Community Guidelines

Last updated on May 4, 2026.

These Community Guidelines govern the Reviews Program of the Site and describe the rules of play for users, reviewers and Vendors. Capitalized words which are not otherwise defined herein have the meaning given to them in the General User Terms. 

We may update these Community Guidelines to reflect changes to the law, the Site, or our business. Your continued use of the Site and our Services following our updates constitutes your acceptance of these changes. Anyone who violates these Community Guidelines may be subject to penalties imposed both by us, such as a comment on vendor’s profile, or suspension of services, or penalties imposable by law. For further guidance regarding these Community Guidelines, contact [email protected].

1. OVERVIEW OF REVIEWS 

The Site allows users to share their experiences with and opinions about software products and services. Reviews reflect the personal opinions of individual users. We do not endorse or take responsibility for those opinions. Vendor may respond to reviews, but those responses are its own. We aim to provide a fair, transparent space where people can share honest feedback and help others make informed decisions. We do not endorse any of the opinions expressed by reviewers or by Vendor in response to reviews. As a neutral reviews platform, we do not evaluate the merit of the opinions expressed on the Site. 

2. REVIEW CONTENT

We want reviews (including review snippets, video reviews and video montages) to be honest, helpful, and respectful. To maintain the quality and integrity of our platform all reviews must meet the following guidelines. Reviews that do not meet these standards may be rejected or not published.

  • Be a real, verified user. Reviews must be submitted by an individual whose identity we can verify. Even if you choose to appear anonymously (as a “verified user” instead of your name appearing), we must be able to confirm your identity. Common reasons we may reject reviews include we cannot verify the reviewer’s identity, the content appears to be generated, copied, or submitted on someone else’s behalf. Please note, if a reviewer has selected the anonymity option, we are unable to reveal to any details about the reviewer. 
  • Write from your own experience: Reviews must be written by the actual user of the product and reflect genuine, first-hand experience. Reviews may not be submitted on someone else’s behalf or under a false identity.
  • Avoid conflicts of interest: You may not review a product if you are affiliated with the vendor, a direct competitor, or have any financial interest in the product. Vendor, its employees, or anyone with a financial interest in the success of a product are not allowed to review their own product. 
  • Keep content original and authentic: Reviews must be your own work. Do not copy content from other sources or reuse previously published material. Reviews must not be generated by third parties or automated tools, including generative AI.
  • Provide meaningful, honest feedback. Reviews should offer thoughtful, relevant insights about the product. Content that is spam, promotional, misleading, or lacks substance will not be accepted.
  • Be respectful and appropriate: Reviews must not include abusive, hateful, discriminatory, threatening, or harassing language. 
  • Protect privacy: Do not include personal or sensitive information about yourself or others, such as names, contact details, or any identifying information.
  • Stay fair and accurate: Reviews should focus on your experience with the product. References to other products are allowed only when they add relevant context. Do not include unproven accusations of civil, illegal or criminal activity. Do not pay for fake reviews or unfairly boost of harm a product’s reputation. 
  • Comply with legal obligations: Reviews must not violate any confidentiality agreements, or applicable laws, and must not create legal risk for us.

If someone repeatedly violates these Community Guidelines, we may take additional action, including rejecting their reviews, disabling their account and, where appropriate, pursuing legal action. We may review and edit a review’s content at any time and for any reason; and at our discretion, we may remove a review that we reasonably believe violates these Community Guidelines and our policies.

3. INCENTIVIZED REVIEWS

Reviewers may be offered nominal incentives to encourage reviews, in compliance with applicable laws. The “Reviewer Source” icon on the Site will indicate if a review was written in exchange for an incentive. Incentive may not be provided to:

  • Reviewers who are employees, officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, family members or otherwise affiliated with the Vendor being reviewed, or a direct competitor;
  • Reviewers who are government and public sector employees;
  • Reviewers whose company policies prohibit the acceptance of gifts in the context of business transactions;
  • Reviewers who are individuals (or who are acting on behalf of individuals) (1) subject to, (2) residing in countries or (3) employed by organizations identified in any government sanctions watchlist, including but not limited to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals List or other sanctions list; or
  • Reviewers who have already received an incentive for the same review, or who are otherwise offered an additional incentive for a review they have been or are being incentivized for through the Site.

