G2 Devours Capterra: The End of Fair Competition in the Software World?

Imagine walking into a shopping mall where every store—from a grocery store to a luxury watch boutique—has the same owner's sign. This is exactly what's happening now in the B2B software market. G2 announced the acquisition of Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp—key assets of Gartner.

If the deal closes in 2026, we'll wake up in a world where one giant controls practically the entire software purchasing journey. Previously, the reviews market resembled a healthy ecosystem. There was G2 with its complex grids and focus on enterprise, there was Capterra, which small businesses loved for its simplicity, and there were niche GetApp and Software Advice.

Software developers, especially young AI teams, could distribute budgets and try different platforms. Now this illusion of choice is evaporating before our eyes.

G2 is consolidating 6 million verified reviews under its control. This is no longer just a ratings website; it's a full-fledged monopolist that will determine who gets traffic and who remains relegated to the bottom of the search results. Why did Gartner decide to divest these assets right now?

The answer lies in the transformation of the advertising market. Maintaining three different brands that essentially compete for the same Google search queries became too expensive and inefficient against the backdrop of AI search expansion. For G2, it's a high-stakes strategic move.

By combining an audience of 200 million buyers annually, they become the only window into the world of corporate sales. If your product isn't in the G2 top rankings, you don't exist for the corporate sector at all.

The problem is that G2 is not a charitable organization. Their business model is built on selling leads and paid profiles. When competition between platforms disappears, prices for these services inevitably climb. For small startups just entering the market with innovative AI solutions, the barrier to entry becomes prohibitively high. Previously, you could succeed on Capterra through organic reviews without massive marketing budgets. In this new reality, you'll have to play by the rules of a single owner who knows very well how to monetize every click and every brand mention.

From the buyer's perspective, the situation also looks ambiguous. On paper, 6 million reviews in one place is convenient. In reality, we risk getting a filter bubble. If G2's algorithms start prioritizing those who pay more for placement across all its subsidiary services, the objectivity of the ratings will come into serious question. We've seen similar situations in other industries, and consolidation rarely benefited the end user. The software industry is now at a point where trust becomes the most expensive currency. The irony is that by trying to scale this trust through acquiring competitors, G2 may ultimately undermine it.

When one company owns the court, the lawyers, and the newspaper that writes about the trial, questions arise even among the most loyal clients. We can only watch how regulators respond to this merger, because 2026 is still far away, and G2's appetite already looks frightening right now. For any software developer, this is a signal: time to seek alternative channels for attracting customers before the entry ticket to the G2 ecosystem costs as much as an airplane wing.

The Main Point: The B2B reviews market is turning into a monopoly where G2 controls entry for any software. Are you ready to pay a tax on your presence to one player?