Selection rules
What qualifies as a record.
Start from an operator’s published terms, product documentation, a dated announcement or a named supplier case study. Inspect the actual text and identify the product, the entity or brand, the supplier role, the geography where stated, the effective-date information and the source publisher. Label a provider’s own description as such.
An icon, a copied press release or a checkout screenshot is insufficient to establish a named processor. Each row carries one primary classification for one specific assertion, and a platform or provider may appear more than once. Counts are descriptive of the selected rows, and coverage reflects the availability of identifiable English-language sources.
Role taxonomy
The five relationship types.
Relationship types, their meaning and an example record| Type | Meaning in this edition | Example |
|---|
| Embedded infrastructure | A participant documents infrastructure used in a named offering. | lightspeed-adyen |
|---|
| Named processor | The platform’s terms name the processor for the specified product. | jobber-stripe |
|---|
| Supported gateway | Platform documentation lists a compatible option. Merchant adoption is unresolved. | cloudbeds-windcave |
|---|
| Legacy integration | Documentation limits an integration to a pre-existing population. | lightspeed-tyro |
|---|
| Announced expansion | A participant announced a geographic or product expansion. Actual rollout may differ. | toast-adyen |
|---|
Copied sources
One origin counts once.
A single publisher can document different roles. Reprints or attributed quotes in one release do not supply independent corroboration. In this edition, two Cloudbeds records use the same supported-gateways document for two separate gateway options (cloudbeds-windcave and cloudbeds-authorizenet), so ten records rest on nine distinct source URLs. Where a provider describes its own work with a platform, the row says so.
Scope of review
What was and was not reviewed.
Edition 1.0 is a public-sources desk review. Each source was opened and read on the date in its record. No customer contracts, fees, exclusivity, revenues or transaction intent have been independently audited. The edition is prepared by Acquiry Market Maps; a named second reviewer has not been recorded for this edition, and we do not claim one.
Unknown status
Unknown is not “no”.
A missing supplier remains unknown. Lack of public evidence does not justify a negative assertion, so the map never records that a platform does not use a provider. Disputed and refuted values are kept distinct from supported and unknown ones.
Evidence that would change a classification
What would move a record.
Embedded infrastructure
A statement from the platform that the provider is not, or is no longer, the infrastructure for that product, or a source for a different provider in the same offering.
Named processor
A later version of the platform’s terms that names a different processor, or removes the naming.
Supported gateway
Removal from the platform’s gateway list, or a platform statement that the option is available only on request.
Legacy integration
Documentation showing the integration is open to new accounts, or that it has been retired.
Announced expansion
A dated provider or platform statement that the expansion launched, was delayed or was cancelled.
Data dictionary
Every field, defined.
One UTF-8, comma-delimited record per scoped assertion. The first row contains column names.
Data dictionary| Field | Meaning |
|---|
| record_id | Stable lower-case identifier, also the HTML row anchor. |
|---|
| platform | Publicly named software platform. This may be a brand. |
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| product_scope | Product, segment or geography to which the assertion applies. |
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| provider | Publicly disclosed supplier or integration option. Brand names do not imply a specific contracting entity. |
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| relationship_type | One of the five classifications defined in METHODOLOGY.md. |
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| time_scope | Effective or announced time if disclosed. Otherwise this says when documentation was checked. |
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| evidence | Acquiry’s summary of the limited, source-supported assertion. |
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| source_title | Human-readable primary source label. |
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| source_url | Direct public source for the specific record. |
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| checked_on | Calendar date on which the source was inspected, in YYYY-MM-DD format. |
|---|
Reproduce it
Check the counts yourself.
Count each distinct record_id once. Group relationship_type to reproduce the five category totals. Count distinct platform, provider and source_url values for the other three figures. The data supports neither market-share estimates nor time-series adoption estimates.
Updating the record
How corrections and new editions work.
Record IDs stay stable when a record’s text is corrected. Each correction is logged publicly with the old interpretation, the new interpretation, the affected edition, the source, the reviewer and the date. If a relationship is replaced by a different one, the original ID is retired and the new relationship gets a new ID. Underlying data changes produce a new archive edition and the earlier citable snapshot is kept. A refreshed retrieval date alone does not change the research cut-off.
See corrections and changes, the edition 1.0 manifest, or send a correction.