“I Don’t Love It, But It’s Mine”: Resolving the Satisfaction Gap

By Amber Wolff, Content Manager

Software purchases are supposed to be simple: Research a product, find the best price out of the vendors offering a good-fit product, schedule a brief demo and sign some forms. If it doesn’t work out, no big deal, right? You can always switch it out in a year for something different.

But it often doesn’t work out that way. With technology moving at a breakneck pace, competition fiercer than ever and competing priorities getting in the way, inertia winds up doing way more of the heavy lifting than it should — and a solution that isn’t necessarily working out is renewed for another year, and sometimes another, and another…

If this has happened to you, you’re not alone. In fact, according to a report by Info-Tech Research Group, 92% of users renew their software — but only 64% of users would actually recommend it to a friend or colleague.

The 28% of people who renew despite their dissatisfaction have fallen into what’s known as the “Satisfaction Gap.” They know their solution isn’t meeting their needs, but they feel stuck for whatever reason.

To get a better idea of why nearly 3 in 10 business leaders continue renewing suboptimal solutions — and what’s different about the people who remain satisfied year in and year out — Info-Tech began researching the factors that contribute to the Satisfaction Gap.

The Importance of Data-Driven Selection

According to Info-Tech’s research, many vendors are chosen on the basis of a lower price, a hypnotizingly long list of bells and whistles, or even sheer novelty. But these factors, which Info-Tech calls “surface-level drivers,” too often create a honeymoon phase that eventually fades.

For example, a good price can be cancelled out by unpredictable “pay as you go” pricing or huge price spikes at renewal time. And even the longest list of features is irrelevant if they don’t fit into existing workflows or use cases.

Unfortunately for anyone looking for long-term happiness with their tech decision, however, these surface level drivers are often the ones that are easier to quantify, compared with the criteria that actually count in the long term.

In Search of True Satisfaction

Lasting happiness with tech purchases instead seems to come from prioritizing “deep-satisfaction drivers.” But despite their outsized role in ongoing customer experience, there is much less information available — and attempts to research them are prone to surfacing biased information.

To address the information gap behind the Satisfaction Gap, Info-Tech Research Group and its SoftwareReviews platform measure the complete software experience for their Data Quadrant Reports. Based on the experience of real-life users, these reports provide a comprehensive perspective on product features and capabilities in the technology marketplace.

Vendors receive user satisfaction scores across a range of criteria, and these factors are then aggregated into a score known as the Net Emotional Footprint. This proprietary metric measures 27 aspects of the user experience, including vendor strategy and innovation, service and product experience, contracting, and how well the vendor resolves conflicts. This score is a powerful indicator of overall user feeling toward the provider and its product.

The Numbers Are In: Jitterbit Users are Happier Overall

In its 2026 Data Integration Data Quadrant Report, Info-Tech Research Group named Jitterbit a leader based on real-life testimonials on its SoftwareReviews platform.

Based on the strength of the entire Harmony platform when evaluated based on core metrics buyers should evaluate — including “fair cost to value,” “likeliness to recommend” and more — Jitterbit earned a category-leading NEF of +95.1

But because this data is even more valuable in context, Info-Tech also provides scores from other leading vendors. Here’s how Jitterbit stacked up against the total NEF scores of other vendors in the category:

Comparison of Top Providers by Verified Users

In addition to being named a Leader, Jitterbit stood out in three key areas:

• Operational Security & Reliability: Jitterbit ranked high in being reliable (+98) and providing security that protects (+99).
• Empowering the Workforce: Jitterbit led the pack here at +97 for user empowerment, aligning with our long-term goal of empowering nontechnical users, citizen developers and novices with accessible low-code solutions enhanced by AI assistants to make the job even easier.
• The Vendor Relationship: Here, Jitterbit received top marks for integrity (+97), fairness (+95), being respectful (+99) and being effective (+98).

While surface-level factors may get all the attention initially, there’s no substitute for objective, third-party data like this in evaluating the criteria that drive deeper and more lasting satisfaction.