Trackdesk

Name: Trackdesk
Brand: Trackdesk
Price: 329 USD

A managed affiliate platform with automated payouts on four rails, priced for programs that already work

Trackdesk is affiliate, referral, and partner program software that tracks conversions through direct links, coupon codes, ad clicks, and server-to-server postbacks across 900-plus integrations including Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee, Shopify, and WooCommerce, runs a fully white-label affiliate portal on your own domain, supports multi-level structures, and executes bulk automated payouts through PayPal, Wise, Tipalti, and cryptocurrency, priced on a flat subscription banded by program revenue.

Visit website

Overview

Trackdesk handles both jobs this category covers. It runs affiliate programs, where you recruit partners who promote for commission, and it runs referral and partner programs where the referrer is a customer or an allied business. What separates it from most of the tools a small business shortlists is that it was designed for programs that already work rather than for founders testing whether affiliates are worth trying.

The company was founded in Prague in 2022, has grown to roughly 22 people, and reached about $2.4 million of revenue in 2025 without raising any outside capital. That profile matters: a bootstrapped 22-person company with real revenue behind it is a materially safer dependency than a solo-founder side project, and it has not been through the acquisition churn that Refersion, Tapfiliate, and LeadDyno have.

Feature depth is the strongest argument. Four tracking methods including server-to-server postbacks, 900-plus integrations, MLM and multi-level structures, an AI commission advisor, a postback assistant, revenue intelligence, an MCP server, and full white-label with a custom domain. The payout side is where it genuinely pulls ahead: bulk automated payouts through PayPal, Wise, Tipalti, and cryptocurrency in BTC and ETH, executed in one click rather than exported as a file for you to process.

Pricing is the reason many small businesses will pass. Business is $329 a month for programs up to $30,000 of monthly revenue, Enterprise is $499 with unlimited revenue and the full white-label and API access, and Enterprise Plus starts at $1,199 for custom development and private infrastructure. There is a 14-day assisted trial with the same support level as a paid plan, but no free tier. Against PromoteKit at $29 or GoAffPro at nothing, that is a large gap to justify.

Best for

Established affiliate programs that have outgrown a $49 tool, companies paying international partners who need Wise, Tipalti, or crypto rails rather than PayPal alone, and teams that want a genuinely white-label partner experience with vendor support on Slack rather than a documentation site.

Not the right fit for

Founders launching a first affiliate program; $329 a month before you have proved the channel works is indefensible when PromoteKit is $29 and GoAffPro is free.
Small programs under a few thousand dollars a month of affiliate revenue; the cost per tracked dollar at that scale is worse than anything else in this category.
Buyers who need full white-label and API access on the entry tier; both sit on the $499 Enterprise plan, so the real price for a branded program is higher than the headline.
Anyone whose only requirement is Stripe subscription commission math; Rewardful and FirstPromoter do that specific job well for a sixth of the price.
Companies that need US W-9 collection and 1099 filing handled for them; Trackdesk automates the payments but the tax package is not a marketed capability the way it is on Tolt, LeadDyno, and GrowSurf.

How it works

1
You connect Trackdesk to your billing or commerce platform through one of 900-plus integrations covering Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee, Shopify, WooCommerce, HubSpot, and Zapier, or through server-to-server postbacks for anything custom. The postback assistant helps configure the S2S path, which is normally the fiddliest part of any affiliate setup.
2
Affiliates are recruited into a portal that is fully white-label on the Enterprise tier and runs on your own domain, with custom onboarding flows, custom landing pages, and custom dashboard messaging. Unlimited affiliate partners are allowed on every plan.
3
Attribution runs on four paths simultaneously: direct linking, affiliate discount coupons that need no click, ad click tracking, and server-to-server postbacks that fire from your own backend. Commission rules cover recurring commissions, multi-level structures, and location-targeted variations, with an AI commission advisor suggesting rates and revenue intelligence surfacing which partners are actually worth more.
4
At payout time Trackdesk executes bulk payments in one click through PayPal, Wise, Tipalti, or cryptocurrency, rather than producing a file for you to run. Fraud detection screens conversions before they become payable, and error logs plus real-time reporting mean discrepancies get found rather than discovered by an angry affiliate.

Feature breakdown

25 features in 4 modules

Tracking and attribution

Four attribution methods including the one most small tools skip.

