Frequently asked questions about TrustStar
How reviews are created, how to tell genuine from unchecked entries, what companies may do and which data we store. If your question is missing: write to us – we reply with short response times.
- What exactly is TrustStar?
- Do I need an account to read reviews?
- How is TrustStar funded?
- Which industries does it work for?
- How can I tell where a review comes from?
- How often is the Google rating updated?
- What happens if the same person reviews on TrustStar and on Google?
- What does “verified” mean exactly?
- Are negative reviews published too?
- Can I change a review afterwards?
- What happens if the company cannot confirm that I was a customer?
- How long does it take to activate my profile?
- What does a profile cost?
- Can I pay yearly?
- How can I cancel?
- What happens if an invoice is not paid?
- How secure is my access to the company portal?
- How do I reply to a review?
- What does “✓ Verified company” mean?
- As a company, will I notice when a review is edited?
- Am I allowed to ask customers for a review?
- What can I do about a false review?
- Can I embed reviews in my own website?
- What data does TrustStar store about me?
- Is my data passed on to Google or other third parties?
- How can I have my review deleted?
- What rights do I have under the GDPR?
- Who is liable for the content of a review?
- Does TrustStar work on smartphones?
- Which cookies are set?
- Is there an API for my own analyses?
- Why does the company only see my review after confirming?
- Why does my profile sometimes load sample data?
General
TrustStar is an independent review portal for businesses in Germany. We bring together two things that used to be separate: verified customer reviews created directly on our platform, and the public Google overall rating of a business (score and count, linked directly to the Google profile). Both appear in one shared company profile, clearly separated by source.
For consumers, using TrustStar is completely free and ad-free. Businesses can also maintain a basic profile free of charge.
No. Searching, filtering and reading works without registration, without cookie-banner pressure and without providing personal data. An account is only needed by businesses that want to reply to reviews (after a one-time free verification), and by people who write reviews themselves – and even there a display name and an e-mail address for verification are enough.
Exclusively through optional, paid add-on features for businesses: analytics, notifications, export interfaces and support levels. There are no advertising inserts, no affiliate links on profiles and no paid placements. Those who pay get more tools – never a better position in search.
In principle for all businesses with customer contact. Most strongly represented are crafts, electrical and plumbing businesses, car workshops, medical and dental practices, IT service providers, travel agencies as well as gastronomy and food crafts. Excluded are industries where reviews are legally problematic, such as pure financial investment advice with promises of returns.
Data sources & verification
From the label right next to the author's name:
- Verified (blue): the review was submitted on TrustStar and checked before publication.
The header of every profile also shows the Google overall rating (score and number of Google ratings) – clearly separated from the TrustStar reviews and linked directly to the Google profile. Individual Google reviews are not republished.
We fetch the score and count at fixed intervals and store them in a cache. Synchronisation runs automatically, and we also check the age of the data: if the cache is older than 30 days the Google rating is not shown at all – we never display stale numbers. Individual Google review texts are not published; the link leads directly to the Google profile.
Both reviews exist separately: one on TrustStar (with confirmed customer status and your public reply), the other in your Google Business Profile. Since we do not display individual Google reviews, the same text cannot appear twice on TrustStar. Only reviews submitted on TrustStar count towards the TrustStar score; the Google overall rating and the number of Google ratings come unchanged from your Google profile and are shown clearly separated – nothing is adjusted or offset.
We mark an entry as verified when at least one of the following criteria is met: the company confirms the order, the reviewer can provide an order or invoice number, or the account is so specific and consistent that a connection to the business is recognisable. Reviews without a code additionally go through the confirmation flow: the company confirms the customer relationship first (without seeing the content), only then is the review published. If none of these checks succeeds, we publish the review without a label – we do not artificially upgrade it.
Yes, that is the core of our approach. Factual criticism stays up, no matter how good a business's overall rating is. Companies can reply publicly but cannot have anything removed. Deletion happens exclusively for violations of our guidelines or of applicable law.