4. ADDITIONAL VENDOR GUIDELINES

Vendor shall comply with these Community Guidelines, including as set forth below, and shall not, by any act or omission, directly or indirectly cause, encourage, or induce any third party to violate these Community Guidelines:

  • Influencing reviews and ratings: Vendor must not attempt to influence review content or ratings, including through the use or enforcement of non-disparagement clauses. Federal law prohibits such clauses in customer contracts, and we view their use as an attempt to artificially inflate ratings. We will not remove reviews on the basis that a reviewer agreed to such a clause, and the existence of these clauses may result in penalties to the vendor’s account.
  • Submitting or facilitating reviews: Vendor may not submit reviews for its own product or a competitor’s product, whether directly or indirectly. Vendor is also prohibited from posting reviews on behalf of users, commissioning or purchasing fake reviews, or using third parties to generate reviews. Reviews must be submitted directly by the actual user through the Site. Vendor must not coach or direct customers on the content of their reviews or host review collection processes outside of the Site.
  • Interactions with reviewers: Vendor must not harass, pressure, or intimidate reviewers regarding their review content or rating. While vendors are encouraged to engage constructively, all responses must be made through the Site’s tools, such as the Vendor Portal reply feature, and must remain respectful and professional. Vendors must not contact reviewers directly in a manner that could reasonably be perceived as harassment.
  • Use of the review investigation process: Vendors must not abuse the review investigation or flagging system. Submitting reports under false pretenses or as a means to manipulate ratings is prohibited and may result in penalties.
  • Review solicitation practices: Vendors must solicit reviews in a fair and unbiased manner. This includes requesting feedback from a broad cross-section of their user base and not selectively targeting users based on expected sentiment or prior feedback. Vendors are prohibited from using third-party services that generate large volumes of unverified or incentivized reviews or otherwise attempt to manipulate review volume or quality.
  • Legal and regulatory compliance: Vendors must not recruit or solicit reviews in a way that would cause the Site to violate applicable laws or regulations. This includes complying with all relevant requirements, such as those relating to incentives, disclosures, and material connections between the vendor and reviewer.
  • Fraudulent, abusive, or threatening conduct: Vendors are prohibited from submitting fraudulent reviews, publishing misinformation about the Site or its programs, or threatening reviewers, the Site, or any third party. This includes pressuring reviewers to remove or modify honest reviews or threatening legal action in response to legitimate feedback.
  • Compliance with Site policies and law: Vendor must not engage in activities that violate our Site policies, such as click fraud and data scrapping. 

Reviews Collection Program: We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend any review collection activities at any time. Vendor recruiting reviews are activating our behalf.

Where a Vendor participates in the Reviews Collection Program, Vendor must also comply with the following requirements:

  • Equal and Lawful Incentives: Incentives may be offered in connection with reviews, provided they comply with applicable laws, these Community Guidelines and our terms and policies.Incentives must be offered equally to all eligible participants, regardless of the rating provided. Incentives must not exceed nominal value, as defined by applicable law. Failure to properly disclose incentivized reviews may result in an incentivization notice or removal of the review.
  • Incentive distribution limits: We will distribute gift card incentives only to a predetermined number of unique published reviewers, unless an alternative nominal incentive arrangement is expressly approved by us.
  • Use of approved tools: Vendor must use the incentive link provided in the Vendor Portal. If Vendor deviates from this link, reviewers may not receive incentives. If such link is unavailable, Vendor must notify us  about incentivized reviews at [email protected].
  • Acceptance of reviews: Vendor must accept all verified reviews generated through an incentivized campaign, provided they comply with these Community Guidelines and applicable policies.
  • Prohibited practices: Vendor must not use third-party services or methods that generate high volumes of unverified submissions, or offer rewards in exchange for reviews outside of approved processes.
  • Program control: We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend review collection activities at any time.
  • Mandatory disclosures in outreach: Vendor must clearly and conspicuously communicate the following in all outreach:
  1. Participation is subject to these Community Guidelines.
  2. Incentives are not contingent on submitting a positive review; honest and unbiased feedback is required.
  3. Reviews may be published publicly on affiliated websites, including www.Capterra.com, www.SoftwareAdvice.com or www.GetApp.com, and other associated or partner websites.
  4. Vendor is independent from us, and participation does not imply any affiliation by us with Vendor’s business.
  5. Disclosure all material terms, including but not limited to eligibility criteria, number of available incentives, incentive value and currency, timing of distribution, any applicable conditions and any other disclosures required by law.
  6. Append the following footer to all outreach containing an incentive offer:

*To be eligible to participate in the Reviews Collection Program, you must comply with the Community Guidelines [NOTE:VENDOR MUST LINK THE COMMUNITY GUIDELINES].

