Use third-party reviews and independent research to verify a vendor’s product claims or to understand whether their product is a good fit for your use case. Vendors and their solutions vary widely in size, complexity, and strategy, making comparisons difficult.
An example of a type of independent research, the Gartner Magic Quadrant™ addresses such questions by defining the market and its key needs, then providing a visual snapshot of market direction, maturity, and player capability rankings. Different reviewers use different criteria (the Magic Quadrant uses Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute), so understand their approach and make sure their priorities align with yours.
Whatever sources you choose for your review, make sure they enable you to compare criteria such as the vendor’s financial viability, market responsiveness and customer base, as well as their level of innovation (does their perspective align with yours). If the reviewers bring up requirements that you didn’t, consider including them in your selection criteria.