Community Guidelines

Please take time to read our community guidelines.

These Community Guidelines govern the Reviews Program of the Capterra Site and our Affiliate Sites and describe the rules of play for Users and Vendors and are incorporated by reference into the General User Terms that govern the use of this Site.

Vendors and Users acknowledge that compliance with these Guidelines is a condition for use of our Sites.

This document includes three main sections:

1. Understanding Reviews: A guide for all Users which covers our Reviews Program, the quality assurance (QA) and vetting of User Reviews published on our site, and how to interpret software User Reviews.

2. Writing Reviews: An outline of the guidelines User Reviews must meet in order to be published and reasonable expectations those writing User Reviews, the process for flagging User Reviews, and a few other details about our program.

3. Issues Affecting Vendors: An overview of the issues affecting Vendors, including guidelines Vendors must follow, Vendor expectations, best practices, and a link to our Vendor Portal with more information.

We have also created detailed FAQs for Reviewers, Vendors, and about our Verification Process which will help provide answers to some of the most common questions asked about our Reviews Program.

For a glossary of definitions used in these Guidelines, please [click here](/legal/glossary).

Understanding Reviews

Understanding Reviews

Reviews Program Overview

Reviews play an important part in educating potential software buyers by sharing the opinions of peers and others who have relevant experiences. Reviews not only help buyers make better informed decisions, but provide Vendors with feedback and valuable insight about their software or service. We take each Review seriously and aim to create a site that is helpful and maintains high-quality, relevant content written by verified Users and is free of conflicts of interest.

As a website operator, we display content generated by our community of software Users in the form of User Reviews. The opinions expressed in User Reviews are those of the Users and not of Capterra. We do not endorse any of the opinions expressed by Users or by Vendor in response to User Reviews. And we identify in these Community Guidelines the rules governing our Reviews Program for (i) the Users of the Site, (ii) those Users who write User Reviews, and (iii) the Vendors who are listed and/or reviewed on the Site.

Quality Assurance (QA) and Verification Process

We have built a Reviews QA and Verification Process in order to assess compliance with these Community Guidelines. Our QA team endeavors to examine all User Reviews, submitted to our Sites to ensure User Reviews are from verified sources and conform to the rules set out in these Guidelines.

As we aim to be a neutral user-driven reviews platform, Capterra intends to facilitate discussion between Vendors and Users. As such, we aim to safeguard against fraud by taking steps in an effort to verify each User’s identity as set out in these Community Guidelines. We also use reasonable endeavours to confirm where possible that the User, in providing the User Review, has no conflicts of interest as set out in these Community Guidelines (such as being an employee or competitor of the Vendor), and that the User Review content meets our guidelines for publishing (listed below).

Here are the Three Keys of Reviews Verification

We endeavor to perform (either manually or by other processes) the following checks for each User Review:

• Identity Check. Research key identifiers such as name, job title, or email address in an effort to ensure that the User Review is by a real person. If we’re unable to identify the Reviewer, the User Review may not be published or may be taken down if already published.

• Conflict of Interest Check. Check the name and company, as stated by the User who has posted the User Review, against the product they are reviewing. If we determine or reasonably believe that they’re affiliated with the Vendor, or are a direct competitor of the Vendor, the User Review may not be published or may be taken down if already published.

• Content Check. Each User Review undergoes an evaluation by us with the aim of verifying it meets our quality standards and is authentic. If we determine or reasonably believe the content does not meet our standards (which includes, but is not limited to, those set out in these Community Guidelines), the User Review may not be published or may be taken down if already published.

What Else Does the QA Team Screen for?

The QA team will endeavor not to allow publishing, and will remove from publication User Reviews which we determine or reasonably believe are or include:

• Inappropriate language, violent or hateful speech. If the User Review contains profane or obscene language, or is bullying or discriminatory, or promotes feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different groups of persons.

• Spam Content. If the User Review is spam, nonsensical, or self-promoting.

• Invalid Reviewer. If the User Reviewer is identified by us as fraudulent, such as a Vendor writing User Reviews on behalf of a customer, or its own User Reviews, or a User Reviewer paid to write fake User Reviews.

• Duplicate Reviews. If the User Review content has been previously published on our Sites, or the User Reviewer has already reviewed the product on our Sites.

