Choosing software for any need, whether business-related or personal use can be complicated, especially if you don’t know much about technology in the first place. That’s why review sites like https://sonary.com/, G2 Crowd, Trustpilot, Capterra and others are so popular. They help people determine which software products are likely to work best for their needs. But, how do you know if a review site is reliable? After all, can you really trust anything on the Internet? The answer is yes, but only if you know how to choose a software review site using these tips.
Look for Honest Reviews
You can’t properly evaluate software unless you know about the cons as well as the pros. If a site’s reviews are all positive or they only have a few negative reviews, you might not be getting the full picture. It could mean the site is exchanging money for reviews and that the people reviewing the products are not actually using them. Or, they’re only using them for a minimal amount of time to get reimbursed for their review.
Vague negatives like “it doesn’t do everything I need it to do” or “I had trouble with a couple of the features,” are indicators that the reviewer doesn’t really know the product well enough to be reviewing it. Reviews should be specific so that other people looking for that software can really understand if it’s going to work for them or not.
Look for the Big Names
Some review sites exclude the major player in a software comparison because they’re getting paid by smaller competitors to review their products. This isn’t going to help you much if you can’t compare those big names along with the lesser-known products. Knowing exactly what is available to you is what is going to help you decide which software to go with. If you’re missing competitors in the arena, you might be missing the exact product that you need.
Look for Number of Reviews
Two or three reviews aren’t going to tell you much about a product. To really get an idea of how well a software product is going to work for you, there needs to be a high number of reviews. This allows you to get an overall opinion of a product as well as dig into individual reviews. If a review site isn’t getting enough traffic to give you a complete picture of the products you’re comparing, you could end up with software that doesn’t meet your needs.
Look At the Comments Section
If the comments on the reviews constantly disagree with the reviews, there’s probably something fishy going on. This is particularly true if the commenters state that there are missing features or disadvantages to the software that aren’t ever mentioned in the reviews. This could mean that the reviewers are being paid to only post the positive aspects of a software. Also note that if the comments section is disabled, it’s possible the review site doesn’t want any disagreement with its reviews, a problem in and of itself.
Conclusion
Using reviews to help you choose software is an excellent strategy, and one that nearly 90% of people employ before making a software purchase. Just be sure the review site you use is reliable and honest so you know that you’ll be pleased with what you get.
