FragDNA / How the matching works

How the matching works

This page exists so you can judge how much to trust what you see here. It includes the parts that are weak.

Where matches come from

The pairings are compiled from what the alternative's own maker says it is inspired by, from published note breakdowns, and from what the fragrance community consistently reports. FragDNA does not chemically analyse anything and does not claim to.

What "shares its DNA" means

It means the two smell substantially alike according to the sources above. It does not mean identical, and it does not mean the same materials. Concentration, longevity, projection and how a scent develops on skin all vary — sometimes a lot. An alternative at a tenth of the price is rarely a tenth as good, and it is rarely the same either.

What we do not know

• We have not smelled every pairing.
• Batch variation is real, particularly on frequently-copied fragrances.
• Some matches rest on a single source.
• Prices change constantly, and the price shown may be out of date.

How the ranking is ordered

By price, and by what visitors report about accuracy. Nobody can pay to rank higher — see the affiliate disclosure.

Prices, and what the percentages mean

The price shown for an original is its list price — what the brand charges in its own boutique. Discounters and grey-market sellers often charge considerably less, so the real gap between an original and an alternative is usually smaller than the headline figure.

That is why the site says "97% below list price" rather than "save 97%". The first is a fact about a published price; the second would be a claim about what you would otherwise have paid, and we cannot support that until we hold checked prices from the shops we link to. Work on that is in progress.

Prices for alternatives are read from the shop's own catalogue and are dated. They still go stale — always check on the retailer's page before buying.

Ratings

Where a rating out of 5 is shown for an original, it is aggregated from public fragrance databases, not from FragDNA users. It is labelled as such wherever it appears.

Telling us we are wrong

Every match has a report link. If a pairing is wrong, or a price is stale, send it to marco@fragdna.com — a link to a source helps most. Corrections are made as fast as we can verify them.