Review platforms, comparing product and user experience
It turned out that there is a number of independent research companies that use web services to solve this problem, collecting feedback, recommendations, and making comparisons of software, IT services and equipment. This category of products is called Review Platform - review platforms. The market for products to collect user experience is growing rapidly, as it is important for a manufacturer today to have lawyers and brand ambassadors, to know their consumers and to have feedback from the consumers. A user today often knows about products more than sellers do and often “sells” his idea inside the company to the management. There appeared Review-products that are specialized in certain categories and are aimed not only at users, but also at IT vendors, who give information about products, share their experience in using them, so-called Sales Enablement products.
The concept of a Review as a Service has appeared, and the number of IT Yelp projects already counts dozens.
Some products use Artificial Intellect technology to collect and analyze feedback and integrate with CRM to place feedback and query management (Leads Management) into commercial proposals.
The technology of collecting feedback, identification the real users of the product and distinguishing them from fake or "paid" messages is the know-how of these products. To do so, they request a reviewer's Linkedin account, make a phone call, request screenshots of the products used, etc. The share of feedback from interested partners of manufacturers rather than end users is usually limited so that it does not affect the result.
Testimonials from real users are very valuable and platforms are often willing to pay about 10 USD for a review. For those who are not interested in making money on it, platforms offer to transfer the money for a review to charity instead.
Also, these projects collect information about the needs of potential interviewers and pass requests to manufacturers.
Manufacturers actively use these platforms as a sales argument, to get new success stories, to receive requests (this option makes this category close to the Lead Generation products) and finally for making new sales. By using these platforms, manufacturers can order feedback on their products.
The business model of these projects is usually built on producers payments for additional options to represent products on the platform, conduct surveys, receive requests from potential users (leads), check the quality of a lead through phone call. Sometimes the Pay Per Click (PPC) model is used, where each click is paid for. Converting PPC from such systems is much better than the average in the industry.
Such systems give users analysis of the product's position on the market by its functions and reserved niche (Technology Research Services). Some platform analysts rank products in a category, identify leaders and award them with rewards that manufacturers use to market their products.
Despite its main function - to help in the selection and comparison of IT products and services - the Review Platforms are not very willing to compare themselves for reviews, functionality, etc., perhaps, for ethical reasons. Only G2 Crowd contains information on several products of this type.
Let's examine the leaders of this market and the products with similar functionality that contain a catalogue of IT products and user experience information. You can view the complete review of the Review Platform in a detailed comparison chart.
Capterra
Product Categories: software
Reviews: user size, user industry, user role, source of feedback, product usage time, ease of use, technical support, functionality, if it worth the money spent
Rating: user reviews
Product Comparison: functionality, price, maximum 4 products
Product information: functionality, categories, price, screenshots, videos, downloads
Selection of products: no
Verification: yes
Features: there is data from the projects GetApp and SoftwareAdvise
The project is dedicated to software (more than 600 categories.) The company is owned by Gartner Digital Markets so reviews also contain information about other Gartner projects.
Reviewers (there are more than 700,000 reviews) offer their assessment of the overall quality, ease of use, technical support, functionality, and if the product worth its price.
Information about the price, functionality, getting a trial version often takes you to the vendor's site.
The project prepares analytical reports based on feedback.
Offer 10 USD as a Gift Card voucher per review (it can be a voucher for Amazon, iTunes, etc.).
For vendors, a premium subscription is offered with the landing page for leads' generating, which increases the company's position in the category, and so on.
Analytical information is presented in the form of research, i.e. products' reports within the category. Reports can be represented as infographics, comparison tables by price and functionality, a list of frequently asked questions, etc.
