Grid℠ for Rapid Application Development | Fall 2016

The Grid℠ represents the democratic voice of real software users, rather than the subjective opinion of one analyst. G2 Crowd rates rapid application development products algorithmically based on data sourced from product reviews shared by G2 Crowd users and data aggregated from online sources and social networks.

Technology buyers can use the Grid℠ to help them quickly select the best rapid application development product for their business and to find peers with similar experiences. For vendors, media, investors, and analysts, the Grid℠ provides benchmarks for product comparison and market trend analysis.

G2 Crowd rates products and vendors based on reviews gathered from our user community, as well as data aggregated from online sources and social networks. We apply a unique, patent-pending algorithm to this data to calculate the product strength and scores in real time. The Summer 2016 Rapid Application Development Grid℠ report is based off of scores calculated using the G2 Crowd algorithm v2.0 from reviews collected through August 29, 2016. To view the Rapid Application Development Grid℠ with the most recent data, please visit the Rapid Application Development page.

The Satisfaction rating is affected by the following (in order of importance):

• Customer satisfaction with end user-focused product attributes based on user reviews
• Popularity and statistical significance based on the number of reviews received by G2 Crowd
• Customers' satisfaction with administration-specific product attributes based on user reviews
• Overall customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score® (NPS) based on ratings by G2 Crowd users

The Market Presence score is affected by the following (in order of importance):

• Product market presence
• Number of employees for product (based on social networks and public sources)
• Number of product reviews
• Product social impact based on factors including Twitter followers and domain authority
• Vendor market presence
• Number of employees for parent company (based on social networks and public resources)
• Vendor momentum based on web traffic and search trends
• Vendor social impact based on Klout score and Twitter followers
• Age of company (number of years in operation)
• Employee satisfaction and engagement (based on social network ratings)

Making G2 Crowd research relevant and easy for people to use as they evaluate and select business software products is one of our most important goals. In support of that goal, organizing products and software companies in a well-defined structure that makes capturing, evaluating, and displaying reviews and other research in an orderly manner is a critical part of the research process.

To manage the process of categorizing the software products and the related reviews in the G2 community, G2 Crowd follows a publicly available categorization methodology. All rapid application development products appearing on the Grid℠ have passed through G2 Crowd's categorization methodology and meet G2 Crowd's category standards.

Many terms that appear regularly across G2 Crowd and are used to aid in product categorization warrant a definition to facilitate buyer understanding. These terms may be included within reviews from the G2 community or in executive summaries for products included on the Grid℠. A list of standard definitions is available to G2 Crowd users to eliminate confusion and ease the buying process.

The ratings in this report are based on a snapshot of the user reviews and social data collected by G2 Crowd up through August 29, 2016. The ratings may change as the products are further developed, the vendors grow, and as additional opinions are shared by users. G2 Crowd updates the ratings on its website in real time as additional data is received, and this report will be updated as significant data is received. By improving their products and support and/or by having more satisfied customer voices heard, Contenders may become Leaders and Niche vendors may become High Performers.

Keeping our ratings unbiased is our top priority. We require the use of a LinkedIn account to validate a G2 Crowd user’s identity and employer. Additionally, we verify all reviews manually. We do not allow users to rate their employer’s products or those of their employer’s competitors. Though we share reviews from business partners (they often contain valuable content), we filter out business partner ratings in our aggregate ratings to avoid bias.

Our G2 Crowd staff does not add any subjective input to the ratings, which are determined algorithmically based on data aggregated from publicly available online sources and social networks. Vendors cannot influence their ratings by spending time or money with us. Only the opinion of real users and data from public sources factor into the ratings.

All products in a G2 Crowd category that have at least 10 reviews from real users of the product are included on the Grid℠. Inviting other users, such as colleagues and peers, to join G2 Crowd and share authentic product reviews will accelerate this process.

If an rapid application development product is not yet listed on G2 Crowd and it fits the market definition above, then users are encouraged to suggest its addition to our Rapid Application Development category.

*Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.