Choosing the right software shouldn’t feel impossible.
If you’re dealing with endless options and struggling to trust what you read, evaluating platforms like G2 often becomes a necessary step just to narrow the field.
After researching G2’s capabilities, I actually found that decision paralysis burns valuable time and stops your team from focusing on growth.
What I discovered is that G2 fixes this by offering verified peer reviews alongside detailed intent data—letting you prioritize high-buying intent prospects and make real decisions faster. Plus, their tools make it easier to build social proof and capture buyers who are actively evaluating solutions right now.
In this G2 review, I’ll explain how G2 helps you simplify software selection so you spend less time guessing and more time connecting with the most relevant buyers.
We’ll dig into its core features, pricing, review management, how it compares to alternatives, and what matters most in your evaluation.
You’ll walk away with the features you need to make smart decisions and real insights about whether G2 fits your software buying or marketing process.
Let’s get started.
Quick Summary
- G2 is a B2B software marketplace that helps vendors capture and convert high-intent buyer leads through reviews and intent data.
- Best for B2B software companies with mature sales and marketing teams seeking qualified leads and market credibility.
- You’ll appreciate its buyer intent data, which prioritizes outreach to actively researching accounts, boosting sales efficiency.
- G2 offers tiered annual pricing from a free profile to enterprise packages above $70,000, with no public free trials.
G2 Overview
G2 has been around since 2012, operating from its headquarters in Chicago. My research shows their mission is to help your business buy technology with confidence.
While you use it for peer research, my analysis shows G2’s main business is selling buyer intent data to software vendors. This core focus on B2B vendor marketing solutions defines their powerful market position.
What really stood out in my G2 review were strategic acquisitions like Siftery, now G2 Track. This move into SaaS management, plus a $157M funding round, proves significant growth.
Unlike competitors that resell broad intent data, G2’s edge is its proprietary marketplace. It provides first-party data on active product comparisons, a much stronger and more reliable buying signal for you than general web browsing.
You’ll find their customers are thousands of software companies using these tools, from high-growth startups to enterprise leaders like Salesforce and Zoom, all competing for your attention.
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I was impressed by how their strategy is laser-focused on owning the final stage of your buying journey. By combining authentic peer reviews with powerful intent signals, they connect in-market buyers like you directly with vendors.
Now let’s examine their capabilities.
G2 Features
Struggling to capture leads from active buyers?
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G2 isn’t just a review site; it offers an integrated suite of G2 solutions designed to help vendors connect with in-market buyers. These are the five core G2 solutions that can transform your go-to-market strategy.
1. Enhanced Profile & Listing
Is your basic profile getting lost?
A standard G2 listing might not convert active buyers effectively. Lack of rich content can hinder your ability to stand out.
Paid tiers transform your G2 page into a powerful conversion tool with branded content. From my testing, adding downloadable resources significantly boosts engagement. This G2 solution helps showcase your unique value.
You create a high-converting “second website” on a trusted platform, capturing leads already researching solutions.
2. G2 Buyer Intent Data
Tired of cold calling ineffective leads?
Identifying which companies are actively researching your product can be a guessing game. Your sales team might chase uninterested prospects.
G2 Buyer Intent data tracks signals, identifying companies viewing your profile or category. What I love is how this data feeds directly into your CRM. This empowers your team to prioritize outreach.
Your sales team stops cold calling. Focus on high-intent accounts for higher conversion rates and relevant conversations.
3. Review Generation & Management
Need more authentic social proof?
Systematically collecting authentic user reviews is challenging. Without fresh reviews, your social proof can quickly become outdated.
G2 provides tools to run targeted review collection campaigns. From my testing, the review management dashboard is straightforward. This G2 solution helps you actively manage and respond to feedback.
Fresh reviews keep your profile relevant, improve your grid ranking, and provide powerful content for marketing and sales.
4. Content & Syndication
Struggling to build credibility quickly?
Claiming market leadership is one thing, but proving it with trusted third-party validation is another. This can slow buyer trust.
Vendors can license G2’s Grid® Reports and user review data. This is where G2 gets it right: you can embed dynamic G2 Grid widgets. This solution allows you to use G2 badges and data in marketing.
Use G2’s authority to validate your market position. This boosts conversion rates and adds weight to sales proposals.
5. G2 Track
Is SaaS sprawl eating your budget?
Managing your software stack, spending, and compliance can be chaotic for buyers. This often leads to wasted spend.
G2 Track integrates with financial systems to automatically identify all SaaS subscriptions. What impressed me most is how it provides a centralized dashboard for spending and renewals. This G2 solution helps optimize license usage.
You can eliminate redundant software and negotiate renewals more effectively, directly addressing uncontrolled SaaS spending.