Crozdesk
Product Categories: software
Reviews: pros and cons, solved problems, worth for the money spent, ease of use, functionality, support
Rating: reviews and Crozscore's own algorithm based on popularity and satisfaction rate
Product Comparison: functionality, price, reviews and FAQ, no more than 4 products
Product information: functionality, price, screenshots, video, FAQ
Selection of products: no
Verification: yes
Features: Crozscore algorithm
The project is dedicated to software and offers more than 200 software categories. Product rating is based on a proprietary Crozscore algorithm which is based on popularity and user satisfaction, takes into account the trend of the previous three months and other factors (overall satisfaction, usability, functionality and overall popularity).
Products in categories can be filtered by function, price, target audience, supported platforms.
The service offers its own Crozdesk Market Radar report and Buyers' Guide analytical reports by categories. The Crozdesk Market Radar chart shows the size of the vendor and how strong the solution is. Reports are created automatically, the size of the vendor is determined by traffic.
Reviews contain information about the positive and negative aspects of products, solved problems, value for money, ease of use, functionality and support. Information about the user's name, position and company he/she works for are presented. Also information about the product competitors is available as well as products' comparison by function, price, reviews and FAQ.
Users can get a free 5-minute consultation by phone.
The project offers 5 USD as an Amazon Gift Card for a review.
The Crozdesk team also manages the Softonic for Business project, which is dedicated to IT and Security products. The project awards products in different categories.
The project offers vendors both lead generation and PPC services.
Finances Online
Product categories: software and financial information
Reviews: user experience satisfaction, pros and cons, evaluation of functionality
Rating: special system of SmartScore and 2nd by Customer Satisfaction Rating, which takes into account reviews in social networks
Product Comparison: by functionality, user ratings, price
Product information: functionality, categories, price, screenshots, videos, downloads
Selection of products: no
Verification: yes
Features: Calculation and ratings
The project covers software and financial information.
The rating is estimated on the basis of a special SmartScore algorithm, which takes into account functionality, interaction, customization, integration, ease of use, overall impression, support, security and mobility.
The service collects information about products in social networks, analyzes keyword feedback and counts the Customer Satisfaction Rating.
Reviews contain detailed information on the functionality and users' opinion about the use of the product. The project awards products in categories (over 170).
The service offers vendors a PPC work model, and also provides article writing services.
Firecompass
Product Categories: IT Security Products
Reviews: product benefits and areas of improvement
Rating: no product rating, there is a rating of users' reviews
Product Comparison: functionality, price, maximum 3 products
Product information: functionality, categories, price, screenshots, videos, downloads
Selection of products: no
Verification: yes
Features: services of assessment of IT security level
The portal is dedicated only to IT security tools, and the level of expertise of developers in this topic is very high. The user can compare functionality of products, read reviews, watch videos and screenshots, request a demo version and contact the vendor to place a request. Product ratings are compiled based on functionality and reviews. The manufacturer uses AI to recommend products. The manufacturer can confirm the product information. Users are identified, thus excluding fake information.
The project offers, upon request, additional assessment services for the IT security level companies: calculation of security rating, analysis of the portfolio of used products, cost minimization proposal, alternative products offerings, comparing IT security company positions with industry averages. Offered services include variety of services up to providing virtual IT security executive (CISO).
G2 Crowd
Product Categories: Software
Reviews: source, verification method, pros and cons, alternatives, problems to solve, easy to use, quality of support, price
Product information: functionality, categories, price, screenshots, videos, downloads
Rating: user reviews
Product Comparison: user experience and functionality (maximum 4 at a time)
Selection of products: yes, based on reviews
Verification: Linkedin, verified product experience
Product analysis on the market: G2 Grid Reports satisfaction and market presence charts
Features: integration with Salesforce
The project pays for reviews, more than 2 million users declared tp be registered. There is a search both by product and category. There is a possibility of chat with a G2 Crowd representative for recommendations. The project is free for both users and vendors.
G2 Crowd allows you to create landing pages and content for social networks to promote the vendor. In the extended version vendor can add more products.
They offer 10 USD as an Amazon Gift Card voucher per review and there is also a program which allows to sent this money for charity.
