Community Guidelines

G2 is committed to being the most trusted data source in the age of AI for informing software purchasing decisions and go-to-market strategies. Our marketplace is built on the integrity of vendors, the accuracy of product information, and the authenticity of user reviews.

To maintain a safe, reliable, and transparent environment for everyone on G2.com, we have established the following community guidelines. These guidelines define the standards we expect from all participants. Your use of G2 is also subject to complying with applicable law and the Terms of Use that form part of these Community Guidelines.

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G2’s Trust Framework

• • Authenticity- Reviewer and vendor-provided information on G2 must come from real people and real companies with genuine, first-hand experiences.
  • Accuracy- Product, vendor, and review information must be truthful and verifiable.
  • Integrity - Manipulation, including the use of fake reviews, misinformation, or deceptive activity, is strictly prohibited.

The Guidelines We Follow at G2

OBJECTIVITY

• • User opinions. Please note that all reviews are based on subjective user experiences, which may be incomplete and influenced by unique circumstances. G2 is intended for use by professionals; however, reviews do not constitute expert opinions based on objective criteria. Rather, they are subjective reviews based on users’ experiences that may depend in part on their professional qualifications or experiences, but which G2 has not reviewed or confirmed. All reviews, including any endorsements, of third-party products, services, or vendors contained on G2 sites are the opinions of the reviewers of those products, services, or vendors and not those of G2.
  • Objective data. G2 does not add any subjective input to ratings, Grid® placement, or review summaries. We do not, under any circumstances, edit the content of any review.
  • Social sharing. We will not post to any social network on your behalf for any reason.
  • Algorithms & Scoring. G2 satisfaction ratings, market presence scores, and index scores are determined algorithmically in real time based on reviews gathered from our user community, as well as data aggregated from publicly available online sources and social networks. G2 ratings only include data from verified reviewers and public sources. Our algorithms are the same for all categories. Read more about our algorithm.

REVIEW CONTEXT

To remain the most trusted and authentic source of information and to stay compliant with legal regulations, it’s important to remember that:

• • G2 will never require or ask that only positive reviews be submitted to its site.
  • If a review is incentivized, G2 will clearly label the review as incentivized.
  • G2 will never suppress or otherwise mute/hide negative reviews.
  • All reviews, written in all tones, of all quality levels, are treated equally.

REVIEW SPECIFICITY

In our Community Guidelines, we ask users to be as specific as possible with their reviews. However, we cannot reject reviews simply for being generic. Therefore, we limit rejections to the most severe of cases. In these scenarios, we consider the following (not inclusive):

• • The reviewer’s writing skill & level of language proficiency
  • The reviewer’s exposure time & level of exposure with a product or service
  • The reviewer’s degree of user error while using the product or service
  • The amount of time the reviewer spent writing their review
  • The amount of effort given by the reviewer to compose their review
  • The amount of indicative product or business knowledge the reviewer has
  • Other factors

Because a lot of different things play into review quality, the dialogue for disputing a review for being vague remains open. However, the most important factor to consider with review vagueness is that review vagueness is not always an automatic, clear, and obvious indication that the review is inauthentic. Given the other factors we look for, disputing a vague review is more likely to be successful if it is supported with a second reason.

REVIEW MODERATION

After our automatic filtering process removes reviews that do not meet our minimum submission requirements, our team manually checks each review. All reviews must pass our moderation process before they are published. You can learn more about our approach to Review Validity.

There are five labels we may tag a review with:

• • Validated Reviewer: the reviewer has authenticated themselves in accordance with G2's review quality standards
  • Current User: the reviewer uploaded a screenshot showing their usage of the product.
  • Incentivized: a nominal incentive was offered in exchange for this review.
  • Source: denotes the method used to collect the review.
  • Rating Update [with date noted]: denotes the date of when the reviewer last updated their review.

REVIEW INCENTIVES

G2 will occasionally offer incentives (such as gift cards or a donation) for honest reviews to help us gather a full and accurate data set. These incentives are offered as a thank-you for approved reviews; eligibility to receive an incentive is never based on the opinions, positive or negative, expressed in the review. Reviews that are confirmed as incentivized will be tagged as such.

Guidelines for Reviewers

Our goal is to ensure that all reviews on G2.com accurately reflect the honest and authentic experiences of real users. Our Review Validity page outlines our approach to collecting, moderating, and publishing reviews.

For those reviewing products and services on G2, they must follow the guidelines below.

