How we rank

The ranking is a formula over verified facts. It runs in code, is versioned, and ignores who pays us.

Methodology version 1.0 · 24 Oct 2026 · How we make money

The rules

Each factor is a weighted mix of facts, scored from 0 to 1 and added up. Weights are below.
A fact the provider does not publish scores 0.25, not zero: honest “on request” is not the worst answer, and hiding a price is not rewarded.
A fact last checked more than 90 days ago counts at ×0.8 of its score.
Ties are broken by data freshness, then alphabetically. Never by payment.

Payment gateways

Cost30%
Local card fee (%) + Local card fixed fee per transaction + Monthly fee (90%), Setup fee (10%)
Cost is the effective rate on a reference month of 500 orders: Egypt at EGP 650 on local cards, Saudi Arabia at SAR 200 averaging the published mada and card fees (whichever is published if only one is), using the highest published percentage.
Easy to get approved20%
Commercial register required (40%), Freelancers accepted (40%), Typical approval time (20%)
Payment methods20%
Payment methods (100%)
Settlement speed15%
Settlement time – cards (100%)
Developer tools10%
REST API (30%), Sandbox / test mode (20%), E-commerce plugins (30%), Webhooks (20%)
Data freshness5%
Share of this provider’s facts checked in the last 90 days.

SMS & OTP

Cost per message35%
Price per local SMS (100%)
Delivery quality25%
Direct operator connections (50%), Delivery reports (30%), OTP fallback channels (20%)
Sender name15%
Sender ID registration (60%), Sender ID approval time (40%)
Developer tools20%
HTTP/REST API (30%), OTP verification API (30%), SMPP (20%), Sandbox / free trial (20%)
Data freshness5%
Share of this provider’s facts checked in the last 90 days.

WhatsApp Business API

Cost35%
Platform fee per month (60%), Markup on Meta fees (40%)
Getting live25%
Official Meta partner (60%), Time to go live (20%), Green tick assistance (20%)
Features25%
Shared team inbox (30%), Chatbot builder (25%), Broadcast campaigns (25%), AI agent features (20%)
Developer tools10%
API (60%), Webhooks (40%)
Data freshness5%
Share of this provider’s facts checked in the last 90 days.

Shipping & couriers

Cost30%
Base domestic rate (60%), COD fee (20%), Return fee (20%)
Cash on delivery25%
Cash on delivery (50%), COD remittance time (50%)
Coverage & speed20%
All governorates / regions (40%), Next-day delivery (40%), Same-day delivery (20%)
Operations15%
Tracking page (40%), Pickup scheduling (30%), Fulfillment / warehousing (30%)
Store integrations5%
Plugins (60%), API (40%)
Data freshness5%
Share of this provider’s facts checked in the last 90 days.

E-invoicing & accounting

Tax authority compliance35%
ETA e-invoice integration + ZATCA phase 2 (integration) (60%), ETA e-receipt integration + ZATCA phase 1 (40%)
Cost25%
Starting monthly price (100%)
Features20%
Inventory (25%), POS (25%), VAT reports (25%), Multi-branch (25%)
Arabic & support15%
Arabic interface (50%), Onboarding support (30%), Accountant partner network (20%)
Data freshness5%
Share of this provider’s facts checked in the last 90 days.

Cloud & hosting

Residency & compliance35%
Data stays in-country (50%), Cloud licence / regulator (30%), Approved for government workloads (20%)
Cost25%
Virtual server from (monthly) (60%), Object storage per GB / month (20%), Billing in local currency (20%)
Managed services20%
Managed Kubernetes (30%), Managed databases (30%), Object storage (S3-compatible) (20%), DDoS protection (20%)
Reliability & support15%
Uptime SLA (50%), Arabic support (25%), 24/7 support (25%)
Data freshness5%
Share of this provider’s facts checked in the last 90 days.

Currencies

Prices are shown in the currency the provider publishes. We convert only to compare, using fixed rates that change with the methodology version: 1 USD = 50 EGP1 EUR = 54 EGP1 SAR = 13.33 EGP (USD 1 = SAR 3.75)

Countries, currencies and cost anchors

Egypt and Saudi Arabia are ranked separately, never against each other. Each country uses its own currency (EGP, SAR) and VAT rate (14%, 15%). Cost scores compare a price with a best and worst anchor written in that country’s own currency, because price levels differ: a SAR 15 parcel is ordinary in Saudi Arabia, while the same price converted to EGP would score as the worst in Egypt. Facts published in another currency (for example USD) are converted at the fixed rates above before scoring.

Labels you will see

Sponsored: Paid placement shown above the table, outside the ranking. It has no rank number.
Verified: The company exists legally; we checked its documents. Free and not for sale.
2.6%: Grey value with a clock: last checked more than 90 days ago and may be outdated.
—: Not published: the provider does not publish this. We never guess.
On request: The provider only gives this price after a quote request.
Built by the Daliva team: Our own product. It gets no ranking boost.