Gartner Peer Insights Guide: How to Earn Customers' Choice in 2026

TL;DR

Gartner Peer Insights (GPI) is the only review platform where your customer reviews are used as inputs in Magic Quadrant evaluations. Your reviews do double duty — earning you a Customers' Choice badge on GPI while also influencing how Gartner analysts evaluate your product. And following G2's acquisition of Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice, GPI is now Gartner's only remaining software directory — which probably means they'll be investing more in it. If the methodology below feels intimidating — you're not alone. We tried our best to make it accessible, and even that was difficult. You need 20+ verified reviews in an 18-month window, from customers at companies with $50M+ revenue. Gartner even funds your first $1,250 in review incentives. The catch: GPI has the strictest marketing compliance rules of any platform we've covered — pre-approval required before using your badge. And the VOC publication schedule is buried in a four-tab Excel file that most vendors never decode. We extracted all 58 upcoming markets with their exact review windows and freeze periods below.

Should You Prioritize Gartner Peer Insights?

Before diving into the methodology, here's an honest assessment.

GPI is probably worth it if:

• You sell to enterprise buyers at organizations with $50M+ revenue
• Your product maps to a Gartner Magic Quadrant or Market Guide category
• You have 20+ enterprise customers who could write reviews within 18 months
• You want your customer feedback to influence how Gartner analysts evaluate your market
• You're prepared to follow strict marketing compliance rules when using recognition

GPI is probably not worth it if:

• Your customers are primarily SMB or midmarket (reviews from companies under $50M revenue don't count toward VOC or Customers' Choice — they still appear on your profile, but won't earn you a badge)
• Your product category doesn't have a corresponding Magic Quadrant or Market Guide
• You have fewer than 20 enterprise customers who've deployed in the past 18 months
• You need quick recognition wins (Capterra badges are faster and more accessible)

The honest math: Customers' Choice goes to vendors scoring above market average on both axes. In established categories like SIEM or CRM, you're competing against vendors with hundreds of reviews and dedicated analyst relations teams. In newer or narrower categories, the bar is lower — but check whether your market even has a VOC publication scheduled.

Start here: Visit gartner.com/reviews, search for your product category, and look at the current Customers' Choice vendors. How many reviews do they have? What's their rating? That's your benchmark.

How GPI Compares to PeerSpot and TrustRadius

GPI is the only enterprise review platform whose data feeds into analyst research (Magic Quadrants). PeerSpot offers the deepest case-study-style reviews for security and IT. TrustRadius has the lowest barrier to entry with broader B2B coverage. Here's the full comparison:

The key difference: GPI is the only review platform where your customer feedback directly influences analyst research. If your buyers check Magic Quadrants before purchasing, GPI reviews carry weight beyond the badge itself.

PeerSpot is a strong alternative if you're in cybersecurity, IT infrastructure, or cloud — and if your customers can write detailed case-study-style reviews. PeerSpot reviews are public and named, which adds credibility. (See our PeerSpot awards guide for the full methodology.)

TrustRadius is the most accessible of the three — it covers a broader range of B2B software, has transparent reviewer identities, and its Buyer's Choice award requires just 10 reviews with 75% positive sentiment across capabilities, value, and customer relationship. If you're evaluating where to start, TrustRadius has the lowest barrier to entry.

For diversification: Having reviews across multiple enterprise platforms means you're not dependent on one company's algorithm changes, pricing decisions, or review policies. GPI for analyst influence, PeerSpot for deep case studies, TrustRadius for broader reach — they complement each other.

How Voice of the Customer Works

To qualify for Customers' Choice in 2026, you need 20+ eligible reviews from companies with $50M+ revenue within an 18-month window, with at least 15 ratings each for Capabilities and Support/Delivery. Your product must cover 50%+ of the capabilities Gartner defines for your market. Here's how the full system works.

