What is a Gartner Cool Vendor?

A Gartner Cool Vendor is a company that Gartner analysts identify as bringing a genuinely new approach to its market. Unlike the Magic Quadrant, Cool Vendor recognition is not a ranking based on revenue or scale. Analysts handpick three to five vendors per category each year, based on whether the vendor's technology, business model, or go-to-market is genuinely different from the rest of the field. The Cool Vendor list is published yearly and serves as a leading indicator of where a market is heading, rather than a backward-looking measure of established players.