Toolradar Research
The high-volume low-score list 2026: 35 tools buyers still hate
35 published tools in the Toolradar directory hold at least 2,000 aggregated reviews and still score 3.60 or below. They account for 358,490 reviews, 7.0% of the 5.10 million in the catalog. LinkedIn Ads sits at 1.20. PayPal and Zoom are on the list.
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Key findings
What the data shows.
- 01
35 published tools hold at least 2,000 aggregated third-party reviews and still score 3.60 or below. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 02
Those 35 tools account for 358,490 reviews, 7.0% of the 5,104,922 reviews in the catalog. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 03
9 of the 35 sit below 3.0, including LinkedIn Ads at 1.20 from 3,043 reviews and Deliverr at 1.50 from 3,583. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 04
PayPal (3.30 from 66,452 reviews) and Zoom (3.40 from 56,859) are the two biggest piles on the list. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 05
The catalog-wide review-weighted average is 4.30. Everything on this list is at least 0.70 below that line. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
About the research
How we built this report.
Toolradar tool database. Editorial review with weekly pricing verification.
2026. Snapshot taken September 17, 2026. Refresh due Dec 17, 2026.
Public scoring rubric. See how we rate for the full criteria.
Creative Commons BY 4.0. Quote, link, and reuse with attribution.
The floor
A tool lands here if it is published, has at least 2,000 aggregated third-party reviews, and an aggregate rating of 3.60 or lower. The 2,000-review floor is the point where a score stops being a small-sample accident. 3.60 is 0.70 below the catalog weighted mean of 4.30.
Nine tools clear the volume floor and still sit under 3.0:
| Tool | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Ads | 1.20 | 3,043 |
| Deliverr | 1.50 | 3,583 |
| Spotify for Podcasters | 2.30 | 5,755 |
| Adobe XD | 2.70 | 7,967 |
| Workday | 2.70 | 2,205 |
| Breathwrk | 2.80 | 2,666 |
| Cloudflare Stream | 2.90 | 2,060 |
| Cloudflare Pages | 2.90 | 2,050 |
| Cloudflare R2 | 2.90 | 2,025 |
Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026. Ratings are aggregates across G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and other third-party sources, not Toolradar's own reviews.
LinkedIn Ads at 1.20 from 3,043 reviews is the weakest high-volume score we publish. Deliverr at 1.50 is the fulfillment hole we already flagged in logistics software statistics. Adobe XD at 2.70 from 7,967 is a retired product that still occupies the review record. The three Cloudflare rows at 2.90 are the same vendor showing up three times under the same floor.
The volume tax
The rest of the list is not obscure. It is the default.
Biggest review piles on the low-score list
Tools with 2,000+ reviews and a rating of 3.60 or below, September 17, 2026
PayPal holds 66,452 reviews at 3.30. Zoom holds 56,859 at 3.40. Gmail holds 47,203 at 3.40. Those three names alone are 170,514 reviews, 3.3% of the entire catalog, sitting at or under 3.40. Photoshop at 3.00 from 19,363 and Oracle Cloud at 3.50 from 19,234 are the next tier. Gusto at 3.50 from 15,084 is the payroll row we break out in payroll software statistics.
The pattern is not "small tools get punished." The pattern is "the default collects every kind of user, including the ones who stayed too long."
The rest of the 35
| Tool | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Adobe Photoshop | 3.00 | 19,363 |
| Prefactor | 3.00 | 4,913 |
| Turbopack | 3.00 | 4,912 |
| Cardzen | 3.00 | 4,912 |
| Cloudflare Tunnel | 3.00 | 2,039 |
| Kantata | 3.10 | 2,904 |
| Envato Elements | 3.20 | 9,151 |
| Shopify POS | 3.20 | 5,728 |
| Character.AI | 3.20 | 3,196 |
| Lusha | 3.20 | 2,809 |
| Doodle | 3.20 | 2,265 |
| Salesforce Agentforce | 3.20 | 2,129 |
| PayPal | 3.30 | 66,452 |
| Adobe Lightroom | 3.30 | 9,571 |
| Udemy | 3.30 | 2,610 |
| Zoom | 3.40 | 56,859 |
| Gmail | 3.40 | 47,203 |
| HubSpot Service | 3.40 | 9,419 |
| Telegram | 3.40 | 7,071 |
| Oracle Cloud | 3.50 | 19,234 |
| Gusto | 3.50 | 15,084 |
| WordPress | 3.50 | 9,793 |
| Clipchamp | 3.50 | 5,150 |
| Zoom Phone | 3.50 | 3,917 |
| Jira | 3.60 | 8,109 |
| Brex | 3.60 | 2,343 |
Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.
Turbopack at 3.00 from 4,912 reviews is the toolchain leftover we already called in IDE and code editor statistics. Lightroom at 3.30 from 9,571 is the DAM warning in digital asset management statistics. Envato Elements at 3.20 from 9,151 is the bundle tax in stock assets statistics. The list keeps rhyming because the same mechanism repeats: a default, a retired product, or a bundle collects volume and then cannot defend the score.
What this is not
It is not a claim that these products are unused. The review counts say the opposite. It is not a Toolradar star rating. Every figure is aggregated from third-party platforms. It is not a prediction that the next 2,000 reviews will look different. It is a snapshot of the public record on September 17, 2026.
The catalog-wide picture (6,378 rated tools, weighted mean 4.30, Trustpilot harsher than G2) lives in software review ratings. The ownership of that record lives in B2B review platform consolidation. This page is only the 35 names that are both famous enough to have 2,000 reviews and disliked enough to sit at 3.60 or below.
How this data was measured
Every figure is computed from the Toolradar directory on September 17, 2026. The catalog holds 10,617 published tools and 5,104,922 aggregated third-party reviews. A tool is "high volume, low score" if it has at least 2,000 aggregated reviews and an aggregate rating of 3.60 or lower. Ratings combine G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and other sources stored on each tool record. This is a directory snapshot, not a survey.
Cite this report
- APA: Corneloup, L. (2026). The high-volume low-score list 2026: 35 tools buyers still hate. Toolradar Research. https://toolradar.com/reports/high-volume-low-score-software-2026
- MLA: Corneloup, Louis. "The high-volume low-score list 2026: 35 tools buyers still hate." Toolradar Research, 17 Sept. 2026, toolradar.com/reports/high-volume-low-score-software-2026.
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