Pros & Cons
- ✅ Delivers high-intent leads who are actively comparing solutions for purchase.
- ✅ Leverages G2’s market authority to boost your brand’s credibility effectively.
- ✅ Provides a straightforward interface for managing profiles and review campaigns.
- ⚠️ Can be very expensive, making direct ROI attribution challenging for some.
- ⚠️ Users sometimes report aggressive sales tactics for multi-year contracts.
All these G2 solutions work together to create a powerful ecosystem for B2B vendors, ensuring you connect with buyers at critical stages. This cohesive platform truly enhances your go-to-market efforts.
G2 Pricing
G2’s pricing isn’t simple to unpack.
G2 pricing operates on a custom quote model, meaning you’ll need to contact their sales team for precise figures tailored to your specific needs. This approach ensures your investment aligns with your strategic goals and the scale of your marketing efforts.
Cost Breakdown
- Base Platform: Essential Tier (starts ~$11,000 – $15,000/year)
- Volume/Usage: Varies significantly by intent data volume and categories monitored
- Implementation: Included in custom quote; varies by scope and complexity
- Integrations: CRM integrations (typically included in Pro/Power tiers)
- Key Factors:10+ Best Enterprise Legal Management Software to Gain Financial Control & Mitigate Risks: https://nerdisa.com/best-enterprise-legal-management-software/ Number of categories, intent data volume, chosen tier, add-ons
1. Pricing Model & Cost Factors
Understanding G2’s investment structure.
G2’s pricing model is subscription-based, but without fixed public tiers. What I found regarding pricing is that costs escalate based on specific features and scale, such as the number of product categories you monitor, the volume of buyer intent data you require, and the chosen tier (Essential, Pro, Power). Add-ons further customize your overall spend.
This means your budget is directly tied to the value you extract from G2’s extensive market insights and lead generation capabilities.
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2. Value Assessment & ROI
Is this investment worthwhile for you?
From my cost analysis, G2 offers significant ROI by connecting you with high-intent buyers, which can reduce your customer acquisition costs. While the initial investment might seem high, it streamlines lead generation, enhancing sales efficiency. Compared to traditional outbound marketing, G2 provides pre-qualified prospects already researching solutions like yours.
Budget-wise, you’re investing in direct access to your target market, potentially leading to faster sales cycles and higher conversion rates.
3. Budget Planning & Implementation
Planning your total G2 investment.
When budgeting for G2, remember the custom quotes cover various solutions, so focus on what best supports your immediate growth objectives. While exact implementation costs aren’t separate, they are factored into your custom quote. Your annual spend will vary significantly based on the chosen tier and competitive nature of your market categories.
So for your business, expect an investment that matches the strategic impact G2 aims to deliver in terms of market visibility.
My Take: G2’s pricing is for serious B2B software vendors seeking to leverage buyer intent and market authority; it’s a strategic investment that scales with your growth ambitions.
The overall G2 pricing reflects a tailored investment for high-value market access.
G2 Reviews
What do real G2 users truly say?
To give you an honest perspective, I analyzed numerous G2 reviews from software vendors sharing their direct experiences. This section breaks down what actual customers think about using G2’s solutions.
1. Overall User Satisfaction
Users are generally satisfied, with clear patterns.
From my review analysis, G2 holds strong average ratings of 4.3 to 4.5 stars across platforms like TrustRadius and Capterra. What stood out is how users consistently praise lead quality, confirming the platform’s ability to deliver high-intent buyers ready to purchase. Many reviews reflect significant satisfaction with this core benefit.
This indicates your sales pipeline can benefit significantly from more qualified, engaged prospects, streamlining your team’s efforts.
2. Common Praise Points
Leads and platform authority consistently shine.
What I found in user feedback is consistent praise for the quality of leads generated through G2. Customers frequently report that leads are “high-intent” and “further down the funnel,” indicating G2 attracts active, serious buyers. Review-wise, this means less time qualifying and more time closing deals for your sales team.
This directly translates to higher conversion rates and more efficient use of your valuable sales and marketing resources.
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3. Frequent Complaints
Cost and aggressive sales tactics concern some users.
Customers frequently complain about the high cost of G2’s services, coupled with challenges in directly attributing revenue. What emerges from the feedback is how multi-year contracts feel aggressive to some, making renewal conversations difficult. You’ll find these complaints common across various reviews of the platform.
While significant, these issues may be manageable if you have a robust sales development process to leverage buyer intent data.
What Customers Say
- Positive: “The leads that come through G2 are typically high quality. We’ve closed a number of great deals originating there.”
- Constructive: “G2 is very expensive. Attributing direct revenue to our spend is tough, which complicates renewal discussions with the CFO.”
