G2 Review 2026: A Software Giant Where Agencies Get Lost

Quick Verdict: 7.8 out of 10

G2 earns a 7.8 out of 10 in our G2 review because it excels at what it was designed for (software reviews) while offering limited value to service agencies. The search and filter experience is the best of any B2B reviews platform we tested. The Grid reports are genuinely useful for software buyers. But the pricing is prohibitive for most agencies, the review incentive model raises quality concerns, and the agency directory feels like an afterthought bolted onto a software catalog. If you are an agency evaluating where to invest your directory budget, G2 should be on your radar only after you have covered platforms built specifically for services.

Transparency: 8.0/10 - G2's Grid methodology is publicly documented: products are plotted on axes of customer satisfaction (from reviews) and market presence (from company size, web presence, and social data). This is more transparent than most competitors. Where G2 loses points is around paid placement. Sponsored listings, featured profiles, and intent data pricing tiers are not clearly communicated upfront, and the line between organic ranking and paid visibility can blur.

Pricing / Value: 5.5/10 - Free listings exist, but they are minimal. Paid plans for vendors start at roughly $10,000 per year, with full-feature packages running $50,000 to $100,000 or more. Adding buyer intent data and review growth tools can push costs to $87,000 annually. For software companies with six-figure deal sizes, this math works. For agencies billing $500K to $2M per year, spending $10K or more on a platform where your listing competes with 100,000 software products is a hard sell.

User Experience: 8.0/10 - G2 has the best search and filtering UX of any software review platform we evaluated. Category navigation is clean, filters are granular, and the Grid report visualization is both intuitive and informative. Product comparison pages are well-designed. The buyer experience is strong. The vendor dashboard, while complex, provides detailed analytics once you get oriented.

Review Authenticity: 6.5/10 - G2 verifies reviewer identity through LinkedIn authentication and email domain checks. "Validated Reviewer" and "Validated Current User" labels add a layer of trust. However, G2 does not conduct phone interviews with reviewers, which is a step below Clutch's verification process. The $15 gift card incentive for leaving reviews is the bigger concern: it generates volume but creates a dynamic where reviews skew positive and lack depth.

Agency Value: 6.0/10 - G2 was built for software, not services. An agency directory exists, but it uses the same review framework designed for SaaS products. Agency listings receive a fraction of the buyer traffic that software listings attract. The categories, comparison tools, and Grid reports are all optimized for product evaluation, not service provider selection. For agencies, this platform is supplementary at best.

What Is G2?

G2 is the world's largest B2B software review platform. Founded in 2012 as G2 Crowd by Godard Abel and Tim Handorf in Chicago, Illinois, the company rebranded to simply G2 in 2019. The core mission has always been the same: give software buyers access to real user reviews so they can make better purchasing decisions. That mission attracted serious venture capital. G2 raised $157 million in a 2021 Series D round, reaching a $1.1 billion valuation. The company reported $162.9 million in revenue in 2024 and serves approximately 3,500 enterprise customers.

The numbers are staggering. Over 100,000 software products are listed across 2,000+ categories. More than 1.8 million user reviews have been submitted. G2 claims 100 million people use the platform annually, and SimilarWeb data from November 2025 shows approximately 3.54 million monthly visits to g2.com. As of Winter 2026, G2 has published 26,562 Grid reports across its software categories.

G2's Core Product: Software Reviews and Grid Reports

The Grid report is G2's signature feature and the reason the platform dominates software evaluation. Each Grid plots products on two axes: satisfaction (derived from user reviews) and market presence (derived from company size, employee count, web presence, and social metrics). Products land in one of four quadrants: Leaders, High Performers, Contenders, and Niche. These reports are published quarterly and have become a standard reference in enterprise software purchasing.

Beyond reviews and Grids, G2's premium product is buyer intent data. This feature tells vendors which companies are actively researching their product category on G2. Sales teams use this signal to time their outreach. For software companies, this is extremely valuable. For agencies, the utility depends on whether you can identify companies researching agency services on G2, which is a much smaller pool of buyers.

Where Do Agencies Fit on G2?

Agencies fit on G2 as a secondary category. The platform does have service provider listings, and agencies can create profiles, collect reviews, and appear in relevant categories. But the agency directory uses the same review framework built for software products. There are no specialized fields for project portfolios, case studies, or service-specific evaluation criteria. The buyer traffic flowing to agency categories is a fraction of what software categories receive. G2 is a software review platform first, and an agency directory only by extension.

