Is G2 gaining too much influence in the software market?

      The software industry is increasingly scrutinizing the rising power of G2 after its announcement to acquire Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp from Gartner. This deal, revealed in late January and anticipated to conclude in Q1 2026, brings several leading B2B software discovery platforms under one umbrella.

      What is G2’s market impact following the acquisition?

      As per G2’s disclosures, the newly formed entity is expected to host approximately 6 million validated software reviews and cater to over 200 million software purchasers each year across numerous categories.

      Each platform previously had substantial presence:

      G2 has more than 3 million validated reviews on its platform.

      Capterra claims to feature over 2.5 million reviews across various business software categories.

      Software Advice and GetApp, both part of Gartner Digital Markets, also add large volumes of reviews, although Gartner does not specify individual site figures.

      In terms of influence, independent industry analyses provide a clearer indication than mere traffic or revenue. A study by SE Ranking assessing review-platform citation share in AI queries and search results indicated:

      G2 represented approximately 23.1% of review-platform citations,

      Capterra around 17.8%,

      Software Advice roughly 12.8%.

      (GetApp is included in the broader Gartner Digital Markets category and not listed separately).

      When combined, these statistics suggest that the platforms G2 now owns account for about 53-54% of global software review visibility according to this dataset. Analysts believe that incorporating GetApp's additional reach raises this figure to about 55-58% of review and discovery influence, depending on the methodology used.

      Is this a monopoly?

      Legally speaking, no. Regulatory bodies in the EU and US typically consider monopolies as having market shares significantly above 70%. However, a share exceeding 40-50% can be classified as a “dominant position,” particularly in markets characterized by strong network effects, a category where software discovery increasingly belongs.

      Review platforms serve as gatekeepers in the purchasing process. For many businesses, particularly small to medium-sized enterprises and mid-market purchasers, these sites often serve as the initial, if not the only, point of contact before selecting vendors. With generative AI tools increasingly offering software recommendations derived from existing review databases, command over those datasets becomes even more critical.

      Why is the industry concerned?

      Vendors and analysts highlight several risks:

      Pricing power: A reduced number of alternative platforms might limit vendors' capacity to diversify their demand generation.

      Ranking influence: Centralized control over classifications, badges, and visibility criteria could determine outcomes across various categories.

      AI amplification: As AI search tools depend on leading review sources, data-level concentration might lead to unequal influence downstream.

      In summary:

      G2 does not constitute a monopoly in the legal definition. However, by merging G2, Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp, the organization has clearly entered gatekeeper territory, holding sway over more than half of global software review influence by various independent assessments. This degree of concentration is why the software industry, along with potential regulators, is beginning to question whether G2’s increasing power has gone too far.