• The List Goes On… We use a variety of tools beyond a basic web search. A User Review that we determine does not pass our checklist may be given a deeper dive by us or not published or removed.

• Reviewers that violate our Guidelines more than once, attempt to abuse our program, or that we find to be spammers may have all of their User Reviews removed, and may be subject to penalties, including legal penalties. However, we do not otherwise evaluate the merit of the products or the opinions expressed on our Site or in User Reviews, or fact-check Content, when assessing which User Reviews should be published. We do offer the ability for third parties to flag User Reviews for investigation (see Flagging a Review).

How to Read a User Review

A User Review expresses the opinion of a single person in relation to a certain Vendor product. As a User, when evaluating a Vendor’s product, you should consider the following:

• Do not rely on a single User Review. Each Reviewer’s experience is unique to their own situation. Wherever possible, take into consideration multiple User Reviews to develop a broad understanding of the Vendor’s capabilities and support.

• Consider the response of the Vendor. There is always more than one side to every story. Take both a User Review and any response from the Vendor into consideration. Vendor responses can provide insight into how the vendor handles customer support issues.

• Evaluate User Reviews over time. It’s important to consider how User Reviews about a Vendor have progressed over time to see if past issues are being resolved, and whether new issues are being addressed. More recent User Reviews may be more likely to reflect a Vendor’s current set of capabilities and relevant experiences.

User Reviews are not intended to provide readers a specific course of action. You must use your judgement when evaluating a User Review’s content and make your own decision based on all information available to you.

Writing User Reviews

Tips for Writing a Great User Review

Users should consider these tips when writing a User Review:

• Be specific. What features do you love? Instead of just saying that you like the product, explain why. Use clear examples of specific experiences - the more details, the better.

• Be readable. User Reviews need to be readable for others. Use proper grammar, without excessive capitalisation or punctuation, and be sure to check your spelling.

• Be objective. Try to highlight both positives and negatives in your User Review, even if your experience skews heavily in one direction.

• Be recent. The best User Reviews are those written about current software versions, and within a year of use.

• Be relevant. Keep your User Review useful to other software buyers. Avoid off-topic discussions or personal opinions not relevant to your direct experience using the software.

NOTE: The above tips do not constitute formal guidelines, but rather are intended as best practices for generating a useful, well-written software User Review. Whereas, the following Guidelines must be complied with when using our Site.

User Reviews Guidelines

User Reviews that do not meet the guidelines below may, at our discretion, be removed or not published:

• User Reviews must be submitted with an authentic identity we can verify. Even if you choose to display your User Review anonymously, we must be able to verify your identity. We encourage you to log in via LinkedIn to help facilitate this verification.

• User Reviewers must not have a conflict of interest with the product being reviewed. Vendors, their employees, or anyone with a financial interest in the success of a product must not submit a User Review for their own product or a competitor’s product.

• User Reviews must be posted by the actual User Reviewer. In keeping with our verification process, we do not allow reviews to be posted on another’s behalf or under a false or forged identity. (read more here) .

• User Reviews must contain original content. Users must not copy User Reviews from another source, including our Sites.

• User Reviews must not contain abusive, hateful, threatening, or harassing content. Users must not submit User Reviews that contain personal threats, obscenities, or hate speech.

• User Reviews must not include others’ personal information. Users must not submit User Reviews that contain information that can be used to identify an individual or otherwise compromise their privacy. Personal information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, or any other type of personally identifying information. (read more here)

• User Reviews must provide honest feedback about the product being reviewed and must not be used to primarily promote or unlawfully disparage another product. Reference by Users to other product(s) or Vendor(s) other than the product being reviewed is permitted only when the reference is considered by us in our sole discretion, to add value to the Review.

• User Reviews must not violate any legal agreements. User must not submit a Review that violates any third party confidentiality, non-disclosure, or contractual obligations**. This excludes non-disparagement clauses prohibiting a software user from submitting an honest review. (read more here)

• User Reviews must not contain financial information. A Review must not contain any references to specific amounts of money spent while using the product.

