Get involved · Founding panel
The Founding Trades Testing Panel
We publish evidence levels on every verdict, and the highest level, hands-on tested, needs real tradespeople using tools on real jobs. We're recruiting the founding panel now. It is starting from scratch, so there are no existing members or published panel findings yet. Joining does not guarantee payment, free products or publication, but it gives you a chance to shape how we test and report on tools.
What the panel is
The Builder's Verdict labels how much testing sits behind every conclusion. A desk assessment (checked pricing, official documentation, attributed public user evidence) is honest, but it isn't the same as a plumber running a tool on a boiler swap or a sparky raising a certificate on site. The Founding Trades Testing Panel is how we close that gap: a group of real UK tradespeople who trial software and trade tools on real work and report back, so we can publish tested verdicts instead of desk ones.
“Founding” is literal. We're building the panel from scratch, in the open, and we won't claim members or findings we don't have. If you join early, you shape how the testing works.
Who can join
Working UK tradespeople and trade-business owners: builders, electricians, plumbers, heating engineers, joiners, decorators, groundworkers and the rest. Sole traders and teams both welcome. You don't need to be a gadget person or a fast typist; you need to do the work and be willing to say honestly whether a tool helped or got in the way.
What matters more than your trade is your honesty. We'd rather have ten people who tell us a popular tool is a pain than a hundred who tell us what they think we want to hear.
What taking part might involve
Structured trials
Run a specific workflow (quote to invoice, say) on a trial account and tell us where it helped or fought you.
Real-job testing
Use a tool on live jobs for a few weeks and report what held up and what didn't, on site and in the office.
Short questionnaires
Answer focused questions about tools you already use, so we can weight our verdicts against real experience.
Sense-checks
Read a draft verdict and tell us whether it matches reality for your trade before it goes live.
We'll always tell you what a specific task involves before you agree to it, and you can decline any of it. Taking part in one thing never commits you to the next.
The honesty rules, for you and for us
Your opinions must be honest
The only thing we ever want is what you actually found. Positive, negative or 'it depends', it's all useful. We'll never coach an answer.
Independent evidence stays separate from vendor claims
Your hands-on findings are published as independent user evidence. Anything a supplier tells us is labelled as vendor information. We never blend the two.
Commercial relationships are always disclosed
If a supplier gave free access or a unit for a test, we say so on the page. If we ever earn commission from a link, it's disclosed and it never changes a verdict.
Membership guarantees nothing
No guaranteed payment, no guaranteed free products, no guarantee your feedback gets published. If that changes for a specific task, we'll tell you up front.
Your privacy, and how findings get used
You control your visibility. Feedback can be credited by name and trade, credited anonymously (“a Kent electrician”), or kept entirely private and used only to inform a verdict. You choose per piece of feedback, and you can withdraw a quote before it's published.
We'll only ask for the details a given task genuinely needs, we won't pass your contact details to suppliers without your say-so, and expressing interest doesn't sign you up to marketing. It just starts a conversation with the editor.
Questions before you get in touch
Do I get paid, or get the software free?
Not automatically. Membership does not guarantee payment, free products or that anything you say gets published. Where a supplier provides free access or a test unit for a specific piece of testing, we'll tell you and we'll disclose it publicly on any resulting page. We will never ask you to say something positive in exchange for anything.
Will my name appear on the site?
Only if you want it to. You can be credited by name and trade, credited anonymously (e.g. 'a Kent electrician'), or kept entirely private. You choose per piece of feedback, and you can withdraw a quote before it's published.
How much time does it take?
As much or as little as you offer. Some testing is a 20-minute structured trial of one workflow; some is using a tool on real jobs for a few weeks and reporting back. We'll always tell you what a specific task involves before you commit to it, and you can say no to any of it.
What do you do with supplier-provided information?
We keep it clearly separate from your independent experience. Supplier claims are labelled as vendor information; your hands-on findings are labelled as independent user evidence. The two never get blended, because the whole point of the panel is evidence a vendor can't manufacture.
Put your name down for the founding panel
No form to fill in and no account to make. Tell us your trade, roughly where you are, and what you'd be happy to help test. A human, the editor, reads every message and replies, usually within a working day.
The Builder's Verdict is independent. Joining the panel never obliges you to anything, and your honest verdict is the only thing we ever want from it.