- Bottom Line: “The buyer intent data is powerful, but requires a solid sales process. Without action, you won’t see value.”
Overall, G2 reviews highlight strong lead quality, though cost and ROI attribution remain common hurdles. My analysis suggests you can expect good value by leveraging their intent data. Review credibility is robust.
Best G2 Alternatives
Confused about your G2 alternatives?
Navigating the B2B software review space means understanding the best G2 alternatives, as each platform uniquely serves different business needs and priorities. From my competitive analysis, I’ve identified key differentiators to help you choose.
1. Capterra
Need a more flexible, lower-cost entry?
Capterra, part of Gartner Digital Markets, offers a pay-per-click model that can be a gentler entry point for smaller marketing budgets or initial marketplace testing. Alternative-wise, I found that it excels for SMBs trying marketplaces, though costs scale with clicks unlike G2’s fixed price. Its audience often includes more small or medium-sized businesses.
Choose Capterra if your budget is tighter, you prefer a PPC model, and you’re primarily targeting small or medium-sized businesses.
2. TrustRadius
Prioritizing in-depth, unbiased expert reviews?
TrustRadius prides itself on highly detailed, quality reviews and a strict no-pay-to-play ranking policy, appealing to a more technical or enterprise-level audience. What I found comparing options is that TrustRadius emphasizes deep review quality, which aligns better with buyers needing granular insights over sheer review volume.
Consider this alternative when your target audience values extensive, unbiased review content and you seek a premium platform.
3. Bombora
Looking for broader, account-level intent signals?
Bombora is a pure-play intent data provider, gathering “Company Surge®” data from a vast B2B cooperative, not just a review site. Alternative-wise, your situation calls for Bombora if you need the broadest possible intent signal across the web to inform your account-based strategies. It doesn’t offer a review marketplace.
Choose Bombora when you require wide-ranging B2B intent data for accounts and already have robust lead generation channels.
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4. 6sense
Running a sophisticated, integrated ABM strategy?
6sense is a comprehensive Account-Based Marketing platform that uses AI to predict in-market accounts and orchestrate multi-channel engagement. From my analysis, 6sense is a full revenue execution platform, often incorporating third-party intent data like G2’s, but at a significantly higher cost due to its breadth.
Choose 6sense if you need an all-encompassing ABM solution to unify data, predict buying cycles, and manage multi-channel campaigns.
Quick Decision Guide
- Choose G2: High-intent buyer data with massive review volume
- Choose Capterra: SMB focus with flexible pay-per-click pricing
- Choose TrustRadius: Deep, unbiased reviews for technical enterprises
- Choose Bombora: Broadest B2B intent data for account insights
- Choose 6sense: Unified ABM platform for end-to-end revenue operations
The best G2 alternatives truly depend on your specific business needs and strategic priorities for market presence and buyer engagement.
Setup & Implementation
G2 implementation? Let’s talk reality.
Navigating G2 implementation involves more than just signing up. This G2 review section breaks down the practical steps and challenges, helping you understand what to realistically expect when deploying their solutions for your business.
1. Setup Complexity & Timeline
It’s not just a quick flick of a switch.
Free profiles are simple, but paid G2 implementation, especially with intent data, adds significant complexity. Setting up your enhanced profile needs a marketing team for several days. Integrating G2 Buyer Intent data takes dedicated technical effort, requiring careful planning beyond initial setup.
You’ll want to allocate specific marketing and technical resources, mapping out the entire process. Don’t underestimate the time for comprehensive data integration.
2. Technical Requirements & Integration
Expect some technical heavy lifting here.
While G2 offers native integrations with major CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot, these aren’t always plug-and-play. What I found about deployment is that you’ll need a RevOps or Marketing Ops professional to ensure correct data flow, field mapping, and lead routing rules, especially for intent data.
Your IT team or dedicated technical resource must be ready to manage these crucial connections to avoid data silos and ensure actionable insights.
3. Training & Change Management
User adoption needs a proactive approach.
Managing your G2 profile and responding to reviews is intuitive for marketing teams. However, the real training challenge comes with acting on buyer intent data. From my analysis, your sales development team needs clear processes to effectively leverage these high-intent signals.
You’ll want to establish clear playbooks for lead follow-up and internal communication to maximize the ROI from your G2 investment.
4. Support & Success Factors
Support can make or break your deployment.
What I found about deployment is that G2’s initial onboarding support is helpful for profile setup. However, long-term success hinges on your internal commitment. Dedicating ongoing resources for management and a robust sales process for intent data is crucial for G2 implementation ROI.
For your implementation to succeed, you should plan for continuous profile updates, review management, and a seamless sales follow-up workflow.
