No. A reviewer does not need to be a customer in order to leave a review- so long as they are a direct user of the software, they may submit a review. For example, if a reviewer uses a software while working a company licensing the software, their review would be valid even though they may not be listed on any contracts, or have their own user account.

Simply put, yes. We treat one-star reviews no differently from five-star reviews. Like all online reviews platforms, our sites are intended to provide a forum for honest discussion between vendors and software users. By remaining neutral, they can host a wide array of opinions that help software shoppers make informed decisions. 

If a review does not pass our QA process or is identified by our team as not meeting our Community Guidelines, the review will not be published. Users may submit another review that meets our guidelines.

All reviews are manually examined by our team of experts in an effort to ensure published reviews are from verified sources and provide helpful content. All reviews are treated equally during the verification process, regardless of rating or vendor.

Reviews may be flagged as potentially fraudulent by the vendor, other reviewers, or during our internal audits of our reviews database. At these times, we may ask for more information, such as proof of use, in order to better understand if the review in question does meet our guidelines. If a review is found to be in violation of our guidelines, it will be removed.

Your submitted review may not be displaying because i) it is waiting to be reviewed by our team, ii) the review failed to meet one or more of our Reviews Guidelines, or iii) the review was not otherwise eligible for publication.

No. When submitting a review, a reviewer attests that their statement is an honest reflection of their experience. If the review was based on a bad experience, a retired product feature, or even a miscommunication or misunderstanding on the reviewer’s part, it is reflective of the user’s experience with that software, even if later action may have resolved the problem. As a product evolves, it is typical to see a shift in the nature of the reviews listed. We believe the inclusion of this history serves to increase the value to software shoppers visiting our site, as they can better understand how a product has evolved over time.

Yes, a review may mention a competitor to the product being reviewed so long as the reference is intended to add value to the review and not to deliberately promote or disparage the competitor. Reviews may contain mention of alternative products considered or used before or after using the product being reviewed. This additional information can help put a review into the proper context, and provide valuable information to software shoppers.

Like all online reviews platforms, we endeavour to provide our users with software product directories that are as comprehensive as possible. As such, our policy is not to remove product listings from our sites unless: (i) the product listing does not fit within one of the existing software categories (or “directories”); (ii) the vendor can provide evidence that product is no longer actively being marketed and/or sold to the public; or (iii) the listing or profile fails to comply with our guidelines.

A review being too vague or generic is a subjective determination of content quality that we are not in a position to make, since we do not evaluate the content of the review itself. However, while we will not disable a review solely on the basis of its content, we will ensure that all reviews meet the criteria outlined in our Community Guidelines. Reviews that, in our discretion, do not meet these Community Guidelines, will not be eligible for publication.

While we understand that many vendors pride themselves on knowing their user base, there are many valid cases where a vendor might not know a legitimate reviewer, based on the information provided along with a review. These cases include but are not limited to the following:

• Construction buyers who evaluate multiple subcontractors before purchasing. We believe these evaluative experiences (in a proof of concept or with trial versions) are valid experiences in their own right and thus worthy of sharing with our user community.
• Software accounts that are shared by multiple users or business units at a single company. The reviewer may not be the account owner and thus may be unknown to the vendor.
• Vendor contracts that are signed under a company name, not by an individual.
• Reviewers who change jobs and have used the software at their previous company.
• Users who submit under a name other than the name used on their contract with the vendor. For example, “Bob” rather than “Robert”, or the use of a maiden name.
• Users who enter an alternative name for their current company, such as initials or a shortened name, or a parent or sister company, rather than the name used on their vendor contract.
• Users who opt to use an abbreviated or screen name to maintain their anonymity.