How Does G2's Review System Actually Work?

G2's review system follows a structured submission and verification process designed to generate high volumes of authenticated feedback. Reviewers access the platform, select the product or service they want to review, and complete a multi-section questionnaire. The form asks about use cases, features used, likes, dislikes, and recommendations. Reviews typically take 5 to 10 minutes to complete.

Identity Verification and Reviewer Labels

G2 verifies reviewer identity primarily through LinkedIn authentication and business email domain checks. Reviewers who pass these checks receive a "Validated Reviewer" label on their review. Those who can prove current active usage of the product receive a "Validated Current User" badge. These labels help buyers gauge review credibility at a glance.

What G2 does not do is conduct phone interviews with reviewers. This is a meaningful distinction. Clutch, the leading agency review platform, requires phone or video calls between their analysts and the reviewer for each published review. That process is slower and generates fewer reviews, but it produces significantly more detailed feedback and makes fabrication much harder. G2 prioritizes scale over depth, which serves the software market well but leaves the review verification bar lower than some competitors.

The $15 Gift Card Incentive

G2 offers reviewers a $15 gift card for each qualifying review. Vendors can also run their own review campaigns through G2, encouraging existing customers to submit feedback. This incentive model is effective at generating volume: 1.8 million reviews is more than any competing software review platform has achieved. But it creates a predictable dynamic. Incentivized reviewers tend to write shorter reviews, lean positive (since they were usually prompted by the vendor), and skip the nuanced criticism that makes reviews genuinely useful for buyers.

The incentive also raises questions about review distribution. When a vendor actively campaigns for reviews, the resulting batch tends to cluster around the same time period and sentiment. Buyers reading G2 reviews should look at the date spread and check whether reviews arrived in suspicious clusters. A product with 200 reviews submitted in the same month likely ran an incentive campaign.

How the Grid Methodology Works

G2's Grid methodology combines two scores. The satisfaction score comes from review data: overall rating, feature ratings, and review recency. The market presence score comes from external signals: company size, employee count, web traffic, social following, and the number of reviews (more reviews indicate broader market adoption). Products need a minimum number of reviews to qualify for Grid placement, which prevents new entrants from gaming the system with a handful of perfect scores.

What Does G2 Cost for Vendors and Agencies?

G2 pricing operates on a tiered model with a free baseline and paid plans that scale steeply based on company size and feature access. Understanding the full cost structure is essential when evaluating G2 for agencies, because the math looks very different depending on whether you sell software or services.

Free Tier: What You Get Without Paying

Every vendor and agency can claim a free G2 profile. The free listing includes a basic company description, the ability to collect reviews, and placement in relevant categories. You can respond to reviews and see basic analytics. For agencies testing the waters, the free tier is functional enough to establish a presence and start gathering feedback.

Paid Plans: $10K to $100K+ Per Year

Paid G2 subscriptions start at approximately $10,000 per year for the entry-level package. This gets you enhanced profile features, review generation tools, and basic reporting. Mid-tier plans with competitor comparison data and content licensing run $30,000 to $50,000 annually. Enterprise plans with full buyer intent data, API access, and CRM integrations can exceed $100,000 per year. According to Crunchbase data, G2's revenue model has shifted increasingly toward these high-value enterprise contracts, with buyer intent data being the fastest-growing product line.

The core subscription at roughly $15,000 per year gets most vendors what they need: enhanced profiles, review management, and category placement. Add the Buyer Intent package and Review Growth tools, and the total can reach $87,000 annually. These numbers make sense for SaaS companies where a single enterprise deal can be worth $50,000 or more. They make far less sense for agencies where project values are typically lower and sales cycles are relationship-driven.

The Agency Math: Why G2 Pricing Rarely Works for Services

Consider a mid-size agency billing $1.5 million annually. A $10,000 G2 subscription represents a meaningful marketing line item. To justify that spend, the agency would need to close at least two or three projects directly attributable to their G2 listing. Given that the agency directory receives far less buyer traffic than software categories, the conversion math is difficult. Compare this to Clutch, where paid sponsorships start around $2,000 per month but reach buyers specifically searching for service providers. Or GoodFirms, where paid plans cost roughly $300 per month. For most agencies, the G2 free tier is the right move. Pay only if you sell a software product alongside your services.

