Introduction
My name is Scott Brandley, and I have a confession to make.
I own Shopper Approved.
I’m telling you this up front because I firmly believe that the only way to earn your trust is to be as honest, transparent, and objective as possible, and that’s exactly what I intend to do here—even if it means that I don’t end up earning your business.
One of the reasons why I decided to personally write this comparison guide is because, as one of the foremost review experts in the world, I have extensive knowledge and experience of the ratings and review industry, which can provide valuable insight to help you in your decision-making process about which review platform is right for your business.
After all, there is a lot of information online, and it can quickly become overwhelming trying to determine who to trust and which review platform best fits your needs.
My goal here is to provide you with the most comprehensive and up-to-date comparison chart available, showcasing equally the strengths, weaknesses, benefits, and features of both Shopper Approved and Trustpilot.
To provide you with a holistic view, we have incorporated independent third-party documentation from reputable sites like G2, Capterra, the BBB, and yes, even Trustpilot.
Furthermore, we have included direct links to both companies, allowing you to reach out and obtain answers to any questions you may have from both Shopper Approved and Trustpilot.
Wishing you the best of luck in your search!
Scott Brandley
Founder and CEO
Shopper Approved
Quick Highlights
To get started, here are some interesting details about Trustpilot and Shopper Approved:
- Shopper Approved and Trustpilot are both online review platforms, which means that they provide rating and review services for ecommerce websites who sell products and/or services on the internet.
- Shopper Approved and Trustpilot are two of the oldest and most well known review platforms on the web. Trustpilot started in 2007 in Europe, and Shopper Approved started in 2010 in the United States.
- Shopper Approved is a verified review platform, which means that we actively solicit reviews from actual paying customers after they buy. Alternatively, Trustpilot is an open review platform, which means that virtually anyone can leave a review. Open review platforms often rank higher in search results, but also generate unsolicited, unverified reviews that tend to be negatively skewed, making them less trustworthy.
- Both Shopper Approved and Trustpilot are Google Seller Ratings and Google Product Review partners, giving them direct feed access for both types of reviews. Most review platforms lack one or both of these partnerships, making it difficult for them to display star ratings in Google Ads, Google Shopping, and Google Product Listing Ads.
- 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 our clients’ customers to leave reviews on open review sites like Trustpilot, whereas Trustpilot prides itself on being an open review platform, allowing virtually anyone to leave a review.
Comparing Shopper Approved and Trustpilot
This comparison chart was generated in May 2023, using the latest information accessible at that period. Each item is accompanied by a brief description to provide insights into its significance for either Trustpilot, Shopper Approved, or both organizations.
3rd Party Ratings |
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Google Rating (out of 5) Google ratings are provided by users of Google's services, primarily through Google Maps and Google Search. |
5.0 51 reviews |
2.5 74 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 Trustpilot. |
4.8 143 reviews |
3.7 190 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 Trustpilot. |
4.9 116 reviews |
4.5 980 reviews |
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BBB Rating (Letter Score, and Rating out of 5) The BBB, or Better Business Bureau, is the oldest independent 3rd-party rating company in the US. Shopper Approved and Trustpilot both have an A+ for "Resolving Disputes." But we have very different "Overall" star ratings (which are independent from the letter grade). |
A+ 4.9 30 reviews |
A+ 1.2 59 reviews |
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Trustpilot Rating (out of 5) Trustpilot is a direct competitor to Shopper Approved, but we still maintain a 4.7 star rating on that site.