Yes – and you do it yourself, without contacting support. Right after submitting you receive a confirmation e-mail containing a personal management link; the same link is included in the mail sent when your review is published and on the thank-you page after scanning a review card. Via this link you can view your review at any time and:
- edit it – stars, subject and text, within 30 days and as long as the company has not replied publicly. Edited contributions are marked as “edited”;
- withdraw it – at any time and regardless of deadlines; it then disappears everywhere (GDPR Art. 17);
- add a note – once the editing window has closed or the company has replied, your original text remains unchanged and you can attach a note that is published separately and marked as “Note of DD/MM/YYYY”.
Please treat the link like a password: do not share it and save it as a bookmark. If you did not provide an e-mail address (e.g. when reviewing via a QR card), there is no return channel – write to loeschung@truststar.eu and we will help you promptly. For traceability the original text is kept internally in case a contribution is reported or an appeal is reviewed.
Then the review initially stays unpublished and you are informed by e-mail. If you are sure the decline is a mistake – for example because the order ran through an employee, a subsidiary or a different name – simply reply to that message. Helpful is short evidence of the customer contact: invoice or order number, approximate order date or the location. TrustStar then reviews the case individually and neutrally. If we can confirm your customer relationship, the review is published with the note “✓ checked by TrustStar”. The procedure stays fair for both sides: the decline is not made public, and the company is informed that it can reply to the review as usual.
For businesses
Usually promptly – right after a short review. The prerequisite is that we can confirm ownership – normally via the confirmation link sent to the business e-mail address. For well-known brands or multiple locations we additionally ask for a commercial register extract or an invoice showing the company name.
The basic profile is free forever and contains everything essential: profile, Google synchronisation, free verification of your company (✓ badge in profile and search; from Basic Plus also in the widget), unlimited public replies after verification, the mood picture of your reviews, an e-mail notification as soon as a customer confirmation is pending (without review content), reporting inadmissible reviews and the public review profile with its own URL. The embeddable widget for your website is included from Basic Plus. Basis Plus costs 9 €/month: the review widget for your website (carousel with reviews and replies plus review banner inline and floating), self-created review codes, up to 3 individual questions in the review form, review badge for web & print (PDF), detailed analysis with strengths/weaknesses and recommendations, monthly review status by e-mail, PDF export of codes, e-mail notification for every new review (including reviews published immediately via QR card) – and once 10 review cards free for new customers. Professional costs 19 €/month: additionally competitor analysis, ranking check (position in industry & city), smart reply generation (AI-assisted or as a local rule-based system – processing in Germany) including analysis with the TrustStar Assistant, own short links (e.g. tsta.eu/your-company), 10 % discount on the first 300 printed review cards per calendar month, once 20 free cards for new customers, 12-month rating trend, CSV export of all reviews incl. campaign label, reply templates and priority support with the shortest response time compared to the lower plans. Enterprise is available on request and targets multi-location businesses and high review volume: everything in Professional plus individually agreed quotas for review codes and card orders, once 50 free welcome cards (shipping included), a personal account manager with prioritised availability, a setup service and API/custom integration for your own evaluations. Enterprise is not bookable yet – the plan card is marked “Coming soon”. Send us a short note if you are interested and we will get back to you as soon as it opens. All prices plus VAT; monthly billing cancellable with one month's notice to month-end, yearly billing with a 12-month term (1 month free), no setup fee.
Yes. With yearly billing you get 12 months but only pay 11 monthly contributions – one month is free. Example: Basis Plus 99 € once per year (instead of 12 × 9 €), Professional 209 € (instead of 12 × 19 €, equals 17.42 €/month). Yearly billing has a 12-month term and renews for another 12 months unless cancelled with one month's notice to the end of the term. You can switch at any time in the company portal under “Plan”.
Paid plans with monthly billing can be cancelled with one month's notice to month-end – in text form (an e-mail is sufficient), without giving reasons and without any further minimum term. With yearly billing the contract runs for twelve months and renews for another twelve months unless cancelled with one month's notice to the end of the term. Simply send your cancellation via the contact form or to the address given in the imprint; you will receive written confirmation with the effective date. After the term ends your profile can remain as a free basic profile if you wish – reviews and public replies are not lost. Details: Terms & Conditions clause 9.
