Capterra review guidelines: what vendors may and may not do

What are the Capterra review guidelines?

The Capterra review guidelines are the rules in Capterra's community guidelines that decide whether a review is published and how vendors may collect reviews. A review must come from a verified person with genuine, first-hand experience of the product, and vendors must ask fairly, offer any incentive equally and never influence what customers write.

The rules apply to two groups at once. Reviewers have to prove who they are and describe real use, while vendors have to give every customer the same chance to speak. Capterra says it does not edit content at a vendor's request or simply because content is negative, so the time to get the rules right is before a review is written.

These rules carry weight because buyers rely on review sites when they decide which vendors to consider. In G2's 2026 Buyer Behavior Report, a survey of more than 1,000 B2B software buyers published in July 2026, review sites (38%) were the top source shaping which vendors make a buyer's shortlist. A review that never clears moderation reaches none of those buyers.

Teams that buy Capterra reviews through RelikReview get a campaign that runs with their own customers through Capterra's review link, built around these guidelines from the first request. Our review campaigns on other platforms follow each site's own rules in the same way.

Who can write a review on Capterra

Capterra accepts reviews only from people who have used the product themselves. The community guidelines say a review must be written by the actual user and reflect genuine, first-hand experience, and it must come from an individual whose identity Capterra can verify. Reviews produced by third parties or by automated tools, including generative AI, are not allowed.

Some people are turned away whatever their experience. The guidelines bar reviewers who are affiliated with the vendor, with a direct competitor or with anyone who has a financial interest in the product, so a vendor's own staff cannot review their product. Anonymous reviews are allowed, but Capterra still verifies the reviewer's identity and simply keeps their details off the page.

Recent use matters as well. The Capterra Reviews Program page asks reviewers to describe use from the past year and to cover the current version of the software. GetApp's reviews FAQ, written for the same shared review network, adds that free trial use counts when the reviewer says so, while watching a demo does not.

How Capterra review moderation works

Capterra review moderation is carried out by people, supported by software. According to Capterra's page on how Capterra collects and verifies reviews, updated in February 2025, more than 30 human QA moderators collect and check reviews, and each review goes through more than 20 control checks. Every review goes through the same process, whatever its rating.

The checks fall into two groups:

• Identity checks. Manual checks and enrichment services confirm that the reviewer is a real person with real experience of the product, and flag conflicts of interest and AI-generated personas.
• Content checks. Moderators look at the reviewer's history, how deeply they used the product and whether the details are consistent, while software checks quality, generative AI use and plagiarism.

When a review looks suspicious, Capterra asks the reviewer for more proof of use. If that proof is not enough or never arrives, the review is not published, and the reviewer is permanently flagged and removed from the community.

How long moderation takes

Capterra's own pages do not give a moderation time. GetApp's reviews FAQ says reviews sourced through vendor programs or approved vendor links are generally processed within five business days, while other reviews can take up to two weeks. If more than two weeks have passed, the review was most likely never submitted to the program or did not meet the publication criteria.

Capterra review rejected? The common reasons

A Capterra review rejected in moderation almost always fails on one of a short list of reasons. The community guidelines and the verification page name most of them, and GetApp's reviews FAQ adds a few detailed rules for the shared network.

For vendors, a pattern of rejections says something about the outreach. If many reviews from one round of requests fail on identity or proof of use, the list probably included people who never used the product, such as contacts who only saw a demo. Sending requests to everyone who actually uses the product, at a fixed point in their journey, keeps rejections down without filtering anyone by opinion.

How reviews appear on Capterra, GetApp and Software Advice

A review collected through Capterra does not have to stay on Capterra. The community guidelines say reviews collected under the Reviews Collection Program may be published on affiliated websites, including GetApp and Software Advice, as well as other partner sites. GetApp's reviews FAQ says the same of reviews collected through its review service, which are displayed across Capterra, GetApp and Software Advice.

For vendors, this means one honest review can reach buyers on three comparison sites. It also means vendor outreach must tell customers that their review may be published on affiliated sites.

The three sites also have a new owner. G2's announcement of the acquisition, dated 29 January 2026, says G2 agreed to acquire Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp from Gartner, for a combined network with nearly 6 million verified customer reviews. Capterra's current guidelines already send review reports to a G2 Digital Markets email address, so it is worth checking the guidelines again before each campaign. For the wider reasons buyers read these sites, see our guide on why are online reviews important.

