Most free Mangal Dosha checkers only tell you if Mars sits in the affliction houses — not whether it's actually cancelled. Here are the real classical cancellation rules.
✦ See Your Real Compatibility ReportMangal Dosha (also called Kuja Dosha or "Manglik" status) looks at whether Mars occupies the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, or 12th house from the Ascendant, Moon, or Venus. Different classical texts use slightly different house-sets, which is itself a common source of disagreement between tools.
A raw "Mars is in the 7th house" result, with nothing else checked, overstates the affliction in a large share of real charts. Classical cancellation (Mangal Dosha Bhanga) conditions include: Mars in its own sign (Aries/Scorpio) or exalted (Capricorn), Mars aspected by Jupiter, Mars in the affliction house but in a friendly sign, and — importantly — both charts in a matching sharing the same affliction, which is itself treated as a mutual cancellation in most traditions.
A binary "Manglik: Yes/No" result is easy to build and easy to market, but it skips the cancellation check entirely — which means a huge share of "Manglik" results shown online are technically overstated relative to classical rules.
Even an uncancelled Mangal Dosha isn't static — Mars's current dasha period, and whether Mars is currently well or poorly placed by transit, both affect how strongly the affliction is actually expressing in someone's life right now, versus sitting dormant.
House placement (which houses, from which reference points), explicit cancellation checks against classical exceptions, current dasha context, and — for compatibility specifically — whether both charts share a similar affliction, which changes the picture entirely rather than simply doubling the concern.