A note on terminology: GPI doesn't use "categories" like G2 or Capterra. They use markets — and these aren't self-selected by vendors. Each market is defined by Gartner analysts and maps to a specific Magic Quadrant or Market Guide publication. The market definition includes which capabilities your product must cover (50%+ required to qualify), and markets get renamed, merged, or retired as Gartner's analyst research evolves. They also have their own individual publication schedules — not quarterly like everyone else. You'll see "market" throughout this guide where other platforms would say "category." We feel we deserve a badge just for decoding all of this.

The Four Quadrants

GPI's Voice of the Customer reports place products into four quadrants based on two axes:

• Customers' Choice (upper-right) — Above market average on both Overall Experience AND User Interest & Adoption.
• Strong Performer (upper-left) — High experience scores, but lower adoption metrics
• Established (lower-right) — High adoption, but lower experience scores
• Aspiring (lower-left) — Below market average on both axes

Being included in a VOC report at all is hard — the review threshold is high given the nature of enterprise buyers, and reports cap at 25 vendors. Any quadrant means you're in the room. Customers' Choice is the badge that matters for marketing — it's the equivalent of G2's Leader or PeerSpot's Tech Leader.

The Two Axes

Y-Axis: Overall Experience A composite score of three elements:

• Overall Rating
• Capabilities rating
• Support/Delivery rating

X-Axis: User Interest & Adoption A composite score of three elements:

• Review/consideration score (how reviews perform relative to the market)
• Willingness to recommend
• Market coverage (across industry, region, and company size)

The June 2025 Methodology Shift

Gartner updated the VOC methodology in June 2025 (v3.5). Reports published through May 2025 used the older approach; everything from June 2025 onward uses the updated version. The key changes:

• Adjusted weightings for industry, company size, and region in the scoring model
• Vendor consideration frequency is now incorporated into the User Interest & Adoption score (X-axis) — meaning how often buyers include you in their evaluation shortlist affects your positioning
• Segment views (breakdowns by industry, company size, or region) are now exclusive to Interactive VOCs for reports after September 1, 2024. A market needs 5+ qualifying vendors and 400+ total reviews to get segment graphics

The segment views change matters because segment placement can differ from your overall placement. A product that's Customers' Choice overall might be "Strong Performer" in the enterprise segment, or vice versa. If your buyers filter by segment, that's the quadrant they see.

What this means practically: If you earned Customers' Choice before June 2025, your next evaluation uses different scoring. The fundamentals haven't changed (reviews, ratings, adoption still matter), but the weightings have shifted — particularly around how broadly your reviews represent different industries and company sizes.

Inclusion Requirements

To appear in a VOC report at all, your product needs:

Maximum 25 vendors per VOC document. If more than 25 products qualify, only the top 25 are included. Segment views (by industry, company size, or region) may include different vendors.

Recognition is valid for 15 months from the VOC publication date, or until the next VOC report for that market — whichever comes first.

Source: Voice of the Customer Methodology (v3.5, June 2025 — current methodology for all VOC reports published June 2025 onward)

The VOC Publication Schedule (Decoded)

Each GPI market has its own publication date, review eligibility window, and freeze period — there's no universal quarterly cycle. The official schedule is buried in a downloadable Excel file with four tabs and datetime-formatted dates. We decoded it.

The official schedule lives in a downloadable Excel file with four tabs, datetime-formatted dates, and terminology that isn't explained until you find the "About" tab: Gartner Peer Insights VOC Calendar (Excel)

We extracted all 58 upcoming markets with their review windows, freeze periods, and publication dates (as of February 4, 2026) — consolidated into searchable tables below so you don't have to decode the spreadsheet yourself.

How to Read the Schedule

Each market listing has five dates you need to understand:

The freeze period is the hidden deadline most vendors miss. If you're not already listed in your GPI market before the freeze period starts, you cannot be added until after the VOC is published. For a February 2026 publication, freeze periods started as early as August 2025 — six months before the report comes out.