Direct link tracking: Standard tracked referral links with configurable attribution windows, tied back to conversions in your billing or commerce platform.
Coupon code attribution: Affiliate discount coupons attribute on redemption with no click required, with 100 tracked coupons on the Business tier and unlimited above it.
Server-to-server postbacks: Conversions fire from your own backend rather than from a browser, which is immune to ad blockers, cookie restrictions, and client-side tracking loss. This is the most reliable attribution method available and most cheap tools do not offer it.
Postback assistant: Guided configuration for the S2S path, which is normally the part of an affiliate integration that consumes the most engineering time.
Ad click tracking: Attribution for affiliates driving paid traffic, so partners running their own campaigns can measure and optimise properly.
Unlimited clicks and conversions: No traffic or conversion meter on any plan, so a successful campaign never generates an overage bill.
Location targeting: Route and attribute differently by geography, which matters for programs whose economics vary sharply between markets.

Commissions and program structure

Deep enough for partner programs, with AI assistance layered on.

Recurring commissions: Partners keep earning as a referred subscription renews rather than being paid once, which is the baseline requirement for any SaaS program.
Multi-level and MLM structures: Commission flows upward through partners who recruited other partners, supported natively rather than approximated with workarounds.
Multiple active offers: Ten active offers on the Business tier and unlimited on Enterprise, so different partner cohorts and campaigns run different terms in one account.
AI commission advisor: Suggests commission rates based on your program data rather than leaving you to guess what an affiliate is worth, which is the question most program owners get wrong.
Revenue intelligence: Analysis of which partners, offers, and geographies actually produce profitable revenue rather than just volume.
Fraud detection and prevention: Conversions are screened before becoming payable, covering the self-referral and abusive-traffic patterns that drain small programs quietly.

Payouts

The strongest payout story in this category, and the clearest reason to pay the premium.

Bulk automated payouts: Payments are executed by the platform in one click rather than exported as a batch file for you to process, which removes the monthly chore entirely.
PayPal and Wise: The two standard rails, with Wise giving materially better foreign-exchange rates for international partners than PayPal.
Tipalti: Mass payment infrastructure for programs paying large numbers of partners across many countries, which is a genuinely enterprise-grade option to find at this price.
Cryptocurrency payouts: Bitcoin and Ethereum payments, which no other product in this comparison set offers and which matters for programs with affiliates in jurisdictions where conventional rails are difficult.
One-click payment processing: The whole payout run is a single action rather than a sequence of exports, uploads, and reconciliations.

Affiliate portal and platform

White label done properly, plus a developer surface that is unusually current.

Full white-label portal: On the Enterprise tier the partner experience carries no Trackdesk branding at all, including onboarding flows and landing pages.
Custom domain: The affiliate portal and tracking run on your own domain, which improves both partner credibility and first-party tracking survival.
Custom onboarding and landing pages: The affiliate signup and activation experience can be designed rather than accepted, which affects how many recruited partners ever post a link.
Native email messaging: Communicate with affiliates from inside the platform, including custom messages in their dashboard, rather than exporting a list into a separate email tool.
MCP server: A Model Context Protocol endpoint so AI assistants can work with the affiliate program directly. Only Trackdesk and GrowSurf ship one in this category.
Full API access: Available on the Enterprise tier for programmatic partner provisioning, conversion posting, and data extraction.
Error logs and report export: Visibility into failed tracking calls and exportable reporting, which is how attribution disputes get resolved rather than argued about.

Use cases

4 documented

Program paying 300 affiliates across 40 countries

PayPal cannot reach a meaningful share of the partner list, foreign-exchange losses are eating into what affiliates actually receive, and the monthly payout run takes a full day.

Bulk automated payouts through Wise, Tipalti, and cryptocurrency reach partners PayPal cannot, and the whole run becomes one click rather than a day of exports and reconciliation.

Company losing conversions to ad blockers and cookie restrictions

Affiliates complain that conversions they can see in their own analytics never appear in the program, and client-side tracking is the reason.

Server-to-server postbacks fire from the company's own backend and are immune to browser-side loss, with the postback assistant handling the configuration and error logs surfacing any failures.

Brand that wants partners to see no third-party vendor

The affiliate program is a strategic channel and the partner experience currently looks like a hosted tool with a logo pasted on it.

