Online review statistics for B2B software (2026)

Online review statistics for 2026: the short answer

Reviews sit at the center of software buying in 2026. 97% of consumers read them, 74% of B2B technology buyers use them to decide, and review sites now shape software shortlists more than any other source. Buyers want recent reviews, expect replies and use AI tools alongside reviews.

The numbers below come from five research publishers: BrightLocal, G2, TrustRadius, the Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University and Trustpilot. Some survey consumers and some survey B2B software buyers, so each figure names its source and sample, and you can judge how closely it fits your market.

A few rules shaped the list. Figures are quoted exactly as each publisher states them, with no rounding or merging, and any figure we could not confirm on the publisher's own page was left out.

How many buyers read reviews before they buy?

How many buyers read reviews depends on who you ask, but the answer is "most of them" in every study. BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey, published on 11 February 2026 with 1,002 adult consumers, found that 97% of consumers read reviews online. In 2026, 41% said they "always" read reviews when browsing for businesses, up from 29% the year before.

Software buyers behave the same way at work. The TrustRadius 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect report found that 74% of buyers use reviews to inform their purchase decisions, and G2's 2026 Buyer Behavior Report found that review sites were the top source shaping which vendors make a shortlist.

The pattern matters because buyers read reviews long before they speak to a seller. That is why teams that buy B2B reviews through a managed campaign focus on the sites buyers open during research, where a profile can make or lose a place on the list.

B2B review statistics: how software buyers differ from consumers

B2B review statistics look different from consumer figures because a software purchase involves more people, more steps and more risk. A consumer may read reviews and buy the same day, while a software buyer reads reviews, builds a short list and then waits for IT, finance and security to agree.

G2's research shows how long that wait has become. G2's Buyer Behavior in 2025 research, an online survey of 1,169 B2B decision-makers fielded in April 2025, found that nearly two out of three buyers now prefer engaging with vendor salespeople only in the later stages, up 17 percentage points from the year before. Buyers do their own research first, and reviews fill that gap.

G2's 2026 Buyer Behavior Report, published on 22 July 2026 with more than 1,000 B2B software buyers and decision-makers, found that evaluation is now the longest stage of the buying journey. IT security review is the single biggest source of delay, cited by 39% overall and 50% of enterprise buyers, and finance involvement in software decisions jumped from 31% to 46% in a single year.

A short list leaves little room for a weak profile. When 83% of buyers in the TrustRadius study shortlisted 3 or fewer products, a vendor with few or old reviews on G2 risks being cut before a demo, which is why some teams consider buying G2 reviews from verified users. Our guide to b2b vs b2c reviews covers what each type of buyer looks for in a review.

Software review statistics on volume, recency and ratings

Software review statistics on volume show that the first few reviews do the most work. The Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University found that the purchase likelihood for a product with five reviews is 270% greater than for a product with no reviews, and that the marginal benefit of more reviews begins diminishing rapidly after the first five. Its study was first published in 2017 and the summary page was updated in December 2025.

Recency matters just as much. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found that 74% of consumers seek reviews written in the last three months, and 32% look for reviews written in the last two weeks, up from 20% the year before. A profile with plenty of reviews from two years ago tells a buyer little about the product today.

Ratings follow a pattern that surprises many founders. The Spiegel Research Center found that purchase likelihood typically peaks at ratings in the 4.0 to 4.7 range and declines as ratings approach 5.0, so a profile with a few honest critical reviews can look more credible than a perfect score.

Online review statistics on replies and review requests

Figures on replies show that buyers watch how a company answers. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found that 89% of consumers expect business owners to respond to reviews. A reply shows that someone reads the feedback, and a calm answer to a critical review often says more about a vendor than the review itself.

Asking for reviews is now normal too. In the same survey, 78% of consumers were asked to leave feedback for a business in the past 12 months, so customers expect the request and few find it odd. The safest way to ask is at a fixed point every customer reaches, such as 30 days after sign-up or an account anniversary.

For a software team, these two numbers point to one process. Ask every customer the same way on a fixed schedule, read each new review and reply to the critical ones as carefully as the positive ones.

AI and reviews: how chatbots changed software research

AI tools now sit next to review sites in the research step. G2's 2025 research found that nearly 8 in 10 respondents say AI search has changed how they conduct research, and 29% start research via platforms like ChatGPT more often than Google. G2's 2026 report found that 82% of buyers used an AI chatbot for software recommendations in the last 24 months.

Buyers still check what AI tells them. HG Insights' summary of the TrustRadius 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect report, published on 15 July 2026 from a January 2026 survey of 1,862 technology buyers and 444 technology vendors, found that 63% of buyers used AI during their purchase journey and 94% of buyers who used AI fact-check its responses at least some of the time. The same report says AI-generated recommendations are heavily influenced by trusted third-party content, including customer reviews.

Consumers show the same shift. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found that use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for local recommendations rose from 6% the year before to 45%, and that 82% of consumers read AI-generated review summaries, with 23% willing to rely solely on these. When AI tools summarize what reviewers say, a thin or outdated profile gives them little to work with.

Fake review statistics and how platforms enforce the rules

Fake reviews are a real problem, and platforms now remove them at scale. The Trustpilot Trust Report 2025, published on 29 May 2025, says Trustpilot removed 4.5 million fake reviews in 2024, amounting to 7.4% of the total number of reviews submitted that year, up from 6.1% in 2023. It adds that 90% of those 4.5 million were removed automatically.

Trustpilot's FY2025 results, published on 17 March 2026, report 7.8 million fake reviews removed in 2025, with 91% identified and removed automatically. The same results put Trustpilot at 361 million active reviews, up 20% year on year.

Consumers want firm action. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found that 97% think businesses should face punishment for fake reviews, and 63% say review platforms should be responsible for detecting and preventing them. For a vendor, the lesson is simple: reviews that break a platform's rules tend to get removed, along with any trust they built.

How to use these statistics in your review plan

The numbers point to a few habits that work for most SaaS teams. Each one follows from a figure above, so you can show your team why it matters:

• Be on the sites buyers read. Review sites were the top shortlist source at 38%, and the average consumer uses six review sites.
• Get the first reviews in. The biggest jump in purchase likelihood comes with the first five reviews.
• Keep reviews recent. With 74% of consumers seeking reviews from the last three months, a steady monthly pace beats a single burst.
• Reply to every review. 89% of consumers expect owners to respond.
• Stay inside the rules. Platforms removed millions of fake reviews in 2024 and 2025, most of them automatically.

Choosing where to start is the hard part for most teams. Our overview of software review sites compares the main platforms by buyer and stage, and our guide on why are online reviews important sets out the wider business case behind these figures.

What these online review statistics mean for your team

The online review statistics in this list tell one story. Software buyers read reviews before they talk to sales, they want recent ones, they check what AI tools tell them and they expect vendors to reply, while platforms keep removing fakes at scale.

A profile with a steady flow of recent, honest reviews meets each of those expectations. If you would rather hand that work to people who run it every day, the RelikReview team can talk through a plan for the sites your buyers use.

FAQs about online review statistics