How the Field Grid and the awards work
Every season we place the tools of a category on the Field Grid and give out awards. Everything comes from a formula you can read here and check yourself. Nobody can buy a place or an award.
Two axes, no market presence
Fit (horizontal) is the criteria score of the category, the same 0 to 100 as in the ranking. A tool only gets a fit when we have a source for at least 50% of the weight. Otherwise it shows “Insufficient data” and the tool does not appear on the Grid.
User satisfaction (vertical) comes from verified reviews of the last 24 months, on a scale from 1 to 5.
Other sites put a vendor’s size on an axis: employees, revenue, website traffic or advertising budget. We do not. A big vendor is not better for your company, and those numbers can be bought.
How we calculate satisfaction
For each review we take:
- the overall score (40%),
- the average of the sub-scores the reviewer gave, such as ease of use, setup, fit for the needs and support (40%),
- the recommendation score from 0 to 10, converted to 1 to 5 (20%).
Then we weigh each review:
- Recency: a review loses half of its weight every 12 months. Reviews older than 24 months no longer count.
- Source: reviews on the reviewer’s own initiative and reviews we asked for count in full. Reviews through a vendor’s invitation count for 0,8. We do not publish unverified reviews, so they never count.
- Number: every tool starts as if it already had 8 reviews of 3,5 stars. With few reviews the score therefore stays close to the middle. That way 10 reviews of 5 stars do not beat 80 reviews averaging 4.7.
Who is on the Field Grid
A tool is on the Grid in a season when it:
- has a fit (at least 50% of the weight with a source),
- has at least 10 verified reviews in the last 24 months,
- received at least 3 new verified reviews in that season itself.
That last rule keeps the Grid current: whoever wants to be listed has to keep collecting reviews every quarter. We only publish the Grid of a category when at least 4 tools meet those rules. Until then the page shows per tool how far it still has to go.
The four quadrants
We draw a line on each axis. That line is the median of the tools on the Grid, but never lower than a fixed floor: 60 out of 100 for fit and 4,0 out of 5 for satisfaction. That way a mediocre tool never becomes Leader because the rest of the category is weak.
| Quadrant | Fit | Satisfaction |
|---|---|---|
| Leaders | on or above the line | on or above the line |
| Users’ favourites | below the line | on or above the line |
| Broad offering | on or above the line | below the line |
| Niche players | below the line | below the line |
We compare with the rounded values shown on the page: fit as a whole number, satisfaction to two decimals. A tool exactly on the line goes to the higher quadrant. With an even number of tools the median is the average of the two middle ones. An editor cannot change a position.
Seasons
There are four seasons a year: Winter (January to March), Spring (April to June), Summer (July to September) and Autumn (October to December). Reviews count up to and including the last day of the season. Shortly afterwards the Grid and the awards of that season appear.
Awards
Per category and per season we give these awards. In a tie, all tools with the highest value get the award.
- Leader: in the Leaders quadrant.
- Users’ favourite: in the Users’ favourites quadrant.
- Fastest riser: the biggest rise in satisfaction compared with the previous season, at least 0,1 star, and on the Grid in both seasons.
- Easiest to use: the highest score for ease of use and setup, with at least 10 reviews with that score, at least 4,0 out of 5 and at least 3 tools competing.
- Best for SMEs: the highest satisfaction among companies with 1 to 49 employees, with at least 10 reviews from such companies, at least 4,0 out of 5 and at least 3 tools competing.
- Users recommend: at least 20 verified reviews in 24 months, an average of at least 4,0 stars and a recommendation score of at least 8.
Two awards need no reviews. They rest on facts we check ourselves, and we assess them again with every update of the site:
- CIAO-ready: the tool is ready for CIAO (check-in and check-out at work) and we checked that with a source link. Only in categories where CIAO is a criterion.
- Fully checked: every criterion of the category is known, has a source link and was checked in the last 6 months.
Badges are free
Every winner may display its badge for free, also without a paid plan. On the category’s awards page each winner finds a snippet of code with the badge and a link to the rule. A badge expires after the next season, unless the tool earns it again. A paid licence exists only for derived material, such as a print-ready version or use in paid advertising. That licence changes nothing about who wins.
What does not count
Paying, advertising, being a customer of ours, the vendor’s size and its website traffic do not count for the Grid or for an award. Vendors cannot buy, hide or reward reviews. Also read how we verify reviews.
The fact map, as long as there are too few reviews
As long as a category has no Field Grid, the page shows a fact map. It places every tool on two axes from checked facts with a source.
The map follows the layout of the G2 Grid: presence horizontally, quality vertically, with the same four roles.
- Criteria score (vertical): the same score as the ranking, from 0 to 100. This is the quality axis, like satisfaction at G2.
- Presence in Belgium (horizontal): an index of fixed, published points. As at G2, an axis is not a single data point but a sum of several weighted sources. Unlike at G2, company size, revenue, website traffic and advertising do not count.
- Roles: Leaders (top right), High performers (top left), Challengers (bottom right) and Niche players (bottom left). A place on the map is not an award: the Leader badge only comes from the Field Grid with reviews.
| What counts | Points |
|---|---|
| Product in Dutch and French | 25 (one of the two: 10) |
| Integration with a Belgian payroll provider (social secretariat), with source | 15 |
| Integration with accounting or Peppol, with source | 15 |
| Company in Belgium | 10 |
| CIAO-ready (site and presence software only) | 5 |
| Belgian customers named on a public page | 1 or 2: 8, 3 or more: 15 |
| On the market since (with source) | 2 to 4 years: 5, 5 years or more: 10 |
| Verified published reviews of the tool | 5 or more: 5 |
The sum is rescaled to 100 per category: outside site and presence software CIAO does not count and the maximum is 95. Below the map are the points per tool, with a link to the source.
This axis only places tools on the map. It changes nothing about the ranking and gives no awards. It favours tools that show public evidence, and therefore older and better-known tools: a new tool can still be first in the ranking, because that counts only the criteria.
The lines are the median of the category. Tools with insufficient data for a criteria score are not on the map. An integration only counts when a source mentions it, as on our integration pages. With the buttons per company size (self-employed, SMEs, large companies) the map shows only the tools whose vendor says with a source that they are made for that size, with the median of those tools. A view appears from 3 tools.
Price and criteria
Below the fact map is a second map: the criteria score against the public monthly from-price. We take the pricing unit that occurs most often in the category (for example per user per month) and show the map from 3 tools with a public price in that unit. A lower price sits higher, so that top right means many criteria for a low price. The lines are the median of criteria score and price. Tools without a public price are listed below the map as “price on request”. This map too changes nothing about the ranking.