The Enterprise tier's full white label on a custom domain, with custom onboarding, landing pages, and dashboard messaging, makes the program indistinguishable from an in-house build.

Established program that has outgrown a cheap tool

Affiliate revenue passed $30,000 a month, the incumbent has no multi-level support, no S2S tracking, and no automated payouts, and the program is now too important to run on it.

Enterprise at $499 with unlimited program revenue, unlimited offers, full API, and priority support over Zoom and Slack replaces the tool and the manual processes around it in one move.

Pricing

from $329/mo (Business)

Flat monthly subscription banded by monthly program revenue on the entry tier and unlimited above it. Unlimited clicks, conversions, and affiliates on every plan, with no percentage of affiliate-driven revenue published.

Plan	Price	Includes
Business	$329 per month	Up to $30,000 per month of program revenue 5 seats and 10 active offers 100 tracked coupons Unlimited clicks, conversions, and affiliates Standard support via chat and email The revenue cap is the real constraint, and full white label, custom domain, and API access are not included here, which makes this tier harder to justify than it first looks.
Enterprise	$499 per month	Unlimited program revenue, seats, and active offers Full white label and custom domain Full API access Priority support over Zoom and Slack Marked most popular and realistically the tier to price, since it is only $170 more and removes every meaningful limit including the revenue cap.
Enterprise Plus	$1,199+ per month	Custom development and roadmap influence Private infrastructure environment Dedicated account manager For programs with workflows outside the standard product; published as a starting price rather than a fixed one.

Plan

Price

Includes

Business

$329

per month

Up to $30,000 per month of program revenue
5 seats and 10 active offers
100 tracked coupons
Unlimited clicks, conversions, and affiliates
Standard support via chat and email

The revenue cap is the real constraint, and full white label, custom domain, and API access are not included here, which makes this tier harder to justify than it first looks.

Enterprise

$499

per month

Unlimited program revenue, seats, and active offers
Full white label and custom domain
Full API access
Priority support over Zoom and Slack

Marked most popular and realistically the tier to price, since it is only $170 more and removes every meaningful limit including the revenue cap.

Enterprise Plus

$1,199+

per month

Custom development and roadmap influence
Private infrastructure environment
Dedicated account manager

For programs with workflows outside the standard product; published as a starting price rather than a fixed one.

Billing notes

No percentage of affiliate-driven revenue is published on any tier, so the subscription is the cost. The Business tier gates on program revenue instead, capping at $30,000 a month.
Unlimited clicks, conversions, and affiliate partners on every plan, so neither traffic volume nor partner count drives cost.
The gap between Business and Enterprise is only $170 but the feature gap is large: full white label, custom domain, full API, unlimited revenue, and priority support all sit on Enterprise. Price Enterprise, not Business.
There is no free tier. The 14-day trial is assisted, with the same 24/7 AI chat, email, and live chat support as a paid plan.
Enterprise Plus is published as a starting price rather than a fixed one.
Prices verified on the vendor pricing page as of August 2026.

Value assessment: At $10,000 of monthly affiliate-driven revenue Trackdesk costs $329, which is by far the worst cost-per-tracked-dollar in this category: PromoteKit does the Stripe version for $29, GoAffPro does the ecommerce version for nothing, and Rewardful does it for $99. At $100,000 you exceed the Business tier's $30,000 revenue cap and move to Enterprise at $499, and the comparison flips: Refersion would cost $2,199, UpPromote $1,199.99, and ReferralCandy $1,749 at that volume, so Trackdesk is suddenly the cheaper managed option. It is still more than Post Affiliate Pro at $139 or Tapfiliate at $179, but those tools do not execute payouts on four rails, do not offer server-to-server tracking with an assistant, and do not put a support team on Slack with you. The honest summary is that Trackdesk is priced for programs above roughly $30,000 a month and is poor value below that.

