G2 is worth it in 2026 for nearly every B2B software company at the free tier, and worth paying for only once reviews already flow in and your buyers shortlist from G2. The free profile costs $0, and G2’s published Starter plan is $299 a month or $2,999 for the first year, rising to $6,000 a year in year two. G2 says more than 100 million software buyers use the site each year, and its Professional and Enterprise plans are quote-based.
The market changed shape this year. On January 29, 2026, G2 announced it had agreed to acquire Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp from Gartner, and Capterra’s vendor page now reads “Capterra, powered by G2 Digital Markets.” G2’s announcement put the combined network at more than 200 million annual software buyers and nearly 6 million verified reviews. TrustRadius has belonged to HG Insights since June 2025, and Product Hunt remains a free launch site.
Where buyers start matters too. In G2’s April 2026 survey of 1,076 B2B software buyers, 51% said they begin research with an AI chatbot more often than with Google, up from 29% in G2’s 2025 report. When ChatGPT or Perplexity answers “what is the best tool for X,” review platforms are among the pages it can read.
Before you pay G2 anything, see how ChatGPT and Perplexity describe your software when a buyer asks for options. Get a free AI visibility audit.
What do you get from a free G2 profile versus a paid plan?
The free profile gives you a claimed listing, a standard seller page, the “Users Love Us” badge, and basic review collection and syndication. Paid plans add an upgraded profile, custom calls to action, badge licensing and review incentives. G2 publishes only the Starter price; everything above it is quoted.
Here is what G2’s own plans page lists, published prices as of October 2026:
- Free, $0. Basic profile, standard seller page, “Users Love Us” badge, basic review collection and syndication.
- Starter, $299 a month with no contract, or $2,999 a year. G2 defines Starter for companies with 1 to 100 employees. A footnote says this is year one pricing and that year two rises to $599 a month or $6,000 a year. It adds a $100 gift card review credit, custom CTAs, branded banners and badge licensing.
- Professional, not published. Adds 3 video reviews, a $500 gift card credit and profile visitor data.
- Enterprise, not published. Adds 5 video reviews, a $1,000 gift card credit and market intelligence.
- Add-ons, not published. Buyer Intent, G2 Clicks (pay per click with custom monthly budgets) and Paid Promotions.
The line that matters most is badges. Since G2’s Summer 2025 reports, released June 24, 2025, only upgraded profiles may publicly promote new Market Report and Best Software Award badges. Free profiles still earn placements, keep “Users Love Us,” and may state a placement in text with a link to G2’s category page.
On annual billing, Starter’s first two years cost $8,999, not $5,998.
How does G2 compare with Capterra, TrustRadius and Product Hunt?
G2 and the Capterra family are now one company running two pricing models: subscriptions on G2, pay per click on Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp. TrustRadius sells an annual package that starts at $30,000. Product Hunt is free. Doing nothing costs $0 and buys nothing.
Costs below come from each vendor’s own pages, read in October 2026.
| Option | Published cost | Cost model | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Do nothing | $0 | None | No profile you control | Products with too few customers to ask for reviews |
| Free G2 profile | $0 | Free | Claimed profile, seller page, “Users Love Us” badge, basic review collection | Almost every B2B software company, as the starting point |
| G2 Starter | $299 a month or $2,999 in year one; $599 a month or $6,000 a year in year two | Subscription | Upgraded profile, custom CTAs, badge licensing, $100 review credit | Teams of 1 to 100 employees that already place in G2 reports |
| G2 Professional, Enterprise and add-ons | Not published | Quoted subscription; G2 Clicks is pay per click | Profile visitor data, Buyer Intent, video reviews | Sales teams that work intent signals weekly |
| Capterra, Software Advice, GetApp | Not published | Pay per click on a Sponsored Profile, monthly budget | Sponsored placement in three directories, clicks to your landing page | Self-serve products with a tracked trial or demo flow |
| TrustRadius (HG Insights) | Customer Voice package from $30,000 a year | Annual subscription | Verified long-form reviews, AI answer monitoring dashboard | Enterprise vendors with long, committee-driven sales cycles |
| Product Hunt | $0, “100% free to use” | Free launch | One day of exposure to early adopters | New products and launches aimed at developers and prosumers |
Capterra’s PPC service description says a vendor needs a Sponsored Profile, an active campaign and approval from a G2 Digital Markets representative. Budget changes take effect the following month, spend can be capped, and conversions count within 30 days of a click. No minimum bid or cost per click is published.