February 2026 Markets (13 markets)

Review windows for these markets are already closed. If you're in one of these categories, the next round is your target.

March 2026 Markets (14 markets) — Review Windows Closing Jan 2026

April 2026 Markets (12 markets) — Review Window Closes Feb 2026

These are the nearest actionable deadlines. Reviews submitted before February 28, 2026 count.

May 2026 Markets (7 markets) — Review Window Closes Mar 2026

June 2026 Markets (12 markets) — Review Window Closes Apr 2026

One Market Skipping This Round

Digital Experience Services — listed in the calendar with "No VoC publication in the current round." No explanation given. This happens occasionally when markets are being redefined or merged.

Dates Shift — A Lot

The archive tab in the calendar file tracks 92 schedule changes since January 2025. Markets routinely move 1-3 months later than originally planned (we didn't find any that moved earlier). The review eligibility window usually doesn't change when dates shift — just the publication date slides.

Market names also change mid-cycle. Recent examples:

• "Enterprise Backup and Recovery Software Solutions" → "Backup and Data Protection Platforms"
• "Active Metadata Management" → "Metadata Management Solutions"
• "Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) Tools" + "Penetration Testing Tools" → merged into "Adversarial Exposure Validation"

What "tentative" really means: Plan around these dates, but check the calendar monthly. Gartner updates the Excel file regularly (last updated February 4, 2026), though the downloadable file may lag 24-48 hours behind the vendor portal.

Source: VOC Publication Calendar (Excel), last updated February 4, 2026

Step-by-Step: Working Toward Customers' Choice

Now that you understand the requirements, here are the five steps to work toward Customers' Choice: confirm your market exists, find your deadlines, set your review target, collect reviews, and monitor your positioning.

Step 1: Confirm Your Market

GPI organizes products into "markets" that align with Gartner's Magic Quadrant and Market Guide definitions. This is different from G2 or Capterra categories — GPI markets are analyst-defined.

Visit gartner.com/reviews and search for your product or market. If your product isn't listed, you can request to be added. Listing approval takes approximately 8-10 business days.

If your category doesn't exist: GPI only covers markets that have corresponding Magic Quadrant or Market Guide publications. If Gartner hasn't defined your market, GPI isn't an option right now.

Step 2: Find Your Market's Deadlines

Scroll up to the VOC Publication Schedule and find your market. Note:

• Review eligibility end date — this is your hard deadline for collecting reviews
• Freeze period start — if you're not listed before this date, you're out for this round
• Review eligibility start — reviews submitted before this date don't count

If your market isn't in the February–June 2026 tables above, it either published recently (check the Previous Published tab in the calendar file) or isn't scheduled yet. Gartner adds markets to the calendar approximately 2 months before publication.

Step 3: Set Your Review Target

Minimum for inclusion: 20 reviews, with 15+ ratings each for Capabilities and Support/Delivery.

For Customers' Choice: You need to score above the market average on both axes. The more reviews you have (with strong ratings), the better your positioning. But 20 solid reviews is the floor — focus on quality first.

Step 4: Collect Reviews

Who can review:

• Current users who deployed or upgraded in the past 18 months
• People involved in the purchase, implementation, service management, or end use
• Must be from organizations with $50M+ annual revenue
• Must register with LinkedIn or company email

Who cannot review:

• Vendor employees or competitor employees
• Exclusive partners, VARs, SIs, or consultants
• Government/public sector employees
• People from organizations under $50M revenue
• Anyone on the OFAC sanctions list

Review incentives:

• Maximum $25 per review (FTC guidelines)
• Gartner provides new vendors with $1,250 in free incentive funding (50 x $25 gift cards)
• Vendor-funded incentives: up to $10,000 per market per year
• Multi-incentive links let reviewers choose: $25 gift card, $25 charity donation, GPI Plus subscription, or no incentive

The cost reality: The $1,250 in free incentives is generous — and it's often the starting point of a conversation about broader Gartner for Providers packages. The badge itself is free. But "Review as a Service" packages and GTP (Gartner for Technology Providers) seat-holder agreements are part of the ecosystem around it. The platform is free to use; the full vendor relationship can get expensive. Worth knowing before you start.

