Software Finder is launching the Excellence Award to celebrate products that deliver value, driven by real buyer data, verified reviews, and expert validation.
Unlike popularity-based rankings, our award program recognizes solutions that demonstrate true market performance, measurable user satisfaction, and expert confidence. Experts include Software Finder’s in-house advisory team and verified buyer consultation network.
Every recognition is earned through verified outcomes, ensuring buyers can trust the technology they choose, and vendors are acknowledged for meaningful results, not marketing noise.
We evaluate every eligible product across four categories, each weighed to reflect its importance in a software buyer’s journey.
For buyers, the Customer Happiness Index (CHI) measures satisfaction where it matters most: how people experience the product. Using verified reviews data, CHI scores reflect performance across:
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Value for Money
- Functionality
Products achieving CHI scores above 80% in these categories are recognized for reliable user experiences. Each score is derived from verified engagement, ensuring that recognized products are the ones buyers trust, research, and enjoy using.
For vendors, the Excellence Award represents proof of genuine traction and buyer success. The Market Engagement Index (MEI) measures how effectively a software solution captures market attention and engagement, incorporating:
- Monthly unique visitors to the product’s Software Finder page
- Product comparison click-throughs
- Demo and inquiry-to-conversion ratios
This ensures that recognition is based on real market activity, not exaggerated impressions or ad spend.
The Feature Impact Score (FIS) assesses the product’s ability to deliver steady value through its functionality. Based on a text analysis of user reviews, it identifies the balance between positive and negative mentions across 50+ verified reviews, focusing on usability success and feature satisfaction.
Together, MEI and FIS capture the performance and depth of a product’s market and user impact, rewarding vendors for delivering solutions that perform effectively.
The Expert Confidence Index (ECI) adds human insight to the equation.
Rather than relying solely on user reviews, ECI quantifies how often Software Finder’s expert advisors recommend a product to qualified buyers during live consultation calls.
It measures:
- The percentage of calls where an expert recommended or directed a buyer towards the product
- Behavioral follow-through, such as demo requests and fit confirmations, following those recommendations
With insights gathered from 1,000+ monthly call transcripts, this dataset is a quantified reflection of expert trust, not subjective opinion, showing how frequently category specialists endorse a product based on fit, performance, and buyer outcomes.
The Software Finder Excellence Award is designed to build trust in software, data, and decision-making.
- For buyers, it’s a sign that the product delivers measurable satisfaction and value
- For vendors, it’s validation of success and credibility in the market
- For experts, it’s a framework rooted in authentic buyer outcomes, not assumptions
When you see a product with our Excellence Award badge, it is a clear signal that the software solution has demonstrated strong market performance, high user satisfaction, rich functionality, and expert-level endorsement.
The Excellence badge complements, not replaces, peer reviews, demos, and customer references. It is a symbol of consistent, data-backed performance across user satisfaction, market traction, and expert validation.