Trustpilot is a publicly traded company used by 60 million people every month. However, many people are still calling it a scam on various forums, where businesses accuse it of being a pay-to-play moderator. So which one is it?
This platform is a publicly traded company listed on the London Stock Exchange as TRST. It also removes millions of fake reviews every year. However, legit and trustworthy are not the same thing, and the difference matters when you are planning to spend money on a star rating.
Is Trustpilot a Legit Company?
Yes. Trustpilot is a legit company by every measurable standard. Let’s break it down.
- The company is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (ticker: TRST). It means it is audited financials and regulatory oversight.
- Founded in 2007 in Denmark, has been in the business for 18+ years.
- 330+ million reviews are hosted on this platform.
- 60+ million monthly active users globally.
- Regular annual Transparency Reports are published, detailing fake review removals.
You can even audit their books to get the moderation data. The company is more accountable than 95% of the review platforms available in the world. However, the floor is legitimate, not the ceiling.
How Trustpilot Actually Works (And Where Trust Breaks Down)
Trustpilot is an open review platform that anyone can use to leave a review for a business, whether the business pays Trustpilot a cent or not. Reviews will live instantly without any pre-moderation, and businesses cannot pay to remove negative reviews.
This openness makes the system useful, especially for new customers to find out more about the service, and businesses can utilize the service to attract more customers. But that’s where it gets exploitable. Businesses can report negative reviews they find inappropriate, and customers can edit or remove the reviews as well.
The catch is that Truspilot earns from the businesses through their subscriptions and widgets. Does it stay neutral for the audience and business at the same time, or does it favor the businesses to generate more revenue?
Since the model is open and easy to exploit, businesses often look for reputation management specialists like TheSmmExpert to make their profile credible and balanced.
The Fake Review Problem – What the Data Actually Says
Truspilot publishes hard numbers to showcase its transparency to the world.
| Year | Fake Reviews Removed | % Caught Automatically | Notable Enforcement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2.2 million | ~70% | 1,000+ cease & desist letters, 522 consumer warnings |
| 2024 | 4.5 million | ~90% | AI/ML detection scaled significantly |
The data shows that fake reviews have doubled in recent years due to AI-generated reviews. Besides, fake reviews are openly sold on Reddit and other platforms at a very low cost. AI can write precise reviews based on the rating star without making any grammatical mistakes and with proper emotions. It is difficult for the platform to detect the fake reviews.
Are Trustpilot’s Transparency Reports Actually Transparent?
The report is actually partially transparent, and this is better than most competitors. It shows removal volumes, manual and automated detection ratios, enforcement actions, and others. But it does not show the dispute resolution for paid and unpaid businesses. However, compared to Google reviews that publish nothing and the BBB, whose grading method has been criticised highly, Trustpilot offers a better report.
The Paid-Tier Bias – The Real Trust Issue
Though the trust issue does not matter for the users, it is a big matter for the businesses. The company follows the same published guidelines for reviews, whether the business pays or not. However, the tools are different for paid businesses. You will get a faster fix for review disputes compared to a free-tier business due to the built-in flagging workflow in the dedicated account manager. Some businesses often try to improve their Trustpilot review score to compete in this competitive market.
How to Spot Fake Reviews on Trustpilot
Whether you’re a buyer or a business, here’s a quick checklist for identifying suspicious reviews:
| Red Flag | What It Looks Like | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Review the velocity spike | 20+ reviews in 48 hours after months of silence | Suggests a coordinated campaign |
| Generic praise or hate | “Great service!!!” or “Worst company ever” with zero specifics | Real reviews almost always include details |
| Single-review profiles | Reviewer has 1 review, no photo, no history | Bot accounts and burner profiles |
| Identical phrasing | Same sentences appearing across multiple reviews | Copy-paste fraud or AI generation |
| Suspicious timing | Cluster of 5-stars right after a product launch or 1-stars right after a PR issue | Reputation manipulation in action |
| No verified purchase | The review lacks any context about the actual transaction | Fakes typically avoid specifics that can be checked |
So, Should You Trust Trustpilot Scores?
The trust issue depends on which side of the platform you are currently.
If you’re a consumer:
- Don’t read the star rating only; read the distribution and detailed feedback. A 4.5-star rating with 1000 reviews is more reliable than a 5-star rating with 30 reviews.
- Check the most recent reviews. Find the best and worst recent reviews to understand the situation.
- Check other platforms such as Reddit, Google reviews, and others before making a purchase.
If you’re a business owner:
- Register your business on the platform to increase visibility and SEO benefits.
- Understand the paid-tier benefits before paying, since the cost-benefit is not suitable for everyone.
- Use other platforms as well to gather all the reviews. It will reduce dependency on a single platform.
The Bottom Line
Trustpilot is legit, and it is more trustworthy than most of the other review platforms. However, like every other thing in the world, it has some limitations. The good news is that this company published proper data about its moderation that other platforms fail to do. Businesses can also report fake reviews to maintain transparency. So overall, you can use this as a tool to understand the business, but don’t take these reviews as final words.