• User Reviews must not accuse or make reports of unproved criminal activity. Unless the activity has been proven by a court of law, we do not allow references to criminal activity in our reviews. An example of what we would not allow would be a direct accusation of theft (i.e. “This company stole my customer list”, or “We have a lawsuit filed against this company.”), but would not include spurious statements (i.e. “This company ripped me off”, “Beware of their scam-like practices”, or “They are fraudsters and not to be trusted”). Our team is not qualified to make a decision as to the truthfulness of a legal accusation.

As we aim to be a neutral platform, we rely on our Users to provide accurate and honest details about their software experiences. We do not attempt to determine a User Review’s truthfulness, or endorse the opinions expressed. However, we may review a User Review’s content at any time and for any reason; and at our discretion, we may remove any User Review that we believe violates our guidelines and policies.

Reviewer Expectations

By requiring compliance with these Community Guidelines and through our QA and Verification process we aim to provide a place where Users, who respect our Community Guidelines, can have the following platform experience:

• Free from harassment from Vendors or Users. Vendors and Users must not subject other Users to harassment in any form of User Review on our Site.

• Equal treatment of User Reviews regardless of User Rating or Vendor status. We endeavor to ensure that all User Reviews undergo the same verification and quality control processes, regardless of the Rating or the product being reviewed and that User Reviews for Upgraded Vendors are treated the same as for Basic Vendors.

• User Reviews published as submitted. We endeavor not to edit or modify the content of a User Review in a way that substantially changes its meaning (e.g., we may edit User Reviews to correct typos or to clarify its meaning, if for example words are missing).If any part of User Review does not comply with our Guidelines, then we may not publish all or some the User Review or will remove it. Users may resubmit a User Review that meets our Guidelines.

• Private information remains private. We do not disclose to third parties any personal contact information or communications shared with us except as, set out in our Privacy Policy. Reviewers may choose to display their name and company information next to their User Review to provide additional context for their User Review.

• Anonymous on request. Reviewers may opt for their User Review to remain anonymous to Vendors and other Users by logging in using LinkedIn and selecting the option to remain anonymous. In these cases, Reviewer’s name and company details must be made available to us for verification purposes, but will not be available to Vendors and other Users of our Site.

• Ability to update User Review content upon request. Any Reviewer who wishes to request to change or update their User Review must contact us at [email protected] For our verification purposes, such requests must be made from the same email address submitted as the original User Review.

Vendors and Users should report any violations of the above Guidelines or conduct that otherwise interferes with another’s ability to have the experience described above to [email protected]mailto: so that we may initiate an investigation. Violators may be subject, to penalties at our discretion, including a comment or other indication on a User’s profile or denial of access to the site.

Flagging a User Review for Investigation

We have a QA and Verification Process designed to achieve compliance with these Guidelines including technology in place to which aims to provide further safeguards against fraudulent User Reviews. However, we make no representations or warranties that such processes and technology are error free or that all Reviews published on our Site will comply with these Guidelines. No system is perfect, from time to time an inappropriate or fraudulent Review may be published. In these instances, User Reviews may be flagged by Users for review and investigation by us. If you believe a User Review is fraudulent or otherwise inappropriate, you should report it by emailing us at [email protected]. Along with the indication that you would like to flag a User Review, please provide a link to the Product Listing, details about the User Review in question, and all facts that you think may assist us in our investigation. We will evaluate the User Review to determine if it meets our Guidelines. If we determine the User Review does not meet our Guidelines, it will be removed from the site. If we determine that the User Review meets our Guidelines, it will remain published.

We do not fact-check the content of User Reviews on our Sites. We are not obliged to remove a User Review due to a disagreement between Users or Vendors and Users about the opinions or facts stated, unless a User Review violates the law. We are not obliged to change a User Review at the request of a Vendor or because a User Review is negative. While we may investigate a User Review if a concern has been raised, any decision about the User Review is made by us in our sole discretion. A “flag” request will only serve to notify and draw a User Review to our attention for potential investigation by us and is not a guarantee for removal. We are under no obligation to remove a post solely because it has been flagged. Requests will be processed in the order they come in, and no further action is required on the part of the requestor. After confirming receipt of your request, we will endeavor to send a communication regarding the results of our investigation, once complete. Abuse of our flagging system by Users or Vendors may result in penalties or our cancellation of their accounts.

