How We Choose
& Rate Our Software
Our Software Review Requirements & Criteria
How We Rate | Our Process
The 5-Step Series of Actions We Take to Perform a Review
Our Writers Search and Source the Web of Various Software Geared for Small Businesses. We Also Accept Submissions
When We Find a Software, We Pre-Evaluate First. We Have No Interest in Reviewing Software that's Not Business Friendly.
If the Software Checks Out During Pre-Evaluation, We'll Evaluate It & Write an Article According to Our 5-Point Criteria.
a Writer/Reviewer will Draft a Review, a Separate Staff Member Peer Reviews & Checks the Review.
We'll Post the Review, Once a Year we Award & Honor Software-Makers that Do Well in Our Ratings, as Well as User Ratings.
How We Evaluate & Review
Our 5-Point Evaluation Criteria
Criteria 1 : Software Must be Affordable
Running a SaaS is not an easy business. The landscape of the internet is ever-changing, if you’re a solid software company you’re compensating your employees well unless you’re a brand new startup. Development may be expensive. Good developers are hard to find. Not to mention, people have to buy your idea or service – and you have to make money doing it.
From the perspective of a small business, running a small business maybe an even harder business. You’re wearing several hats, if you have employees it can be difficult to manage them. everyone wants to grab money for you for every little service, and you may not have the funds to pay $50-200/month for every little software or service, in addition to learning that software/service and training your team with it.
Well guess what. We get it. Thus – we’re only looking at software/services that are sensitive to the wallets of the small business? Wanna break $1 million, Mr. Software-Guy? Then make good quality software that people need and will for you.
Criteria 2 : Software Must Grow with Business
“Hey you.” “Yeah, you.” “You wanna pay me $199, and I’ll let you let you send 1,000 emails per month? COOOMMM’ON! It’s our best plan!” Let me guess what you’re thinking… you’re thinking “No, thanks.” That’s funny, because we’re thinking, “no, thanks” also. Why? Because it doesn’t make sense to justify that high of a price for that little value?
You know what also doesn’t make sense? When best businesses don’t offer gradual pricing that grows with the business. The pricing structures for SaaS and desktop softwares out there are so varied, that it’s often hard to make sense of the multiple feature-sets out there and whether or not you’re getting the value for the amount you’re paying. This is especially true for small businesses who are limited in time and resources to navigate such a broad range of services and software.
We hope to be “the key to the right door” that balances both price and feature-sets, and reward businesses that offer sensitive pricing models that are progressive in nature, and don’t bite the wallet so harshly.
Criteria 3 : The Software Has to Have Effective Features
Going off criteria #2, there’s all kinds of quirky and odd pricing out there, for all kinds of feature-sets…. and those varied feature sets are exactly why we’re so motivated to hunt for the good applies out there. If you see an ad on Facebook with some sexy features in an ad, how do you know that you’re actually getting a good deal? Maybe you just saw it and that’s it. Because you’re unaware of other competitors or the abilities of other software out there, we wanted to ensure that wouldn’t be the case. We want to ensure that you, the small or medium-sized business are well informed of your options and how the software out there compares.
Criteria 4 : The Software has to be User-Friendly
Believe it or not, there was a time when software companies tried to make their software as complicated as possible. They figured, “let’s just pack as many features into our software as possible and people will love us!” There was absolutely no thought into UX, user-friendly design, or any of the other terms that have been hyped-up in recent times. Ironically, those mind-boggling software types still exist. But we know that not what business is looking for. Believe it or not, business is not *really* looking for business features at all. They’re looking for results.
That’s right, the good ol’ “R” word. You see, if a software has the luxury of dozens of features… that’s great… but if the business or team doesn’t have the knowhow or bandwidth to implement them, then the features are essentially pointless. We see it time, and time again. A software service wants to impress, but they just effectively end up disappointing because their software has become too complicated to provide results to a huge segment of their customers.
That’s why at B3Ware, we value how low the learning curve is, and how easy it is to implement the software in regard.
Criteria 5 : Software Must be Competitive
So your email marketing software is cheap, it can technically do certain things… but it looks and performs like the early 2000s. There are other software that have upgraded with the times, but this software, while it definitely works, hasn’t been updated in some while. I’m not saying that an old dog cant perform new tricks, but there’s a limit to how much regard antiquated tools should be brought to light in today’s age. Maybe you need an example. I got a good one. In most circles, you don’t see people advocating for Salesforce; that it’s a modern, sleek and, effective tool. Despite the fact that it’s been around forever, the company is rich as hell, and it continues to profit… it is a user-interface nightmare. Yes you can say, well they have an impressive ecosystem of apps and plugins, and you’re right about that, but for a company that has billions of dollars and talent from all walks of life, you might think that they would lead the pack of CRMs in every characteristic, but it’s simply far from the truth. We believe that software should be competitive with the times.
Why Rely on B3Ware
Our Frustrations are Your Frustrations
Save You Time
Part of the idea of starting B3Ware was to do the homework for our readers and community. There are so many tools out there, it’s not sensical for someone to spend all of their time reviewing each one. We assembled our forces to do the filtering for you.
Looking Out for Your Interest
What happens when you go to a company or software product’s website or landing page? They try to sell you immediately. “My software is the best at ____!” “#1 Tool for _________!” Of course everyone is number #1…. but how is that fifty different software are #1. We actually try to find out! All of our reviewers are instructed to be as unbiased as possible. We’ve even fired those who have been too biased or promotional.
Filter Our What's Unfit
Do you know that there are over 200 email marketing software and tools out there? That makes things confusing. Where do you choose from there? We’re not trying to choose for you, but we want to make it easier by selecting and reviewing the best software that we can source for small and medium-sized businesses. Then let you decide form there.
Reward Businesses that Produce Good Quality & Affordable Software
Some businesses are generous… while others aren’t. We want to reward those businesses who understand the challenges and needs of small businesses, are generous by providing a free or low-cost entry to use their tool, but don’t hold back from being innovative and work hard to provide you competitive features. For those businesses with a good heart as well as strategy in mind, we will promote and award you appropriately.
Create & Involve the Community
We want our readers and community of wantapreneurs, solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, and established businesses to be involved with each the decision-making and sourcing. By providing a forum and interactive rating, we allow for our community of businesses (no matter the stage) to get involved.
Help Foster & Promote a Better Software Community
Our goal and aim is that by doing what we do, we can not only connect the best apps to the people looking for them, but to also encourage app and software makers to produce better quality software and be sensitive to needs of the small business community.