Each review contains information about the method of verification (Linkedin, screenshots of the program) and the source data (a gift card for a review, etc.) Sorting feedback from industry partners, company size, etc. is available. There is also an opportunity to make a video review.
Reviews contain information about positive and negative aspects, recommended alternatives, solvable problems. Users can comment feedback. There is information about product consultants whose service is analyzed according to the same criteria as the products (reviews, etc.)
The user can have voice communication with the consultant.
Products of the same category are shown in G2 Grid Reports for different company sizes. They address customer satisfaction and market presence. For this, the presence in social networks, networking, height, vendor age, number of users, number of vendor employees are analyzed.
The project determines the category winners, and this award is appreciated, as can be seen from the vendor’s press releases. Competitive products are compared by their reviews. There is a service integration with salesforce.com.
In December 2018, the company acquired the Siftery project, which recommends users of SaaS services other services, based on the analysis of their use by other users, and also recommends cost optimization.
Getapp
Product Categories: SaaS softwareReviews: pros and cons, value for money, simplicity of use, functional options, support
Rating: based on reviews
Product comparison: functionality, prices, reviews (no more than 4 products at the same time)
Product information: functionality, price, screenshots, video review
Selection of products: services' recommendations based on those used by the service visitor
Verification: yes
Specific features:
The company is owned by Gartner Digital Markets. The project is dedicated to SaaS services. The user-friendly interface of the project offers users information about products, their functionality and prices, screenshots and a video review. Comparisons with competitors in terms of functionality, prices and reviews are available. More than 600 product categories. Reviews in the project are also available, they contain information about the positive and negative sides of the product, value for money, ease of use, functionality and support. Service contains information about the role of the reviewer in his/her company, industry and company size.
After authorization through Linkedin service offers a selection of services based on your data about the services already in use and the size of the company.
The project offers vendors ordering reviews and lead generation. Service offers interviewers 20 USD bonus per review.
IT Central Station
Product categories: services, software and hardware
Reviews: the most valuable aspects, benefits obtained, what needs to be improved, price, technical support, scalability, what services visitor used earlier, alternatives
Rating: based on reviews
Product Comparison: based on feedback
Product Information: briefly, based on the feedback
Product selection: Recommendations service
Verification: company size, position, industry, user status validation
Features: integration with Marketo, salesforce, HubSpot
Wall St Journal called them Yelp for Enterprise. The project covers all categories of IT products and services and allows downloading analytical reports by category. The project has Recommendations service, which recommends using products which other similar clients use based on data about which products are used by the visitor, size and industry of his/her company.
Both features description and products comparison are made based on feedback. Shows competitors.
The project is aimed only at the Enterprise market. In order to participate in the project a vendor must have at least 50 employees and 10 users with a capacity of 250M.
The project awards products by categories. A distinctive feature of the project is the encouragement of authors who are also rewarded in the project.
IT Central Station uses the term “Review as a Service” to refer to its business.
IT Central Station offers additional services, including leads generation, video reviews, re-targeting, promotion in social networks, special widgets for displaying rankings in Google search, etc.
The project has integration with Marketo, salesforce, HubSpot.
ITQlick
Product Categories: software
Reviews: only the results of statistical processing reviews
Rating: based on reviews
Product Comparison: by functionality, prices, reviews
Product information: functionality, reviews, prices, screenshots, video
Product selection: upon request
Verification: reviews by its own professionals
Features: articles about products and categories
The project contains information on more than 5,000 software products from more than 400 categories. The service interacts with a Software Advice service to compare price quotes and other services.
Product descriptions contain information about functionality, pricing, alternative products, and rating results based on reviews.
The reviews themselves are not published in the project, but the service offers many analytical articles to read. Among available features you can find comparison of some products with each other, and analytical charts for the functionality / positions of vendor products within the category.
The project offers advertising and traffic for software vendors.