Strengths & limitations

Strengths

The best payout capability in this category: bulk automated payments executed by the platform across PayPal, Wise, Tipalti, and cryptocurrency, in one click.
Server-to-server postback tracking with a guided assistant, which is immune to ad blockers and cookie restrictions and which most tools at any price do not offer.
Four attribution methods running simultaneously, so link loss, coupon promotion, and paid traffic are all covered.
900-plus integrations spanning Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee, Shopify, WooCommerce, HubSpot, and Zapier, so it is genuinely platform-agnostic across SaaS and ecommerce.
Full white label on a custom domain with custom onboarding and landing pages, producing a partner experience indistinguishable from an in-house build.
No percentage taken from affiliate-driven revenue, and unlimited clicks, conversions, and affiliates on every plan.
Bootstrapped, 22 people, roughly $2.4 million of revenue, no outside capital and no acquisition history, which is a stable profile for software that decides who gets paid.
An MCP server and AI commission advisor, which puts it ahead of most of the category on current tooling rather than behind it.

Limitations

The entry price of $329 is the highest in this comparison set and rules Trackdesk out entirely for anyone testing whether affiliates work.
There is no free tier, only a 14-day trial, in a category where GoAffPro, PromoteKit, UpPromote, and Refersion all offer permanent free plans.
Full white label, custom domain, and API access are held back to the $499 Enterprise tier, so the Business plan is a partial product at a full price.
The Business tier's $30,000 monthly program revenue cap means a growing program hits an upgrade whether or not it needs the extra features.
US tax form collection and 1099 filing are not marketed capabilities, so despite the sophisticated payout rails the compliance work stays with you.
Enterprise Plus is published as a starting price, so the top of the range is less transparent than the rest.
No affiliate marketplace or partner discovery network, so recruitment remains entirely your problem at every price point.

Head-to-head comparisons

5 alternatives

Trackdesk vs Post Affiliate Pro

from $89/mo (Starter), promotionally $60/mo

Both are platform-agnostic, deep, and take no percentage of revenue, and Post Affiliate Pro is dramatically cheaper at $139 for a million tracked events against Trackdesk's $329 to $499. What Trackdesk buys you is the modern half: automated multi-rail payouts, server-to-server tracking with an assistant, an MCP server, and support on Slack, all wrapped in an interface built this decade. Post Affiliate Pro goes deeper on commission structures and costs a third as much. Take Post Affiliate Pro on price and structural depth, Trackdesk on payouts and experience.

Full Trackdesk vs Post Affiliate Pro comparison

Trackdesk vs Tapfiliate

from $89/mo (Launch)

Tapfiliate gives you white label, a custom domain, and platform-agnostic tracking for $89 to $179 with no revenue cap, which undercuts Trackdesk substantially for the same core job. Trackdesk answers with server-to-server tracking, four-rail automated payouts including Tipalti and crypto, MLM support, and 900-plus integrations against Tapfiliate's thirty. If your program is straightforward, Tapfiliate wins on price. If payouts and tracking reliability are the problems you are actually paying to solve, Trackdesk is the tool.

Full Trackdesk vs Tapfiliate comparison

Trackdesk vs PromoteKit

from $0 (Free), then $29/mo (Pro)

The two extremes of this category. PromoteKit is $29 a month for a Stripe-only affiliate program with a branded portal and no revenue clip; Trackdesk is $329 to $499 for a managed platform with four tracking methods, four payout rails, and a support team on Slack. A founder launching a first program should be on PromoteKit and nowhere near Trackdesk. A program doing $50,000 a month across many countries has genuinely outgrown PromoteKit and Trackdesk is a reasonable destination.

Full Trackdesk vs PromoteKit comparison

Trackdesk vs FirstPromoter

from $49/mo (Starter)

FirstPromoter starts at $49, connects natively to Stripe, Paddle, Recurly, Chargebee, and Braintree, and offers three-level sub-affiliate commissions and eighteen report types, covering most of what a SaaS program needs for a sixth of Trackdesk's price. Trackdesk's advantages are server-to-server tracking, automated payouts across four rails, ecommerce breadth, and full white label on a custom domain. Subscription-only programs should price FirstPromoter first and only move to Trackdesk when payouts or tracking reliability become the binding constraint.

Full Trackdesk vs FirstPromoter comparison

Trackdesk vs Reditus

from $99/mo (Growth)

Reditus solves recruitment by listing your program to a curated network of more than 26,000 B2B SaaS affiliates for $99 a month plus 2% to 5% on automated payouts. Trackdesk solves everything except recruitment, and does it at $329 to $499 with no revenue clip. They are complementary rather than competitive: if your portal is configured but empty, Reditus is the fix, and if you have partners but the tracking and payouts are creaking, Trackdesk is.

