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The short answer
Most one-person products do not need a G2 push yet. A G2 profile is free to claim, but it only pays off once real customers have reviewed the product. If you do not have ten customers who have used it for a month, leave it alone. If you do, claim the free profile, complete it, and ask your customers for reviews one at a time.
Most advice on G2 assumes you already have a marketing team and a budget for paid plans. This guide is for the other founder: one person, a handful of customers, and a free profile that costs nothing but can still waste a month of attention. It covers who should bother, what the free profile gives you, how reviews are verified, and when to close the tab and go back to building.
Who actually needs G2 at this stage?
Founders who sell software to businesses, and whose buyers compare tools before they choose. G2 is a marketplace where software buyers read reviews and compare products side by side, so it helps when your customers behave that way. It does little for a consumer app, a developer library or a product that spreads by word of mouth in a small community.
The second condition is what most guides skip. A profile is a container for reviews. Without them it is an empty shelf in a big store, and buyers who arrive to compare products leave for the ones that have proof. That is why the threshold below is about customers, not about how polished the page is.
There is also a reason it is worth knowing about now. Review sites are among the sources that AI answer engines draw on. The 2026 citation studies we track, from Similarweb and 5W, list G2 among the review sites ChatGPT leans on. That is a reason to have honest reviews somewhere public, not a reason to rush a profile with none.
The do-you-need-this-yet scorecard
This is my rule of thumb, not G2's. It has one hard gate and six questions. The gate decides whether you should be here at all, and the score decides how much effort to give it.
The hard gate
You need both. If either fails, stop here, whatever the score says.
- Ten customers who have used the product for at least a month
- Real names, real companies, and an email address you can write to
The six questions
Give yourself one point for each honest yes.
| Question | A yes means | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Buyers compare | People in your market search for the best tool in the category, or for alternatives to a named product. | If buyers pick by asking a friend or by a Google search for the problem, a comparison site is not where they decide. |
| Business buyer | The person paying is a company or a professional using it for work. | G2 is built for software bought by teams. A consumer app or a hobby tool has no home there. |
| Named rivals | You can name three products a buyer would put next to yours on the same page. | Without a category and rivals, there is no comparison for your profile to sit in. |
| Reviewers on file | At least five customers would take ten minutes to write a review if you asked them personally. | Reviews are the product. A claimed profile with none is an empty shelf. |
| Verifiable reviewers | Those customers can sign in with LinkedIn or a work email. | G2 validates who each reviewer is. A customer who only wants to stay anonymous everywhere cannot help. |
| Thirty minutes a month | You will re-read the profile and answer new reviews once a month. | A stale profile next to maintained ones costs trust at the moment a buyer is comparing. |
What your result means
| Your result | Verdict | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Fails the gate | Leave it alone | Spend the time getting your first ten users and your first reviews somewhere cheaper. Come back later. |
| Passes the gate, scores 0 to 3 of 6 | Claim it, do not push it | Make the page accurate, then ask a few customers for reviews as they come up. No campaigns, no paid plan. |
| Passes the gate, scores 4 to 6 of 6 | Start now | Complete the profile and run the personal review plan below. A free profile is the right size of investment. |
What does a free G2 profile include?
G2 states on its seller pages that every company can claim and maintain a free profile, and that paid plans add enhanced customization, branding, analytics and lead generation. Older write-ups describe a free plan that G2 has since changed, so read the current G2 profile page instead of trusting a post from a year or two ago, including this one a year from now. What the free tier gives you today:
- A product profile. An overview, features, screenshots, videos, pricing, integrations and company details.
- Verified customer reviews. Reviews go through G2's verification and moderation. You cannot edit or remove them.
- A place in category pages and comparisons. Profile completeness and review volume feed how a product is placed.
- Search and AI visibility. Profiles use structured data and verified reviews that search engines and answer engines can read.
The process has two stages. After you submit a new product it is conditionally approved, and G2's research team vets it over about three to five business days before placing it in a category. Once it is live you claim it, and the team reviews the claim in about one to three business days. Those are G2's own figures, so treat them as estimates and never plan a launch around them.
Two limits are worth knowing before you invest an afternoon. First, you cannot edit or remove a customer review, which is the reason buyers trust them. Second, the analytics, lead capture and buyer intent features sit in the paid tiers. For a small product that is fine. You are not buying leads yet. You are building a page that holds honest proof.
How do you collect reviews G2 will accept?
