Hazel Ryan
What is TrustScore?
TrustScore is Trustpilot's overall rating for a business, calculated from the star ratings customers give in their reviews. It appears as a number and a star graphic on your profile, in Trustpilot widgets and in search results, and it is recalculated every time a new review is posted.
Trustpilot shows the score in half-star steps, using standard rounding, and pairs it with a word label that runs from Bad at the bottom to Excellent at the top. A business with no reviews shows a TrustScore of 0 until the first review arrives.
The score matters most for B2C and prosumer software, where buyers often check Trustpilot before they sign up. A buyer who sees a strong TrustScore with recent reviews has one less reason to hesitate.
How is TrustScore calculated?
Trustpilot's TrustScore explained page says the formula considers three factors: time span, frequency and a Bayesian average. Together they make the score more stable than a simple average and more responsive to how customers feel today.
Time span
TrustScore gives less weight to old reviews and more to new ones, and the most recent review weighs the most. A review from last week moves your score more than one from two years ago, so a profile that stopped collecting reviews slowly loses the effect of its old ratings.
Frequency
Trustpilot says that the more often reviews are collected, the more stable the score becomes. A steady flow means each new review is one of many recent ones, while a profile that gets reviews in rare bursts can swing more when a single review arrives.
Bayesian average
To stop one or two reviews from deciding a new business's score, Trustpilot includes the value of 7 reviews worth 3.5 stars in every calculation. As a business collects more reviews, those 7 reviews become a smaller part of the result. Trustpilot has used this system since September 2019.
Why a new profile cannot jump to 5.0
The Bayesian average explains why a new profile with perfect reviews does not show a perfect score. The example below is simplified: it assumes every review is five stars and leaves out the time weighting, but it shows how the 7 reviews at 3.5 stars pull a small profile towards the middle.
| Five-star reviews | Plain average | With 7 reviews at 3.5 added |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 5.0 | 3.95 |
| 20 | 5.0 | 4.61 |
| 50 | 5.0 | 4.82 |
| 200 | 5.0 | 4.95 |
The lesson for a new SaaS product is patience. Your first reviews matter, but the score only reflects your real rating once enough reviews have arrived to outweigh the starting value, and the time weighting means they need to keep arriving.
What counts towards your TrustScore
Only star ratings count. Trustpilot says the score is calculated solely from the 1- to 5-star ratings consumers give, in a Trustpilot article on what might surprise people about the platform, so the words in a review and your replies do not change the number directly. Replies still matter, because buyers read them when they judge your profile.
When the same person reviews your business more than once, only their most recent review is factored into your score, according to Trustpilot's guidelines for businesses. Reviews Trustpilot finds to be fake are taken offline, and if a business is caught breaking the rules, a Consumer Warning hides its score while the warning shows.
That is why most SaaS teams that want a stronger score focus on review volume and recency. A Trustpilot review service can add a steady flow of reviews from verified users, and teams whose buyers also use G2 or Capterra can run review campaigns on other platforms in the same way.
What is a good TrustScore?
Trustpilot does not publish a single number that counts as good, but scores tend to sit high because most reviews are positive. In its 2022 data, Trustpilot reported that 72.51% of reviews submitted to the platform were 5-star and 13.56% were 1-star, so a business with mostly happy customers will usually land in the upper range.
A more useful test is to compare your score with the businesses you compete with on Trustpilot. If your score sits at or above theirs, with recent reviews, buyers comparing you side by side have no reason to doubt you. If it sits below, look at your review count and recency before anything else.
A perfect score is not the goal either. Research from the Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University found that purchase likelihood typically peaks for ratings between 4.0 and 4.7, because buyers trust a profile with a few honest complaints more than one that looks too clean. You can test how new reviews would move your own score with the free TrustScore calculator.
How to improve TrustScore over a quarter
The fastest way to improve TrustScore is to add recent reviews steadily, because both the time weighting and the frequency factor reward a regular flow. Plan in quarters: three months of consistent invitations will move a score more than one large push followed by silence.
- Invite every customer. Use the same method and the same point in the journey for everyone, as Trustpilot's guidelines require.
- Keep a steady pace. Aim for new reviews every week or month, with no sudden spikes.
- Reply to reviews. Replies do not change the score, but they show buyers how you handle problems.
- Report real breaches. Flag reviews that break the guidelines, never reviews you simply dislike.
Our guide on how to get Trustpilot reviews covers the invitation tools and timing. For scripts you can adapt for email, in-app messages and calls, see our guide on how to ask customers for reviews.
What hurts a TrustScore
The biggest risk to your score is a shortcut. Inviting only happy customers, offering rewards for reviews or buying fake reviews can lead Trustpilot to remove reviews and place a Consumer Warning on your profile, usually for six months, as described on the action Trustpilot takes against misuse. While the warning shows, your score is hidden.
Silence hurts too, more slowly. Because new reviews weigh the most, a profile that stops collecting reviews loses the support of its older ratings, and one recent negative review can then pull the score down further than it would on a busy profile. Our guide to Trustpilot fake reviews explains how Trustpilot finds reviews that break its rules.
Every review should come from a real person.
Read the RelikReview review policy to see how our campaigns keep each review honest and within Trustpilot's rules.
Trustpilot review service
Want a stronger TrustScore? Let RelikReview run your Trustpilot campaign
RelikReview runs Trustpilot campaigns that add a steady flow of recent reviews, the kind TrustScore rewards most. See our Trustpilot review service for packages, with the plan and price in writing first.
- Recent reviews, every monthPaced to keep your score current.
- Verified users, own wordsEach reviewer chooses their own rating.
- Free replacementIf a review is removed during the window, we replace it.
TrustScore: what to remember
TrustScore is not a plain average. It weighs recent reviews more, rewards a steady flow and starts every business with 7 reviews worth 3.5 stars, so the way to a strong score is many recent reviews from real customers, collected the same way every month.
Compare your score with your competitors, keep inviting every customer and reply to what they write. If you would rather have a team keep that flow going for you, the RelikReview team can plan a Trustpilot campaign with you.
FAQs about TrustScore
What is a TrustScore on Trustpilot?
A TrustScore is Trustpilot's overall rating for a business, shown as a number from 1 to 5 and a star graphic in half-star steps. It is calculated from the star ratings in customer reviews, weighs recent reviews more than old ones and is recalculated every time a new review is posted.
How is TrustScore calculated?
TrustScore is calculated from three factors: time span, frequency and a Bayesian average. Newer reviews count more than older ones, a steady flow of reviews keeps the score stable, and every calculation includes 7 reviews worth 3.5 stars, which matter less as a business collects more real reviews.
What is a good TrustScore?
A good TrustScore is one that sits at or above your competitors' scores, backed by a steady flow of recent reviews. Trustpilot does not name a single target number, and research from the Spiegel Research Center suggests buyers trust ratings between 4.0 and 4.7 more than a perfect 5.0.
Why is my TrustScore lower than my average rating?
Your TrustScore can be lower than your average rating because every calculation includes 7 reviews worth 3.5 stars, which pull small profiles towards the middle. Older reviews also count for less than recent ones. As you collect more recent reviews, the score moves closer to your real average.
Do replies to reviews change your TrustScore?
No, replies do not change your TrustScore directly. Trustpilot calculates the score from the 1- to 5-star ratings customers give. Replies still matter because buyers read them, and a calm, specific answer to a negative review shows future customers how your company handles problems.