User Reviews Investigation Process

When a User Review is flagged for investigation we will endeavor to review it to assess if (i) it meets our Quality Assurance and Verification Process, and (ii) the content of the User Review does not violate our Reviews Guidelines. We may contact the Reviewer to obtain additional information and will use a number of tools to determine if the User Review violates our Guidelines.

Note the following:

• We are not able to validate private communications, including email exchanges and phone conversations taking place between a Vendor and a User outside of our Site. As such, any evidence provided of this nature may only be considered, in our sole discretion, as one factor among many in our investigation and will not be determinative.

• As we aim to be a neutral platform, we will not make subjective decisions as to the intent and opinions expressed in the content of any User Review.

• We do not facilitate dispute resolution between User or Vendors and Users. We are not mediators or arbitrators and are not obliged to intervene in disputes between our Users and Vendors.

• We will not share personal contact information or communications between us and our Users otherwise than as set out in our Privacy Policy.

We endeavor to conclude investigations within a week of our commencement of the investigation but we may require further time to undertake for research and outreach in order to make a decision. During an investigation, the User Review at issue may remain published and visible on our Sites. In order to prevent false accusations from manipulating the overall User Reviews Ratings received and for any other purpose, we may elect not remove User Reviews during an investigation. All timelines provided by us in these Guidelines or otherwise are merely indicative and not binding on us.

We are not obliged to disclose our investigation protocols, as doing so may help those looking to game our system. We endeavor to ensure that each case is processed by us in the order that the requests are received. At the conclusion of our investigation, an email or other communication may be sent to the requestor to communicate our decision from the investigation.

About Incentivised Reviews

Offering “nominal incentives” as a means of encouraging the submission of Reviews is widely considered common practice these days. Simply put, incentives help motivate Users to leave Reviews. We believe that the value our online community gains by having a greater number of Reviews to consider far outweighs any potential downside, a belief supported by several of our studies. Were we to only publish those Reviews that did not receive an incentive: (i) our online community would have less practical guidance to help inform their purchasing decisions; and (ii) there would be a risk that the incentive practice would simply move “underground” and not be disclosed. This underground activity would be nearly impossible to police.

Applicable laws in some jurisdictions may require, online review platforms to disclose any incentive which the User was offered in exchange for a User Review be placed by the platform prominently on the User Review page of the business whose User Reviews are affected by the incentive User Review(whether invited by the website or by the software vendor).We require that any such incentive must be made available to all Users who submit User Reviews, regardless of the Rating they ultimately give the product they are reviewing.

At the time a User submits a User Review we will ask the User to confirm if the User received a benefit / incentive from the Vendor for posting a User Review.

The “Reviewer Source” icon will indicate if a User Review was written in exchange for an incentive provided by us, even a nominal one such as a gift card. This applies whether the User Review comes from an invitation by Capterra or its Affiliate Sites, or from the Vendor.

PLEASE NOTE: In our ongoing efforts to comply with our legal obligations, Gartner will not provide an incentive to:

1. Reviewers who are employees of -or affiliated with- the company being reviewed, or a direct competitor;

2. Reviewers who are employees, officers, directors, agents of Gartner, Inc., its subsidiaries and affiliated companies and their immediate families;

3. Reviewers who are government, political party and public sector employees;

4. Reviewers whose company policies prohibit the acceptance of gifts in the context of business transactions;

5. Reviewers who are (or who are acting on behalf of) individuals subject to, residing in countries or employed by organizations identified in the US Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control Sanctions list or under any other applicable law.

If you fall under one of the first four categories listed above, you may submit a non-incentivized review directly on the site by [clicking here**](https://reviews.capterra.com/search); however, you must always disclose any relationship or connection you have with the company you are reviewing or its competitor.

About “Anonymous” Reviews

Some Reviews posted on Capterra appear without an accompanying Reviewer name or company, instead simply noting they have been posted by a “verified user” or other similar notice. To be clear, while it may seem that these Reviews have been submitted anonymously, these Reviews have been submitted by people (logging in via their personal LinkedIn account) who have submitted their information to us, but have opted not to display their identity publicly for privacy reasons. While a Reviewer may choose not to share personal information with the public, their identity is verified as set out in our Community Guidelines by our QA and Verification Process before we permit their Review to be published.

