans, visible and not archived. Its name, price and specs are taken from the plan.
2. Locations to certify: one or more of your data-center countries. Each location is a separate certification, with its own price: two countries make two requests.
3. Price Breakdown: per location, twice the plan's monthly price (Plan price (x2)) plus the Commission, an amount VoxelBench sets in euros and converts into the plan's currency at the latest known exchange rate. The total is billed in the plan's currency. A free plan counts as zero, so only the commission remains, in euros. When no exchange rate is known for the plan's currency, the breakdown says so and the request is refused: try again later.
4. Submit Request opens the certification terms, Important — please read carefully. Cheating, tuning the server for the certification, changing the certified hardware without updating the plan, pressure on the moderator, falsified evidence or a different machine lead to the removal of the certification without refund, and a warning on your provider account. Tick the box, then I accept — submit request.

The request then waits in Pending payment until VoxelBench records your payment. The Queue column shows its position among the requests waiting.

Steps and Statuses

The Certification Requests list shows each request's status:

At each change of status up to Completed, and when a request is rejected, cancelled or refunded, the account that manages the provider receives an email, as long as the Certification updates category is on in Dashboard → Profile & settings → Notifications. The same category can also be sent to a Discord webhook, which you set up in the same tab. When an administrator decides a contestation, you receive an email of its own in the same category and, whatever your email settings, a notification under the bell.

The certification is delivered by the moderator assigned to it, or by an administrator. Once it is completed, only an administrator can change it. The certified report belongs to the VoxelBench Certification account, and is published when you approve the certification.

Your Review: Approve or Contest

When a certification reaches Completed, a Pending your review card appears on your Certifications page. Review now opens its review page, where you see everything the moderator recorded: the purchase evidence, the benchmark video, the test environment (server access method, server IP, moderator notes), the specs verification with Match or Mismatch for each spec, the three runs and the timeline. The full benchmark report stays private until you approve: the page links to it only then.

Under Your decision:

• Approve & publish makes the certification public (see What Becomes Public). Approving also waives your right to contest it.
• Contest disputes the result (see Contesting a Certification). The button appears only while you can still contest.

You can approve only a Completed certification: not while it is being tested, contested or tested again, but still after VoxelBench has rejected your contestation. You can contest only within 14 days. The certification stays private until you approve it, and its year of validity counts from its completion, not from your approval.

Contesting a Certification

You can contest a certification:

• before approving it;
• within 14 days of its completion (the review page gives the date);
• once per certification;
• with a reason of at least 50 characters: wrong specs, test conditions, anything that does not reflect the plan you sell.

Submit Contestation moves the certification to Contested, and VoxelBench's administrators are notified. An administrator then decides:

• Accepted — re-test: the plan is benchmarked again with the same purchase, and the certification returns to Testing. Once the moderator completes it again, you review the new result; its year of validity counts from that new completion, and it cannot be contested a second time.
• Rejected: the result is kept and the certification returns to Completed, with the same completion date, the same expiry and the same contestation deadline. You can still approve it.

A contested certification is not public. The refund rules and the finality of decisions are set by the Terms.

What Becomes Public

Before your approval, the certification is visible to the account that manages the provider only: its page shows that account Not yet public, with Open dashboard review, and answers "not found" to anyone else. Its benchmark report stays private, even to you: only VoxelBench can open it. Nothing of it appears on your provider page, in the directory's figures, in your ranks or on the leaderboard, and the plan does not show Certified.

Once you approve it, the certification and its report are published together:

• its page, reached from Active Certifications on your provider page, shows Certified by VoxelBench, the plan's name, the rank, the Score, the Server IP, the certification date and the Validity; Benchmark runs, the three scores with the median one marked Selected (median); Certification timeline, the dates of the request, of the certification, of your approval and of expiry; the status of a contestation if there was one; and View full benchmark report;
• your provider page lists it under Active Certifications, and its report under Certified Benchmarks; its score enters the directory's figures and Provider stats at once, and your ranks at their next daily computation;
• the plan shows Certified in the offers catalogue, with its best certified score and, for a paid plan, its points per euro;
• the report page carries the VoxelBench Certified banner and View certification; the spec verdict (Specs Verified) and the video (Video Proof) appear there only for you and VoxelBench administrators;
• the report can appear on the leaderboard as a certified report (see How Scoring Works).

What stays between you and VoxelBench: the purchase documents, the amount paid, the order reference, the proof code, the video, the environment notes, the server access and the spec verification.

Validity and Expiry

A certification is valid one year from its completion; a rejected contestation does not restart that year. The account that manages the provider receives an email 30 days and 7 days before the end, then when it expires (with Certification updates on). In the meantime, the certification's cards show its expiry date, then the days left during its last 90 days, and Provider stats lists under Action items the certifications expiring within 30 days.

When it expires:

• at once, it leaves Active Certifications and its report leaves Certified Benchmarks on your provider page, and the API no longer gives it as evidence;
• within a day, its page stops being public, the directory's figures, Provider stats and your ranks stop counting it, and the plan loses its Certified badge in the catalogue;
• the benchmark report itself stays published as a certified report, with its VoxelBench Certified banner: it still describes the plan on the day it ran.

To stay certified, request a new certification before the end: it means a new purchase and new runs.

Cancellation and Refunds

You can cancel a request yourself while it is in Pending payment. After that, write to us from the Contact page: VoxelBench can cancel a request until it is completed, and refund a paid request that no moderator has taken yet. The Terms set out what is refunded at each stage.