*Trustpilot's reviews are nullified because most of them were collected by adding their own survey to the end of their clients' surveys, making them B2C reviews, instead of B2B ratings. |
4.7 423 reviews |
4.3 225k+ reviews (N/A)* |
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 (Customer Photos) Customers are invited to take photos of their purchases and add them to their review. |
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Reputation Management (Review Destinations) Review destinations 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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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) |
(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) |
(via app integrations) |
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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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Twitter (X) Syndication Send your reviews to Twitter to show up on your company’s Twitter feed. |
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(via app integrations) |
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 Trustpilot’s support team is located in both the US and Europe. 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 Trustpilot not offering phone support. |
***** |
*** |
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Privately Owned or Investor Funded Shopper Approved is one of the only privately owned, independent review platforms online. Trustpilot 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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Limited Free Version Trustpilot offers a free, limited version of their basic services. |
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Free Trial Shopper Approved offers a free 45-day trial of their Seller Ratings service with Google syndication. |
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Pricing Trustpilot's recommended plan starts at $900 per month. |
$$$ |
$$$$ |
Comparing Trustpilot to Shopper Approved on G2
According to G2, Shopper Approved is currently rated 4.8 stars with 143 reviews. By contrast, Trustpilot is rated 3.7 stars with 190 reviews. Each product's score is calculated with real-time data from verified user reviews.
On G2, both Trustpilot and Shopper Approved are compared side-by-side and scored on 33 different criteria: For 31 of which Shopper Approved is ranked higher, and two wherein Trustpilot is ranked higher.
According to G2…
“When assessing the two solutions, reviewers found Shopper Approved easier to use, set up, and administer. Reviewers also preferred doing business with Shopper Approved overall.
- Reviewers felt that Shopper Approved meets the needs of their business better than Trustpilot.
- When comparing quality of ongoing product support, reviewers felt that Shopper Approved is the preferred option.
- For feature updates and roadmaps, our reviewers preferred the direction of Shopper Approved over Trustpilot..”
You can read the real-time comparison of Truspilot and Shopper Approved on G2 here.
Summary of Trustpilot vs. Shopper Approved
What Are Trustpilot’s Strengths?
Trustpilot has two major strengths. Its first strength is that it is the largest open review platform for ecommerce websites and has created a review page for most websites online. Its second strength is that it knows how to leverage those review pages to get them to prominently display in search results.
What Are Trustpilot’s Weaknesses?
Trustpilot’s major weakness is that it is an open review platform and, as a result, most of its ratings and reviews are unverified and negatively skewed to the point where the results can be difficult to trust. Unfortunately, Trustpilot is under a constant barrage of bad characters trying to manipulate the platform, which forces them to remove nearly three million fake reviews from their system each year, further eroding trustworthiness. Trustpilot pricing is also the highest in the industry, with their recommended plan starting at $900/mo.
What Are Shopper Approved’s Strengths?
Shopper Approved is best known for our highly-effective traffic and conversion strategies, which includes our ability to collect up to 10x more reviews and display them in more strategic locations online, and the ability to display Q&A prominently in search results. In addition, our unlimited review model ensures that your price doesn’t change over time.
What Are Shopper Approved’s Weaknesses?
Because Shopper Approved is a verified review platform and only creates review pages for our clients, our review pages don’t typically rank as high as Trustpilot’s review pages in organic search results. However, because of Review Destinations (our reputation management tool), Shopper Approved can help your customers to leave reviews on Trustpilot and dozens of other open review sites, thereby maximizing your online visibility and creating a consistent brand reputation—giving you the best of both worlds.
Final Thoughts on Shopper Approved and Trustpilot
While I’ve done my best to make this comparison guide as objective and informative as possible, I don’t want you to just believe me exclusively. I highly recommend that you read first-hand what actual clients have to say, and combine that with the information contained in this guide to help you determine which service ultimately best fits your needs.
Because the majority of Trustpilot’s reviews are B2C instead of B2B, I recommend that you read Trustpilot’s reviews on Sitejabber.
Here is a link to Shopper Approved’s reviews on Trustpilot.
Contact Information:
To visit Trustpilot, go to https://www.trustpilot.com
To visit Shopper Approved, go to https://www.shopperapproved.com
Other Comparisons and Further Reading:
Reviews.io vs. Shopper Approved
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Accessibility