Once a Reviewer has selected the anonymity option, it is against our policy to reveal to the public or other Vendors any details about the Reviewer, including their personal contact information. Our QA team verifies each Reviewer in accordance with our Guidelines in an effort to confirm published Reviews have been submitted by Reviewers in accordance with our Community Guidelines. For further guidance on our QA process, click here.

Where Our Reviews Come From

Like all online reviews sites, Capterra sources its Reviews from a variety of channels. Many reviews are submitted by Users who visit our site in the course of their research and choose to leave a Review. Other Reviews are posted by members of our Reviews community to whom we may offer an incentive in exchange for a Review. Still other Reviews may be solicited by a Vendor that encourages its customer to leave a product Review on our site. In all cases, regardless of the channel by which the Review is submitted to our site, we apply the same rigorous Quality Assurance and Verification Process to all Reviews.

NOTE: Capterra also displays Reviews across its Affiliate Sites. While the Reviews will be accessible on all three sites, the site on which the Review was submitted will be indicated by “Source”.

About Our Reviews Team

Our reviews team seeks to evaluate each Review submitted through our sites. We train each team member on our investigative procedures and task them with verifying the identity of each Reviewer, identifying potential conflicts of interest, and making sure that submitted Reviews meet our Guidelines. With tens of thousands of Reviews submitted each month, we continue to develop and hone our team’s expertise in this area.

We undertake training to endeavor to ensure that Our team is neutral and unbiased when verifying a Review. We treat a five-star Review sharing a positive experience in exactly the same way we treat a one-star Review sharing a negative experience. As we aim to be a neutral online content platform, we are not obliged to remove an opinion or statement from a verified Reviewer unless we deem, in our discretion, that it violates our Community Guidelines or the General User Terms.

To reinforce this position, our reviews team remains separate from our sales and relationship teams and initiatives. The reviews team treats all Vendors–Upgraded Vendors or Basic Vendors–equally by ensuring that all posted Reviews undergo the same Quality Assurance Process. We take our legal and regulatory obligations seriously when it comes to our reviews program and continue to ensure that all of our policies and practices comply with the most current applicable laws and regulations.

Issues Affecting Vendors

Vendor Review Guidelines

Vendors must adhere to the following guidelines regarding User Reviews of their products and services. Vendors who violate the guidelines below may be subject to penalties imposed by Capterra and under the law which may include, but are not limited to, a comment on Vendor’s profile, or suspension of Services, to be determined at our discretion.

• Vendors must not attempt to influence reviews ratings through the enforcement of non-disparagement contract clauses. Capterra views the creation of any such clause as an attempt to artificially inflate reviews ratings. Unless required by a court or Authority with jurisdiction over Capterra, we will not take down reviews on the basis that the reviewer has been compelled to agree to a contract that includes a non-disparagement clause, and if we become aware of such a clause we may, but are not obliged to, include a comment on Vendor’s profile, or suspend of the Vendor’s account, to be determined at our discretion.

• Vendors must not post User Reviews of their own products, or of a competitor’s products. Vendors must not post User Reviews on a User’s behalf, or submit a User Review for their own product, or for any product from which they could receive a strategic or financial benefit. Vendors must not coach their customers in their User Reviews or indirectly collect or host collection of User Reviews for our Site. User Reviews must be submitted directly by the User via our Site. In addition, Vendors must not post a User Review about a competitor’s product, even if the User Review is based on their actual experience with using the product.

• Vendors must not harass Users about their User Review content or Rating. Vendors are encouraged to respond constructively to Reviewers on our Site, but must not contact Reviewers directly, other than via the Vendor Portal as set out below, about their User Review. We encourage a constructive dialogue between User and Vendor via the ‘reply’ feature within the Vendor Portal, which enables a Vendor to post a response to a User Review. Vendor responses to a User Review must be respectful and must not be abusive, hateful, threatening, or harassing content or manner.

• Abuse of our User Review investigation service is prohibited. We investigate User Reviews that are flagged as potentially violating our Guidelines. However, if we have any reason to suspect a Vendor is abusing our system by flagging User Reviews under false or disingenuous pretenses or as a means of artificially inflating their Ratings, we may at our discretion impose penalties to the Vendor’s account.

