What Is Trustpilot and Can You Trust Its Reviews?
Trustpilot Group plc is a Danish consumer review company founded in 2007 that operates a global website where users can publish reviews about businesses and services. The platform hosts hundreds of millions of reviews and attracts tens of millions of users each month, making it one of the largest consumer review platforms on the internet. Businesses can create profiles for free, while paid subscriptions provide additional tools that allow companies to monitor feedback, respond to reviews, and manage their public reputation.
Despite its popularity, the reliability of reviews on Trustpilot has been widely debated. Critics argue that the platform’s open system—where users can submit reviews online with limited verification—can make it vulnerable to fake or manipulated reviews. Businesses or third parties may attempt to post positive feedback to improve ratings, while competitors or dissatisfied individuals may publish negative comments to damage reputations.
A frequent criticism concerns the imbalance between positive and negative reviews. Some analysts and consumers claim that positive reviews can sometimes be generated through marketing campaigns, incentives, or paid reputation-management services, which may encourage customers to leave favorable feedback. At the same time, negative reviews are more likely to be challenged, flagged, or removed if they are reported or found to violate platform policies. Critics argue that this process can result in ratings that appear more positive than the overall customer experience.
Another point of controversy involves the platform’s commercial model. Because businesses can subscribe to paid services, companies with premium accounts may have greater ability to manage their profile, respond to criticism, and flag reviews they believe are unfair. While Trustpilot states that it applies moderation rules equally and uses automated systems to detect fraudulent activity, skeptics argue that the system can still create perceived bias toward positive feedback, especially when negative reviews are removed but positive ones often remain visible.
For these reasons, some observers caution that Trustpilot ratings should not always be taken at face value. Although the platform contains many genuine customer experiences, its open submission system and reputation-management features can make it difficult to guarantee that every review accurately reflects real transactions.
In summary, while Trustpilot is one of the world’s largest online review platforms, ongoing concerns about fake reviews, potential bias toward positive feedback, and the ability of businesses to challenge negative reviews have led critics to question how reliable its ratings truly are. Many experts recommend consulting multiple review sources before forming a final opinion about a company.
History of Trustpilot
Trustpilot was founded in 2007 in Denmark by entrepreneur Peter Holten Mühlmann, who at the time was a student at Aarhus University, specifically at the School of Business and Social Sciences. Mühlmann initially created the platform with the idea of building a public space where consumers could share experiences about companies and help others make more informed purchasing decisions. Shortly after launching the project, he left university in order to focus fully on developing Trustpilot as a global consumer review platform.
Early funding and expansion
Between 2008 and 2010, Trustpilot raised approximately $3 million in early venture funding, allowing the company to expand its infrastructure and develop the review platform further. In November 2011, the company received additional investment from SEED Capital Denmark and Northzone, which provided the capital needed to accelerate its growth.
A year later, Trustpilot secured $13 million in Series B funding from Index Ventures, along with continued investment from SEED Capital Denmark and Northzone. This round of funding was primarily used to support international expansion, as the company began positioning itself as a global review platform rather than a regional European service.
International growth
In 2013, Trustpilot opened major offices in New York City and London, marking its entry into key international markets, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom. During the same year, the company received recognition as Danish Startup of the Year at the European Startup Awards organized by The Next Web.
Further growth followed in 2014, when Draper Esprit (formerly DFJ Esprit) invested $25 million in Series C funding, with participation from existing investors. According to industry reports, this investment helped Trustpilot expand its online retail review services into the U.S. market. By the end of 2014, the company had grown significantly, employing approximately 325 people and receiving roughly 400,000 new reviews every month. During this period, Trustpilot also reported rapid financial growth, with revenue increasing by roughly 80 percent year-over-year.
Large investment rounds and technology partnerships
In May 2015, Trustpilot raised $73.5 million in Series D funding, led by Vitruvian Partners, with participation from existing investors. This capital helped the company scale its global operations and further develop its review management tools for businesses.
That same year, Google announced the launch of product ratings in several European markets, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and France. To power these ratings, Google aggregated consumer review data from multiple third-party sources, including platforms such as Trustpilot.
Fake reviews and moderation efforts
As the platform grew, concerns about fake reviews and manipulation became a major issue. In February 2020, an investigation reported by BBC revealed that Trustpilot had removed at least 2.2 million fake reviews from its platform. According to the company, around 1.5 million were detected and removed by automated fraud-prevention software, while roughly 600,000 were manually removed by moderators. During the same period, approximately 469,000 companies reported suspicious reviews, while about 90,000 fake reviews were flagged by consumers themselves.
Public listing and leadership changes
In March 2021, Trustpilot became a publicly traded company after being listed on the London Stock Exchange. The listing marked a major milestone in the company’s development, transforming it from a venture-funded startup into a publicly traded technology company.
In March 2023, founder Peter Holten Mühlmann announced that he would step down as chief executive officer. He later transitioned into a non-executive board role, while Adrian Blair became the new CEO in July 2023.
Continued moderation efforts and share buyback program
By 2024, Trustpilot reported that it had removed 4.5 million fake reviews, claiming that roughly 90 percent of them were detected automatically using artificial intelligence systems designed to identify suspicious activity on the platform.
On 16 September 2025, Trustpilot announced a share buyback program worth up to £30 million, a move often used by publicly traded companies to return value to shareholders.
Products and Business Model
Trustpilot operates using a freemium business model. Businesses can create a profile on the platform for free and invite customers to leave reviews. However, the company generates most of its revenue through subscription-based services, which provide businesses with additional features such as analytics, marketing integrations, and tools for managing customer feedback.
Companies can also respond publicly to reviews and integrate Trustpilot ratings into their websites using widgets and other promotional tools.
As of June 2025, Trustpilot hosts over 330 million reviews and has approximately 60 million monthly active users worldwide. The company employs around 1,000 staff members across multiple offices.
Criticism and Controversies
Despite its popularity, Trustpilot has faced significant criticism regarding the authenticity and reliability of some reviews published on the platform. Independent investigations have suggested that consumer review websites—including Trustpilot—can contain fake or misleading reviews, raising concerns about how accurately the ratings reflect real customer experiences.
One notable case involved the financial service Bizzyloans, where fake reviews appeared on the platform before being removed after an investigation by KwikChex, an online investigations firm.
Allegations of review manipulation
In 2019, the British newspaper The Times reported that some real-estate companies—including Purplebricks and Foxtons—were allegedly manipulating their Trustpilot ratings by encouraging large numbers of positive reviews. According to the report, one company saw its Trustpilot profile jump from only a few reviews with an average score of 2.2 stars to hundreds of reviews within a month, with around 90 percent awarding five-star ratings.
Trustpilot responded by stating that it had found evidence that some companies attempted to “game” the review system and emphasized that it maintained a zero-tolerance policy toward manipulation.
Experiments exposing review vulnerabilities
In 2020, the consumer television program Joe Lycett's Got Your Back conducted an experiment in which a fake company profile was created on Trustpilot. The experiment demonstrated how reviews could potentially be manipulated and how new profiles could quickly accumulate positive ratings.
Concerns about hidden negative reviews
Another criticism relates to how businesses display their ratings. Companies that subscribe to Trustpilot’s paid services can use features such as “Trustbox” widgets, which allow them to display review scores on their websites. Critics argue that these tools can be configured to highlight only high-scoring reviews, meaning negative feedback may be less visible to consumers.
Because of these issues, critics and analysts often advise consumers to compare Trustpilot reviews with feedback from other platforms and look for consistent patterns rather than relying solely on a single review score.
