Heartwood vs Gartner: when each one is right
Gartner is excellent at surveying the market. Heartwood is built to answer a specific question. Most mid-market companies need both, in different moments.
The short answer
Use Gartner when you need breadth: a survey of every viable vendor in a category, the latest Magic Quadrant, or analyst ammunition for a committee. Use Heartwood when you need depth on one decision. You get a written recommendation from an AI brief grounded in how former CIOs who have run IT at your size, in your industry, with your revenue and staff constraints would approach it.
| Gartner | Heartwood | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary output | Market research, Magic Quadrants, analyst calls | A written Decision Brief on your specific call |
| Written for | Enterprise IT buyers with large teams | Mid-market leaders (50–2,000 employees) |
| Entry price | $12,000–$35,000/year for an IT seat | Free first brief; Pro $99/mo (includes 2 Deep Research credits); $99 per standalone Deep Research Brief |
| Turnaround | Schedule an inquiry: 2–5 business days | Standard brief in 90 seconds; Deep Research in 10–15 minutes |
| Makes a recommendation? | Rarely. Analysts are trained not to pick for you. | Yes. Every brief ends with an explicit call. |
| Vendor revenue? | Yes. Vendors pay Gartner for events, reprints, consulting. | No. Only customer revenue. |
| Author credibility | Research analysts; often never operated at the roles they cover | Former CIOs, CTOs, CISOs who ran IT at your scale |
When to pick Gartner
If you're running a formal RFP and need a defensible shortlist of 5 to 8 vendors from a saturated category, Gartner's market coverage is unmatched. The Magic Quadrant is not a buying decision, but it's an excellent map. Their analyst inquiries are also useful when a board member specifically asks for "an outside view from an analyst firm." The brand carries weight in enterprise procurement.
Gartner also earns its price when you have an internal team of IT managers who need ongoing research access. The marginal cost per user drops sharply above 10 seats, and the Hype Cycle and Market Guides help teams stay current.
When to pick Heartwood
When you already know the category (you've narrowed it to three or four options) and you need a structured answer on which one fits your company. A Decision Brief includes total cost of ownership modeling against your revenue, a risk assessment against your staff size and industry, and an explicit recommendation grounded in comparable case patterns.
Heartwood also wins on the "weird decision," the one without a clean market category: the ERP migration at 180 employees, the cybersecurity insurance renewal after a near-miss, the split between two MSPs. Gartner's models are built for enterprise. Heartwood's advisor panel is built on decisions at your scale.
Cost to get a real answer
A Gartner IT seat averages $20,000 per year and typically includes 30 inquiry hours, most of which are consumed by research questions rather than decisions. A single decision ends up costing, effectively, $1,500–$4,000 in amortized subscription plus the opportunity cost of scheduling the call.
A standalone Deep Research Brief from Heartwood is $99 and is delivered in minutes. The Pro subscription at $99/month covers unlimited standard briefs and includes 2 Deep Research credits each month, which fits the cadence most mid-market companies actually run at. Pro also makes this capability always-on without going through procurement for every brief.
The hybrid pattern
A common pattern in mid-market IT: use Gartner (or G2, Capterra, or free resources) to build the long list of every vendor in the category, what they claim to do, and rough market share. Then bring the shortlist to Heartwood for the Decision Brief: what actually ships, what it costs to operate, and what someone who already made this call at similar scale would do differently.
Gartner gives you a map. Heartwood tells you which road to take.
See what a Decision Brief actually looks like.
A real example: ERP selection at 200 employees, $45M revenue.
Read the example brief