G2 accepts reviews from people it can identify. Its community guidelines say a reviewer can use a LinkedIn account, a verified business email or a personal email, as long as G2 can validate who they are. Employees of the product's company and employees of a direct competitor cannot review, because those would be biased. That rules out the favor every founder is tempted to ask of a co-founder, a contractor or a friend who works for the company.
The plan that works for a first batch is the same one that works on any review site. Ask people who have used the product for a while, one at a time, in a personal email. Say what they did with it, say that a review helps the next buyer in their position, and link straight to the review page. Do not choose the rating, do not suggest the words and do not send it to everyone on the same day. The first-ten-customers version of this is spelled out in the Capterra listing guide, and the wider playbook is in how to get your first reviews and how to get testimonials for a new product.
What G2 treats as manipulation
G2's guidelines list the vendor behaviors that get reviews removed or accounts banned. Read the G2 community guidelines before you send a single request. The short version:
- Collecting reviews only from customers you expect to be happy
- Making a reward depend on the review being positive
- Giving customers an incentive without telling G2
- Discouraging a customer who wants to leave a critical review
- Writing reviews yourself, or asking employees and friends who never used it
- Asking a competitor's customer to review a rival to push you up
Incentives are the one gray area, so be precise. G2 runs its own incentive campaigns, caps their value at $100 and labels every incentivized review. If you offer one yourself without telling G2, that is on its list of prohibited behavior. The federal rule on consumer reviews also makes it an unfair or deceptive practice to provide compensation or incentives conditioned on reviews expressing a particular sentiment. For a first batch, skip rewards entirely.
G2 vs Capterra for a one-person product
The comparison changed in 2026. G2 announced on January 29 that it had agreed to acquire Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp from Gartner, and G2's community guidelines now describe all four as its marketplaces, moderated under one standard. For you that means the rules for honest reviews are the same on both, and a founder who learns them once has learned both.
| Question | G2 | Capterra |
|---|---|---|
| Free listing | Yes, claim and maintain a free profile | Yes, a basic listing is free |
| Review rules | One shared set of community guidelines | The same guidelines |
| Who it suits | Business buyers who compare tools in detail | Buyers browsing a wide catalog, often smaller companies |
| What to do first | Pass the scorecard, then claim | Check whether a page already exists, then claim |
Pick the one your customers already use and earn five honest reviews there before you start on the other. The step-by-step for the second is in the Capterra free listing guide. Where both sit among the other places to list is in the startup launch directories guide.
When should you leave it alone?
Leave it alone when the gate fails, and also in three cases the scorecard does not catch. You are about to change what the product is, because a profile that describes last quarter's product sends buyers the wrong message. You are being pressured into a paid plan by a sales call before you have a single review. Or the only way you can see to get reviews is to ask people who have not used the product.
Skipping it for now costs very little. The profile will still be there when you have the customers, and the reviews you collect in the meantime are not wasted. A testimonial you earn today can be reused on your own site, your launch pages and a G2 profile later. If you are not yet at ten customers, the guide to getting your first ten paying customers is the better use of the month.
Frequently asked questions
Is a G2 profile free?
Yes. G2 states that every company can claim and maintain a free profile, and that paid plans unlock more customization, branding, analytics and lead generation. For an early-stage product the free profile is the only one worth considering, and only once the product has real reviewers.
How long does G2 take to approve a new product?
G2's own seller page describes two reviews. A new product is conditionally approved after submission, and G2's research team vets it over about three to five business days before placing it in a category. After you claim the profile, the team reviews the claim within about one to three business days. Plan around the longer figure and do not resubmit while you wait.
Is G2 worth it for a small SaaS?
It is worth it when you sell to business buyers who compare tools and you have at least ten customers who have used the product for a month. It is not worth it for a consumer product, a pre-revenue product or a founder who cannot ask customers personally. The scorecard above turns that into a yes or no.
G2 vs Capterra: which should a small product start with?
Start with the one where your customers already spend time, and collect a handful of honest reviews before adding the second. In January 2026 G2 announced it would acquire Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp from Gartner, and G2's community guidelines now cover all four sites, so the review rules are the same. The audiences still differ, and the work of earning reviews is the same on both.
Can I offer customers a gift card for a G2 review?
Not on your own. G2 requires that incentives be disclosed to it, caps incentives it runs at $100 and labels incentivized reviews, and its guidelines ban conditioning an incentive on a positive review. The federal rule on consumer reviews also bars compensation tied to a review expressing a particular sentiment. For a first-ten-customers plan, a personal email and no reward is both the safe route and the one that reads as honest.