**PLEASE NOTE: In our ongoing efforts to ensure a just and legally compliant Reviews Program, G2 Digital Markets will not provide an incentive to: i) Reviewers who are employees of -or affiliated with- the company being reviewed, or a direct competitor; ii) Reviewers who are employees, officers, directors, agents of G2.com, Inc., Capterra Inc., Software Advice Inc. or Nubera eBusiness S.L. (“G2 Digital Markets”), its subsidiaries and affiliated companies and their immediate families; iii) Reviewers who are government and public sector employees; iv) Reviewers whose company policies prohibit the acceptance of gifts in the context of business transactions; and v) Reviewers who are individuals (or who are acting on behalf of individuals) (1) subject to, (2) residing in countries or (3) employed by organizations identified in any government sanctions watchlist, including but not limited to the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals List or other sanctions lists. 

***Even if you fall under one of the categories listed above, you are welcome to submit a non-incentivized review directly on www.Capterra.com, www.SoftwareAdvice.com, or www.GetApp.com. You will not make use of sites or services that facilitate the completion of tasks in return for a reward, or any method used to drive a high volume of unverified leads to your reviews form.

Buyer Alerts: We may issue a Buyer Alert to notify users of Vendor behavior that violates these Community Guidelines, our policies, or applicable terms. The nature of the violation will be indicated on the Buyer Alert displayed on the Site.

5. REVIEW SNIPPETS

Review snippets are system-selected, direct quotes taken from user-submitted reviews published on a product’s profile. Review snippets are designed to provide a quick snapshot summary of “Pros” and “Cons” extracted from the review. Snippets must be appropriately categorized as either a “Pro” or a “Con.” Content that is clearly miscategorized or violates these Community Guidelines may be replaced. Because review snippets are sourced directly from published reviews, they are also subject to these Community Guidelines, and may be removed at our discretion.

6. VIDEO REVIEWS

Video reviews are user-submitted video testimonials about software, sourced by the Site from our existing pool of reviewers. Reviewers are selected through an unbiased process and must meet objective criteria. To be eligible, a reviewer must (i) have been previously validated through our quality assurance process with a history of submitting high-quality content that complies with these Community Guidelines, and (ii) have an existing published written review for the same product. Video reviews are subject to these Community Guidelines, and may be removed at our discretion. 

Video reviewers are not required to repeat their written review verbatim and may express updated or different opinions. Please note, Video reviews are not treated as additional reviews and are not included in ratings calculations. Video reviews do not affect average scores, search rankings, or category rankings.

7. VIDEO MONTAGE

Video montages are a moderated compilation of key commentaries clipped from previously submitted video reviews meeting these Community Guidelines to create an assortment of opinions sourced from multiple reviewers. A product profile may contain more than one video montage at a time, with montages showcasing opinions on why users selected a software balanced by montages of opinions on what users would like to see changed. Video montages are subject to these Community Guidelines, and may be removed at our discretion.

8. REPORTING A REVIEW + OUR INVESTIGATION

If you believe a content (including reviews, review snippets, video reviews, or video montages) on the Site is fraudulent, violates these Community Guidelines, or is otherwise inappropriate, please report it by emailing [email protected]. Include a link to the product page, details about the content, and any relevant information to support your request and our investigation. Our team will evaluate the content to determine if it meets our guidelines. Pending our investigation, the content at issue may remain published and visible on the Site. If our team determines the content does not meet our guidelines, it will be removed from the site. If the content meets our guidelines, it will remain published.

We do not remove content based on disagreements with the opinions, statements expressed or subjective challenges. As a neutral platform, we do not edit content at Vendor’s request or simply because content is negative. Submitting a report triggers an investigation, but does not guarantee removal. We may contact the user to obtain additional information and will use a number of tools to determine if the review violates these Community Guidelines. 

All reports are reviewed in the order received, and decisions are made solely by our reviews team. Abuse of the reporting process may result in penalties. We do not facilitate arbitration. We are not mediators and will not intervene in disputes between Vendor and our users. We will not share personal contact information or communications between us and our users. We do not disclose our investigation protocols. All of our decisions are at our sole discretion. We take investigation requests very seriously.