• Vendors must not attempt to manipulate their reviews ratings by screening reviewers prior to directing them to the review submission form on our site. Vendors must solicit honest feedback (whether positive and negative) across their entire user base (defined as all active users of their software), and must not selectively screen potential reviewers based on a desired attribute or previous opinion shared.

• Vendors must not facilitate high volumes of unverified leads. Vendors who participate in our Reviews Program are expressly prohibited from encouraging reviews through 3rd-party sites or services that facilitate the completion of tasks in return for a reward (financial or otherwise), or any method used to drive a high volume of unverified leads to a specific software.

• Vendors must not cause us to violate applicable law. Vendors must not recruit reviews in a manner that could cause our site to be in violation of the law. Vendors may not solicit reviews from users where applicable law (including where applicable federal laws or regulations) prohibit their publication.

• Vendors must encourage compliance with our Guidelines when recruiting reviews. When soliciting reviews, vendor outreach must clearly communicate that users must comply with our Community Guidelines to be eligible to participate in the Reviews Program.

• Vendors must acknowledge and agree to the eligibility guidelines for incentives. Vendors must refrain from recruiting reviews in exchange for an incentive from users who fall into one of the restrictive categories or which are other prohibited by us (see further About Incentivised Reviews above.)

• Vendors must use appropriate disclaimers and notices when recruiting reviews. These notices may be required by applicable law and includes, but is not limited to, the specific number of reviewers who will get the incentive, the currency amount of the incentive offer, the timing in terms of when to expect the incentive, when the gift card offer expires, etc. For example, you must include the following footers to all outreach containing an incentive offer, in addition to the details and parameters governing the review incentives in your user emails.

• Vendors must disclose any User Reviews received in exchange for an incentive. We intend to provide an indicator on User Reviews which we are aware was received in exchange for an incentive. User Reviews sourced by our Sites or through our Reviews as a Service (RaaS) program will have an indicator, which signifies that the Reviewer was offered an incentive for submitting their User Review. Vendors that offer incentives must use the incentive link provided in their Vendor Portal when hosting an incentivised reviews program that is independent from our reviews acquisition services. If the incentive link is not available, Vendors must disclose to us at [email protected] any incentive they offered and require their Reviewers to disclose any incentive received in exchange for submitting a User Review. Failure to properly disclose an incentive offer will, at our discretion, result in either (i) application by us of the correct incentivization notice on our site; or (ii) disablement of any review that lacks the requisite incentivization notice. Vendors are encouraged to contact their account representative for guidance on how to report User Reviews that received an incentive or for other questions.

We apply these Vendor Review Guidelines to all Vendors, regardless of account status (Upgraded Vendor or Basic Vendor).

Vendor Expectations

For all Vendors who access our Site and adhere to our community and Vendor guidelines we endeavor to provide:

• A rigorous evaluation of submitted User Reviews. All User Reviews, regardless of their rating or the status of the Vendor (Upgraded Vendor or Basic Vendor), undergo the Quality Assurance and Verification Process.

• An investigation of flagged User Reviews regardless of Vendor status. All flagged User Reviews will be investigated regardless of any client relationship between our Site and a Vendor.

• An opportunity to respectfully respond to any User Review of their product. We encourage all Vendors to respond to User Reviews about their products as a means of engaging in constructive dialog with the Reviewer.

Vendor Best Practices for User Reviews

Vendors can manage their User Reviews in the Vendor Portal. Vendors will find, within their Reviews Tab, a link to the Review form for each of their listed products. If the Vendor has multiple products listed, they should also have a link to a Product Listing, which allows them to send a Reviews request to multiple customers at once.

Here are some things for a Vendor to keep in mind for their reviews program:

• When soliciting Reviews, Vendors should be aware that only Reviews that pass our Quality Assurance and Verification process and meet our Reviews Guidelines are eligible to be published.

• Vendors must comply with our Vendor Review Guidelines.

• Vendors are encouraged to request Reviews during ongoing communication with new and existing customers, in their email newsletters or campaigns, at industry events, and on their website. For more tips, read our Reviews eBook.

• Vendors are encouraged to participate in our Reviews acquisition programs, such as Reviews as a Service (RaaS), to help collect Reviews from Users and complete a strong profile. For more information about Review collection options, Vendors can log in to the Vendor Portal or contact their account representative for more details.

