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Security report for softwareadvice.com

Software Advice · Technology · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Software Advice is a technology company specializing in providing personalized software recommendations and reviews to businesses across various industries. As a subsidiary of Gartner, Inc., it holds a strong market position with over 1 million businesses helped and millions of verified software reviews. The platform offers one-on-one advisor support to guide customers in selecting suitable software solutions efficiently. Technically, the website employs modern frameworks such as React and Next.js, integrating multiple analytics and marketing tools including Google Analytics, FullStory, and OneTrust for privacy compliance. However, a critical security issue is the absence of a valid SSL certificate, resulting in no HTTPS protection, which significantly impacts the security posture. Despite this, the site maintains comprehensive privacy and cookie policies, along with clear terms of service, demonstrating good privacy compliance. Overall, the business is credible and well-established, but addressing the SSL issue is paramount to enhance security and user trust.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of softwareadvice.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 100 · Critical
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

6 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching softwareadvice.com

This scan found 16 issues across 5 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

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Recommended

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
100
Security headers
35
Email security
85
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
25
Average
73

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Software Advice operates as a trusted software advisory platform targeting businesses seeking software solutions across diverse sectors such as medical, construction, legal, and manufacturing. Its competitive advantage lies in personalized, one-on-one advisory services combined with extensive user-generated reviews and comparisons. The business model revolves around lead generation and software vendor partnerships, supported by a robust digital presence and integration with major media outlets. The company leverages a strong partnership ecosystem, including its parent company Gartner, to maintain market relevance and trust. Growth indicators include a large user base and extensive software category coverage. Strategic observations highlight the importance of maintaining high content quality and expanding direct contact channels to enhance customer engagement.

Security posture

The current security maturity of Software Advice is moderate but compromised by the lack of a valid SSL certificate, which is a critical vulnerability exposing users to potential data interception and undermining trust. The absence of key security headers and incomplete SSL/TLS protocol support further weaken the security posture. No known vulnerabilities or malware were detected, and the site employs a vulnerability disclosure program, indicating some level of security awareness. Privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms are well implemented, supporting regulatory compliance. Incident response and security policy documentation are not publicly found, suggesting areas for improvement in transparency and readiness. Overall, the security culture appears reactive rather than proactive, with immediate attention needed on SSL implementation and security header enhancements.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site immediately.
  2. Implement HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  3. Publish clear security policies and incident response procedures to improve transparency and preparedness.
  4. Enhance direct contact information availability, including verified company emails and phone numbers, to improve user trust and support.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to ensure they are up-to-date and free from vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Software Advice, Inc.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technology stack featuring React and Next.js, enabling server-side rendering and improved performance. It integrates multiple third-party services for analytics (Google Analytics, FullStory), marketing (OneTrust, Lead Acquisition Service), and social proof (Trustpilot). Hosting appears to be via Cloudflare, providing CDN and security services. Despite the modern stack, the site suffers from slow load times (approx. 19 seconds) and a large page size (~5.3 MB), indicating potential optimization opportunities. Mobile optimization and accessibility are rated good, with responsive design and clear navigation. SEO is well addressed with proper meta tags, canonical links, and structured data (JSON-LD). Technical risks include the invalid SSL certificate and lack of security headers, which could impact user trust and search engine rankings.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 75/100Medium23 findingsView report
  2. 75/100Medium24 findingsView report
  3. 75/100Medium23 findingsView report
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