Implementation Checklist
- Timeline: Varies; free in hours, paid profile days, intent data weeks to months
- Team Size: Marketing, RevOps/Marketing Ops, and Sales Development teams
- Budget: Internal team time for setup, integration, and ongoing management
- Technical: CRM/marketing automation integration, data mapping, and routing
- Success Factor: Clear sales development process to act on intent data
Overall, G2 implementation can range from straightforward to complex, depending on your chosen features. Success hinges on dedicated internal resources and clear follow-up processes, ensuring you extract maximum value from their platform.
Who’s G2 For
Is G2 the right fit for your business?
This G2 review helps you determine if this leading B2B software marketplace aligns with your business profile, team size, and specific use case requirements. I’ll guide you through where it excels and falls short.
1. Ideal User Profile
Perfect for B2B software companies.
G2 is ideal for established B2B software companies with product-market fit and a robust marketing budget. From my user analysis, companies with ACV exceeding $5,000 leverage G2’s high-intent audience effectively. This includes VPs of Marketing, Demand Gen, and Product Marketing leaders seeking engaged prospects.
You’ll see strong ROI if you actively engage buyers already comparing solutions, enhancing your pipeline with highly qualified leads further down the funnel.
2. Business Size & Scale
Scaled for established software vendors.
G2 targets a broad market, from SMBs to large enterprises, but your investment should justify the cost. What I found about target users is that you need a solid sales development process to truly capitalize on the buyer intent data provided, making it ideal for growth-stage teams.
Your business is a good fit if you have dedicated sales and marketing teams ready to act on high-intent data.
3. Use Case Scenarios
Generating high-intent B2B leads.
G2 excels at generating a pipeline of high-intent leads actively comparing solutions, building social proof, and empowering sales teams with intelligence. From my analysis, it works best for enhancing ABM programs and prioritizing accounts. It’s for businesses seeking active, in-market buyers.
You’ll find this aligns if your strategy involves targeting prospects deep in their buying journey and needing strong credibility.
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4. Who Should Look Elsewhere
Not for early-stage, lean startups.
If you’re a very early-stage startup with a limited budget or your product is in a brand-new, undefined category, G2 isn’t ideal. From my user analysis, you might struggle with ROI attribution given the significant cost. The math is harder for low ACV products.
Consider free organic growth strategies or niche review sites if your product lacks existing search demand on larger platforms.
Best Fit Assessment
- Perfect For: Established B2B software companies with product-market fit
- Business Size: Growth-stage SMBs to large enterprises with dedicated teams
- Primary Use Case: High-intent lead generation, social proof, buyer intelligence
- Budget Range: Robust marketing budget; high ACV products ideal for ROI
- Skip If: Early-stage startup, limited budget, new product category
The answer to who should use G2 boils down to your maturity, budget, and sales process readiness. This G2 review highlights that successful users actively leverage its insights. Determine if your team is prepared to capitalize on high-intent buyer signals.
Bottom Line
G2 offers compelling value for vendors.
My G2 review reveals a powerful platform for software vendors, but its effectiveness hinges on strategic resource allocation and a well-defined sales development process.
1. Overall Strengths
G2 excels in lead quality and market authority.
The platform consistently delivers high-intent leads who are actively comparing solutions and are further down the sales funnel. From my comprehensive analysis, G2 provides unique access to in-market buyers, making it a powerful channel for direct conversions and strong brand visibility within the B2B software ecosystem.
These strengths translate into more efficient sales cycles and higher conversion rates for businesses serious about engaging active prospects.
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2. Key Limitations
Significant cost requires careful ROI tracking.
G2 comes with a high price tag, and attributing direct revenue can be challenging, complicating CFO discussions. Based on this review, aggressive sales tactics can lead to expensive contracts, often pushing for multi-year commitments that might not align with every vendor’s budget or growth strategy.
These financial and operational considerations are manageable trade-offs if your sales process can fully leverage the platform’s unique buyer intent data.
3. Final Recommendation
A strong recommendation for prepared vendors.
You should choose G2 if you are a software vendor prioritizing high-intent lead generation and possess a robust sales development team ready to act on buyer intent data. From my analysis, success depends on your internal sales processes and ability to integrate G2 data effectively into your CRM and marketing automation systems.
My recommendation holds strong confidence for those ready to invest both capital and operational effort into fully utilizing the platform.
Bottom Line
- Verdict: Recommended for software vendors with sales resources
- Best For: Software companies seeking high-intent leads and market insights
- Biggest Strength: High-quality, in-market buyer intent leads and platform authority
- Main Concern: High cost and challenges with direct ROI attribution
- Next Step: Request a demo to discuss pricing and integration capabilities
This G2 review provides a comprehensive look at its value, offering clear insights for your strategic marketing investments and guiding your decision confidently.