There are websites that claim to be software comparison websites. They claim to have done the work for you, comparing software. They offer to suggest several vetted software companies for your consideration.
In our experience it is unlikely the comparison websites will have compared the software they pitch to you.
It’s our opinion that software comparison websites are purely an ad platform for the businesses that pay to have their software pitched as worthy of consideration by prospective customers.
There is no comparison. We say this based on our own first-hand experience. Our software was not looked or assessed. They wanted money from us per lead. That was it. This makes the comparison website an ad platform plain and simple.
Online they pitch as offering a service, something of value, to the software shopper. The reality is the comparison website businesses offer a commercial service to the software companies – the software companies are their customer.
We dug deeper, presenting as a business looking for software. Sure, they pitched us to three software companies. There was little in the way of filtering. Knowing what we know from when we assessed them as a software business, they charge 3 businesses $100 each for the leads. That’s an easy $300 made for having a slick website that looks like they have done the assessment fork for you when they have not.
Our advice, based on our experience is do not use a comparison website to consider software.
It’s worse than this though and here’s why …
Having considered a comparison website, trying them for a couple of weeks and then saying no thanks, they started paying Google for our business name as an ad keyword. You search for us and their ad comes up. They then contacted us and said he you should do business with us because we have leads for you. These are leads they got by paying Google money to run ads when people type Tower Systems into Google.
Our company lists first in the natural results. The software comparison company and several other similar companies come up ahead us, with ads.
Software comparison website ads claim to offer quotes from leading companies, trusted companies, the most reliable companies. How can they make these claims when they have not themselves assessed the companies? They cannot.
One company claims we compare all the big brands and more. No, they do not.
One company claims that by using them they can provide access to 20-40% saving. No, they cannot as they do not negotiate on price.
One company claims that they let you compare the best-suited products. No, they do not. They don’t look at the software. They have no experience to make an assessment as to what is best.
The only service the comparison website businesses offer from our experience and research is to advertise on Google and provide their partner software companies with leads if a query falls into an area directly or vaguely covered by the software company.
Buyer beware. Comparison websites we have looked at do not compare. They act as a front for ad dollars, being paid for leads they give to partner software companies, that may not offer the best software in their field.