Can You Actually Trust G2 Reviews?

G2 reviews are generally trustworthy for getting a directional sense of product quality, but they should not be treated as unbiased evaluations. The platform's verification process confirms reviewer identity, which eliminates the most obvious forms of fraud. A review from a "Validated Current User" with a LinkedIn-confirmed identity is more reliable than an anonymous rating on a lesser platform.

The Gift Card Effect on Review Quality

The $15 gift card incentive is the most discussed aspect of G2's review authenticity. On one hand, the incentive generates the massive review volume that makes G2 useful. On the other hand, paid reviewers produce qualitatively different feedback than organic ones. Studies on incentivized reviews consistently show that they skew shorter, more positive, and less specific. When a vendor runs a review campaign asking happy customers to share their experience on G2 for a gift card, the resulting reviews tend to confirm rather than critically evaluate.

This does not mean G2 reviews are fake. It means they are systematically optimistic. Buyers should pay closer attention to the 1-star and 2-star reviews, which are more likely to reflect genuine frustration. Trustpilot reviews of G2 itself include complaints from vendors who believe critical reviews of their paying customers were suppressed or removed, though G2 denies these allegations.

Pay-to-Play Accusations

G2 has faced recurring accusations of pay-to-play dynamics. The argument goes like this: paying customers get better profile placement, more prominent badge displays, and (allegedly) more favorable treatment of their review portfolio. G2 maintains that paid features affect profile visibility and marketing tools, not review content or Grid placement. The Grid methodology is publicly documented and review-driven.

Whether you believe this depends on how much weight you give to indirect effects. A paying vendor gets review generation tools that make it easier to accumulate reviews. More reviews improve Grid placement. So while the Grid itself may be algorithmically neutral, the tools that feed it are not equally accessible. This is not unique to G2. Clutch has a similar dynamic with its paid sponsorships. But at G2's price points, the gap between free and paid vendors is wider.

How G2 Verification Compares to Clutch

G2 verifies identity. Clutch verifies identity and the substance of the review through analyst-conducted phone interviews. This is a meaningful difference. A G2 review confirms that a real person wrote it. A Clutch review confirms that a real person had a real project with real outcomes worth discussing for 15 to 30 minutes. For agencies where project quality matters more than feature checklists, Clutch's approach produces more actionable social proof. For software buyers comparing features across dozens of tools, G2's volume-driven model provides broader coverage.

Is G2 Worth It for Service Agencies?

For most service agencies, G2 is not worth a paid investment. The platform was engineered for software evaluation, and every design decision reflects that priority. G2 for agencies is like using a highway built for trucks when you are on a bicycle: the infrastructure exists, but it was not built for you, and the vehicles around you are moving faster with more resources.

The agency directory on G2 covers categories like digital marketing, web development, IT consulting, and design services. Listings look similar to software product pages, with reviews, ratings, and company details. But the buyer behavior is different. Someone comparing five CRM tools on G2 is ready to purchase. Someone looking for a marketing agency is typically earlier in their evaluation, wants to see case studies and portfolios, and values relationship signals that G2's review format does not capture well.

The Hidden Value: Buyer Intent Data for Agencies

Here is the contrarian take on G2 for agencies. The listing itself may not drive leads, but G2's buyer intent data can. If your agency serves a specific software vertical, you can use G2 intent signals to identify companies actively evaluating tools in your space. An agency that helps companies implement Salesforce, for example, could track G2 intent data for the CRM category and reach out to companies in the research phase. This is not the typical agency use case for a review platform, but it might be the most valuable one G2 offers to service companies.

The catch is cost. Buyer intent data is a premium G2 product, priced for SaaS budgets. Agencies would need to generate enough qualified outreach to justify the subscription. For larger agencies, particularly those in our software agencies category that build and implement software products, this math can work. For a 20-person content marketing shop, it almost certainly will not.

When G2 Does Make Sense for Agencies

G2 makes sense for agencies in two scenarios. First, if you sell a software product alongside your services (a SaaS tool, a proprietary platform, an analytics dashboard), your G2 listing is essential. Software products live and die by their G2 reviews, and the platform's buyer traffic is heavily concentrated in software categories. Second, if you are a large agency ($10M+ revenue) with a dedicated marketing budget, a G2 presence adds credibility when enterprise buyers are doing due diligence. Many procurement teams check G2 as part of their vendor evaluation process, even for services.