• • Who can leave a review?
  • ALLOWED:
    Only actual users of those products or services, business partners, or guest users can leave reviews on G2. You must use a LinkedIn™ account, verified business email address, or a personal email address as long as G2 is able to validate your reviewer identity (G2 also validates reviewers by partnering with sellers and organizations to securely authenticate users through select platforms).
  • Allowed reviewers also include:
  • • Business Partners: Users who have a business relationship with a seller, such as resellers, can often provide valuable insight and are not restricted from leaving reviews on G2. However, because of the potential bias of such relationships, business partner reviews do not count toward the G2 Score and are flagged with a “Business Partner” label on the review.
    • Guest User Reviews: Users who have been invited to use a software outside of their organization or use the software for a one-time or occasional purpose are not restricted from leaving reviews on G2. As of June 2024, guest user reviews do not count toward the G2 Score and are flagged with a “Guest User” label on the review.
    • Anonymous Reviewers: We understand that business relationships between customers and sellers may require discretion. G2 gives users the option to have any of their reviews posted without identifying information (their name, photo, or company) accompanying the review. The G2 team still validates these reviews using the information provided by the user, but an “unattributed” review will display only the user’s current job category and industry. G2 will not share the user’s information with the public or the company whose software, service, or hardware the user reviewed.
  • NOT ALLOWED:
    Anyone who is not an actual user of the product may not leave reviews.
  • • Biased reviewers: Employees working for the product’s company and employees of a direct competitor may not leave reviews, as those would be considered biased.
    • Reviews written on behalf of someone else, based on someone else's experiences or impressions of the product, or submitted under a false identity.

• • What can a review include?
  • ALLOWED:
    Reviews must contain the honest, authentic opinions of the reviewers of those products, services, or vendors. Reviews should accurately represent the reviewer, including their name, identity, and level of experience with the software, service, or hardware.
  • Allowed reviews also include:
  • • Trial/Evaluation reviews: We welcome users to submit trial or evaluation experience reviews. We believe these insights are valuable for our community. However, if we find that the user’s experience with the product is too limited, our moderation team may return it, requesting users to come back when they have gained a more comprehensive understanding of the software.
    • Post-publication edits: Users can edit their review to reflect changing opinions or to ensure that the review meets our quality standards. Edited reviews will cycle through G2’s moderation process again once changes are submitted. Reviewers can update their review at any time from their G2 account.
  • NOT ALLOWED:
  • • Reviews that:
    • • Include fake, inauthentic experiences not tied to a user’s direct experience
      • Are for products or services offered by a reviewer’s current employer or their competitor(s)
      • Contain vulgar, disrespectful, or offensive language, including content that harasses an individual or group based on race, gender, religion, nationality, ethnicity, political group, sexual orientation, or other characteristics
      • Include confidential or proprietary information from third parties that the individual is not authorized to disclose
      • Are based on an experience that is not within the past two years, as B2B technology can change drastically in a relatively short amount of time
      • Promote spam, including gibberish text
      • Are plagiarized or copied from other sources
      • Use deceptive means to generate traffic, post unsolicited promotions, and don’t manipulate content

• • Can generative AI be used to write reviews?
  • ALLOWED:
  • • Reviews written or assisted by AI must still reflect genuine, firsthand user experience and meet all content quality guidelines.
    • Editing AI-generated content to reflect your true experience, in your own voice.
    • Using generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.) to help draft a review is permitted only if at least one of the following is true:
    • • You are LinkedIn Verified
      • You are a reviewer on a seller-provided list (e.g., campaign whitelist)
      • You are submitting a review in-app, directly from the software product
      • Note: While unverified reviewers cannot use generative AI to generate written reviews, they can still rely on AI tools like Grammarly for grammar checks or Google Translate for translations.
  • NOT ALLOWED:
  • • Submitting reviews generated by AI without qualifying identity verification (i.e., not LinkedIn Verified, not on a seller list, not in-app)
    • Allowing AI to fabricate experiences, results, or product claims
    • Using AI to write reviews on behalf of someone else or to replicate their feedback
    • Submitting AI-generated content that has not been reviewed and edited for accuracy and alignment with your own experience
      

If a reviewer violates any of these guidelines, they may be subject to any of the following enforcement actions:

• • Review removal
  • • When a review is removed for breaking our guidelines, the person who left the review receives a rejection email informing them of the reason for the rejection. They can also log into their G2 account at any time to learn more about why a review was rejected, and can appeal the decision by submitting a support ticket via support.g2.com if they disagree with the decision.
    • A review may be removed during G2’s moderation process or post-publication. Anyone in the G2 community has the ability to report a published review they suspect violates our guidelines by using the “Report a Concern” button on the top-right corner of the review.
  • Account suspension
  • • When a user account is not authentic or is engaged in deceptive behavior, G2 may ban them from the platform. They can email [email protected] to appeal decisions.