Note on INR gift cards: Gartner suspended Indian Rupee gift card redemption in March 2025 due to improper use. If you have India-based enterprise customers, check whether this has been resolved before planning your review campaign.

Review moderation: Takes 3-10 business days. Incentives are distributed after the review is approved.

Source: Incentives FAQs

Step 5: Monitor Your Position

Check your product page on gartner.com/reviews regularly to see:

• Total review count and average rating
• Sub-ratings for Capabilities and Support/Delivery
• How you compare to other products in your market

Note: Gartner paused the Reply to Review feature in July 2025. You currently cannot respond to reviews on the platform. No timeline for restoration has been published.

Marketing Compliance: Read This Before Using Your Badge

GPI requires pre-approval for all marketing materials that reference Customers' Choice, allows only verbatim review quotes with attribution, mandates a specific disclaimer, and prohibits implying analyst endorsement. These are the strictest badge usage rules of any platform we've covered.

The Rules

Required Disclaimer Text

Every piece of marketing material that references GPI recognition must include this exact disclaimer:

"Gartner and Peer Insights are trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences, and should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates."

Approved vs. Prohibited Language

Why so strict? Gartner protects the boundary between peer reviews and analyst research. Customers' Choice is based on user reviews, not analyst evaluation. Implying otherwise undermines both programs — and Gartner will enforce compliance.

Templates are available in the Marketing Tools section of the GPI vendor portal. Use them.

Source: Content Compliance Policy

How GPI Verifies Reviews

GPI reviews are anonymous to the public but verified by Gartner through LinkedIn cross-referencing, employment confirmation, and role relevance checks. Reviewers must register with professional credentials and attest they're not vendor or competitor employees. Here's the full process:

1. Professional identity — Reviewers must register with LinkedIn or corporate email
2. Employment verification — Cross-referenced against LinkedIn profiles
3. Recency — Product must have been deployed/upgraded in the past 18 months
4. Role relevance — Reviewer must have been involved in purchase, implementation, service, or end use
5. Balanced perspective — Reviews are moderated for quality, relevance, and logical consistency between ratings and commentary
6. Vendor employee exclusion — Reviewers must attest they are not vendor or competitor employees

Anonymous by design: Reviewers are verified by Gartner but their identity is hidden from the public and vendors. Buyers see role and company size (e.g., "IT Director at a Large Enterprise") but not the reviewer's name or company. This protects enterprise reviewers from vendor retaliation — a real concern when a CISO writes a critical review of a security vendor they still use.

The trade-off: Anonymous reviews mean buyers can't independently verify who wrote them. PeerSpot and TrustRadius both show reviewer names and companies, which adds transparency. Gartner's position is that their verification process is rigorous enough to compensate.

Reviews don't expire — they remain readable on GPI indefinitely, but only reviews from the 18-month window count toward VOC placement.

Quick Reference: The Numbers

Customers' Choice (VOC)

• Above market average on both Overall Experience and User Interest & Adoption
• 20+ eligible reviews in 18-month window
• 15+ ratings for Capabilities and Support/Delivery sub-categories
• Products must cover 50%+ of market capabilities
• Reviewers from organizations with $50M+ revenue
• Max 25 vendors per VOC document
• Recognition valid 15 months or until next VOC publication

Review Incentives

• $25 maximum per review (FTC)
• Gartner-funded: $1,250 free for new vendors (50 x $25)
• Vendor-funded: Up to $10,000 per market per year
• Review moderation: 3-10 business days

Marketing Compliance

• Pre-approval required for all materials
• Verbatim quotes only
• Badge must not be larger or more prominent than vendor logo
• Full disclaimer required
• "Distinction" not "award"

What We Don't Know

GPI's documentation is more thorough than most platforms, but some gaps remain:

