Trust, Advise, Suggest - hunt for real software reviews

Information technology research services are now provided free of charge. Sounds unbelievable, but true. Survey platforms (in translation from English - “Review Platforms”), accumulate in their catalogs the most popular content about software, services, hardware and collect reviews of the real users of these information technology solutions. Now, when choosing IT products, CIO is not only interested in the opinion of specialists, but also browses the web pages of these independent information sources.

You can call them differently: Review Platform, Review as Service, Technology Research Services, “IT Yelp” or survey platforms - but the pattern is similar.

For the user, as we have already mentioned, these services are free, they provide analytics of the position of products on the market by function and niche. But nevertheless, just as users are the aggregator of the most valuable content - reviews, and also appear at different levels as a source of monetization of platforms. After all, another Review Platform target audience is manufacturers who not only find their brand’s advocates on such web services.
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Manufacturers often pay platforms for various additional services: gathering information about the needs of potential users, options for representing products on the platform, conducting surveys, receiving requests from potential users (Lead Generation), checking the quality of the lead phone call, receiving new success stories. Sometimes the Pay Per Click (PPC) click pay model is used.

Survey platforms are also armed with tools such as Sales Enablement for IT vendors, giving information about products, their experience in using them.

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.

Technology feedback collection eliminates fake accounts and reviews. Identification of the real users of the product occurs by various methods: a phone call, screenshots of the products used, linkedin verification, etc.

Some platforms offer real users a reward for recalling about 10 USD and are ready to transfer this money to charity at the user's request.

Despite the fact that the Review Platform helps in the selection and comparison of IT products and services, Review Platform itself is not very willing to compare. But we, being one of those, will try) and consider 5 platforms with similar functionality, containing a catalog of IT products and information about user experience. You can see the complete Review Platform review in our comparative 15 Review Platform table .

Getapp

Product categories: SaaS software
Reviews: pros and cons, value for money, ease 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: recommendation services based on used
Verification: Yes

Features:

The project is dedicated to SaaS services. More than 600 product categories. Information is available on the role of the reviewer in the company, industry and company size. The recommendation service offers, after authorization through linkedin, selection of services based on your data about the services already used and the size of the company.

Offers vendors ordering reviews and lead generation. Interviewers as a bonus for feedback can get 20 USD.

ROI4CIO

Product categories: software, hardware, services
Feedback: only reviews about implementations, user size and industry, user information (if open), project description of the implementation, supplier, resolved problems, objectives, received ROI, implementation status (including pilot projects)
Rating: based on the data of implementations, ROI obtained in them, solved problems and tasks
Product Comparison: Functional Characteristics
Product information: characteristics, price quotes, ROI calculator, manufacturers, suppliers, implementations, competitive products, as well as information for sellers (pitch, selling stories, average deal size, deal protection, discount)
Selection of products: based on AI and manufacturers recommendations
Verification: linkedin, email domain
Features:
It does not provide for subjective assessments and comments, and contains only objective characteristics, without data on the quality of support, convenience of the interface and TP. In product implementations, the supplier’s data is given, if the user has allowed it, then his data is also given.

The project is a catalog not only of products, vendors and implementations, but also of authorized vendors and users.

For information on implementations and ROI, the project offers a 30 USD bonus. It also offers a mechanism for exchanging a rebate to a buyer from a supplier or vendor for an implementation reference.

Software Suggest

Product Categories: Software
Reviews: pros and cons, value for money, ease 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: is
Verification: Yes
Features:
Professional promotion services. 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. The product description contains data on price, functionality, screenshots, videos and information about competitors. Comparison of competitors' products and service on the recommendation of the product. The user can chat with a consultant who will recommend a product by voice. The project offers product comparison reports in 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: a description of how the industry and the size of the business fit, screenshots, video
Product selection: on request
Verification: Yes
Features:
Research Library - articles with product analysis in categories and analytical reports of Buyers' Guides.

Service experts provide services for individual selection of products. Offers lead generation services for vendors.

Trustradius

Product Categories: Software
Reviews: user name, user size, user industry, user role, functionality / payback / pro-vs / alternatives / usage examples / ROI qualitatively / other software used / probability to recommend / key differences / support / integration
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:
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. Testimonials can be sorted by client size, by topics (Pros and Cons, ROI, Alternative Products, Usage, Probability to Recommend). It is proposed to evaluate the functionality of the reviews.

Integration with salesforce and Hubspot is offered, allowing to include responses in offers. There is analytical information about products of one category, designed in 2-dimensional “TrustMap” graphics for different sizes of business.

The company's 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 feedback into their information channels.

findings

All platforms are trying to give the most complete information about the product, but, as we found out on our own experience, they most often complement each other: with descriptions, reviews, video reviews somewhere, prices somewhere, and calculators developed for complex products prices and ROI calculators.

More complete information on review platforms can be found in the comparison table, which contains 15 Review Platforms