Introduction
Hi there, my name is Scott Brandley. I’m the founder and CEO of Shopper Approved and I wrote this Reviews.io comparison guide.
I’m telling you this up front because I want to earn your trust, and the only way I can do that is by being as honest, transparent, and objective as possible, and that is exactly what I intend to do in this article—even if it means that you ultimately choose the competition.
As one of the foremost experts on ratings and reviews, I have an intimate knowledge of the review industry and can provide you with a lot of valuable information and insight that you wouldn’t get otherwise.
So I set out to create the most comprehensive, updated comparison chart ever made between Shopper Approved and Reviews.io, where I do my best to list the good, the bad, and the ugly from both companies equally.
I also include unbiased third-party results from reputable sources such as G2, Capterra, Google, and even Trustpilot (yes they are a competitor—you can read my official Trustpilot comparison here).
Finally, I provide you with direct links to both Reviews.io and Shopper Approved, allowing you to easily connect with both companies and ask any additional questions that you might have.
I wish you the best of luck in your search!
Scott Brandley
Founder and CEO
Shopper Approved
Quick Highlights
To get started, here’s some interesting information about Reviews.io and Shopper Approved:
- Shopper Approved and Reviews.io are both high-profile, well-known online review platforms that specialize in providing ratings and review services for ecommerce websites involved in online sales of products and/or services.
- Both platforms are pioneers in the industry, with Shopper Approved launching in the United States in 2010, and Reviews.io originating in the UK in 2012.
- Shopper Approved is a verified review platform, actively requesting reviews from actual paying customers after their purchase. On the other hand, Reviews.io is an open review platform, allowing virtually anyone to leave a review. While open review platforms often achieve higher rankings in search results, they also generate large amounts of unsolicited and unverified reviews that can be negatively biased, thereby reducing their overall reliability.
- Both Reviews.io and Shopper Approved are Google Seller Ratings and Google Product Review partners, giving them special access to both types of review feeds. These feeds enable them to display star ratings in Google Ads, Google Shopping, and Google Product Listing Ads, setting them apart from many other review platforms that lack one or both of these partnerships.
- While both companies offer seller ratings and product reviews, they are very different from one another. Shopper Approved prides itself on being a verified review platform, with the ability to send a portion of their clients’ customers to leave reviews on open review sites like Reviews.io, whereas Reviews.io prides itself on being an open review platform, allowing virtually anyone to leave a review.
Comparing Shopper Approved and Reviews.io
This comparison chart was created in July 2023, using the most up-to-date information available at the time. Below each item is a short description to give you an idea of why that item is important to either Reviews.io, Shopper Approved, or both companies.
3rd Party Ratings |
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Google Rating (out of 5) Google gives its users the ability to rate and provide feedback on companies they do business with |
5.0 51 reviews |
2.9 7 reviews |
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G2 Rating (out of 5) G2 is the industry-leading, independent 3rd-party rating company for software products like Shopper Approved and Reviews.io. |
4.8 157 reviews |
4.8 325 reviews |
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Capterra Rating (out of 5) Capterra is an independent 3rd-party rating company for software products like Shopper Approved and Reviews.io. |
4.9 116 reviews |
4.6 8 reviews |
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Trustpilot Rating (out of 5) Trustpilot is an independent, 3rd-party open review platform. |
4.7 448 reviews |
1.9 223 reviews |
Google Partnerships |
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Google Seller Ratings Partner Google Seller Rating Partners have a special partnership with Google that allows them to display their client’s company reviews directly in Google Ads and Google Shopping. |
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Google Product Reviews Partner Google Product Review Partners have a special partnership with Google that allows them to display their client’s product reviews in Google Product Listing Ads, Google Shopping, and Google organic search results. |
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Available Solutions |
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Seller Ratings Seller ratings (also known as merchant reviews or company reviews) are collected and then strategically displayed in various locations online. Only Google Seller Rating Partners can display seller ratings in Google. |
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Product Reviews Product reviews are collected and strategically displayed in various locations online. Google Product Review Partners have direct feeds into Google. |
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Video Reviews Video reviews are collected after a purchase. If the client is happy with the video review they can approve it and add it to their website. |
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Product Images Customers are invited to take photos of their purchases and add them to their review. |
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Reputation Management (Review Destinations) Reputation management is a tool that allows you to send a portion of your customers to various open review platforms to leave a review after they buy. |
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(add-on service) |
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FOMO (Social Evidence) FOMO (or "fear of missing out") is a software tool that shows site visitors what other customers purchased recently. FOMO can also show quantity in stock or item availability. |
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Website Security Website security is one of the most trusted forms of social proof, and adding security seals to your website is proven to increase sales. |
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Q&A Q&A (also known as FAQ) is a tool that can be added to a client’s product pages to answer questions that customers have before making a purchase. |
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Q&A for Advanced SEO This refers to special SEO techniques that, when utilized, help Q&A to be more prominently displayed in Google organic search results and featured snippets. |
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Q&A Crawls the Web Q&A crawls the web looking for and suggesting additional questions and answers from Amazon and Google. |
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Content Widgets and Trust Seals Strategically display attractive review widgets and seals on your website to build customer trust and credibility. |