• Exact scoring formulas — The five factors for each axis are listed, but how they're weighted or combined isn't published. We know what goes in, but not the math.
• "Market coverage" calculation — One of the X-axis factors. Described as coverage across industry, region, and company size, but how it's measured isn't defined.
• Schedule beyond June 2026 — The VOC calendar only shows ~2 months ahead. Markets publishing July 2026 and later aren't listed yet.
• Why markets skip rounds — Digital Experience Services is listed as "No VoC publication in the current round" with no explanation. We don't know how often this happens or why.
• Reply to Review timeline — Paused since July 2025 with no published restoration date. Vendors cannot respond to negative reviews.
• INR gift card resolution — Suspended March 2025. Unclear if restored.
• What happens at 20 reviews with insufficient sub-ratings — If you have 20+ reviews but fewer than 15 rate Capabilities or Support/Delivery, are you excluded entirely or placed with caveats?
• Review age weighting within the 18-month window — Are recent reviews weighted more heavily than older ones within the eligibility window? Some sources suggest reviews in the first 6 months of the window carry less weight, but we couldn't verify this in official documentation.
• Independent review campaigns vs. portal-managed incentives — The $10,000/market/year cap applies to incentives managed through the GPI portal. Whether independently-run review campaigns (following FTC guidelines) count toward that cap, or are treated differently for VOC qualification, isn't clearly documented.

If Gartner publishes more detailed methodology, we'll update this guide. If you are Gartner — reach out: ceo@blastra.io.

The Magic Quadrant Connection

Here's the thing that makes GPI different from every other review platform: your GPI reviews are used as inputs in Magic Quadrant evaluations.

Gartner analysts use GPI data as one of several customer feedback inputs when evaluating vendors for Magic Quadrant and Market Guide publications — alongside RFI responses, briefing notes, and analyst-led reference calls. This means:

• A strong GPI review profile doesn't just earn you a Customers' Choice badge — it's visible to the analysts evaluating your product
• Negative reviews on GPI can influence how analysts perceive your customer experience
• The quality and depth of your reviews matters beyond the numerical rating
• GPI data alone won't determine your MQ position — but it's the only review platform that's part of the equation at all

No other review platform has this kind of analyst integration. G2, PeerSpot, and TrustRadius reviews exist independently of analyst research. GPI reviews are part of the Gartner research ecosystem.

Worth noting: Following G2's acquisition of Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice, GPI is now Gartner's only remaining software review and directory property. That makes GPI's role in the Gartner ecosystem more focused — it exists to serve the research, not to compete as a standalone directory.

What this means practically: If your buyers reference Magic Quadrants in their purchasing process (and in enterprise tech, many do), investing in GPI reviews has a compounding effect — badge recognition on GPI, plus analyst visibility in the MQ.

This is also why Gartner is so strict about marketing compliance. They need to maintain clear boundaries between "what customers say" (GPI) and "what analysts conclude" (MQ) — even when the data flows between them.

Source Documentation

We reviewed every official source. Here's what to trust:

Primary Sources (Dated, Reliable)

Secondary Sources (Useful Context)

FAQ

What is the difference between Gartner Peer Insights and Magic Quadrant?

Gartner Peer Insights is a review platform where verified enterprise customers share their experiences with software products. The Magic Quadrant is Gartner's analyst research that evaluates vendors based on "Completeness of Vision" and "Ability to Execute." The connection: GPI reviews are used as one of several inputs when analysts prepare Magic Quadrant evaluations.

How many reviews do I need for Gartner Customers' Choice?

You need a minimum of 20 eligible reviews within an 18-month window, with at least 15 of those reviews including ratings for both Capabilities and Support/Delivery. Reviews must come from customers at organizations with $50M+ annual revenue.

How long does Gartner Customers' Choice recognition last?

Recognition is valid for 15 months from the VOC publication date, or until the next VOC report for that market is published — whichever comes first. After that, you need to qualify again in the next cycle.

