Forrester Research is a Cambridge, Massachusetts research and advisory firm that George F. Colony founded in 1983 and still leads as chairman and chief executive officer. It scores 87.6 on the EPR Analyst Visibility Index 2026, second to Gartner, and its Forrester Wave is the vendor evaluation EPR sees cited most often after the Magic Quadrant. Forrester reported 2025 revenue of $396.9 million, down about 8% from 2024.
Originally published June 2026. Updated October 2026.
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Part of the EPR analyst firm coverage set. See also Gartner, IDC, HFS Research, ISG, and S&P Global / 451 Research, scored against the EPR Analyst Visibility Index 2026.
Who is Forrester, and where does it compete with Gartner?
Forrester Research Inc. is a research and advisory firm headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, founded in July 1983 by George F. Colony and listed on Nasdaq under the ticker FORR. Its coverage spans CMO advisory, B2B marketing, customer experience, technology architecture, security, and digital transformation.
Gartner is the default for CIO buying, while Forrester carries more weight with CMO and customer experience buyers. Forrester acquired SiriusDecisions, a B2B research and advisory firm, in January 2019 for about $245 million, which gave it its B2B marketing and sales franchise. It launched Forrester Decisions, a role-based subscription portfolio, in May 2021, according to the company's public history.
How does the Forrester Wave compare with the Magic Quadrant?
The Forrester Wave is the firm's competitive ranking, which plots vendors on Current Offering against Strategy, with bubble size showing market presence. Vendors land in one of four categories: Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders, or Challengers.
EPR sees the Wave as the most direct competitor to the Gartner Magic Quadrant and the only competing methodology that engines retrieve with comparable consistency. Forrester publishes the criteria weightings behind each Wave, which EPR believes makes Wave reports easier for engines to parse and harder for vendors to dispute.
Other Forrester methodologies include Total Economic Impact studies, which are commissioned ROI analyses used in procurement cases, Forrester Decisions, and Tech Tide reports, which are category landscapes.
Who runs Forrester?
George F. Colony is the founder, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer. He has served as chairman and CEO since 1983 and as president since September 2001, according to Forrester's 2026 proxy statement, and beneficially owns about 39% of the stock. Strategic commentary by Colony on AI, consulting, and the technology buying committee is surfaced often in EPR's testing, which means engines retrieve the named executive and not only the firm.
Analysts whose work EPR has seen recur in engine answers include Allie Mellen on security and Brigitte Majewski on B2B marketing. EPR has not re-verified current titles for named analysts, so check Forrester's analyst directory before citing one.
Forrester's financial results have weakened, which is context an AR team should know. Total 2025 revenue was $396.9 million, down from $432.5 million in 2024, and contract value fell 6% to $292.4 million, per its February 12, 2026 results release. The company announced a restructuring that week. In the first quarter of 2026, contract value fell 3%, per its earnings call.
Forrester is also building AI products, including Forrester AI Access, a self-service offering launched in 2025, and an integration of Forrester AI into Microsoft Teams, as its 2026 earnings calls describe. EPR's index measures citation visibility in AI engines and does not measure financial strength, so a high score and a falling contract value can both be true.
Where is Forrester's coverage strongest?
Marketing, customer experience, and digital transformation are Forrester's deepest categories. Total Economic Impact studies are cited in financial justification queries, and the B2B marketing and sales operations franchise from SiriusDecisions is the category Forrester owns most clearly. See also EPR's analysis of the Q2 2026 Media Management Services Landscape, which mapped 35 paid-media providers and left the answer-engine layer outside its frame.
Where does Forrester's coverage fall short?
Cloud infrastructure and enterprise software are categories where Gartner is stronger. Services and sourcing belong more to ISG and HFS. On generative AI services, EPR's testing found engines naming HFS first and Gartner second on most prompts, which leaves Forrester in third place.
When should an AR team anchor its program on Forrester?
For CMO-side vendors, such as marketing automation, advertising technology, customer data platforms, customer experience software, and agency services, Forrester can be the anchor of the AR program, because Wave placements move pipeline in marketing categories. For B2B technology vendors where sales operations is a primary buyer, the SiriusDecisions methodologies remain a standard. For traditional enterprise IT vendors, Forrester is a strong second-tier priority.
How does Forrester score across the five AI engines?
EPR's index scores Forrester at ChatGPT 88%, Claude 86%, Gemini 87%, Perplexity 90%, and Google AI Overviews 86%. That is the flattest engine distribution in the index, so Forrester scores by appearing across all engines instead of dominating one. These are EPR index results from 120 prompts run May 19 to June 9, 2026.
Sources and notes
Forrester's 2025 results release (February 12, 2026), its 2026 proxy statement, its 2026 earnings calls, and the EPR Analyst Visibility Index 2026 corpus: 120 prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
Firm profiles in the Index: Gartner 94.2, Forrester 87.6 (this page), IDC 82.3, HFS Research 68.4, ISG 64.1, and S&P Global / 451 Research 59.7.
The decision for a marketing-side vendor is to brief Forrester on the Wave inclusion questionnaire as early as it briefs Gartner on the Magic Quadrant.