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SMS (Text Messaging) Using SMS as a way to collect reviews can be very beneficial, thanks to high SMS open rates. |
(via app integrations) |
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Loyalty Programs Adding a loyalty program to your business can increase repeat sales. Many companies provide loyalty points in exchange for reviews. |
(via app integrations) |
(add-on service) |
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Review Management and Moderation This allows you to manage and moderate your reviews in your control panel with a few clicks. |
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Search-Optimized 3rd-Party Reviews Page A review page displays your ratings and reviews on the review platform’s actual website, which makes reviews seem more trustworthy. It also helps reviews rank well in search, which can increase traffic to your website. |
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Analytics This refers to the amount of data that each company analyzes and reports on in their control panel. |
Standard |
Standard |
Syndication Partners |
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Walmart.com Syndication Send your product reviews directly to products that you sell on Walmart.com. You can even create a free Walmart merchant account. |
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YouTube Syndication Automatically send videos you approve to your YouTube channel to display in both YouTube and Google search results. |
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Facebook Syndication Send your reviews to Facebook to show up in your company’s Facebook feed and/or create a tab in Facebook with all of your reviews. |
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Instagram Syndication Send your reviews to Instagram to show up in your company’s Instagram feed. |
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Twitter Syndication Send your reviews to Twitter to show up on your company’s Twitter feed. |
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Bazaarvoice Syndication If you sell products in certain large brick and mortar locations, you can send reviews to those online locations in order to feature your revies on products that you sell there. |
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(add-on service) |
Additional Information |
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Verified or Open Review Collection Verified review platforms collect solicited reviews from their client’s customers after they buy; whereas, open review platforms passively collect reviews from anyone who wants to leave a review. |
Verified Reviews |
Open Reviews |
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Review Volume Shopper Approved uses a two-step process instead of the traditional one-step process, which provides the opportunity for more customers to leave reviews. |
***** |
**** |
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US-Based Support Reviews.io's support team is located in both the US and UK. Shopper Approved's support team is US-based. |
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Depends |
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Setup Assistance and Ongoing Support The difference here is due to Reviews.io only offering phone support to Enterprise product clients. |
***** |
*** |
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Privately Owned or Investor Funded Shopper Approved is one of the only privately owned, independent review platforms online. Reviews.io was recently acquired and is investor funded. |
Privately Owned |
Investor Funded |
Pricing |
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Unlimited Reviews Review platforms typically offer an unlimited review pricing model based on a fixed price, or a limited review model based on pricing tiers that increase over time. |
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Free Trial Both Shopper Approved and Reviews.io offer a free trial. |
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Pricing Both services charge differently as far as price goes, but ultimately, you’ll probably end up paying around the same amount. |
$$$ |
$$$ |
Summary of Reviews.io vs. Shopper Approved
What Are Reviews.io's Strengths?
Reviews.io is a great all around tool for collecting and displaying reviews, especially on social media. They are also very innovative and creative when it comes to graphic design.
In addition, their loyalty software can be added-on to their review solution.
What Are Reviews.io's Weaknesses?
Reviews.io’s major weakness is that they are an open review platform, which can put business owners at risk of potential review manipulation and a phenomenon called "Open Review Syndrome," wherein only upset or unsatisfied customers take the time to leave a review. This can result in the overall rating skewing negative or being driven down to a lower number than it would be if verified, happy customers are giving reviews.
In addition, their tiered plans have low review limits that, when combined with their UGC, loyalty, and reputation management add-on solutions, can quickly increase the overall cost.
Reviews.io also only offers phone support to their Enterprise product clients, so plan accordingly.
What Are Shopper Approved’s Strengths?
Shopper Approved is best known for our traffic and conversion strategies, and our unique review collection process, which gives our clients the ability to collect up to 10x more reviews and display them in more strategic locations online. Our unlimited review model also ensures that your price doesn’t change over time.
We also offer website security (which has been proven to increase sales), and the best search-optimized Q&A tool in the industry.
What Are Shopper Approved’s Weaknesses?
While Shopper Approved is great at improving both traffic and conversions, we currently lack advanced analytics.
Also, because Shopper Approved primarily focuses on search engine results, our social media tools aren’t as robust.
Final Thoughts on Shopper Approved and Reviews.io
When it comes to choosing between Reviews.io or Shopper Approved, both are great options. Both companies are also very innovative and really play to their individual strengths.
Ultimately, when choosing between Reviews.io and Shopper Approved it really depends on where your customers are and who you want to target.
If your business heavily relies on social media, and you want to target clients on Facebook and Instagram, or leverage social media content on your website, then Reviews.io is the best option.
Alternatively, if your business depends on Google paid and organic search results and you want more online visibility, traffic, and social proof for your brand, then Shopper Approved is your best option. (See our search-optimized Q&A and Traffic & Conversion Suite to see what really sets us apart).
In my opinion, you really can’t go wrong with either choice. I highly respect Reviews.io, and out of the top review platforms out there, I would consider them to be our closest-matched competitor.
Contact Information:
To visit Reviews.io, go to https://www.reviews.io
To visit Shopper Approved, go to https://www.shopperapproved.com
Other Comparisons and Further Reading:
Trustpilot vs. Shopper Approved
Drive More Visibility, Traffic, and Sales
Accessibility