Which option fits which software company?
Match the option to how your buyers build a shortlist. Committee-driven mid-market and enterprise purchases lean on G2 and TrustRadius reviews; self-serve tools can measure Capterra clicks directly. What follows is our judgment, not a published study.
1. Free G2 profile: the default
Claim it, fill every field, pick the right category and ask current customers for reviews. Use the same product description on Capterra and TrustRadius so the profiles agree.
2. G2 Starter: when badges and CTAs earn their keep
Starter makes sense once you place in a G2 quarterly report and sales wants the badge on decks and the website. The custom CTA also sends profile visitors to your demo page.
3. Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp PPC: when you can track a click
Pay per click suits products with a free trial or instant demo, where you can tie each click to a signup and cap monthly spend.
4. TrustRadius: when buyers read long reviews
HG Insights says TrustRadius reviews average 400 words and are 100% verified. At $30,000 a year for the Customer Voice package, it fits enterprise vendors whose buyers read detail before they shortlist.
5. Product Hunt: when you are launching
Product Hunt’s launch guide says the site is free to use. It drives attention for a day, not durable comparison traffic, so keep building G2 reviews afterward.
What do G2’s own numbers say about software buyers in 2026?
G2’s research says buyers use AI chatbots and review sites side by side. Its 2025 Buyer Behavior Report found generative AI chatbots were the top source shaping vendor shortlists at 17.1%, with software review sites second at 15.1%. Its April 2026 survey says 51% now start in a chatbot.
The detail splits by company size and stage:
- Small buyers still Google first. In G2’s 2025 report of 1,100 decision makers, buyers at companies of 1 to 250 employees ranked Google first at 47%, review sites at 38% and AI search at 35%.
- Enterprise buyers read reviews. Buyers at companies of 1,000 to 5,000 employees ranked review sites (56%) and AI search (55%) as their top two sources.
- AI answers move deals. In G2’s April 2026 survey, 71% use AI chatbots at some point, 85% think more highly of a vendor when AI includes it in an answer, and 69% chose a different vendor than first planned.
- TrustRadius sees the same shift. HG Insights cites TrustRadius’s 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect Report: 63% of technology buyers use AI to research software, and 83% shortlist three or fewer products.
Read these as vendor research: G2 and HG Insights both sell review products, and G2 publishes no margin of error for the April 2026 survey.
Does a G2 profile help you appear in ChatGPT and Perplexity answers?
A G2 profile gives ChatGPT and Perplexity a third-party page describing your product, which they can retrieve when a buyer asks for options. That is the mechanism. The measured effect of more reviews is small, and no public study tests whether paying G2 changes AI answers.
The best public test we found is Kevin Indig’s analysis of about 30,000 AI citations across 500 G2 categories, published on G2’s Learn blog in October 2025 using Profound tracking data. He found that categories with 10% more reviews had about 2% more citations, and that reviews explained less than 2% of the variation in citations. He describes the results as “suggestive associations rather than causal effects.”
So the free profile covers the part that matters for AI: an accurate, claimed page with real customer reviews. Banners, custom CTAs and badge licensing change what a human sees; we found no published evidence that they change what an AI engine retrieves. HG Insights now bundles AI answer monitoring into TrustRadius’s Customer Voice package, a sign vendors want that visibility measured.
For how engines assemble “best X” answers from G2, Capterra, Reddit and trade press, see how to appear in AI comparison lists.
When is paid G2 not worth it?
Paid G2 is not worth it when you have far fewer reviews than your category leaders, when your buyers do not shortlist on G2, or when nobody on your team will use badges, intent data or profile traffic every week. In those cases the free profile does the job.
