Trustpilot Vs Reviews.io: Which Review Platform is Right For Your Business?
The right review platform can transform your business and get the online world liking, sharing, and retweeting your brand. Not only do reviews build reputation, trust, and consumer confidence, reviews are normally read at the tipping-point of the consumer journey. 82% of customers read reviews because they already have a purchase decision in mind and without these reviews, you could be losing a lot of customers who just need that final push to ‘Checkout Now’.
But, which Review Platform is right for your business? There’s plenty to choose from, but the platforms we see businesses torn between the most are Reviews.io and Trustpilot. We are often asked by clients which of these is the better option, and the differences between the two. So, we’ve drawn up a fairly detailed comparison to help you find the review platform that’s right for your business.
Trustpilot Vs Reviews.io: Open or Closed Platforms?
Trustpilot is an open platform, meaning anyone can post a review. This makes for an uncensored service that the public generally trust, however, it also subjects your business to unverified reviews from non-customers and trolls. As a business, you cannot change or delete reviews, which means if a fake review isn’t picked up by Trustpilot’s fraud detection software, you have to report it to Trustpilot’s Compliance Team and wait it out.
Reviews.io offer the choice of a closed or open platform. If you opt for a closed platform, only verified customers can leave reviews upon receiving an invitation or link via an email, SMS, your company website or app. This doesn’t mean you can censor the reviews though, it purely means these are proven customers, not trolls or fakes. Customers without proof of purchase can’t leave a review on a closed platform. Like Trustpilot, Reviews.io will investigate any review that you think is suspicious, but they will not remove any reviews for low star-ratings or negativity.
Winner: Reviews.io
By offering both closed and open platforms, Reviews.io cover all bases and if you change your mind later on, you can always swap.
Product Page Integration: Reviews.io Vs Truspilot?
Product pages with reviews convert 3.5 times more consumers than product pages without. That’s an important statistic for any eCommerce business. Crucial to driving online sales and success; easy review integration on product pages should be a top priority when considering Review Platforms.
The good news is that both Reviews.io and Trustpilot are easily integrated with most eCommerce platforms, such as Magento and Shopify. However, if your site’s eCommerce platform isn’t listed on the Reviews.io website, their IT Team will set up the program to ensure that it is integrated properly.
Winner: Reviews.io
Reviews.io edge the win when it comes to review integration because of their helpful IT Team who integrate reviews with whichever eCommerce platform your business uses!
SEO: Trustpilot Vs Reviews.io
Google trusts products and sites with positive reviews from substantial audiences, which is why you often find products with 4 or 5 stars and hundreds of reviews at the top of your Google Search. Trustpilot and Reviews.io are both verified Google Review Partners, which brings some serious SEO benefits. Google Review Partners are Review Platforms that Google acknowledges as credible and trustworthy. This nod of approval from Google means that your site’s reviews are automatically optimised for Rich Snippets, Google Seller Ratings, and Product Reviews for better paid and organic search results. But, which platform can really push you to Google’s top spot?
SEO Benefits of Trustpilot
Trustpilot’s recognisable green Trustbox displays the average star rating for a website. The Trustbox is acknowledged and indexed by Google, which means the star rating is shown on the Search Engine’s results for long tail keywords and serves as a massive SEO benefit for businesses. This Google-recognised star rating increases the credibility of your site, and helps you climb to the top of Google’s pages. A visible 4 or 5 Star Rating also builds trust in customers and aids their decision-making, with about 72% of customers delaying buying until they’ve read reviews.
Trustpilot allows businesses to enable Rich Snippets for SEO, which means Google will potentially show popular reviews in organic search results. This can be beneficial, but to what degree? Google’s guidelines for Rich Snippets are notoriously strict, so although this feature can help, it doesn’t guarantee a Rich Snippet Star Rating for your site.
Vs SEO Benefits of Reviews.io
Like Trustpilot, customer feedback is optimised for Google search results automatically due to the verified status of Reviews.io. The platform also offers Rich Snippet friendly widgets that display reviews directly on a search result, like the iconic Trustbox. The visible star-rating enhances consumer confidence, improves click-through rate, and gives you the edge on your star-less competitors.
