These Directory and Buyer Guide Terms ("Directory Terms") govern the CIOPages vendor directory, the claiming of a directory listing, and paid placements on CIOPages Buyer Guides. By claiming a listing or purchasing a placement, you agree to these Directory Terms in full. They supplement and are incorporated into the CIOPages Terms of Service. Where these Directory Terms conflict with the Terms of Service on a directory or Buyer Guide matter, these Directory Terms control.
1. Definitions
- Directory. The CIOPages vendor directory, including company listings, category pages, search, and the AI directory assistant.
- Listing. The record we publish about a company, including its name, description, capabilities, category, and links.
- Unclaimed Listing. A Listing compiled and maintained by CIOPages that no representative of the company has claimed.
- Claimed Listing. A Listing that a company representative has claimed and paid for under these Directory Terms, and that CIOPages has approved.
- Buyer Guide. A long-form research guide published by CIOPages covering a category of enterprise technology.
- Placement. A labeled, paid position for a company alongside a Buyer Guide. A Placement sits outside the editorial analysis.
- Vendor Comparison. The editorial assessment of vendors within a Buyer Guide. The Vendor Comparison is not for sale.
- You. The individual submitting a claim or purchase, and the company on whose behalf they act. You confirm you are authorized to bind that company.
2. Unclaimed Listings
2.1 How we compile them
We compile Unclaimed Listings from publicly available sources, including company websites, public documentation, and public registries. We write them for the benefit of technology buyers. An Unclaimed Listing is CIOPages editorial content. It is not an advertisement, and its presence does not imply any relationship between CIOPages and the company described.
2.2 Corrections are free
Anyone may report an error in any Listing, and we will review and correct genuine inaccuracies at no charge, whether or not the company pays us for anything. Accuracy is what we owe our readers, and we do not make it conditional on payment. We decide how a correction is worded, and we may decline requests that ask us to replace factual description with promotional language.
2.3 Removal
A company may ask us to remove its Unclaimed Listing. We will consider each request on its merits and will generally honor a request made by an authorized representative of the company. We may decline where the Listing is materially relevant to published research and contains only factual, publicly sourced information. Removal ends any Placement associated with that company, and Section 8.3 governs the fee treatment.
2.4 We may decline to list
Inclusion in the Directory is at our discretion. We are not obliged to list any company, to keep any company listed, or to explain an editorial decision about coverage.
3. Claiming a Listing
3.1 Who may claim
Only a person authorized to act for the company may claim its Listing. You must submit using an email address at the company's own internet domain. We may accept an address at another domain, and we may then require additional evidence before approving the claim. Submitting a claim for a company you do not represent is a breach of these Directory Terms.
3.2 Details we collect from you
When you claim a Listing we ask for your name, job title, work email address, telephone number, and your company's business address. We use these to verify that the claim is genuine, to contact you about the Listing and your subscription, and to resolve any competing claim. These details are not published on your Listing. We do not sell them and we do not share them with other companies. Our handling of them is governed by our Privacy Policy. You must keep them accurate and tell us when they change.
3.3 What a claim grants
Once approved, a Claimed Listing gives you the ability to edit the Listing content, add a logo, images, documentation links and pricing links, display a verified badge, receive buyer inquiries submitted through the Listing, and hold a Placement on one Buyer Guide as described in Section 5.
3.4 Competing claims
Where more than one person claims the same Listing, we will decide the claim on the evidence available to us, including domain ownership and public records. Our decision is final for the purposes of these Directory Terms. If we transfer control of a Claimed Listing as a result of a competing claim, we will cancel the displaced subscription and refund any unused portion of the current term on a pro rata basis.
4. Fees, Authorization, and When You Are Charged
4.1 Fees
The fee for a Claimed Listing is the amount displayed at checkout at the time you submit. The current fee is $199 per year, which includes one Placement on a Buyer Guide for which your company is eligible. Each additional Placement is charged at the same annual rate. All fees are stated in US dollars and are exclusive of any taxes that may apply.
4.2 Your card is authorized, not charged
When you submit, we validate your payment method and keep it on file through our payment processor. No amount is charged at that point. We charge the fee only when we approve your submission under Section 6. If we do not approve it, we cancel the payment arrangement. You are not charged, there is no refund to process, and no charge appears on your statement.
4.3 Authorizations are not reservations of funds
Validating a payment method does not guarantee that a later charge will succeed. If the charge fails when we approve your submission, we will contact you for an alternative payment method. Your Listing and any Placement will not publish until payment has cleared.
