# Software Advice

> Software Advice helps businesses research and choose software through free advisor calls, personalized shortlists, user reviews, comparisons and category research. Software vendors fund the marketplace through paid leads and sponsored placement. Founded in 2005, it became part of Gartner in 2014 and joined G2 through the February 2026 purchase of Gartner Digital Markets.

- **Founded:** 2005
- **Headquarters:** West Lake Hills, United States
- **Founders:** Don Fornes (Co-founder and former CEO), Austin Merritt (Co-founder and former COO)
- **Products:** Personalized software advice, Software directory and comparisons, Verified user reviews, FrontRunners reports, Pay-Per-Lead
- **Notable:** More than one million businesses helped, according to the current company website., More than 2.5 million verified software reviews available, according to the current website., Coverage of 150 industries, according to the homepage.

## Products & services

- **Personalized software advice** — Free advisor conversations about business goals, requirements and budget, followed by a shortlist; the homepage advertises three to five options in as little as 15 minutes.
- **Software directory and comparisons** — Product profiles, pricing information, reviews and comparisons across business software categories.
- **Verified user reviews** — Access to a company-reported corpus of more than 2.5 million reviews; moderation checks identity and guidelines rather than fact-checking all reviewer opinions.
- **FrontRunners reports** — Category reports produced under a published, versioned methodology; each report represents a snapshot.
- **Pay-Per-Lead** — Advisor-qualified introductions for software providers, with criteria, bidding and optional meeting scheduling and CRM integration described in regional service terms.
- **Sponsored directory placement** — Vendors can bid for placement in sponsored category listings.
- **Buyer research and guides** — Category analysis using reviews, proprietary data, independent research and user surveys.

## Achievements

- More than one million businesses helped, according to the current company website.
- More than 2.5 million verified software reviews available, according to the current website.
- Coverage of 150 industries, according to the homepage.
- Acquired by Gartner in 2014 and included in the sale of Digital Markets to G2 completed February 5, 2026.

## Latest updates

- **2026-01** — G2 announced an agreement to acquire Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp from Gartner on January 29.
- **2026-02** — Gartner completed the Digital Markets sale on February 5 for approximately $110 million before customary purchase price adjustments; this is a group transaction value.

## Links

- Website: https://www.softwareadvice.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/software-advice
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/softwareadvice
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SoftwareAdvice
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoftwareAdvice

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/software-advice
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-26