Forrester Wave
Updated July 21, 2026
Forrester's vendor evaluation scoring products on current offering, strategy, and market presence.
Also known as: Forrester Wave Methodology, Forrester Wave report, Forrester Wave evaluation
The Forrester Wave is Forrester's branded evaluation of vendors in a defined technology or services market, scoring each participant against a weighted set of criteria and rendering the results on a wave-shaped graphic with positional bands. It is one of two analyst frameworks, alongside the Gartner Magic Quadrant, that enterprise buyers routinely cite when shortlisting vendors, and it is the one that publishes criteria, weights, and per-vendor numerical scores together, so an evaluator can reproduce the math or reweight it against their own priorities.
Forrester introduced the Wave in the early 2000s as its answer to category-by-category vendor comparison. The methodology has been revised several times. The most consequential change took effect for evaluations kicking off on or after July 1, 2024: the four-band graphic (Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders, Challengers) was reduced to three bands (Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders), Market Presence was replaced on the graphic by a Customer Feedback signal, and live customer reference interviews replaced the prior survey-based reference collection. The underlying evaluation dimensions still cover Current Offering, Strategy, and Market Presence.
Today the Wave is used most heavily by enterprise procurement teams and by analyst relations functions at the vendors being scored. Vendors spend months preparing questionnaire responses, demo scenarios, and reference customers; competitive intelligence teams read every published Wave in their category to extract rivals' scored strengths and weaknesses. The graphic carries weight in deals, but the per-criterion scorecard underneath it is the more useful artifact for a team building a vendor-shortlist or a feature comparison matrix.
How the Wave scores a vendor
A Forrester Wave runs on a roughly 18-week cycle from kickoff to publication. Forrester's analyst defines inclusion criteria for the market, drafts the evaluation criteria with a research director, and distributes a questionnaire to participating vendors. Vendors return the questionnaire, deliver a strategy briefing and a product demo against scenarios Forrester specifies, and supply reference customers whom Forrester interviews.
Each criterion is scored on a published scale, typically 0 to 5, and weighted according to the analyst's judgment of importance. Criteria roll into three dimensions: Current Offering (what the product does today), Strategy (where the vendor is taking it), and Market Presence (footprint signals such as revenue and customer count). Composite scores position each vendor on the wave graphic. Because criteria, weights, and per-vendor scores are published in the report, a buyer can reproduce the ranking or reweight criteria to their own situation, which is the practical feature that separates the Wave from the Magic Quadrant.
Forrester Wave versus the Gartner Magic Quadrant
The two frameworks answer different questions. The Magic Quadrant plots vendors on two composite axes, Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision, in a 2x2 of Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries, and Niche Players. The underlying weights and per-vendor scores are confidential; readers get positions, not numbers. The Wave uses three dimensions, publishes numerical per-criterion scores, and lets a buyer reweight the criteria themselves.
That makes the Magic Quadrant the stronger tool for distinguishing who can deliver at enterprise scale, while the Wave is the stronger tool for feature-level comparison once a shortlist is set. In practice, large buyers run them in sequence: Gartner to build the shortlist, Forrester to choose within it. The Wave also drives a different cadence, refreshing most categories every 12 to 18 months, while the Magic Quadrant updates annually per category. Cross-link the magic-quadrant page for the full vendor-evaluation contrast.
How CI teams use a published Wave
A published Wave in your category is a ready-made competitor profile. The vendor writeups and the scorecard expose where each rival scored high or low on named criteria, what the analyst flagged as strengths and gaps, and which reference customers the vendor put forward. CI teams extract those data points into a competitive matrix, weight them by what their own buyers care about, and track them across Waves to see how rivals' relative positions shift between cycles.
On the vendor side, preparing for a Wave is an analyst-briefing problem. The team that owns the response lines up product marketing for the strategy narrative, engineering for the demo scenarios, and customer success for reference selection. A common mistake is over-investing in the briefing script and under-investing in reference quality; after the 2024 methodology change, live reference interviews carry more weight than they did under the old survey format, and weak references show up directly on the graphic. The analyst-briefing page covers the broader prep practice.
