The re-test log

Most review sites quietly rewrite old pages and hope you never notice the tool they raved about last year is gone. We keep the receipts instead. Every addition, demotion, price correction, and removal lands in this log with a date and a reason. If this page goes quiet for months, hold us to it. The re-test dates printed on every stack page are promises, and this is where they're kept.

July 2026

• 2026-07-08: Site launch (Research Editions). Four stacks published: Freelance Writers, Solo Consultants, Real Estate Agents, Tradespeople. All labeled Research Edition, meaning picks based on feature analysis, real solo-tier pricing, and documented practitioner experience. First hands-on test cycle is underway; each page gets re-scored with logged results as its cycle completes. Comparisons published: Surfer vs Frase, Jasper vs Claude.
• 2026-07-09: Price corrections (Surfer, CompanyCam). Our price check caught two vendor changes: Surfer discontinued the $89 Essential plan (now Discovery ~$49 / Standard ~$99) and CompanyCam moved from ~$24/user to team plans from ~$63. Writer-stack math updated $141→$151; trades-stack math $85→$125. Original claims preserved here per our correction rule.
• 2026-07-09: Upheal pricing corrected same day it was published. Our therapists stack initially listed Upheal at "from ~$29/month"; the verified model is $1/session capped at ~$69/month. Corrected across the stack page, cheat sheet, and comparison within hours. Stack math updated to ~$70–135/month usage-based.
• 2026-07-09: Notion closed its affiliate program; our ranking didn't move. Notion stopped accepting new affiliates (terms had also changed to ~$50/signup + 20% of year one). Our Notion links now earn $0. Notion remains the pick in the Writers and Developers stacks and the Notion-vs-Coda verdict is unchanged. Commissions never touched the ranking on the way in, so losing one changes nothing on the way out. All labels and the Commission Table updated.
• 2026-07-21: Two comparisons published; Bonsai tier name corrected. Added eRank vs Marmalead and Bonsai vs HoneyBook, both Research Edition with vendor-page-verified pricing. While researching the latter we caught that Bonsai renamed its ~$25 tier from "Starter" to "Essentials" (price unchanged); the Solo Consultants and Freelance Developers pages and cheat sheets previously used the old name and now carry the current one.
• 2026-07-22: Surfer declined our affiliate application; the verdict doesn't move. Surfer's program (~25% recurring, the second-biggest payout on our list) declined us as a new site without traffic history. Result: our Surfer links now earn $0, exactly like our Claude links. The recommendation stays what it always was: in the writer stack, conditional, with the same skip rule ("skip unless SEO is ⅓+ of your income"). The Commission Table is updated. We'll reapply once traffic data exists; the ranking won't be waiting on it.

What counts as a loggable change

• Pick added or removed from any stack, with the head-to-head reasoning.
• Demotion: a pick that got worse (pricing, quality, support) and lost its slot or gained a warning.
• Research Edition → Tested upgrades, when a stack's hands-on cycle lands and editorial ratings become logged results.
• Price corrections: our monthly check catches vendor changes; corrections are noted here, not silently patched.
• Mistakes. When we get one wrong, the correction is logged with the original claim intact. Trust is built in exactly these moments.

Want these as they happen? The weekly email carries every log entry. Most weeks it says "no changes," and that line is the product working.