4.4 Annual term and renewal
The annual term begins on the date we approve your submission and charge the fee, not on the date you submit. Subscriptions renew automatically each year at the then-applicable rate for your subscription, subject to Section 4.5, unless canceled before the renewal date.
4.5 Price changes
We may change our prices from time to time. If a change affects your renewal, we will give you at least thirty (30) days' notice by email so that you can take whatever action you consider necessary, including canceling before the renewal date.
5. Buyer Guide Placements
5.1 Eligibility
A Placement may only be purchased on a Buyer Guide that covers your company's category. We maintain the mapping between directory categories and Buyer Guides, and we decide whether a company is eligible for a given guide. A Placement purchased on a guide that does not fit your category will be declined under Section 6.
5.2 Limited inventory
We cap each Buyer Guide at five Placements. A submission awaiting review reserves its position so the same position cannot be sold twice. If we decline the submission, the position is released.
5.3 If your category has no live guide
If no Buyer Guide has yet been published for your category, your Claimed Listing includes a Placement to be applied at no additional charge on the first eligible guide we publish during your subscription term. We do not commit to publishing a guide for any particular category or by any particular date.
5.4 Presentation and rotation
We determine how a Placement is presented, including its position, format, ordering, and rotation between page loads. Placements are labeled as paid placements. We may change the presentation of Placements at any time, provided the change does not remove your Placement from the guide.
5.5 Sponsorship of a guide
A single company may sponsor a Buyer Guide exclusively and appear above the Placements. Sponsorship is arranged separately, is subject to availability, and is governed by these Directory Terms together with any written sponsorship agreement.
6. Review, Approval, and Rejection
6.1 We review every submission
Every claim and every Placement purchase is reviewed by a CIOPages editor before it publishes. Payment does not publish anything. Publication follows our approval and nothing else.
6.2 What we assess
- Whether the person submitting is authorized to act for the company.
- Whether the company is a genuine, operating provider of the product or service described.
- Whether the company's category fits the Buyer Guides selected.
- Whether the Listing content meets the standards in Section 7.
6.3 We may approve, edit, or reject
We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to approve a submission, to edit the Listing content for accuracy, clarity, and compliance with Section 7 before approving it, or to reject the submission. Where we reject a submission we will tell you the reason and, where the issue can be fixed, what would need to change for a resubmission to succeed. You are not charged for a rejected submission.
6.4 Review timing
We aim to review submissions within a few days. It is in our interest to be quick about it. This is a target rather than a contractual commitment, and it does not apply where we have asked you for further information and are awaiting your response.
6.5 Ongoing edits
Changes you make to a published Claimed Listing may be reviewed before they appear. We may revert or amend content that does not meet Section 7 and will tell you when we do.
7. Content Standards
A Listing is a factual record for technology buyers, not a marketing page. Content you submit or edit must describe what your product does in plain, specific, verifiable terms. The following are not permitted:
- Superlatives and unsupported ranking claims. For example "the leading platform", "best in class", "number one", or "the only solution that", unless the claim is attributed to a named, verifiable third-party source.
- Inaccurate or unverifiable information. Including capabilities the product does not have, customers you do not have, certifications you do not hold, and metrics you cannot substantiate on request.
- Claims about named competitors. Comparative or disparaging statements about other companies, whether or not they are listed in the Directory.
- Misuse of third-party marks. Using another party's trademarks, logos, or brand names in a way that implies a partnership, certification, or endorsement you do not have.
- Promotional formatting. Marketing slogans, calls to action, pricing promotions, block capitals for emphasis, and similar devices.
- Unlawful, misleading, or offensive content, and content that infringes any third party's rights.
- Keyword stuffing and manipulation, including hidden text, irrelevant category tagging, and content written to manipulate search or AI systems rather than to inform a reader.
We apply the same standards to the Listings we write ourselves. If you believe we have applied them inconsistently, tell us and we will look at it.
8. Editorial Independence
8.1 What payment does not buy
Payment buys presentation and placement. It does not buy editorial treatment. Specifically, paying us does not and will not affect:
- Whether your company appears in a Buyer Guide's Vendor Comparison, or what that comparison says about you.
- Your position in directory search results or on category pages.
- Whether our articles, research, or AI directory assistant mention or recommend your product.
- Any rating, score, or assessment we publish.
