Review policy
On SoftwareWatcher you read reviews by people who use a software package themselves. This page explains how a review goes online, what we check and what suppliers can and cannot do.
Who writes a review
Anyone who uses or has used a package for their work can write a review of it. You do that with the form on the package's page.
- You write about your own experience and you write one review per package.
- Employees of the supplier, of a reseller or of a competitor do not write a review of that package.
- We do not publish a review written in return for payment, a discount or another reward.
What we check
- You confirm your email address with a link that we email you. Without confirmation we do not process the review.
- A SoftwareWatcher employee reads every review before it goes online.
- We look out for duplicate reviews, for reviews from the supplier's email domain and for texts that do not describe the writer's own experience.
- We do not publish reviews containing abusive language, advertising or other people's personal data.
- We do not change the text of a review. If something does not fit this policy, we ask the writer to change the review themselves.
Labels on a review
A review states how we checked the writer:
- Email address confirmed: the writer followed the link in our email.
- Business email address confirmed: the same, with an address on a domain of its own instead of a free email service.
- Verified via LinkedIn: we looked at the writer's profile.
- Invited by the supplier: the supplier asked this customer to write a review.
Reviews from before October 2026 come from the previous version of this website and have no label.
How the score is calculated
A package's score is the average of the overall scores of all published reviews, rounded to one decimal place. Every review counts equally. For reviews from before October 2026, the overall score is the average of the scores per aspect. The newest review is at the top.
What suppliers can do
- A supplier can invite its customers to write a review.
- A supplier can post a reply under a review. That reply is visible to everyone.
- A supplier cannot change, hide or remove a review.
- A paid listing has no influence on the content, the order or the score of reviews.
What we keep about you
With your review we show your first name with the first letter of your surname, your job role, the number of employees in your organisation, your industry, how long you have used the package, your scores and your text.
We never show your full name or your email address. We use them to have your review confirmed and to contact you about your review. We remove a review that is not confirmed after 30 days, and a rejected review after a year. You can read more about your data in our privacy policy.
Changing or removing your review
Email [email protected] from the address you wrote the review with. You will then receive a link to change your review, or we will remove your review, along with your data.
Reporting a review
Do you think a review does not comply with this policy? Email the link to the review and your reason to [email protected]. We will then assess the review again.