Full Trackdesk vs Reditus comparison

Implementation & onboarding

Setup time: A few days for a supported integration, longer if you use the server-to-server path, which is the more reliable option and the one worth the extra effort. The postback assistant and the assisted trial materially shorten this compared with configuring S2S tracking unaided.
Learning curve: Moderate to high. The product exposes more surface than a Stripe-native tool, particularly around tracking methods, offers, and multi-level structures, but the AI commission advisor and postback assistant take the edge off the two hardest decisions.
Onboarding: Self-serve signup with a 14-day assisted trial carrying the same support as a paid plan, including 24/7 AI chat, email, and live chat during office hours. Enterprise adds priority support over Zoom and Slack, and Enterprise Plus adds a dedicated account manager.
Migration notes: The 900-plus integration library and server-to-server option make Trackdesk unusually tolerant of an existing setup, and the assisted trial is designed for exactly this: run it in parallel with an incumbent and compare attribution before switching. Tracking links change, so an established program means reissuing links or configuring redirects. Coupon codes carry over more cleanly since they live in your billing or commerce platform.

Platform, API & security

Platforms: Web appWhite-label affiliate portalCustom domainJavaScript trackingServer-to-server postbacksREST API on Enterprise
API: Full API access on the Enterprise tier for partner provisioning, conversion posting, and data extraction, plus server-to-server postbacks, webhooks, and an MCP server for AI assistants.
Compliance: GDPR (EU-based operator, Czech Republic)
Data residency: Hosted on Google Cloud across multiple geographically independent locations, with a published 99.99% uptime guarantee.
SSO: Not published as a standard self-serve feature; seat counts are five on Business and unlimited on Enterprise.
Security notes: Fraud detection and prevention screens conversions before they become payable. Server-to-server tracking removes dependence on browser-side cookies entirely, which is both a reliability and a privacy improvement. Error logs give visibility into failed tracking calls, which is how attribution disputes are resolved with evidence rather than argument.

Support & resources

Channels: 24/7 AI chatEmail supportLive chat during office hoursPriority support over Zoom and Slack on EnterpriseDedicated account manager on Enterprise Plus
Documentation: Documentation covering the integration library, server-to-server postback configuration, offer and commission setup, white-label configuration, and the payout rails.
Community: No large official user forum; the vendor publishes affiliate program guides and operates a partner-facing blog.

Company

Founded: 2022
Headquarters: Prague, Czech Republic
Ownership: Privately held and bootstrapped
Employees: Approximately 22 (2026), up from around 12 in 2023
Funding: No venture capital or outside funding raised. Reported revenue of approximately $2.4 million in 2025, four years after launch.

Timeline

2022Founded in Prague as an affiliate tracking platform aimed at programs that had outgrown lightweight tools, bootstrapped without outside capital.
2023Builds out the integration library and adds server-to-server postback tracking with a guided assistant, targeting the attribution loss caused by ad blockers and cookie restrictions.
2024Ships bulk automated payouts across PayPal, Wise, Tipalti, and cryptocurrency, moving from calculating commissions to executing payments.
2025Reaches roughly $2.4 million of revenue with a team of about 22, still without raising outside funding, and passes 900 integrations.
2026Adds an AI commission advisor, revenue intelligence, and an MCP server, with Business at $329 for programs up to $30,000 a month and Enterprise at $499 with unlimited revenue and full white label.

Integrations

Stripe
Paddle
Chargebee
Shopify
WooCommerce
HubSpot
Zapier
PayPal (automated payouts)
Wise (automated payouts)
Tipalti (mass payouts)
Cryptocurrency payouts in BTC and ETH
900-plus integrations in total
Server-to-server postbacks, REST API, and MCP server

Frequently asked questions

11 questions

What is Trackdesk?

Trackdesk is affiliate, referral, and partner program software. It covers both jobs in this category: recruiting affiliates who promote for commission, and running referral or partner programs where the referrer is a customer or an allied business. It tracks conversions four different ways, runs a white-label partner portal on your own domain, and executes bulk automated payouts across PayPal, Wise, Tipalti, and cryptocurrency.

How much does Trackdesk cost?