Best practices for leaving a review on G2

Once you know what is required (or not allowed) in a G2 review, familiarize yourself with best practices so you can make your review as helpful as possible for others.

• • Keep it real.
    Accurately present yourself and your level of experience with the software, service, or hardware. Reviews that speak to specific situations and use cases are much more relevant and valuable than those that do not. For software, mention the level of experience you have with the tool, any integrations you use in conjunction, or any unique use-cases you’re addressing with the tool you’re reviewing. For hardware, specify your setup and describe any other systems with which the product interacts at your company. For services, mention the length of your engagement, the level of interaction, or anything else you think would help others evaluate similar providers.
  • Review for the reader.
    Your review could help someone choose a new software, service, or hardware. In your review, include details you would be looking for if you were in need of the same type of solution. The more informative the review, the more attention it attracts and the more credible you appear. Your unique insights will be more helpful than the opinions of an analyst or consultant because you have firsthand experience in a business environment.
  • Aim for balance.
    Even if you love what you’re reviewing, it’s probably not perfect. Your review can include glowing recommendations and commentary on favorite aspects, but be sure to mention anything that could use improvement. People are likely to place less trust in overwhelmingly positive (or overwhelmingly negative) reviews because they do not present a balanced and realistic account of the user experience.
  • Tell the story.
    When participating in a conversation, it’s helpful to share the background behind why you are asking something or how you came to find an answer. The more you expand on your questions and responses, the better your peers will be able to understand where you’re coming from.

Guidelines for Businesses

As the world’s largest software marketplace, it’s crucial that the millions of buyers visiting G2 every month can rely on the vendor, product, and service information in our marketplace to inform their purchasing decisions. This is why it’s crucial for vendors participating in G2 to act with integrity and share accurate information.

To maintain the trust, safety, and reliability of G2, vendors must not engage in the following prohibited behaviors:

• G2 SITE (ALL CONTENT)
• • Use this Site or its contents for any commercial purpose without our express written permission.
  • Access, monitor, or copy any content or information of this Site using any robot, spider, scraper, or other automated means or any manual process for any purpose without our express written permission.
  • Violate the restrictions in any robot exclusion headers on this Site or bypass or circumvent other measures employed to prevent or limit access to this Site.
  • Take any action that imposes, or may impose, in our discretion, an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure.
  • Deep-link to any portion of this Site for any purpose without our express written permission.
  • “Frame”, “mirror”, or otherwise incorporate any part of this Site into any other website or mobile application without our prior written authorization.
  • Attempt to modify, translate, adapt, edit, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any software programs used by G2 in connection with this Site or the content we provide.
  • Log in using an alias that masks your true identity, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the G2 Community and/or website.
  • Collect and disclose any private information of any person within the G2 Community.
  • Post job postings, solicitations, or other advertisements without our express written permission.
  • Mislead anyone that any G2 chatbot-generated output is human-generated.
  • Include any personally identifiable information in G2 chatbot inputs.
  • Include in any G2 chatbot inputs any content that expresses or promotes hate, harassment, or violence, exploits or harms children, encourages self-harm, presents illegal, sexual, political, harmful, false, deceiving or misleading information, misuses personal data, contains malware, unsolicited bulk content, ransomware, viruses, or other software.
  • Use the G2 logo or any G2 trademarks without a license or other written contractual permission. If you would like permission to use the G2 logo or other trademarks, please contact us at [email protected].
  • Violate G2 Terms of Use.

• REVIEWS
  • • Biased Review Collection: collecting reviews by any method that segments out potentially negative reviews or exclusively targets positive reviews; conditioning incentives on reviews being positive; independently incentivizing reviewers without disclosing those incentives to G2; discouraging negative reviews of your product or service.
    • Fraudulent or Manipulative Review Activity: creating, soliciting, or submitting fake or otherwise inauthentic reviews that don’t reflect a genuine service or buying experience with a business, in a deliberate attempt to manipulate consumer perception or behavior.
    • Fake Product or Vendor Profile Creation: including any information or products that do not correspond with a real, legally registered business entity, and may not falsify company identity, product authenticity, or operational information. This includes presenting fake companies, fake products, or materially misleading corporate or product details.
    • Manipulation, Abuse, or Platform Interference: engaging in competitor review manipulation, republication of another vendor’s reviews, republication of another vendor’s aggregated Star Rating, technical abuse of the G2 platform, deceptive product behavior, or undisclosed conflicts of interest.
    • Prohibited Reviewer Engagement & Activity: collecting or disclosing any private or personally identifying information of any person within the G2 community; attempt to identify or contact any reviewer for the purpose of influencing, coercing, or pressuring the reviewer to change their review; collect reviews by any method that segments out potentially negative reviews or exclusively targets positive reviews; condition incentives on reviews being positive; discourage negative reviews. https://www.ftc.gov/reviews.
    • Non-compliance with FTC Guidelines: violating guidelines from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
• BADGES
  • • Republish, in whole or in part, any G2 Badge (except ‘Users Love Us’ badges) without a license.
    • Alter, abridge, or otherwise modify any G2 Badge.
• REPORTS
  • • Republish, in whole or in part, any G2 report without a license, including, but not limited to, any Grid® Reports, Compare Reports, Momentum Reports, and/or Index Reports.
    • Alter, abridge, or otherwise modify any G2 Reports.
    • Republish a G2 Report without including (1) the relevant season, (2) company segment size, and Category name (e.g., 2025 Small Business Grid® Report for CRM).
    • Influence Report or Live Grid® ratings, placement, or sort order.

