Inception - One of the best product review sites

When selecting a new software platform in this day and age it would be crazy not to consult a software review site such as TrustRadius. We have used it when making decisions around CRM systems, Customer Success Platforms, an LMS, and more over the past few years. We use many platforms when making a decision but TrustRadius has some of the most depth-y reviews.

Most vendors when asked in a call provide pricing. If you are doing a cost comparison, some will refuse to give pricing without a call. In those cases they are likely removed from consideration unless their reviews place them far above the competition.

TrustRadius has honest reviews written in reviewer's own words. Much more open of a platform. G2 has many more types of software and many more categories. More of their reviews seem paid for, though, and a lot relies on an abstract scale system which makes it harder to make comparisons between reviewers. Capterra seems to not be well advertised or maintained at least in the Canadian market. Gartner PI seems like an afterthought for Gartner and the platform has not grown as fast as the other 3.

The magic quadrant or similar helps to make a quick comparison but it is very abstract, there is no way around reading individual reviews to get a real feel for what real users think about the various software offerings.

I don't consider products with a standout low score but do not always buy the best rated. I use ratings to narrow my search and then zero in by reading reviews one by one and eventually booking calls with 2-3 of the frontrunners to see more. I try to find reviewers who were solving similar problems and whose teams are around the same size.

Sometimes a piece of software would only be on G2 with few reviews and was not on TrustRadius. Those make it harder and I have to talk to far more people myself to make good decisions. It slows down the eval process substantially.