Are Trustpilot Reviews Reliable in 2026? What the Evidence Shows

Trustpilot is one of the most recognisable review platforms in the UK. That recognition makes its green stars feel authoritative, but the useful question is not whether every review is trustworthy or every review is fake.

It is this: how much confidence should you place in the score when making a real purchase?

The evidence points to a nuanced answer.

What Trustpilot Does to Fight Fake Reviews

Trustpilot says it removed 4.5 million fake reviews in 2024, representing 7.4% of submissions that year. According to its 2025 Trust Report, 90% of those detected reviews were removed automatically.

It also prohibits fake and incentivised reviews, applies profile warnings and account restrictions, and has pursued review sellers through the courts. In 2024, Trustpilot won a UK case against websites selling fake reviews.

Those are meaningful actions. It would be inaccurate to say the platform does nothing.

Why Questions Remain

Removing millions of fake reviews demonstrates enforcement, but it also demonstrates the scale of attempted manipulation. Detection figures tell us what a system caught—not how much escaped it.

In an earlier investigation, Which? found that brokers were able to sell fake reviews that appeared on major platforms including Trustpilot.

More recently, Italy's competition authority imposed a €4 million fine after finding that Trustpilot had not carried out adequate checks to ensure review authenticity, including in some cases where reviews were labelled verified. The regulator also raised concerns about whether invitation tools could affect how representative ratings were. Trustpilot has said it will appeal, so the company's challenge to that decision must be part of any fair account. See the regulator's decision summary and Trustpilot's appeal announcement.

What “Verified” Can and Cannot Tell You

A verification label is useful only if you understand what was verified. It may indicate that an invitation or interaction passed through a supported process; it is not a guarantee that every statement in the review is accurate or that the visible set represents every customer.

Look for an explanation of the label rather than assuming the word carries the strongest possible meaning.

How to Read a Trustpilot Profile

Use the profile as one source and examine the shape of the evidence:

• Read recent detailed reviews across several ratings.
• Look for sudden bursts, repeated phrasing and vague praise.
• Check whether reviewers have a credible wider history.
• Read business responses, especially to recurring complaints.
• Compare delivery, refund and support patterns with another review source.
• Verify important claims through company details, payment protections and public records.

A single one-star review may be unfair. A single five-star review may be planted. Repeated, specific experiences over time are harder to dismiss.

A Score Is a Starting Point

Trustpilot reviews are not automatically unreliable. Nor does a familiar brand make the aggregate score independently verified truth.

The most defensible conclusion is that Trustpilot is a large, useful but imperfect evidence source operating in an adversarial market. Review brokers try to defeat its systems; its systems remove large volumes; genuine reviewers can also be caught in moderation.

Final Thoughts

Use Trustpilot, but do not outsource your judgement to it. Read the underlying reviews, understand the labels and compare important purchases elsewhere. Trust grows from corroborated evidence, not the colour of a star.

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Explore more:

• Can Trustpilot Be Trusted?
• 7 Red Flags of a Fake Review Profile
• How to Check if a Company Is Trustworthy