Key takeaways

  • Competitor reviews on G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and the app stores show rivals' weak spots, bad releases and the objections your sales team can answer.
  • Review sites' vendor alerts, such as G2's Review Activity emails, cover only the products you manage, so rivals' new reviews need a separate watch.
  • AyeWatch monitors any public review listing with a one-sentence rule and alerts by push on every plan, with a Free Preview and paid plans from $9 a month.

Competitor reviews are the public reviews your rivals collect on G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and the app stores, and the quickest way to see each new one is an AyeWatch monitor on every rival listing. The review sites' own alerts are built for vendors watching their own products, so they stay silent when a competitor gets a fresh one-star.

Why a rival's reviews are worth your time

Your own reviews tell you what to fix. A competitor's reviews tell you where to aim. Read enough of them and patterns show up quickly:

  • Objections you can answer. If buyers keep writing that a rival's setup took a month, your sales team has an opening line.
  • Gaps you can fill. Repeated requests for a missing integration or a cheaper tier are a free roadmap hint.
  • Bad releases. A run of complaints in the same week usually means something shipped broken, and some of their customers are now browsing.
  • What they do well. Five-star reviews that praise support or docs show the bar you are measured against.

None of this needs a dashboard. It needs someone to notice the review the week it appears, not at the end of the quarter.

Where competitor reviews live

Site Who writes there Why watch it
G2 B2B software buyers Deal-stage comparisons, feature complaints
Capterra Software buyers comparing a shortlist Same rivals, often different wording than on G2
Trustpilot Shoppers and consumer brands Delivery, refund and support complaints
App Store and Google Play App users Rating swings after a release
Glassdoor Employees A hiring and culture signal, not product feedback

Reddit belongs on the list too, because the same complaint often turns up there with no link to any listing.

Why the vendor tools do not help

Each site gives vendors an alert for their own listing. G2's Review Activity sends review emails per product you manage, immediately, daily or weekly. Trustpilot Business notifies a company about its own profile. App Store Connect covers apps on your developer account. All three are scoped to listings you own.

A watch list that works

AyeWatch reads the public pages instead, so it does not care whose listing it is:

  1. Pick two or three rivals. The ones that show up in late-stage deals, not the full category.
  2. One monitor per listing. Paste each rival's public G2, Capterra or Trustpilot page and write the rule as a sentence: tell me about new reviews or a change in the overall score, and skip ads and related products.
  3. Add a topic monitor. Something like complaints about the rival's onboarding on Reddit and forums catches the copy that never links back.
  4. Send it where sales reads. Push works on every plan; Slack, email, Discord and webhooks come with paid plans.

When an alert arrives, it names the product and what changed, such as a score falling a tenth of a point and two new reviews blaming the same bug. That is a line for the battlecard and a question for the next call.

What to keep in mind

One review is an anecdote. Wait for a pattern before you change a pitch. AyeWatch watches for what changes from here on and only sees the public page, so for a deep read of a rival's older reviews, sit down with the listing itself. It also does not post replies or export review data; keep that work in your own vendor console.

AyeWatch has a Free Preview with no card, and paid plans start at $9 a month. Its G2 monitoring walkthrough shows the setup on one listing.

Frequently asked questions

How do I monitor competitors' online reviews?

List the two or three rivals you meet most in deals, then put an AyeWatch monitor on each of their public G2, Capterra, Trustpilot or app store pages and ask for new reviews and score changes. Add a topic monitor for complaints about them on Reddit and forums.

Does G2 notify me when a competitor gets a review?

G2's review email settings in my.G2 are configured per product you have listed, so they cover your own products. A page monitor on the rival's public G2 listing fills that gap.

Sources

  1. G2 review monitoringAyeWatch
  2. Capterra review alertsAyeWatch
  3. AyeWatch pricingAyeWatch
  4. Review ActivityG2
  5. Respond to reviewsTrustpilot
  6. App Store ConnectApple Developer