Cases where we would stay on the free tier, based on our judgment rather than a published study:
- Thin reviews. A paid profile with 12 reviews is still a profile with 12 reviews.
- Buyers shortlist elsewhere. Developer tools found through GitHub may see little G2 traffic. Check your referral data first.
- No badge to license. Starter’s badge rights only have value once you place in a G2 report.
- Year two math fails. At $6,000 a year after year one, Starter needs G2 to influence one deal a year at a $6,000 contract value, or several smaller ones.
- Nobody works intent data. Buyer Intent only pays off when a rep follows up on the signals.
How do you test whether G2 pays for itself?
Run the free profile for two quarters, measure reviews and G2-referred trials or demos, then decide. Upgrade to Starter only if you place in a G2 report and sales will use the badge, or if G2 already shows up in your attribution data.
A practical sequence:
- Claim the free G2 profile and ask your happiest customers for reviews.
- Tag G2 traffic in Google Analytics and add “where did you hear about us” to your demo form.
- Watch whether you place in G2’s next quarterly report.
- Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode for the best tools in your category, and record which sources they cite and how they describe you.
- Divide $6,000 by your average first-year contract value to get the deals G2 must influence each year: half a deal at $12,000, two at $3,000.
If G2 never appears in step 2 or step 4 after six months, a paid plan is unlikely to fix that. Review profiles are one input to AI answers; trade press, analyst mentions and your own comparison pages are others, and earning that coverage is the work Subscribe PR does through its PR and AEO services.
FAQ
Is G2 free for software vendors?
Yes. G2’s free plan costs $0 and includes a claimed profile, a standard seller page, the “Users Love Us” badge, and basic review collection and syndication. Since June 24, 2025, free profiles cannot publicly display new quarterly report or Best Software Award badges, though they keep earning placements and can mention them in text with a link to G2’s category page. Paid features such as custom CTAs and profile visitor data need an upgrade.
How much does G2 cost per year?
G2 publishes one paid price. As of October 2026, Starter costs $299 a month with no contract or $2,999 a year for the first year, for companies with 1 to 100 employees. Year two rises to $599 a month or $6,000 a year. Professional, Enterprise and add-ons such as Buyer Intent and G2 Clicks are not published and require a sales quote.
Is G2 better than Capterra in 2026?
They are no longer rivals in ownership. G2 announced on January 29, 2026 that it would acquire Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp from Gartner, and Capterra now describes itself as powered by G2 Digital Markets. The difference is the model: G2 sells profile subscriptions, while Capterra sells pay per click placement on a Sponsored Profile. Self-serve products with tracked trials may prefer clicks.
Do G2 reviews help with AI search?
They give AI engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity a third-party page to read, but the measured effect of more reviews is small. Kevin Indig’s analysis of about 30,000 AI citations across 500 G2 categories, published on G2’s blog, found 10% more reviews tracked with roughly 2% more citations. Reviews explained under 2% of the variation, and the study shows correlation, not cause.
Can a free G2 profile show G2 badges?
Partly. Free profiles keep the “Users Love Us” badge and any badges earned before G2’s Summer 2025 reports. From June 24, 2025, only upgraded profiles can publicly promote new Market Report and Best Software Award badges. A free profile can still say in text that it placed, for example as a Leader, and link to the G2 category page.
Is TrustRadius cheaper than G2?
Not at the paid level. HG Insights, which owns TrustRadius, says its Customer Voice package starts at $30,000 a year, including AI answer monitoring. G2’s Starter plan lists $2,999 for the first year and $6,000 a year after. Both platforms let vendors claim a basic profile, so the cheapest way to start on either is the free listing plus customer reviews.
The short answer
Claim the free G2 profile, because it costs nothing and puts a third-party description of your product where buyers and AI engines look. Pay for Starter only when you have a badge worth licensing and a sales team that will use it, and budget for the $6,000 renewal, not the $2,999 first-year price. Treat Capterra clicks, TrustRadius and Product Hunt as separate tools for separate buyers, not substitutes for reviews from real customers.
Find out what ChatGPT and Perplexity tell buyers when they ask for the best tools in your category. Request a free audit of how AI assistants present your product.
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