For everyone else, stick with the free tier. Claim your profile, encourage clients to leave G2 reviews when they naturally have good things to say, and invest your paid budget in platforms where agency buyers actually shop. If you are evaluating agencies yourself, our guide on how to choose an AI agency in 2026 covers the evaluation frameworks that matter beyond review scores.

How Does G2 Compare to Clutch and Capterra?

G2 sits in a competitive landscape with several major B2B reviews and directory platforms. For agencies evaluating where to invest, the comparison that matters most is how each platform serves service companies specifically, not just which one has the most total reviews or traffic.

G2 vs Clutch: Software Focus vs Agency Focus

Clutch was built from day one as a service provider directory. Every feature, from the phone-verified reviews to the project-based case studies to the "Ability to Deliver" scoring, is designed around evaluating agencies and consultancies. G2 was built to evaluate software products. Clutch interviews reviewers by phone. G2 sends them gift cards. Clutch profiles include detailed project portfolios. G2 profiles focus on feature ratings and user satisfaction scores. For agencies, Clutch is the more natural fit. G2's advantage is raw scale and brand recognition, but that scale is concentrated in software, not services.

G2 vs Capterra: Two Software Platforms, Different Owners

Capterra is owned by Gartner and, like G2, focuses primarily on software reviews. Both platforms cover similar categories and compete for the same vendor budgets. Capterra's review volume is smaller than G2's, but Gartner's brand carries weight in enterprise purchasing. For agencies, neither platform is ideal. Capterra's agency listings are even more limited than G2's. If you must choose between the two for a software product listing, G2 generally wins on review volume, UX, and market influence.

The Agency Platform Ranking

For agencies specifically, our ranking based on agency value is: Clutch first, GoodFirms second, G2 third. Clutch delivers the highest quality agency-specific buyer traffic and the most credible review format. GoodFirms offers an affordable entry point with genuine free-tier functionality. G2 provides scale and brand recognition but directs most of its buyer traffic to software categories. Agencies that also sell software products should maintain active profiles on all three. Pure service agencies should prioritize Clutch and GoodFirms, then maintain a free G2 listing as supplementary coverage. For a cross-platform view of top agencies, see our top software agencies for custom development list.

One factor worth watching: G2's dominance in AI training data. Because G2 has the largest structured review dataset for B2B software, its content is heavily indexed by large language models. When buyers ask AI assistants for software recommendations, G2 data frequently appears in the response. This creates an indirect visibility channel that may eventually extend to agency listings as G2 grows that side of the platform. For now, though, the AI citation benefit is primarily a software story.

Our Final Take

G2 dominates the software review platform space for good reason. The Grid reports are the industry standard. The review volume is unmatched. The search and filtering experience sets the bar for B2B reviews platforms. The buyer intent data product is genuinely innovative and gives software vendors a competitive edge in timing their sales outreach. For software companies, G2 is essential.

For service agencies, the picture is different. G2 for agencies means an agency directory that exists but operates in the shadow of the platform's software catalog. Buyer traffic flows predominantly to software categories. The review format is optimized for feature evaluation, not project assessment. Pricing starts at $10,000 per year, which is difficult to justify when agency-specific platforms like Clutch deliver more targeted buyer traffic at comparable or lower costs.

Our recommendation for agencies is straightforward. Claim your free G2 listing. Complete your profile. Encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews organically. Do not pay for a G2 premium subscription unless you also sell a software product. Invest your paid directory budget in Clutch, GoodFirms, or other platforms built specifically for service provider discovery.

The one exception: buyer intent data. If your agency specializes in a software-adjacent vertical (implementation, integration, migration, development), G2's intent signals can help you identify companies in active buying cycles. This is a more advanced play that requires sales infrastructure to act on the data, but it may be the single most valuable G2 product for agencies. For deeper context on how G2 reviews work from the vendor side, Outport Reviews has a useful breakdown of the review solicitation process.

This G2 review reflects the platform as of early 2026. G2 continues to invest in expanding beyond software, and its agency directory may improve over time. We will update this review if the agency experience changes meaningfully. For agencies exploring directory options today, start with our marketing agencies category for a cross-platform comparison of top-rated agencies across Clutch, GoodFirms, and G2.