• Vendors are encouraged to respond to all Reviews, regardless of the overall Rating, as a means of demonstrating to their customers and all software shoppers that they are interested and receptive to customer feedback. An effective Vendor response may also help put a Review into context, providing another side to a Reviewer’s opinion. Regardless of the nature of the Review, all responses should be professional, constructive, and helpful in tone.

Please see our FAQs for Reviewers, Vendors, and about our Verification Process for the most commonly asked questions, or for further guidance, contact [email protected]

Buyer Alerts

A Buyer Alert is a written notice posted proximately to a Vendor’s Listing on our Product Profile page, warning users of the Site that the Vendor has violated our legal terms and guidelines, as further described below. The intent of the Buyer Alert is to ensure that our Users are given the best and most current information necessary to make informed purchasing decisions.

Because we believe a trustworthy and helpful reviews catalog is critical to helping buyers make informed decisions about software, we may issue a Buyer Alert, in accordance with the terms outlined below, if a Vendor is discovered to have manipulated their own, or a competitor’s, reviews, or to have violated any other terms on our site, or performed any action that could call into question the integrity of our programs.

In accordance with our General User Terms, in addition to issuing Buyer Alerts, Capterra also retains the discretion to remove reviews that violate our Community Guidelines or General User Terms.

A Buyer Alert will remain displayed across a Vendor’s Product Profile pages for at least ninety (90) days after the action has been identified by us as a suspected or actual violation, after which Capterra will review the Vendor’s profile and determine whether to continue to apply the Buyer Alert or to remove it. The following is a non-comprehensive list of actions that could trigger these Buyer Alerts:

• Writing fraudulent reviews, or submitting reviews on another’s behalf. Vendors are prohibited from submitting reviews for their own profile or a competitor’s profile or purchasing fake reviews. We actively monitor all incoming reviews and aim to ensure they are authentic, submitted by a reviewer with no conflicts of interest, and are not submitted on another’s behalf.

• Threats of any kind. Vendors are prohibited from pressuring reviewers to edit or remove their review, threatening legal action against reviewers who leave an honest review, or publishing misinformation about our programs. In addition, we do not allow Vendors to threaten our Affiliates, associates, our reputation, or any third party, with respect to reviews on the Site.

• Attempting to manipulate reviews scores. Vendors are not allowed to solicit from their customers only positive reviews. In addition, we do not knowingly permit vendors to enforce non-disparagement clauses contained in their customer agreements that expressly prevent a reviewer from submitting an honest review and we ask Vendors to agree to waive such clauses in relation to Users’ review on the Site.

• Not disclosing incentivized reviews, or other competition and consumer law violations. Various government agencies around the world recommend that online review platforms disclose any incentive which the User was offered in exchange for a User Review be placed by the platform prominently on the User Review page of the business whose User Reviews are affected by the incentive User Review or that any relationship affecting the impartiality of a review must be clearly disclosed (whether invited by the website or by the Vendor). We require that any such incentive must be made available to all Users who submit User Reviews, regardless of the Rating they ultimately give the product they are reviewing. At the time a User submits a User Review we will ask the User to confirm if the User received a benefit/incentive from the Vendor for posting a User Review.

• Abuse of our review investigation service. Vendors are prohibited from abusing our system by excessively flagging reviews under false pretenses as a means of artificially inflating their reviews ratings.

While “Buyer Alerts” are primarily issued in relation to reviews, we may also issue Buyer Alerts with respect to other violations intended to manipulate our Vendor Content or Product Listings such as:

• Violation of any of our terms or protocols. Vendors will be subject to a Buyer Alert if they violate any of the legal terms on our Sites, including, without limitation, the terms for Vendor Reviews Guidelines, Product Listing Guidelines, and General Vendor Terms.

• Data Scraping and other violations of our Site policies. Vendors are prohibited from engaging in any activity that is in violation of our Policies, including without limitation: click fraud, data scraping, or any activities that violate our Data Privacy Policy. We reserve the right at our sole discretion to activate a Buyer Alert when a Vendor’s activities violate our Community Guidelines, or other terms of our sites.

The nature of the violation will be indicated on the “Buyer Alert” graphic. Further questions about Buyer Alerts may be directed to our Reviews Compliance team at [email protected]mailto:.