ROI4CIO
Product categories: software, hardware, services
Feedback: only reviews about implementations, users size and industry, users information (if open), description of the project implementations, suppliers, resolved problems, objectives, received ROI, implementation statuses (including pilot projects)
Rating: based on the implementations data, ROI obtained in them, solved problems and tasks
Product Comparison: functional characteristics
Product information: functionality, price quotes, ROI calculator, manufacturers, suppliers, implementations, competitive products, also information for sellers (pitch, selling histories, average transaction size, transaction protection, discount)
Selection of products: based on AI and manufacturers' recommendations
Verification: Linkedin, email domains
Features: information about suppliers, price quotes, ROI calculators, exchange of rebate for reference, tools for sellers
This project is a little apart by its approach and objectives. There are no collected product reviews, but user information on implementation (references) with information on ROI and product benefits. ROI4CIO contains information about software, hardware, and services and is directed not only to users, but also to IT vendors.
The product rating is based on the implementations data on solved problems, tasks and ROI obtained. Products are compared by the functional characteristics. The project approach does not provide for subjective assessments and comments, and only contains objective characteristics, without any data on the quality of support, user-friendly interface, and so on. The supplier’s data is given in the product implementations, if user has allowed it, then his data is also given.
Data from implementations and user parameters are used for the neural network algorithm recommending a suitable product. There is also a recommendation based on the positioning of the products by the manufacturer itself.
After passing a survey user can have receive a quote inside the project with an estimate of the configuration and budget, or to calculate the theoretical ROI of the product.
The project is a catalogue not only of products, vendors and implementations, but also of authorized suppliers of vendors and users. ROI4CIO offers using the created content about the product as a sales tool for the seller (or justify purchase to the customer), and pays sellers information about the product, implementations, selling stories, quotes, ROI calculators, etc.
The project offers a 30 USD bonus for receiving information on implementations and ROI. ROI4CIO offers a mechanism for exchanging a rebate to a buyer from a supplier or a vendor for an implementation reference.
SaaS Genius
Product Categories: SaaS software
Reviews: what you like and what you don't, the benefits and recommendations
Rating: based on reviews
Product Comparison: functions, prices, platform support
Product information: overview, key features, price, screenshots
Selection of products: no
Verification: yes
Features: marketing consultant services
The project is dedicated to SaaS software. Product descriptions, price information, key features and supported platforms and other technical data, screenshots are given. The user can view product alternatives and make a comparison of 2 products for functionality, prices, and supported platforms.
Products in catalogues can be filtered by prices, supported platforms and potential users.
Reviews contain information about what you like or not, the benefits and recommendations.
We offer vendors our services for optimization of their position in directories, visits analytics, experts advice on marketing and creating and optimizing the landing page.
Software Advice
Product Categories: software
Reviews: pros and cons, solved problems, value for the money, ease of use, functionality, support
Rating: by reviews
Product Comparison: selective comparison pairs by functions, users experience, etc.
Product information: functionality, price, screenshots, video review
Product selection: upon request
Verification: all users are verified by phone
Features: additional services for the promotion and search staff
The company is owned by Gartner Digital Markets. The project contains information about products in more than 500 categories and has helped with more than 620,000 recommendations.
The project has data on products, but no data on manufacturers. Price and demo available on request. There is a comparison of products, but it is selective. Screenshots and videos are available in the product description, but no competitor data is available.
Reviews are also available from Capterra, and they contain data on the positive and negative sides of the product, value for money, ease of use, functionality and support. There is also available information about the role of the reviewer in the company, the name and size of the company.
After communicating with the user by phone, the experts of the company offer a list of the most suitable products that meet the requirements of the budget, terms, needs and responsibilities.
Vendors pay services for their leads - their potential customers.
The project offers product reports in categories, as well as FrontRunners quadrant charts, which show how highly recommended the software isand how much the benefit of using the product based on feedback is appreciated.
The project offers product promotion services and even personnel search.
