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The significance of market research for business executives in the B2B software sector cannot be overstated, given the complexity of the buying process. Consequently, the market research industry’s worldwide proportion is growing year on year, with projections to hit $90 billion by 2025.
Figure 1. Global revenue of the market research industry from 2008 to 2021 with forecasts for 2022
Source: Statista
Besides the consulting services, B2B technology review platforms are a significant element in market research as they offer useful information and insights to companies to choose the right business software products. They aid firms in making informed decisions about technology investments through:
- Insightful reviews
- Product/service comparisons
- Professional evaluations
- Research and advisory services
Software customers seek unbiased and informative in depth reviews for making better product decisions, and software vendors seek increased online reviews for better visibility and brand awareness. According to Forbes1:
- 92% of B2B tech buyers are depending on trusted reviews for their purchases.
- Five product reviews increase the conversion rate by 270%.
In this article, we will evaluate one of the top used review platforms, Trustradius. Then, we will list the top 3 of Trustradius’s competitors.
Trustradius Evaluation
TrustRadius is a B2B tech review platform, founded in 2012. They claim to have a more rigid methodology for assessing the reviews compared to other platforms. As an alternative to taking the simple averages of reviews and ratings, they use an algorithm of weighted score, called trScore. In this algorithm:
- Newer evaluations and appraisals carry more weight compared to the older ones.
- Reviews from a random and representative sample of users have more significance than prejudiced samples.
- Ratings presented as a component of a comprehensive evaluation are given more importance than single-click star ratings because they are more deliberate and provide more context.
Pricing
TrustRadius has 3 different pricing plans for vendors:
- Customer voice
- Ultimate
- Ultimate+
Business size of users
- Most reviewers of TrustRadius in other review platforms are from small businesses.
User ratings
Pros
- One plus of Trustradius is its robust methodology to assess the overall success of products.
Cons
- Cherry picking: Vendors send only their best customers to review platforms.
- Review platform customers can offer incentives to their clients to increase their number of reviews. As a result, reviews also turn into a pay to play channel where marketing spend increases the company’s visibility.
- Some users state that not all latest products are available on the platform, compared to other review websites.
- Some users state that the user interface is complex to navigate.
Top 3 Trustradius Competitors
Below, we listed the best alternatives according to the alphabetical order. However, we can be biased in this domain as a Trustradius competitor.
AIMultiple
AIMultiple is an emerging tech industry analyst that aids businesses in exploring, choosing, and assessing novel technology solutions by employing clear and transparent data driven recommendations.
AIMultiple addresses fundamental problems of business software reviews websites with its approach:
- Most tech users rarely write reviews. AIMultiple utilizes information beyond just reviews, such as the online popularity of technology solutions, the number of workers they have, and their collection of case studies.
- Reading and evaluating reviews is time-consuming for buyers. Even if they had sufficient time, they would still be confused due to the multitude of trivial reviews that represent individual prejudices and distinct working conditions of multiple users. AIMultiple consolidates the outcomes of reviews in product pages to emphasize significant features of solutions.
- There is no single and unified review platform. Trustradius users are deprived of the opportunity to discover information related to feedback, case studies, and reviews from other review platforms like TrustRadius, PeerSpot, G2, and so on. AIMultiple gathers all of these information sources together.
User ratings
Pros
Figure 2. Global market share of review platforms and industry analysts in RPA
- Global Leader in other emerging tech domains like:
Cons
- AIMultiple has limited influence in conventional technology sectors.
- AIMultiple does not provide specific individual reviews. Users can visit the review platforms of their preference for this information.
G2
G2 is an online B2B software marketplace established in 2012 that offers peer-to-peer reviews of software and technology. They claim that over 60% of the companies featured in the Forbes Cloud 100 list are patrons of G2.2
G2 evaluates products based on reviews and market presence data to generate satisfaction and market presence scores, which are then utilized to classify products into one of four categories on the G2 Crowd Grid:
- Leaders
- High performers
- Contenders
- Niche
Business size of users
- Most reviewers of G2 in other review platforms are from mid-market companies.
User ratings
- Trustpilot: 4.8/5
- TrustRadius: 6.3/10
Pricing
G2 has 4 different pricing plans with different features:
Pros
- G2 claims to use an algorithm to identify and eliminate fake user reviews, specifically those composed by either the reviewed software company employees or those of its rivals.
- G2 claims that its community manually reviews and approves comments to prevent spam and irrelevant feedback.
- In order to ensure authenticity, G2 requires screenshots from the reviewer.
Cons
- In G2, reviews are reduced to two numbers; the number of reviews and the rating. Due to this model, buyers tend to focus on a few providers rather than those that may offer better pricing or industry-specific solutions that would be more appropriate for their business.
- While G2 may have the highest level of review activity across the web, it does not hold the market leadership in every sector.
- There are some reviewers who claim that even though they meet the necessary criteria, the platform is rejecting their reviews:
- According to some reviewers, the discovery platform is biased and demonstrates favoritism by rejecting negative reviews related to their advertisers.
Capterra
Capterra is a software and technology review platform, purchased by Gartner in 2015.
Capterra is like numerous other technology review platforms as it permits users to read and write reviews, and gives businesses the opportunity to showcase and advertise their products. It furnishes a wide range of utilities and materials to assist businesses in locating the right software, such as:
- a software directory
- software lists
- a comparison tool that allows users to compare products side-by-side
Business size of users
- Most reviewers of Capterra in other review platforms are from small businesses.
User ratings
- TrustRadius: 8.1/10
- G2: 3.6/5
Pros
- It claims that the reviews are audited independently to guarantee clarity and trustworthiness.
Cons
- Reviews take longer time to get published compared to other platforms like G2.
If you have questions or need help in finding vendors, we can help:
Find the Right Vendors
- “Why B2B Reviews Should Be An Essential Part Of Your Marketing Mix.” Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/09/22/why-b2b-reviews-should-be-an-essential-part-of-your-marketing-mix/?sh=21db335033e0. Accessed 20 March 2023.
- “About.” G2, https://company.g2.com/about. Accessed 20 March 2023.
Cem has been the principal analyst at AIMultiple since 2017. AIMultiple informs hundreds of thousands of businesses (as per similarWeb) including 55% of Fortune 500 every month.
Cem’s work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider, Forbes, Washington Post, global firms like Deloitte, HPE and NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission. You can see more reputable companies and resources that referenced AIMultiple.
Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised enterprises on their technology decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization.
He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem’s work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch like Business Insider.
Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.
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