How we rank providers
This page is the most important trust document on the site. If at any point our rankings don't match what's written here, that's a bug — tell us and we'll fix it.
Our commitment in one paragraph
Rankings are determined by objective course attributes (price, duration, format, recency of data) — not by who pays us. Paid placements, if and when they exist, are clearly labelled "Promoted" and never displace organic results. We publish our data, our dates, and our mistakes.
1. Default sort order
By default, comparison tables are sorted as follows:
- Price, ascending. Lowest-cost course first.
- Tie-break by duration. Shorter courses rank higher (they get you to the certificate faster).
- Tie-break by data freshness. More recently verified records rank higher.
Users can change the sort (price, duration, rating) at any time via the controls above the table. The default is chosen to match the most common tradie intent: "cheapest valid course I can book".
2. What we consider a "valid" course
- The provider is a Registered Training Organisation on training.gov.au
- The course maps to a nationally recognised unit of competency (e.g. CPCWHS1001 for White Card, HLTAID011 for First Aid)
- Price and booking URL are verified against the RTO's own website
- The course record is no older than 90 days since last verification (otherwise it's flagged amber or dropped)
3. Paid placements
We may offer promoted placement to RTOs on a cost-per-click basis. When we do:
- Promoted listings carry a visible "Promoted" label
- They appear in addition to — not instead of — organic results
- They do not change the order of organic results beneath them
- They are subject to the same data quality standards as organic listings
At the time of writing, no RTO pays for placement. Every listing on the site is organic. When that changes, we'll disclose it here and on the listings themselves.
4. Affiliate commission
When a tradie clicks through and books, we may earn a per-click referral fee or a commission. This is how we fund the site. It does not affect ranking — a provider with no affiliate relationship will rank identically to one with a 15% commission, all else equal. The full methodology lives on this page, and the same disclosure is repeated in our about and terms pages. Provider links across the site carry the standard "sponsored" `rel` attribute so search engines and assistive technology can identify them programmatically.
5. Reviews and ratings
We do not currently collect or display user reviews. When we do, we'll disclose the source, verification method, and moderation policy. Until then, any rating figure you see is sourced from the RTO's own public reviews (Google, Trustpilot) and labelled accordingly. We'd rather show no rating than a fabricated one.
6. Data freshness
Every course record carries a lastVerifiedAt date. We re-verify on a rolling basis:
- Verified ≤30 days — displayed without qualification
- 30–90 days — shown with an amber "re-verifying" notice
- >90 days — hidden from default comparison views until re-verified
The oldest record currently shown on the site was verified on 24 April 2026.
7. How we handle errors
Spot something wrong? Report it via our corrections page. We respond within 48 hours and publish every fix to the public correction log — transparency is the whole point.
8. Current coverage
57 courses from 12 Registered Training Organisations across Australia's five largest capitals. We're deliberately starting narrow; breadth comes later.
Methodology last updated: 2026-04-24