Compare IT vendors that serve the same market and use case, then look beyond the overall score: check what was rated, how many people reviewed the product, when they did so, and whether their experience resembles yours. Ratings are useful evidence, not a substitute for checking requirements, service commitments, and real-world fit.
Start with vendors you can fairly compare
An overall rating is meaningful only in context. First narrow the field to products or services in the same category, intended for a similar use case and buyer. Where possible, align company size, deployment model, and geography as well. A rating for a product used by small businesses in one region may tell you little about how it will perform in a large, regulated organization elsewhere.
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Review categories and boundaries differ between platforms. G2 notes that scores can vary by category, while Gartner’s Voice of the Customer work is organized around a defined market. Confirm that the candidates appear in the same relevant category before comparing their scores. G2’s scoring methodology and Gartner Peer Insights market pages describe their respective approaches and market organization.
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A high overall number can conceal a weak area that matters to your team. Compare the underlying dimensions, not just the headline score, and give more weight to the ones tied to your requirements.
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- Requirements and capabilities: Does the product meet the functions your team needs?
- Ease of use and administration: Can the people who will use and manage it work effectively with it?
- Implementation and delivery: What do reviewers say about setup, onboarding, and execution?
- Support: Do comments and ratings suggest the service level your operations require?
- Recommendation: Where reported, would reviewers recommend the vendor, and what reasons do they give?
G2’s software scoring uses Satisfaction and Market Presence; satisfaction inputs include ratings for ease of use, meeting requirements, and support quality, alongside factors such as review volume, recency, quality, and source. For service providers, G2 lists attributes such as professionalism, team expertise, responsiveness, execution ability, and communication. Use the methodology for the supplier type you are evaluating rather than applying software-score assumptions to a services firm.
Put review count and dates beside every rating
Record the number of reviews and the dates they cover alongside each score. A rating based on a small or older set of reviews is less informative about current experience than one supported by recent, relevant feedback—though even a large sample may not match your organization. Platforms also weight and normalize reviews differently, so identical-looking stars are not necessarily equivalent.
Rank #2
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G2 says its scoring accounts for both review volume and recency. Gartner’s Voice of the Customer methodology uses an 18-month analysis period and, for inclusion in that report, requires at least 20 reviews and at least 15 ratings in each of Capabilities and Support/Delivery. Those are report-specific eligibility thresholds, not a universal minimum sample size for a buyer’s comparison. Check Gartner Peer Insights’ methodology and FAQ for the report context.
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Gartner Peer Insights reports more than 605,000 reviews across more than 615 markets since October 2015 in its FAQ, shown as updated in 2026. That platform-wide total does not establish that any particular product has enough reviews, or that its reviewers represent your intended users.
Rank #3
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Check who reviewed and what they actually experienced
Prefer detailed comments from people who selected, implemented, used, or received support for the product. Look for the reviewer’s role, organization context, deployment situation, and the specific experience behind the rating. A short score without an explanation gives you less to assess than a review describing what worked, what did not, and under what conditions.
Gartner describes identity, employer, and role verification, an attestation of personal experience, and review approval as part of its platform process. These controls can add context, but they do not prove that a reviewer’s organization resembles yours or guarantee that your own experience will be the same. Gartner’s vendor guidance recommends encouraging customers to write “high-quality, honest and thorough reviews with explanatory comments.” That is a reason to value substantive comments, not to treat any platform’s reviews as a perfect sample.
Look for repeated themes, including drawbacks
Read a mix of positive, mixed, and critical reviews. Note recurring strengths and problems in the areas your team prioritizes—for example, support responsiveness, delivery, or a missing requirement. A single complaint may be an isolated case; repeated, specific accounts deserve closer attention. Treat the comments as evidence to investigate, not proof that every customer will have the same outcome.
Separate an anecdote from a pattern by noting how many comments describe the same issue, when they were written, and whether they concern a similar product version, use case, or deployment. If the evidence is thin or inconsistent, mark the point as uncertain rather than forcing a conclusion from the star score.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Use a practical comparison workflow
- Define your constraints. List must-have requirements, deployment needs, scale, and regional constraints before looking at ratings.
- Confirm category fit. Check that each candidate belongs to the same relevant review category and that the reviewer population is pertinent to your organization.
- Build a comparison record. For each vendor, note the overall score, component ratings, eligible or current review count if available, date range, platform, and scoring methodology.
- Read representative comments. Include positive, mixed, and critical reviews; record repeated themes and distinguish patterns from isolated examples.
- Set buyer-specific priorities. Weight dimensions according to business impact. For instance, a team with strict incident-response needs may prioritize support evidence over ease-of-use ratings. This is a decision tailored to your organization, not a universal formula.
- Validate important claims. Compare ratings with requirements evidence, a demonstration or proof of concept where appropriate, contract and service commitments, and customer references when available.
- Record uncertainty. Decide whether score gaps matter in light of review count, recency, category match, and reviewer relevance; note what the ratings cannot establish.
Do not compare ratings across platforms as if they share a scale
G2 and Gartner use different category definitions, collection methods, weighting, and score normalization. A G2 score and a Gartner rating should not be treated as directly comparable numbers. Compare candidates within a platform and category where possible, then use written feedback and other evidence to assess them across platforms.
Customer reviews also answer a different question from analyst evaluations. Gartner says Magic Quadrants are a starting point and recommends using them alongside other research, including Critical Capabilities, Peer Insights, and analyst discussions. Its guidance distinguishes individual customer experience from broader analyst evaluation; neither replaces checking whether a vendor fits your requirements.
What a rating can—and cannot—tell you
A satisfaction rating can help you identify areas to investigate and compare reported customer experiences. It cannot, by itself, establish technical fit, contract suitability, representativeness of the reviewers, or the outcome your organization will get. The strongest comparison combines like-for-like review evidence with your own requirements and procurement checks.
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