Business is $329 a month for programs up to $30,000 of monthly revenue, with 5 seats, 10 active offers, and 100 tracked coupons. Enterprise is $499 with unlimited program revenue, seats, and offers plus full white label, custom domain, and full API access. Enterprise Plus starts at $1,199. There is a 14-day assisted trial and no free plan.

Does Trackdesk take a percentage of my affiliate revenue?

No percentage clip is published on any tier. The Business plan instead gates on program revenue, capping at $30,000 a month, and Enterprise removes that cap entirely. So the subscription is the cost, which puts Trackdesk in the same structural camp as Tapfiliate and Post Affiliate Pro rather than Refersion or UpPromote.

What would Trackdesk cost me at $10,000 and $100,000 of monthly affiliate revenue?

At $10,000 a month you are inside the Business tier's cap, so $329. At $100,000 you exceed the $30,000 cap and move to Enterprise at $499. That $499 compares well against Refersion at $2,199 and UpPromote at $1,199.99 on the same revenue, and badly against Post Affiliate Pro at $139 or Tapfiliate at $179. Trackdesk is expensive for small programs and reasonable for large ones.

Which billing systems and platforms does Trackdesk support?

More than 900 integrations, including Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee, Shopify, WooCommerce, HubSpot, and Zapier, plus server-to-server postbacks for anything custom. Notably Paddle is natively supported, so a merchant-of-record setup does not break tracking the way it does with tools that only read your own store's orders.

Does a merchant-of-record setup break Trackdesk tracking?

Less than it breaks most tools here. Paddle is on the native integration list, and the server-to-server postback path means you can fire a conversion from your own backend regardless of where the checkout happened. That combination makes Trackdesk one of the better options for merchant-of-record sellers, alongside Rewardful and FirstPromoter.

What is server-to-server tracking and why does it matter?

Instead of a browser reporting a conversion, your own backend posts it to Trackdesk directly. That makes attribution immune to ad blockers, browser cookie restrictions, and client-side script failures, which are the three reasons affiliates most often complain that conversions went missing. Very few tools in this price range offer it, and Trackdesk includes a postback assistant to configure it.

Does Trackdesk pay affiliates for me?

Yes, and this is the strongest reason to pay its premium. Bulk payouts are executed by the platform in one click across PayPal, Wise, Tipalti, and cryptocurrency in BTC and ETH, rather than exported as a file for you to process. Wise and Tipalti in particular reach partners that PayPal-only tools cannot, and crypto payouts are unique to Trackdesk in this comparison set.

Does Trackdesk handle US affiliate tax forms and 1099 filing?

Not as a marketed capability. Despite the sophisticated payout rails, W-9 collection and 1099 filing are not advertised the way they are on Tolt, LeadDyno, and GrowSurf. If US tax compliance is a significant part of what you want to outsource, confirm the current position directly before buying, and compare against those three.

Can I brand the affiliate portal and put it on my own domain?

Yes, but only on the $499 Enterprise tier. Full white label and custom domain are not included on the $329 Business plan, which is the main reason to price Enterprise rather than Business. On Enterprise the partner experience carries no Trackdesk branding at all, including custom onboarding flows, landing pages, and dashboard messaging.

Who makes Trackdesk?

Trackdesk was founded in Prague, Czech Republic in 2022 and is privately held and bootstrapped, with no venture capital raised. It employs roughly 22 people as of 2026, up from about 12 in 2023, and reported around $2.4 million of revenue in 2025. That combination of independence, real revenue, and no acquisition history makes it one of the more stable vendors in this category.

Editorial verdict

Trackdesk is the tool you buy when the affiliate program has stopped being an experiment and started being infrastructure. Server-to-server tracking that ad blockers cannot break, payouts executed across four rails including Tipalti and crypto, full white label on your own domain, 900-plus integrations, and a bootstrapped 22-person company with real revenue behind it add up to a genuinely serious platform, and at $499 for unlimited program revenue it undercuts every percentage-fee competitor once you are above about $30,000 a month. The problem is everything below that line. At $329 with no free tier, with white label and API held back to the more expensive plan, it is the worst value in this category for a program that has not yet proved itself. Start on PromoteKit, GoAffPro, or Rewardful, and move here when payouts and attribution reliability are costing you more than $500 a month in time and lost credit.

Written by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Awards, when shown, are judged against the published criteria in our methodology.