How VendorProbe Works

VendorProbe is an independent, AI-powered vendor evaluation service for mid-market B2B SaaS buyers. We produce opinionated, data-driven comparison reports using only public data. No vendor paid for inclusion or placement — ever.

Why This Exists

If you're a CTO, VP of Support, or founder at a 50–500 person company, you're choosing tools without a procurement team. You sit through demos, read G2 reviews, ask peers on Slack — and still aren't sure. VendorProbe does the homework for you: systematic evaluation across the dimensions that actually matter, with honest editorial opinion on top.

Data Sources

Every evaluation uses exclusively public data. We collect from:

Vendor websites — pricing pages, feature pages, product documentation, security/trust pages, changelogs, and release notes.

Review platforms — G2 and Capterra aggregate ratings, category scores, and review sentiment themes from the past 18 months.

Community sources — Reddit discussions, comparison threads, support forums.

Technical sources — API documentation, status pages, GitHub repositories, developer SDKs.

Hiring signals — Engineering and product job postings as a proxy for investment direction.

We do not use vendor-provided data, analyst briefings, or paid access to any vendor's internal metrics. If we can't verify it from public sources, we don't include it.

Scoring Framework

Each vendor is scored on 10 dimensions, weighted by importance to mid-market support teams. Weights were set before evaluation began and applied equally to all vendors.

Each dimension is scored 1–10 using a rubric defined before evaluation. The overall score is a weighted sum. Scores of 8+ are strong. 6–7.9 are adequate. Below 6 signals a real weakness.

Independence Guarantee

VendorProbe evaluates vendors independently. No vendor paid for inclusion, placement, or a higher score. We don't accept analyst briefings, free accounts, or affiliate commissions from the vendors we evaluate. Our revenue comes from readers — not vendors.

If we ever accept vendor revenue (e.g., for a future "Vendor Intelligence" product), it will be disclosed prominently and kept completely separate from evaluation methodology.

Limitations & Honesty

We're transparent about what we can and can't do:

We use public data only. This means we don't have access to internal metrics like actual uptime percentages, real resolution rates, or NDA-protected pricing. We evaluate what a buyer can see before purchasing.

Prices change. Vendor pricing pages update frequently. We note the evaluation date on every report and plan quarterly refreshes. Always verify current pricing directly with the vendor before purchasing.

Reviews have bias. G2 and Capterra reviews skew toward users incentivized to leave reviews. We use aggregate patterns and sentiment themes rather than individual reviews.

We have opinions. After presenting the data, we tell you what we think. You may disagree. That's fine — the data is there for you to reach your own conclusion.

What's Coming

Experience Audits — We're building a second layer to every evaluation: testing vendor chatbots with standardized scenarios, auditing the sales process, measuring onboarding time-to-value, and submitting tickets to the vendor's own support team. This is the part nobody else does.

More categories — CRM, project management, and other tool categories that mid-market teams evaluate without procurement support.

Personalized evaluations — Input your requirements, get a weighted recommendation specific to your team.