Overview
Methodology for Region Pricing and Coverage Scoring on the Greenpixie Region Scorecard
Greenpixie publishes a region scorecard describing each cloud region offered by the providers in scope. This methodology sets out how two of those scores are produced. The pricing score records whether a region is expensive or inexpensive compared with the middle of its provider's own estate, and the coverage score records how much of the provider's catalogue a customer can actually buy there.
Both are derived only from prices as published by the provider. Neither contains an estimated component, and no customer usage or spend data is used at any point. The environmental scores on the same scorecard are produced under the Cloud methodology.
How the scores are produced
Prices cannot be averaged directly, because they arrive in units that will not add together. Regions also sell different mixes of products, so a region selling only inexpensive products would look inexpensive whatever its prices were. The method works around both problems in six steps.
Price list entries are grouped at the granularity of a single purchasable item, not a service family. One virtual machine type is its own product category, as is one storage tier.
Genuine price variation between regions of one provider stays below a factor of three. Where an entry differs from the consensus by orders of magnitude, it is measuring a different quantity, so it is removed.
A product category enters the basket only where the provider prices it in a large enough share of its regions to compare against, as set out in Section 6. Every region is then scored on that same basket, whatever else it does or does not sell.
Each price is divided by the median price for its product category. A ratio carries no unit, so an hour of compute and a gigabyte-month of storage become comparable quantities. A region's relative cost percentage is the median of its ratios across the basket, restated as a percentage difference from the median region, with every basket product category carrying equal weight.
Where a region prices too little of the basket for a median to be defensible, no cost score is published. The basket coverage percentage is published alongside every score so a reader can see how much evidence it rests on.
Coverage counts product categories against the provider's most complete region. Both percentages are placed in five bands using Jenks natural breaks, a clustering method that puts band boundaries where the data itself has gaps.
Start with the Introduction, or jump to any section from the sidebar.
1. Introduction
Purpose, audience, and context of the methodology.
2. Scope and Applicability
What is in scope, out of scope, and the evaluation boundary.
3. Definitions
Terms used throughout the methodology.
4. Methodology Overview
How the methodology works at a high level.
5. Inputs and Evidence Sources
The price data the scores are built from, and the errors it carries.
6. Eligibility, Selection, and Inclusion Logic
How prices are grouped, cleaned, and selected for scoring.
7. Assessment and Calculation
How the two percentages and their grades are calculated.
8. Monitoring, Updates, and Review Timing
How the scores are refreshed, and what changes between versions.
9. Quality Assurance and Oversight
Run-level diagnostics, calculation controls, and their limits.
10. Governance and Methodology Changes
Versioning and approval of methodology changes.
11. Outputs and Interpretation
Primary outputs, intended use, and interpretation guidance.
12. Related Documents
Documents and sources referenced by the methodology.
13. Notice on Intellectual Property and Permitted Use
IP notice and permitted use of this document.
Version 2.0, August 2026.