No—we don’t allow any businesses to pay to remove bad reviews. In this article, you can learn more about how we work to build trust between consumers and businesses.

Anyone who’s had a genuine experience with a business, whether positive or negative, is welcome to leave a review on Trustpilot. We treat all reviews equally, regardless of whether they’re written about a free or paid business user.

What’s the difference between free and paid businesses?

Any business can use our services for free to collect and respond to reviews. The only difference between free and paid businesses using Trustpilot is that paid businesses can use extra features such as our marketing assets or more detailed review insights. You can read more about this here.

Do paid businesses have a better TrustScore?

No. Paying to use our services has no material impact on a business’s TrustScore or star rating on Trustpilot. For instance, in 2021, paying businesses that actively invited consumers to leave reviews had an average TrustScore of 4.33, whereas free businesses that actively invited their consumers had an average TrustScore of 4.35.

Are you curious to know how the TrustScore is calculated? Check out this article to learn more: TrustScore and star rating explained

Can paid businesses flag any reviews they want?

No. All businesses—free and paid—are allowed to flag reviews they believe breach our guidelines. But our Guidelines for Businesses make it clear that reviews can only be flagged in very specific circumstances and that simply not liking a review is not a legitimate reason.

We take misuse of our flagging function very seriously. Read more about it in our Action We Take policy.

Are all flagged reviews handled fairly?

Yes. Our Content Integrity Team investigates each and every flagged review to see if they breach our guidelines, regardless of who wrote those reviews or which business they’re written about. The review may be removed if it doesn't meet our guidelines for the identified problem. You can read more about the process here: ​What happens after businesses flag reviews?

Did you know that consumers are also able to flag reviews that breach our guidelines?