Winner: Trustpilot
Although Reviews.io and Trustpilot both offer huge SEO advantages, the SEO trophy goes to Trustpilot due to its strong domain authority. Trustpilot’s size and reputation increases their credibility, which makes Google more likely to favour them, and nudges them ahead of Reviews.io in the SEO race.
Reviews.io: Multimedia Reviews
User-Generated Content Reviews or UGCs can turn passive browsers into motivated buyers. A review that includes videos or photos shows your product in real detail, builds consumer trust and confidence, and offers a powerful marketing tool for your business.
With Reviews.io, you can feature video and photo reviews on your website. The video reviews can be pulled through from your website to Google’s search results. Video reviews drive conversion by 20%, so the opportunity to feature these on your site is invaluable for sales, and the fact that Google likes video reviews and pulls them from your site to the eyes of millions of consumers, is pretty impressive.
Unfortunately, Trustpilot does not offer customers the option to add visual elements to their reviews. Considering the amount of engagement multimedia reviews generate, this is a significant disadvantage.
Winner: Reviews.io
This is an easy victory for Reviews.io. Giving customers the option to include visuals in their reviews comes with so many benefits, such as content, marketing, and SEO, for businesses.
Trustpilot Vs Reviews.io: Price?
When it comes to price and value, it really depends on the size and needs of your business, and what you’re looking for from a Reviews Platform.
However, Reviews.io offer open-ended plans, that you can quit at any time. These range from £29 – £399, varying from the most basic Essential Plan to the Unlimited Plan, which offers advanced features. One stand-out benefit is that every plan includes a Social Proof Feature, which means your customers can leave multimedia reviews, which you can then use for marketing and SEO purposes.
With Trustpilot, you are tied into a minimum 12-month contract, which may be off-putting for some, but when you consider that Trustpilot offer a free closed account with up to 100 invitations per month, it isn’t so bad. You can always trial the free account before taking the 12-month plunge. The truth is though, you don’t get much out of the plan and the first paid plan option is £199 per month – that’s before you buy any of the rather essential add-ons, like Product Reviews. Another blow is that you don’t get the option of multimedia reviews either, which we know are conversion-drivers.
Winner: Reviews.io
With no contracts or add-ons, Reviews.io offer an all-round better deal for businesses. Trustpilot’s free option might suffice for a while, but when you decide to switch, you face a minimum £199 cost before add-ons, no multimedia reviews, and a 12-month fixed contract.
Social Media Integration: Trustpilot Vs Reviews.io
Positive Reviews should be part of every Content Marketer’s Social Media Strategy. We live in a time in which 79% of millennials use social media multiple times a day and 91% of those millennials trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. This proves that customer reviews on social media are key to marketing your brand and growing an online audience of returning consumers.
To make the most of millennial shoppers, you need a Review Platform with easy social media integration to help your brand stand out in Facebook’s crowds. Trustpilot and Reviews.io both offer tools to create compelling content for all social platforms.
However, Reviews.io provide more variety in terms of design and media. As we know, Reviews.io allow customers to attach photos and videos to their reviews, which can be used as powerful marketing content. They also supply design tools for creating digital banners, posters, images, and videos for all social platforms and Google Display Ads. This is a useful resource that can help you attract new audiences across social media or retarget Google searchers with captivating visuals.
On the other hand, what Trustpilot doesn’t offer in terms of variety, it perhaps makes up for with its simplicity. You can automatically share Trustpilot reviews on your company Facebook page by simply adding a Trustpilot tab to your account. This means you don’t get the chance to use their image-generator to spruce up the review before it lands instantly on your feed, but if you just want a stream of instant reviews on your Facebook page, this is a good option for you.
Winner: Reviews.io
As Trustpilot’s automated integration only works for Facebook and they do not offer a video option or generator, we think Reviews.io win this round. Reviews.io give businesses more freedom to create compelling social media content from reviews, with a video and photo editor that works not only on all social platforms, but also on Google Display Ads.
Trustpilot Vs Reviews.io: Which Review Platform is Right For Your Business?
Every business has different needs, and our comparison is designed to show you the pros and cons of each platform to help you come to a well-informed decision. Our overall winner is Reviews.io, with the benefits of UCG, Price, and Integration all helping them claim victory over Trustpilot. If joining the video revolution is important to your business, which it should be, Reviews.io is the better choice.