Please see our FAQs for Reviewers, Vendors, and about our Verification Process for the most commonly asked questions, or for further guidance, contact [email protected]. [mailto]:

Understanding Reviews Snippets

Review snippets are system-selected direct quotes compiled from user-submitted reviews that have been published to a product’s profile (see How are Review Snippets Selected). Snippets provide software shoppers with an easily digestible snapshot of “Pros” and “Cons” extracted from the user-submitted reviews for quick reference, and may be displayed where a summarized view of reviews highlights is required, such as a product’s reviews profile page, or product comparison pages.

As we aim to be a neutral reviews platform, our site does not edit, or create, any content selected for snippet display. The opinions expressed in selected review snippets are those of the reviewers and not of Capterra, and we do not endorse any of the opinions expressed by a snippet quote.

Snippet Guidelines

Similar to the rules governing the reviews they are sourced from, snippets cannot be removed or taken down based on subjective challenges regarding their content. Only snippets that fail to meet the guidelines below may, at our discretion, be replaced by a new system-selected snippet:

• Snippets must quote product features accurately. Snippets mentioning an unsupported product feature, or a lack of a product feature that currently exists, will qualify for replacement.

• Snippets must be correctly categorized. Snippets featuring content that is clearly miscategorized as a “Pro” or a “Con” , or where snippets are not consistent with the opinions of the review from which it was sourced, will qualify for replacement.

• Snippets must not violate our Reviews Guidelines. Because snippets are sourced from reviews content, they are subject to the same set of Community Guidelines. Any snippet found in violation of our Community Guidelines will qualify for replacement.

Flagging a Snippet

If you believe a review snippet violates our Snippet Guidelines, please report it by emailing us at [email protected]. Along with the indication that you would like to flag a snippet for replacement, please provide identifying details about the snippet in question, your rationale for removing it and any facts that would help our team in their investigation. Our reviews team will evaluate the snippet to determine if it meets our criteria for display. Snippets found to be in violation of our Snippet Guidelines and/or Community Guidelines will be flagged for replacement by our system.

Understanding Video Reviews

Video reviews are user-submitted video testimonials about software solicited by our site from our existing database of reviewers who are selected by us and meet a set of criteria. Reviewers submitting a video review will be required to have i) been previously validated through our Quality Assurance process, with a history of submitting reviews content that has not be reported to contravene our site Community Guidelines, and ii) have previously submitted a published text review for the same product.

Video Reviews Guidelines

As with text-based reviews, video reviews must conform with our Community Guidelines, and are published and shared in accordance with these Guidelines and our site terms of use. Video Reviews that fail to meet these Community Guidelines may, at our discretion, be removed.

Video Reviews vs. Text Reviews

As previously noted, a video review is submitted by a reviewer who has a published text review already for the same product. Video reviewers are not required to read their previous review verbatim, and are not obligated to maintain the same opinions. With this in mind, video reviews:

• Are not included in any ratings calculations. Video reviews are not considered “second reviews”, and are not used to calculate average review scores, and will not influence the ranking of a vendor in search results or any category rankings.

• Cannot be solicited by or for a vendor. Our site requests video reviews from our existing database of reviewers who have previously passed our Quality Assurance process and have reviewed a product.

Flagging a Video Review

If you believe a Video Review violates our Community Guidelines, please report it by emailing us at [email protected]. Along with the indication that you would like to flag a Video Review for removal or replacement, please provide details about the review in question, your rationale for flagging it and any facts that would help our team in their investigation. As with all text reviews, our reviews team will evaluate the Video Review to determine if it meets our criteria for display. Video Reviews found to be in violation of our Community Guidelines will be flagged for removal or replacement by our system.

About Video Montages

A “Video Montage” is a compilation of key commentaries, moderated by us and clipped from previously submitted video reviews meeting our Community Guidelines to create an montage 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 or any other opinions as we consider relevant in our sole discretion from time to time.

Because the clips Video Montages contain are sourced from submitted and Video Reviews content, they are subject to the same set of Community Guidelines as our Video Reviews. Any individual clip of a Video Montage found in violation of our Community Guidelines will qualify such clip for replacement within the Video Montage, or disablement of the entire Video Montage, at our sole discretion. See Flagging a Video Review for more information.

Glossay Last Updated: 11/30/2022