Reviews are now part and parcel of running a business. But which platform is right for you?
Feedback is more than stars. It's a way for your customers and clients to speak to you, providing an accessible platform to share their experiences and engage with your brand. Collecting genuine feedback can boost both your new business acquisition and your long-term success.
With so many options out there for review platforms, we’ve looked at the top two most popular review providers – Feefo and Trustpilot – and compared their features and benefits. So, what is the difference between Feefo and Trustpilot?
Read our line-by-line feature audit of Trustpilot vs Feefo.
Feefo vs Trustpilot: A verified-only or open reviews platform - Which is right for your business?
One of the main differences between Feefo and Trustpilot is that Feefo is a purchaser verified-only platform whereas Trustpilot is an open reviews platform.
This means that businesses using Feefo never have to wonder if their reviews are genuine, because we only ask people who have purchased from or experienced service from your brand. We do this by sending a feedback request after a purchase or verified interaction. This ensures that our platform is free of fakes or reviews from people who haven’t actually experienced your brand at all.
On an open platform any person can leave a review regardless of whether they’ve purchased from or interacted with your brand in any way. This may seem appealing to brands who want to collect as many reviews as possible but be cautious – an open reviews approach can leave brands open to the risk of false reviews and, in some cases, reputational damage.
Why does it matter?
The UK’s Government’s research ‘Investigating the prevalent and impact of fake reviews’ in 2023 found that found that roughly one in seven reviews on eCommerce platforms are fake, and fake text reviews alone were costing an estimated £50 million to £312 million a year to UK consumers, quantifying the harm they can cause not only brands but consumers too.
A Which? report in 2023 proved that fake and misleading reviews make consumers more likely to waste money on inferior products that do not meet their needs. It recommended that review providers such as Feefo take a safety-by-design approach while employing sufficient moderation processes to reduce the risk of publishing fake reviews.
Since then, the UK government has enacted strong, new regulation through the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act), which came into force in April 2025. This legislation makes it illegal to write or commission fake reviews, offer undisclosed incentives for positive feedback, or publish reviews that haven’t been properly verified for authenticity.
If you’re worried that your business is receiving fake reviews, we’ve created a guide on how to spot, remove and prevent fake reviews for your business.
Can you trust Trustpilot reviews?
It’s true that Trustpilot can collect authentic reviews. The question is, are Trustpilot reviews authentic 100% of the time?
As mentioned above, the difficulty with an open review platform is that anyone can leave a review at any point, whether they’ve interacted with your brand or not. In Trustpilot’s own words, ‘Everyone can share their experiences on Trustpilot whenever they choose.’ Open platforms like this have a growing issue with fake reviews, and in 2024 alone Trustpilot detected and removed 4.5 million fake reviews. To some brands, an open platform may seem like a benefit. But it’s a dangerous game to play, and leaves many customers wondering - are Trustpilot reviews fake?
How can false reviews cause harm?
Imagine you purchase a washing machine based on several reviews you’ve read. You specifically want something heavy-duty that can cope with the endless supply of your kid's muddy football kits.
Like 96% per cent of others, you do your pre-purchase research by reading reviews from people like you - or so you think. It turns out the reviews you read about how the machine can handle heavy-duty washing was fake. You’ve bought something based on false information and the product doesn’t meet your needs. Annoying, right?
That’s not to say all Trustpilot's open platform reviews are fake reviews. Trustpilot do have automated ai-powered software that detects unusual patterns and removes fake reviews, and a team to detect fraudulent behaviour and warnings on company profiles for businesses that misuse the platforms. But is that enough to reduce the risk of consumers making decisions based on false information in the first place?
Feefo’s verified-only platform means that we only allow real customers to write reviews in the first place. And just to be certain that we’re not publishing false information, we also have post-content moderation, so that everything a consumer reads is 100% authentic. Protecting both the consumer and the brands.
Our Q&A feature can support brands to give people the right information at the right time when it comes to the pre-purchase research.
Find out more about Trustpilot vs Feefo
Are Feefo reviews genuine?
The simple answer is yes, Feefo’s reviews are always 100% legitimate.
How do we know? Our verified process means that we only invite people who’ve purchased from or used your brand to leave a review. With a rise in the number of brands collecting reviews and consumers reading them, it’s now more important than ever to prove that feedback is authentic.
- 70% of UK consumers who read reviews say they would trust reviews more if they knew they were from verified customers.
- Only 8% of people are confident they could spot a false review
- 40% of businesses have been negatively affected by fake reviews.
Download our report on The Cost of Fake Feedback to learn how to tackle fraudulent feedback with a verified approach.
What is a fake review?
The UK Government provides guidance on the types of reviews considered to be fake, and which can mislead or harm consumers. Feefo’s review platform is risk-free by design. However, if you have concerns about the way you currently collect reviews read the below list to ensure you’re not exposing your brand to the risk of fake reviews.
The Government’s definition
Here's what the DMCC Act explains in its guidance.
Consumer reviews can take various forms. They might look like:
- text: for example, a written blog or a comment posted under a product listing on a website
- speech: for example, a verbal opinion expressed in a video on a sharing platform
- graphic representations: for example, a star rating appearing next to a restaurant’s name in search engine results, or a thumbs up next to a ‘helpful’ review
Information derived from or influenced by consumer reviews (consumer review information) is aggregated information in the form of overall ratings, review summaries, review counts and rankings.
It’s important that reviews and review information are trustworthy. There are several types of deceptive reviews and review information that consumers might see:
- fake reviews: these are reviews that look or claim to be genuine, but are actually fake
- concealed incentivised reviews: these are reviews that conceal the fact that they have been incentivised (for example, not making it clear that a review has been written in exchange for money or other benefits, like a free stay at a hotel or another ‘freebie’)
- false or misleading consumer review information: this includes aggregated information (when information is gathered from lots of individual reviews to give one overall score or rating) that is based on fake reviews
Read our take on the DMCC act for insights into how you can secure your brand from fake reviews.
What are the benefits of collecting verified reviews with Feefo?
You could spend hours comparing Feefo to the other review providers as many competitors have done. But the main benefits of using Feefo as your review provider are:
- A verified-only platform which protects you from fake reviews: unlike other review platforms, 100% of reviews from come people who have genuinely used your products or services.
- Track all feedback: Every review collected by Feefo is traceable and tied back to a genuine customer interaction, so you can improve customer experience and make confident decisions based on your customer reviews.
- Gain data-backed insights which enable you to make impactful changes within your business: Our Al-powered insights transform feedback into action, helping you to make smarter, informed decisions.
- Stay compliant by design: Feefo’s purchaser-verified model is designed to combat fake reviews and protect your brand, keeping your compliant with the DMCC and Consumer Duty acts.
- Set up seamlessly: We integrate with a range of your favourite technology providers, so you can get up and running quickly.
- Human support whenever you need it: our dedicated Customer Success team are here to support your business. Call, email or chat, whatever works for you.
Learn more about what sets Feefo apart from Trustpilot
