Ghost, Phantom, Specter, Sovereign: picking the right tier

Zantiq has four tester tiers: Ghost ($19/mo), Phantom ($49/mo), Specter ($99/mo), and Sovereign ($199/mo). They're not just pricing labels — each tier gives the tester a different set of identity components. Here's how to think about which one you need.

Ghost is the starting point. Your tester gets a real email inbox and a real phone number. That covers the basics: email signups, password resets, SMS verification, two-factor auth. If your app's signup flow is email + phone verification, Ghost handles it.

Phantom adds a persistent anti-detect browser profile on top of Ghost's email and phone. The browser has a unique fingerprint — canvas, WebGL, fonts, timezone, the works. This matters if your app or its auth providers run fingerprint checks. If you're testing against anything protected by Cloudflare, DataDome, or similar services, you want Phantom. The persistent profile also means your tester looks consistent across sessions. Same browser, same fingerprint, same cookies.

Specter adds social profiles. Your tester gets real accounts on Twitter, LinkedIn, and GitHub with realistic activity history. This is for testing social login flows — 'Sign in with GitHub,' 'Connect your LinkedIn,' that kind of thing. If your app uses OAuth with social providers, Specter testers can actually complete those flows because they have real accounts to authenticate with.

Sovereign is the full stack. Everything in Specter plus a financial presence — a Stripe test-mode identity for payment flows, realistic transaction history. If you're testing checkout, subscription management, or anything that touches payments, Sovereign is the tier. It also gets priority orchestration and premium support.

A few rules of thumb. If you're just testing basic signup: Ghost. If you're behind bot protection or need fingerprint consistency: Phantom. If you have social login: Specter. If you have payments: Sovereign. Most teams start with a mix — a couple Ghosts for simple flows and one Specter or Sovereign for the complex ones.

You can upgrade a tester's tier anytime. The identity components get provisioned on top of what's already there. Nothing gets reset.