Software Suggest
Product Categories: software
Reviews: pros and cons, value for money, simplicity of use, functional options, support
Rating: based on reviews
Product comparison: functionality, prices, reviews (no more than 4 products at the same time)
Product information: functionality, price, screenshots, video review
Selection of products: yes
Verification: yes
Features: professional promotion services
The service is headquartered in India and offers a review platform for software manufacturers. Service business model - lead generation and additional promotion services. The project offers design, SMM, copywriting, remarketing, banner advertising, e-mail newsletters, a special badge, and so on. Reviews include data on the positive and negative aspects of the product, value for money, ease of use, functionality and support. Information about the company, the name and position of the interviewer in the company are available. The product description contains data on price, functionality, screenshots, videos and information about competitors. Comparison of competitors' products and a recommendation service of the products are available. The user can have a voice chat with a consultant who can recommend a product. The project offers product comparison reports by categories.
TechnologyAdvice
Product Categories: software
Reviews: ease of use, functionality, price and support
Rating: reviews
Comparison of products: functionality briefly, price level, size of business of the target audience, comparison of no more than 2 products
Product information: product description, which industries and copmany sizes this product fits, screenshots, video
Product selection: upon request
Verification: yes
Features: Research Library - analytical articles and reports
The project is dedicated to software and contains information on products of more than 90 categories. Product reviews contain information about what the user likes and dislikes, what problems the user has solved, and how ready he is to advise this product. The user also gives their assessment of ease of use, functionality, price and product support. Products can be compared with each other in terms of functionality, price level, target audience and industries. This information is given in the product description, along with screenshots and videos.
The project contains many articles with product analytics and offers reports by the Buyers' Guide by category.
The project has a Research Library, which contains articles with product analysis in categories and analytical reports of the Buyers' Guides.
Service experts provide services for individual selection of products.
The service offers lead generation services for vendors.
TRUSTPILOT
Product categories: more than 300 categories of various businesses
Reviews: user rating and messages
Rating: based on reviews
Product Comparison: no
Product Information: about business, not about product
Selection of products: no
Verification: upon request
Features: API for feedback
TrustPilot is dedicated not to IT products, but to businesses, however, it is very popular as the Review Platform for IT too. In the description of the company TrustPilot gives a minimum of information, reviews contain only the text of messages and evaluation. This service is used to get feedback from its users and there is a special API for integration. Trustpilot offers a TrustScore rating to increase brand awareness and is available in AdWords.
Trustradius
Product Categories: software
Testimonials: user name, user size, user industry, user role, functionality, payback, pros and cons, alternatives, use cases, quality ROI, other software used, chances to recommend the products/services, key differences, support, integrations
Rating: user reviews
Product Comparison: user experience, functions (up to 3 at a time)
Product information: functionality, screenshots, categories
Selection of products: no
Verification: giving reviews verified by Linkedin, checking experience of using the product
Features: integration with Marketo, salesforce, HubSpot.
One of the largest projects dedicated to software. Product ratings are based on recent reviews, reflecting trends. Contains information about products, screenshots, texts of reviews. Users who give feedback are verified using LinkedIn. The project verifies that they really have experience with the product. Reseller reviews are published, but not used in the ranking. The project assigns a level (reputation) to reviewers. Reviewers are invited to review both the project and manufacturers. Reviews can be sorted by a client size, topics (Pros and Cons, ROI, Alternative Products, Utilization, Probability to Recommend). The functionality of the reviews is offered to be rated too. For products, there is a description of the functionality, the versions of product revisions are indicated, however, pricing information is not always there. The project offers to check on the competitors right there. Product comparison is done based on user experience. Reviews give information about the name of the company, its size, industry, the role of the author. Integration with salesforce and Hubspot is proposed, allowing to include reviews in commercial offers, which increases their chances. There is analytical information about products of one category, designed in 2-dimensional “TrustMap” graphics for different sizes of business.
Company policy does not allow the inclusion of products from small vendors (less than 10 employees). The business model is built on providing vendors with tools that allow embedding reviews into their information channels.
--
ROI4CIO team
Leave a Comment