The Capterra review guidelines for vendors

The vendor rules are where a whole profile can get into trouble. Capterra wants vendors to ask customers for reviews, but it bans any step that shapes who reviews or what they say.

What vendors must do

The guidelines set out what a fair review collection looks like:

• Ask a broad cross-section. Solicit feedback across the user base, without selectively targeting users based on expected sentiment.
• Use the Vendor Portal link. Any incentive must go through the incentive link provided in the Vendor Portal, and vendors must tell Capterra if that link is unavailable.
• Offer incentives equally. Every eligible participant gets the same offer, regardless of the rating they give.
• Accept every verified review. An incentivized campaign must accept all verified reviews that meet the guidelines.
• Disclose the terms. Outreach must say that participation follows the guidelines, that incentives do not depend on a positive review, that honest feedback is required and that reviews may appear on affiliated sites.
• Reply through the site. Responses to reviews go through Capterra's own tools, such as the Vendor Portal reply feature.

What vendors may not do

The same guidelines name the practices that break the rules:

• Influencing content or ratings. No coaching or directing customers on what to write, and no use or enforcement of non-disparagement clauses.
• Writing or buying reviews. Vendors may not submit reviews, post on a user's behalf or buy fake reviews.
• Using review mills. Third-party services that generate large volumes of unverified or incentivized reviews are banned.

Penalties for breaking the rules

Capterra can respond with a comment on the vendor's profile, a suspension of services and any penalty imposed by law. Repeated violations can lead to rejected reviews, a disabled account and legal action. Capterra may also issue a Buyer Alert, which tells buyers about the vendor behavior that broke the guidelines.

How the Capterra gift card and incentives work

Capterra allows incentives, within limits. The guidelines say reviewers may be offered nominal incentives in line with applicable law, and the Reviewer Source icon shows buyers when a review was written in exchange for an incentive. Capterra's verification page adds that reviewers receive the incentive once the review is approved, whatever rating they gave.

The Capterra gift card comes with its own conditions, set out on the Reviews Program page:

• The review passed QA and was published.
• The reviewer clicked an active incentive link and any email confirmation links.
• The review arrived before the campaign deadline and maximum, and the reviewer had not reached the campaign's reward limit.
• Gift cards are typically sent within three weeks after an eligible review is published, and unclaimed incentives expire after thirty days.

Gift cards go only to a predetermined number of unique published reviewers, and the vendor's affiliates, competitors and government employees can never receive one. If an incentivized review is not properly disclosed, Capterra may add an incentivization notice or remove the review.

The rules differ from one review site to the next, and some sites ban rewards outright. Our guide to incentivized reviews compares what each platform allows.

How vendors collect Capterra reviews within the rules

With the rules clear, collecting reviews is mostly about consistency. Vendors share their product's Capterra review link with customers, and a campaign with a gift card must use the incentive link from the Vendor Portal.

A simple process that stays inside the guidelines looks like this:

1. Pick fixed points. Ask every customer at points everyone reaches, such as day 30, day 90 or the account anniversary.
2. Keep the wording neutral. Ask for an honest review and say nothing about the rating or what to mention.
3. Add the required disclosures. Include the lines on the guidelines, honest feedback, incentives and affiliated sites.
4. Send one reminder. Use the same reminder for everyone who has not replied.
5. Reply to every review. Use the Vendor Portal reply feature for critical reviews as well as positive ones.

Reviews that describe real, recent use pass Capterra's checks most easily, so the best list is everyone who actually works in the product. For request wording and timing across email, in-app messages and calls, see our guide on how to ask customers for reviews.

Capterra review guidelines in short

The Capterra review guidelines come down to three points. Reviews must come from verified people with genuine, first-hand use of the product, every review passes human QA checks before it is published, and vendors must ask a broad cross-section of users, offer any incentive equally and never influence what customers write.

Vendors who build their outreach around these rules lose fewer reviews in moderation and keep their profile free of comments and Buyer Alerts. If you would like help planning a Capterra campaign that fits these rules, talk to the RelikReview team about where to start.

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