Trustpilot gives consumers the opportunity to share their opinion by writing a review about their experience with a business at any time, via our open model. We believe that being an open platform is essential to provide full and holistic feedback to businesses.

1. Consumer writes a review

The review journey starts with a consumer writing about their personal buying or service experience and giving the business a star rating of between one and five.

The reviewer can either write a review on their own initiative or based on an invitation from the business. The review label shows whether reviews are invited or not.

Great customer reviews describe the overall experience in a way that’s helpful to readers of reviews on Trustpilot, and useful to the business that was reviewed. Honest reviews that set out the facts, provide details, and comment on the level of customer service are most valuable.

Reviewers should leave out things like personal information and promotional references. See our Guidelines for Reviewers for more on what's allowed and what's not allowed in reviews.

2. Reviews are run through our fraud detection software

All submitted reviews are run through our fraud detection software, but they aren't moderated or censored before being posted. And they're visible to everyone at the same time — businesses do not get a sneak peek at their customers' reviews before they go live on the platform.

When a review is published, the business that’s been reviewed has the opportunity to see it, reply to it and engage in dialogue. It’s this open conversation that gives them the opportunity to learn how to improve their services.

3. Reviews are posted on Trustpilot

4. Genuine reviews stay on Trustpilot

Most reviewers have good intentions and respect our rules. Their reviews stay on Trustpilot for our online review community to read and learn from.

We know there's a small minority who try to post fake reviews on Trustpilot. But we also recognize the power of an entire community in stamping out abuse.

We take instances of fraud or misuse of our platform seriously and have tools in place* for weeding out non-genuine reviews. Such reviews can be flagged by our customized software, another Trustpilot user, or the business that was reviewed.

Did you know that reviewers and businesses can verify their identity and additional business details on Trustpilot? It promotes transparency and helps consumers make more confident decisions.

5. Everyone can flag problematic reviews

We let all consumers and businesses flag reviews that go against our guidelines, for example, if a review contains personal information or promotional content, or is written in response to an incentive. 

6. Flagged reviews stay online if the problem is addressed

If a flagged review breaches our guidelines but the problem can be addressed, the review’s author may be asked to edit their review or provide more information to make it compliant.

Note that Trustpilot treats all flagged reviews equally, regardless of whether they’re positive or negative.

7. Reviews may be removed under specific circumstances

Non-compliant reviews that have been flagged but not edited by their authors, and continue to violate our guidelines, will be removed from our platform. They'll no longer count towards a business's star rating or TrustScore.

Reviews that are removed are not deleted — they remain offline until and unless the outstanding problems can be resolved. We can reinstate reviews if their authors come back to us at a later date.

We consider reviews to be user-generated content owned by their authors. Therefore, only the reviewers themselves can permanently delete individual reviews through their personal accounts on Trustpilot.

8. Reviews can be updated

Reviewers are welcome to update their reviews to add details of their most recent transactions or reflect a changed opinion of the business. If they've had a new buying or service experience, reviewers can also leave a new review of the same company.

9. The journey continues

Reviews remain on Trustpilot in the order they’ve been posted. This gives consumers the chance to make better choices, and businesses the opportunity to listen to, engage with and learn from their customers.

*Trustpilot uses automated and manual processes to protect the integrity of our platform. This includes sophisticated software that operates 24/7 to identify and remove fake reviews. Reviewers are notified if their reviews are removed.