8.2 A Placement is not an endorsement
A Placement is disclosed advertising positioned alongside independent editorial content. It is not a recommendation by CIOPages, and we do not verify or endorse the marketing claims of any company that holds a Placement. See our Editorial Policy and the Buyer Guide placement disclosure.
8.3 We may change or retire content
We may revise, restructure, merge, or retire any Buyer Guide at any time as part of normal editorial work. If we retire a guide on which you hold a Placement, we will move the Placement to a comparable eligible guide, or, if none is available, refund the unused portion of the fee for that Placement on a pro rata basis. That is your sole remedy in these circumstances.
9. No Guarantee of Traffic, Leads, or Results
We sell a published Listing and a position on a Buyer Guide. We do not sell traffic, impressions, leads, inquiries, rankings, search visibility, or business outcomes, and we make no representation about any of them. We do not guarantee that any particular number of people will view your Listing or Placement, that any inquiry will result, that any third-party search engine or AI system will index or cite your Listing, or that a Placement will produce any commercial return. No statement made by us in marketing material, correspondence, or conversation creates such a guarantee.
10. Buyer Inquiries and Data
Where a buyer submits an inquiry through your Claimed Listing, we pass their submission to the contact address you have configured. You are responsible for handling that person's information lawfully, including under applicable data protection law, and for honoring any request they make to you directly. Our own handling of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy. You must not use inquiry data for any purpose other than responding to the inquiry, and you must not add an inquirer to a marketing list without their consent.
11. Your Content and the Rights You Grant Us
You retain ownership of the content, logos, and images you submit. You grant CIOPages a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, reproduce, adapt for formatting, display, and distribute that content in the Directory, in Buyer Guides, in the AI directory assistant, in feeds and syndication of our content, and in reasonable promotion of the Directory, for as long as your Listing is published and for a reasonable period afterwards in archived material.
You warrant that you have the rights necessary to grant that license, that the content is accurate, and that it does not infringe the rights of any third party. You agree to indemnify CIOPages against any claim arising from content you supply.
12. Cancellation, Refunds, and Termination
12.1 Canceling
You may cancel at any time. Cancellation stops the next renewal. Your Claimed Listing and any Placement remain live until the end of the term you have paid for, after which the Listing reverts to an Unclaimed Listing maintained by our editors and the Placement is removed.
12.2 Refunds
Fees are non-refundable once we have approved and published your Claimed Listing, except where these Directory Terms expressly provide otherwise, namely Section 3.4 (competing claims) and Section 8.3 (retired guides). Because nothing is charged until we approve, you are never charged for something we did not publish.
12.3 Suspension and termination by us
We may suspend or terminate a Claimed Listing, remove a Placement, and cancel the associated subscription where you breach these Directory Terms, where content repeatedly fails the standards in Section 7, where we determine the claim was not authorized, where a payment fails or is charged back, or where continuing to publish would in our reasonable judgment mislead buyers. Where we terminate for breach, no refund is due. Where we terminate for reasons unrelated to your conduct, we will refund the unused portion of the term on a pro rata basis.
12.4 Chargebacks
If you initiate a chargeback rather than contacting us, we may remove the Listing and Placement and decline future purchases. Please contact us first. We would rather resolve it.
13. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability
The Directory and Buyer Guides are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We do not warrant that they will be uninterrupted, error free, or continuously available.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, CIOPages will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profit, revenue, business, goodwill, or anticipated savings, arising out of or in connection with these Directory Terms. Our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with these Directory Terms will not exceed the total fees you paid to us in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim. Nothing in these Directory Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law.
14. Changes to These Terms
We may update these Directory Terms. Where a change materially affects your rights, we will give at least thirty (30) days' notice by email to the address on your account so that you can take whatever action you consider necessary. The change takes effect at your next renewal, and continuing to hold a Claimed Listing after that date constitutes acceptance. If you do not accept a change, you may cancel before it takes effect.
15. General
These Directory Terms, together with the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between us on this subject matter. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remainder continues in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not transfer your rights under these Directory Terms without our written consent, including on a sale of your business, although we will not unreasonably withhold that consent. Governing law and dispute resolution are as set out in the Terms of Service.
16. Contact
For questions about these Directory Terms, to report an error in a Listing, to request removal of an Unclaimed Listing, or to raise a competing claim, please use our Contact Form or email support [at] ciopages [dot] com. Please include the company name and the Listing URL.