Methodology · Price Index
Price Index: how we track and verify prices
We track the published price of 7,298 products and tools across 787 categories. Tracking began June 2026; since then we have recorded 1,679 verified price changes — 1,001 cuts and 678 increases — in an append-only log. Every figure is sourced to the seller's own page and dated.
- Hardware products tracked
- 5,802
- Software tools tracked
- 1,496
- Categories
- 787
- Tracking since
- June 2026
- Recorded price changes
- 1,679
- Cuts vs. increases
- 1,001 ↓ / 678 ↑
How we verify — our process
We call it sourced, dated, corroborated, logged. The same five steps run on every product and every tool, every cycle:
- Source from the vendor's own page. Every price comes from the seller's or maker's own published page — never a reseller, marketplace listing or third-party aggregator that can drift.
- Record the exact URL and access date. We store the source URL and the date we read it. A dated, linked figure is what separates a fact of record from an undated claim.
- Corroborate where a second source exists. Where a second authoritative source publishes the same figure, we capture it too, so the value carries provenance depth, not a single point of failure.
- Snapshot into an append-only change-log. Each cycle we compare today's price to the last recorded one and write a new dated point only when a price first appears or actually moves. The log is append-only — history is never rewritten.
- Publish corrections openly. Anyone can flag an error; fixes are free and logged publicly. Accuracy is never paywalled and never affected by payment.
Recent recorded price changes
| Date | Item | Category | Was | Now | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blueair Blue Signature Medium HW | Air Purifiers | $299.99 | $223.99 | ↓25% | |
| Gci Outdoor Freestyle Rocker HW | Camping Chairs | $80 | $64 | ↓20% | |
| Byer Of Maine Allagash Plus Cot HW | Camping Cots | $79.95 | $67.95 | ↓15% | |
| Maxi Cosi Pria Max HW | Car Seats | $329.99 | $280.49 | ↓15% | |
| Fellow Ode Gen 2 HW | Coffee Grinders | $399.95 | $339.95 | ↓15% | |
| Fellow Aiden Precision Coffee Maker HW | Coffee Makers | $399.95 | $339.95 | ↓15% | |
| Xp Pen Artist Pro 16 Gen2 HW | Drawing Tablets | $459.99 | $599.99 | ↑30% | |
| Smokehouse Big Chief Front Load HW | Electric Smokers | $199.99 | $179.99 | ↓10% | |
| Smokehouse Little Chief Front Load HW | Electric Smokers | $179.99 | $161.99 | ↓10% | |
| Smoothskin Pure Fit HW | IPL Hair Removal | $249 | $349 | ↑40% | |
| Netgear Orbi 770 Rbe773 HW | Mesh Wi-Fi Systems | $699.99 | $599.99 | ↓14% | |
| Focal Bathys HW | Over Ear Headphones | $649 | $799 | ↑23% | |
| Inogen Rove 4 HW | Portable Oxygen Concentrators | $2775 | $2495 | ↓10% | |
| Ecoflow River 3 HW | Portable Power Stations | $448 | $499 | ↑11% |
Use the data
The change-log is free to read and free to download under CC BY 4.0:
- Price-history change-log — the full append-only series (NDJSON).
- All data endpoints — datasets, CSV/JSON exports, schema.
- Audit ledger — the tamper-evident hash-chain; verify the data was never rewritten.
- Citation receipts — dated records of where this data was cited.
- Corrections log — every fix we have published.
- How we make money — why ordering can never be bought.
Cite this dataset
The full dataset is deposited on Zenodo with a permanent DOI, so it can be cited in research, journalism and reference managers. The DOI always resolves to the latest version:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20721846
The Front Desk Review (2026). Software, subscription and consumer-electronics facts: a sourced, dated pricing & specs dataset. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20721846
Writers and data desks: every figure on this site is free to quote with a link back to its sourced, dated page. Questions, a custom cut of the data, or the full press/data kit — contact@frontdeskreview.com.
Spotted a stale or wrong price? Email contact@frontdeskreview.com — corrections are free and logged.