Is Gartner Peer Insights free?

Yes, listing your product and collecting reviews is free. Gartner even provides $1,250 in free review incentives for new vendors. However, using your Customers' Choice recognition in marketing requires following strict compliance rules, and Gartner offers paid services like "Review as a Service" packages.

How does Gartner verify reviews?

Gartner verifies reviewers through LinkedIn cross-referencing, employment confirmation via corporate email, and attestation that the reviewer isn't a vendor or competitor employee. Reviews are anonymous to the public but verified by Gartner's team.

Can I respond to reviews on Gartner Peer Insights?

Not currently. Gartner paused the Reply to Review feature in July 2025 with no published restoration date. If you receive a negative review, you cannot respond to it on-platform.

Key Takeaways

1. Enterprise only — for the badge. Reviewers must be from organizations with $50M+ revenue to count toward VOC and Customers' Choice. Reviews from smaller companies still appear on your profile (useful for social proof and SEO), but they won't earn you a badge. If your customer base is primarily SMB or midmarket, G2 or Capterra will give you better ROI.
2. 20 reviews is the floor. You need 20+ eligible reviews in an 18-month window just to appear in a VOC report. Plan your review campaign accordingly.
3. The MQ connection is the real differentiator. GPI reviews influence Magic Quadrant evaluations. No other review platform has this. If your buyers reference Magic Quadrants, GPI reviews have compounding value.
4. Gartner funds your first incentives. New vendors receive $1,250 in free gift card funding (50 x $25). Use it — but note the $10,000/market/year cap for vendor-funded incentives after that.
5. Strictest compliance rules of any platform. Pre-approval for marketing materials, verbatim quotes only, specific disclaimer text, badge sizing rules. Read the compliance section before planning how you'll use recognition.
6. Three enterprise platforms, three different strengths. GPI for analyst influence, PeerSpot for deep case studies in security/IT/cloud, TrustRadius for broader reach with lower barriers. Diversifying across them means you're not dependent on any single platform.
7. Find your market's deadlines above. We extracted all 58 upcoming markets from Gartner's four-tab Excel calendar file. Find your market, note the review window end date, and work backward from there. If your market publishes in April 2026, your review window closes February 28.
8. Reply to Review is paused. Since July 2025, vendors cannot respond to reviews on GPI. Factor this into your review strategy — you can't address negative feedback on-platform. If you can identify unhappy reviewers through context (role, industry, timing), consider having your Customer Success team reach out privately to resolve issues.

Related Guides

• G2 Badges Guide: How to Earn Badges in 2026 — G2's grid methodology, review requirements, and paid plan considerations
• Capterra Badges Guide: How to Earn Badges in 2026 — Capterra's category-specific deadlines and 20-review targets
• PeerSpot Badges Guide: How to Earn Awards in 2026 — Enterprise tech focus, quarterly awards, 5-factor ranking methodology
• TrustRadius Badges Guide: How to Earn Awards in 2026 — trScore methodology, free badge usage, annual schedule
• SourceForge Badges Guide: How to Earn Badges in 2026 — SourceForge's top 5%/10% thresholds and seasonal awards
• How to Get G2 & Capterra Reviews — Review collection best practices that apply across platforms
• How to Get Ranked on G2 — Understanding G2's Grid positioning

About This Guide

This guide was created by Blastra, a SaaS listings management platform. We help software companies manage their third-party visibility posture across directories like G2, Capterra, and SourceForge.

Gartner Peer Insights has thorough vendor documentation, but it's spread across multiple pages in their vendor resources portal. So we organized it.

Note: Blastra does not currently support Gartner Peer Insights in our directory submission service. This guide is for vendors managing their GPI presence directly. If you want us to manage your GPI listings, reach out at ceo@blastra.io.

This guide reflects publicly available methodology documentation as of February 2026. Gartner may update their programs. Verify against official sources for the most current requirements.