How We Test Trade Software

Every review and comparison on TradeStack HQ is built from evidence you can check. This page explains exactly what we do before we publish, the three levels of evidence we use, what we have and have not tested ourselves, and how we correct mistakes. If a page doesn’t meet the standard set out here, tell us and we will fix it.

Some links on this page are affiliate links, we may earn a commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.

In short

We check every price against the provider’s own UK pricing page and date it. Where we have run a tool ourselves, we say so and show what we found. Where we haven’t, we say that too. We never claim hands-on testing we haven’t done, we don’t take payment for verdicts, and our recommendations sometimes favour tools we earn nothing from.

Our Three Levels of Evidence

Not every page is built on the same depth of evidence, so we label it. You will see one of these three levels described on our reviews and comparisons.

✓ Hands-on tested

We signed up and used the software ourselves. We take a free trial and run our standard test job through it from quote to job to certificate to invoice, wherever the software allows, then record what worked and what went wrong, with dates.

Tested so far: Tradify, Jobber, Sage Accounting and VioTrade with the full test job, between August and September 2026, plus Traddie, where we built a quote and tested the customer accept flow in August 2026. You can see the full results in We Tested 4 UK Trade Apps on the Same Job.

Pricing and features checked

We checked the facts against the provider’s own sources, but haven’t used the product on a job. Prices come from the company’s UK pricing page on the date shown. Features come from its official feature pages, help centre and terms. Most of our head-to-head comparisons include at least one tool at this level, and each page says clearly which tool we have and haven’t tested.

Researched from listings

For tools and kit, such as testers, radios, dash cams and tool storage, we compare manufacturer specifications and UK retailer listings. We have not hands-on tested these products, so we only state what the manufacturer or listing confirms, and each guide says so in its “How we chose” note.

Our Standard Test Job

To compare software fairly, every tool gets the same job: a consumer unit upgrade for a fictional customer at a Harrogate address. The quote has three lines, a 10-way dual RCD consumer unit (£95 cost with a 25% markup, so £118.75 to the customer), £280 of labour and £120 for testing, the Electrical Installation Certificate and Part P, which comes to £622.50 including VAT.

We then take that quote as far as each tool allows:

Quote: are the line maths, markup and VAT right, and what does the customer actually see?
Job: does the accepted quote turn into a job without re-typing?
Certificate: is there a proper UK certificate, such as a full BS 7671 EIC, and does it pre-fill?
Invoice: do deposits, balances and CIS deductions add up to the penny?
Account: what currency are you billed in, what does the trial need, and what happens when it ends?

No real customer is ever contacted, and we only use test data. This is how we found, for example, that a 30% deposit in Tradify came out 2p over the quote through VAT rounding, and that Jobber bills UK accounts in US dollars.

How We Check Prices

Only the provider’s own UK pricing page. Never third-party price lists, unless the company doesn’t publish prices, in which case we say so and label any outside figure as unconfirmed (Commusoft is an example).
Dated. Every comparison says the month the prices were checked.
Like for like. We note whether prices include VAT, whether they are per user or per business, and whether they are billed in pounds or US dollars.
Offers kept separate. Introductory discounts are mentioned, but cost comparisons use the standard price, because that is what you pay once the offer ends.
Re-checked. When a price changes, we update every page that mentions it, not just one.

What We Never Do

Claim we have tested something hands-on when we haven’t.
Accept payment for a review, a verdict or a ranking, or run sponsored placements dressed up as advice.
Invent ratings, customer reviews, quotes or statistics.
Present a made-up expert or tradesperson as the author. Pages are published by TradeStack HQ.
Let a company approve or change a verdict before it goes live.

How We Use AI

We use AI to help draft guides so we can cover every trade properly, not just the most popular ones. AI never decides a verdict and is never the source of a fact. Every price, feature claim and recommendation is checked by hand against the provider’s own sources before publishing, and hands-on findings come from our own test accounts.

Affiliate Links and Independence

TradeStack HQ is free to read and is funded by affiliate links: if you sign up through some of our links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Pages tell you when we have no deal with a company, and the commission never changes the verdict. On our Jobber vs Powered Now comparison, for example, the only sign-up button is for Jobber, but our verdict is that Powered Now suits most UK trades better.

Talking to Software Companies

We sometimes contact founders and companies to check facts or report problems we found in testing. When we told VioTrade its AI had priced a full day of electrician labour at £35, the founder fixed it within a day, and we updated our review to say so. Companies can point out factual errors, but they never see or approve a verdict before it is published.

Corrections and Updates

When we get something wrong, we fix it and, where it matters, say what changed on the page. Recent examples:

Tradify gas certificates: an earlier version of our gas engineer review said Tradify had no gas certificate templates. Tradify now lists them, and the review says so openly.
ServiceM8 features (October 2026): we corrected claims that ServiceM8 lacked two-way texting, AI tools and online quote approval, after checking its own site and help centre.
ServiceM8 on Android (October 2026): we added that a fuller Android app has been in beta since August 2026.
Xero price rise (September 2026): when Xero Ignite went from £16 to £18 a month, we updated all 30 mentions across nine pages.

Spotted something out of date or wrong? Email hello@tradestackhq.com or use our contact page, and we will check it against the source and fix it.