ABA Rank vs Capterra.

Capterra is a horizontal software directory. ABA Rank is an ABA-only directory with a published ranking formula. If you sell into Applied Behavior Analysis - software, services, or care - here is which one earns the listing.

ABA-only index · Published methodology · Free to claim

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§ The verdict

Capterra is an advertising channel that looks like a directory. That is a fair trade for a horizontal vendor with volume economics behind it. For an ABA vendor selling to a few thousand practices, a free, ABA-only listing that ranks on a published formula is the better foundation - and it keeps working when you stop spending.

Capterra is a large software directory operated by Gartner Digital Markets alongside GetApp and Software Advice, covering well over a thousand software categories with millions of user reviews.

§ Straight answer

What Capterra does well - and where it stops.

We compete on fit, not on pretending a large, well-run directory is bad at its job.

Where Capterra is strong

Category coverage and search traffic across essentially the entire software market.
Reviews syndicate across the Gartner Digital Markets properties, so one review program reaches three directories.
A long-established destination for buyers who start their search on a directory rather than a search engine.

Where it underserves ABA

Gartner Digital Markets publicly documents a pay-per-click model for vendor listings: vendors bid for visibility in category results. Position is therefore a function of budget in a way an unpaid listing cannot match.
Costs scale with clicks rather than outcomes, which is unforgiving for a niche ABA vendor whose total addressable market is a few thousand practices.
ABA products sit inside general medical or mental-health software categories, so the comparison set includes tools no ABA practice would evaluate.
Software only - no ABA clinics, service vendors, coaches, or training programs.
Reviews come from the general software buyer population, not from BCBAs and ABA practice administrators.

§ Best for

A software vendor with the budget and margin to run a paid acquisition channel across a broad market.

§ Side by side

ABA Rank and Capterra, line by line.

The same dimensions used on every comparison we publish - no per-page reshuffling to flatter the result.

Scroll the table sideways →

ABA Rank compared with Capterra across 11 dimensions.
Dimension	ABA RankABA-only directory	Capterrahorizontal software directory
Market focusHow much of the index is relevant to an ABA buyer.	Applied Behavior Analysis only - every listing, category, and review.	The entire software market, well over a thousand categories.
What can be listedWhether your organisation type has a home at all.	ABA software, service vendors, clinics, coaches, and school programs.	Software products only.
Who you are ranked againstThe comparison set a buyer sees next to your listing.	Other ABA vendors in the same ABA subcategory.	Medical and mental-health software built for other specialties.
Who writes the reviewsWhether a review comes from someone who runs a practice like yours.	BCBAs, practice owners and administrators, RBTs, and ABA families.	The general business-software user population.
Ranking transparencyWhether you can reproduce your own position.	A published 100-point formula - 40 reviews, 25 completeness, 15 verification recency, 15 capped tier signal, 5 category fit - and a machine-readable endpoint.	No reproducible public formula for category order.
How paid placement worksHow much of the ranked order money can move.	A single capped tier signal worth at most 15 of 100 points; the other 85 are unbuyable. Sponsored slots render above the ranked list with a visible chip and never reorder it.	Pay-per-click bidding for position, per Gartner Digital Markets.
Cost to be listedWhat it takes to hold a complete, ranked listing.	Free to claim, and a free claim unlocks up to 85 of the 100 Index points. Verified and Sponsor are flat annual prices.	Free basic listing; category visibility runs on per-click bidding.
ABA-specific data fieldsWhether the profile can express what ABA buyers actually screen on.	Insurance networks, Medicaid participation, BCBA supervision, age bands, modalities, telehealth states, languages, parent training, waitlist status, accreditations.	Generic software fields - features, integrations, deployment, pricing.
Reaches families, not just buyersWhether the directory serves the people who choose care.	Yes. Families search clinics by city, state, and insurance plan, and coaches by state and role.	No - B2B buyers only.
Independent verificationWhat a trust mark on the profile actually stands for.	ABA Rank Verified - a five-point human review of identity, ownership, credentials, profile evidence, and continuity, re-checked annually with the date shown publicly.	Reviewer identity verification; no clinical credential review.
Machine-readable surfaceWhether AI assistants can retrieve and cite your listing when someone asks them an ABA question.	Public JSON API with anonymous reads, an MCP server, llms.txt plus a full plaintext digest, a markdown copy of every profile, and schema.org structured data throughout - free tier included. 15 AI user-agents are allowed by name in robots.txt.	No public open API for listings.

§ What you get

What an ABA Rank listing gives you.

Claiming is free. This is what a free claim unlocks.

A reproducible score

Your position comes from 40 points of qualified reviews, 25 of profile completeness, 15 of verification recency, a capped 15-point tier signal, and 5 for primary-category fit. You can compute it yourself and see which field to fix next.

A ceiling on what money moves

85 of the 100 points are unbuyable. Sponsored placements sit above the ranked list with a visible chip and never reorder it - so a competitor cannot outspend you into your slot.

ABA-shaped profile fields

Insurance networks, Medicaid participation, BCBA supervision, age bands, modalities, telehealth states, languages, parent training, waitlist status, integrations, and accreditations - the things ABA buyers actually screen on.

A machine-readable listing

Structured data on every profile plus a public JSON API, an MCP server, and llms.txt - so AI assistants answering "best ABA software" can read and cite your listing directly.

§ FAQ

ABA Rank vs Capterra, answered.

Short, factual answers - quote them with attribution if they are useful.

Is Capterra pay-to-play?

Gartner Digital Markets, which operates Capterra, publicly documents a pay-per-click model in which vendors bid for placement in category listings. That is disclosed, not hidden - but it does mean visibility tracks budget. On ABA Rank the paid input is a single capped tier signal worth at most 15 of 100 Index points, the other 85 cannot be purchased, and sponsored placements sit in labeled slots above the ranked list instead of reordering it.

What does it cost to list on ABA Rank versus Capterra?

Claiming a listing on ABA Rank is free and unlocks every ranking signal except the capped tier component. Paid tiers exist - Verified and Sponsor - and are flat annual prices published on /pricing, not per-click bidding. Capterra listings run on Gartner Digital Markets pay-per-click, so spend scales with traffic.

Will an ABA product rank well on Capterra?

It can, but usually in a broad medical or mental-health software category where the competition includes products built for other specialties, and where paid bidding influences position. An ABA-only index puts the same product in front of ABA buyers with ABA alternatives beside it.