ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Capterra, the leading online resource for business software buyers, today announced a milestone 500,000 B2B software product reviews on Capterra.com, establishing its stake as the market leader for most verified reviews available to software purchasing decision makers. The first site to publish software user reviews, Capterra helps millions of buyers every month discover the right software for their business needs. Reaching this half-million mark, Capterra also announced new research findings illustrating why reviews are vital to software vendors seeking growth in the small and midsize business (SMB) market including the top 10 highest trending software categories, the top 10 most reviewed software categories, and the top 10 industries by reviews. Among its findings analyzed between 2017 to 2018, Capterra identified marketing-related software saw a 591 percent increase in published reviews, and network security software experienced a 463 percent increase validating marketing tools and security platforms are key priorities for small business growth.

The Capterra mission is to provide software buyers with unparalleled service at no cost — reaching the 500,000 reviews threshold further demonstrates the company's dedication to serving the SMB community. The half-million mark is a major milestone, the result of a 50 percent increase in reviews published on the site since 2017. Capterra is on course to break more records: more reviews were published in the first half of 2018 than in the eight years between 2008 and 2016.

"At Capterra, it's our mission to be a ridiculously helpful resource — reaching 500,000 verified reviews shows our commitment to providing SMBs a platform they can trust," said Claire Alexander, general manager, Capterra. "All buyers rely on reviews to help them make informed purchasing decisions and we look forward to serving the next 500,000 software buyers through user reviews on Capterra.com."

The top-five high-growth, trending software categories for 2018 are:

• Graphic Design (591 percent growth)
• Presentation (533 percent growth)
• Network Security (463 percent growth)
• Web Conferencing (410 percent growth)
• Meeting Platforms (390 percent growth)

The top-five review categories are:

• Collaboration
• Project Management
• Task Management
• Customer Relationship Management
• Productivity

"Buying and selling trends are constantly changing — people now rely on user reviews as resources to help them make purchasing decisions. Vendors count on reviews to gain the trust of potential customers and stand out from the competition," said Shai Eisen, managing vice president of digital products. "We work hard to ensure that the unbiased customer testimonials are as helpful to SMB leaders as possible. That's why Capterra helps more than 5 million businesses find the right software across hundreds of categories each month."

Read more on Capterra and what it has learned since inventing its category in 1999, in its new blog post, "Lessons From 500,000 Business Software Reviews".

About Capterra: Capterra is the leading online resource for business software buyers. Founded in 1999, Capterra features validated user reviews and independent research across hundreds of software categories. From Accounting to Yoga Studio Management, Capterra covers it all. Each month, Capterra helps more than three million buyers find the right software. Capterra is a Gartner company. For more information, visit capterra.com.