Vendor Content Guidelines Cheat Sheet

See a breakdown of what is allowed at the plan level. Reach out to your account manager with any questions.

If a vendor violates any of the guidelines noted, they may be subject to any of the following enforcement actions:

• New reviews cannot be submitted.
• The vendor cannot add new product listings.
• The vendor’s my.G2 access is revoked.
• A banner is added to the product(s) G2 profile to inform reviewers why they cannot submit reviews, and/or states that G2 has removed fraudulent reviews, and buyers should proceed with caution.
• Vendor and/or product are banned from G2.
• Removal of existing reviews, report inclusions, or other content.

G2 will accept any vendor appeals to its decisions via a standard review process.

Best Practices for Businesses

ENGAGEMENT ON G2

• Get involved. All sellers have an opportunity to take advantage of being part of G2’s community. They can be listed on the site and update profile details, screenshots, and more about their offering.
• Start conversations. We encourage sellers to engage in a dialogue with users, and we provide them with the opportunity to respond publicly to discussions on their profile. If a post contains inaccurate or negative commentary, we invite sellers to provide their perspective and address the user’s comments in this forum.
• Keep us honest. All G2 users have the ability to report a concern on a review. We do not edit or remove reviews at a seller’s request or act as fact-finders to facilitate disputes between sellers and G2 users. However, we encourage all users to submit concerns about reviews that seem fake, out of place, or to come from a biased source.
• Keep us honest. All G2 users have the ability to report a concern on a review. We do not edit or remove reviews at a seller’s request or act as fact-finders to facilitate disputes between sellers and G2 users. However, we encourage all users to submit concerns about reviews that seem fake, out of place, or to come from a biased source.

REVIEWS

• Gather reviews. We encourage all sellers to ask their customers to leave reviews with authentic, unbiased feedback. If G2 finds evidence of a seller soliciting only positive reviews, we will remove the reviews.

LANDING PAGES

• Share landing pages in closed forums or communities. One of the best ways to share landing pages is through closed forums or communities that are accessible only to customers. These forums can be a great way to engage with your customers and get them to leave reviews. By sharing the landing pages in a closed environment, you can ensure that only customers have access to them, and you can ensure that the reviews are from legitimate users.
• Share landing pages directly with customers through email or direct messages. Another way to share landing pages is by sending them directly to customers through email or direct messages. This can be a good way to personalize the message and get customers to leave reviews. By sending the landing pages directly, you can also verify that the reviews are from legitimate users.
• Share landing pages in private social media groups. If you have a private social media group that is accessible only to customers, you can share the landing pages there. This can be a good way to engage with your customers and build a community around your product or service. By sharing the landing pages in a private group, you can verify that the reviews are from legitimate users.
• Share landing pages with partners and affiliates. You may also share the landing pages with your partners and affiliates who can then share them with their customers. This can be a good way to expand your reach and get more reviews. However, sharing landing pages publicly can lead to them becoming compromised. Compromised in this sense means they become targets of users or groups looking to exploit them for gift cards that are offered. They can prompt non-customers to leave reviews with malicious intent, potentially harming your reputation. Therefore, it’s crucial to only share the landing pages in secure and closed environments where only customers can have access.

Our Commitment to Marketplace Integrity

G2 continuously invests in review validation, fraud detection, and AI-driven safety systems to protect buyers, reviewers, and vendors. As the influence of AI expands and software buying accelerates, G2 remains committed to:

• Ensuring trust at scale
• Strengthening data quality
• Identifying emerging risks
• Upholding a transparent and unbiased marketplace

We may update these guidelines as the reviews landscape and B2B software industry continue to evolve.