Mistakes and limitations to plan around
The Wave is a snapshot of a market at the close of Forrester's data collection. Announcements made after that cutoff are not reflected until the next cycle, so a Wave is always a cycle behind any fast-moving category. Treating a published graphic as the current state of the market, rather than as a dated artifact, is a consistent failure mode on both the buy side and the sell side.
Participation disclosure is the second gap. Since July 2024, the graphic no longer flags non-participating vendors with a separate marker; the extent of a vendor's participation is noted in the writeup instead. A buyer scanning only the graphic can miss that a low-positioned vendor opted out of the demo or supplied no references. Reference customers are also self-selected by the vendor being scored, which biases the customer-feedback signal toward satisfied accounts. Pairs of Waves, plus G2 peer-review data, give a more honest picture than any single artifact.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Forrester Wave?
It is the evaluation product Forrester publishes for a defined technology or services market. Each Wave scores vendors on a weighted set of criteria grouped under Current Offering, Strategy, and Market Presence, and visualizes results on a wave graphic with positional bands. The criteria, weights, and per-vendor numerical scores are published, so buyers can reproduce the ranking or reweight it against their own priorities.
What are the Forrester Wave categories?
For evaluations kicking off on or after July 1, 2024, the graphic uses three bands: Leaders, Strong Performers, and Contenders. The previous methodology used four bands and included Challengers, which was eliminated because it consistently covered fewer than 10% of evaluated vendors. The underlying evaluation dimensions remain Current Offering, Strategy, and Market Presence, with Customer Feedback now represented on the graphic in place of Market Presence.
Forrester Wave versus Gartner Magic Quadrant, what is the difference?
The Magic Quadrant places vendors along two composite dimensions, Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision, in a four-quadrant matrix, and the per-criterion weights and scores are not published. The Wave uses three dimensions, publishes numerical per-criterion scores (typically 0 to 5), and lets buyers reweight the criteria. Gartner tends to dominate enterprise shortlisting; Forrester tends to be used for feature-level comparison once the shortlist is set.
How long does a Forrester Wave evaluation take?
A Forrester Wave runs roughly 18 weeks from kickoff to publication. Vendors have about four weeks from kickoff to return the questionnaire and supply reference customer names, then hold strategy briefings and demos in the following two weeks. Initial scores are returned approximately six to seven weeks after the questionnaire due date, followed by a vendor review period and a courtesy preview about five days before publication.
How should a vendor prepare for a Forrester Wave?
Preparation is an analyst-briefing exercise split across three teams. Product marketing shapes the strategy narrative and the executive briefing. Engineering and product walk through the demo scenarios Forrester specifies, against the criteria in the questionnaire. Customer success selects and preps reference customers, since live reference interviews carry material weight in the score. Investing in the briefing script while under-investing in reference quality is the most common failure pattern.
Related terms
Gartner's framework plotting vendors on completeness of vision vs. ability to execute, creating Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries, Niche Players.
G2 GridG2's visualization plotting software on user satisfaction and market presence, derived from verified reviews.
Analyst BriefingA proactive meeting where a vendor presents to an industry analyst (Gartner, Forrester) to influence published evaluations.
Vendor ShortlistThe 3-5 products a buyer evaluates before purchasing. A key CI concern is ensuring you appear on target ICPs' shortlists.
Competitive BenchmarkingSystematic comparison of processes, products, pricing, or performance against competitors to identify gaps and improvements.
Competitive Landscape ReportA formal document mapping market competitors and their relative positions.
Account-Level IntelligenceCompetitor insights tied to specific customer accounts supporting retention and expansion.
Buyer Intent DataThird-party signals (content consumption, G2 visits, review activity) indicating a prospect is actively researching your category.