We do not block anything immediately and we do not delete data; we proceed in four comprehensible stages: a payment reminder three days after the due date, a first dunning letter after ten days, a second dunning letter with a final deadline after twenty days and – if the balance remains outstanding 34 days after the due date – automatic conversion to the free Basic plan. Important: your company profile and your published reviews remain online and accessible; only the functions of the paid plan are blocked (widget embedding, own review codes, exports, extended analyses). As soon as the outstanding amount has been settled we restore your previous plan without delay – a short message is enough and no reactivation fee applies. We do not charge dunning fees or default interest automatically, but only in individual cases in accordance with the statutory rules (Section 288 BGB). If you can already foresee that you will not be able to pay on time, please write to us before the due date: we usually find a solution (instalments, a payment break or a switch to yearly billing with one monthly contribution free). Details: Terms & Conditions clause 8.3.
Access is protected by a password (bcrypt hash, no plaintext storage), all connections use TLS and forms are protected against cross-site request forgery. Five failed login attempts block further attempts for 15 minutes. In addition you can activate two-factor authentication for your account: after the password a 6-digit code from an authenticator app is requested (time-based, without SMS and without third parties). For the operator account (super admin) the second factor is mandatory. In case you change devices you receive one-time recovery codes, which are stored in hashed form only.
The prerequisite is the one-time, free verification of your company (see next question). Afterwards you see all entries of your profile in the company area and can reply directly below them – in the Professional plan optionally with automatically created reply suggestions. The reply appears publicly with the note “Reply from the company” and the date. You can edit it at any time; the original version remains traceable internally for us.
Verified companies have proven their identity to us: they complete the verification procedure created by TrustStar: the company confirms its details and proves ownership – which evidence is required depends on the profile and is explained during the procedure itself. Moderation reviews the documents manually; the documents are never displayed publicly. Only after passing the review is the reply function unlocked and the profile carries the “✓ Verified company” badge in search, profile and widget. Verification is free in all plans. This way reviewers can be sure that public replies really come from the business.
Yes. Edited contributions are marked in the company portal with the time of the change, and a note added by the reviewer appears there as a separate block below the original text – so your reply always matches the current state. If someone withdraws a review we inform you by e-mail (without name or content, for data-protection reasons); the overall rating and the count update automatically.
Yes, but neutrally. Allowed is a general request at the end of an order, for example as a link in the invoice footer or on a card. Not allowed are rewards, discounts or vouchers for positive ratings, selectively contacting only satisfied customers, and writing reviews in the name of others.
Report the entry via the “Report review” button and briefly explain which point is inaccurate or inadmissible. We check it against the guidelines, give the author the opportunity to respond and decide within five working days. Both sides receive the outcome in writing. For specific legal violations we mark the entry “under review” while examining it.
Yes – the review widget is included from Basic Plus; with the free basic profile your company remains discoverable and reviewable through the public review profile with its own URL. From Basic Plus you can choose between two layouts, which can also be combined: the review banner – slim, showing your overall ratings from Google and TrustStar, inline in your content or floating on every page (vertical at bottom-right on desktops, horizontal along the bottom on mobile devices) – and the carousel widget with reviews, public replies, overall rating and an integrated review form. “Write a review” opens your TrustStar review form in both cases, with the option to review on Google afterwards. You find the individual embed code with widget token in the portal. A REST interface for your own analyses is available on request.
Privacy & legal
When purely reading: server log data (shortened IP address, time, page requested), deleted after seven days. When you review yourself: display name, review text, star rating and your e-mail address for verification. The e-mail address is never displayed publicly. We only set tracking cookies after your explicit consent.
No. The data flow goes in one direction only: we fetch the publicly available Google overall rating and store it in our cache. When reading profiles no connection to Google servers is established; no fonts, scripts or images are loaded from third parties. Details are in the Privacy Policy.
Fastest yourself: via the management link in the confirmation e-mail (or on the thank-you page after scanning a card) you can withdraw your review at any time – it then disappears everywhere, regardless of deadlines. Alternatively send a short note to loeschung@truststar.eu. We delete the contribution and the associated e-mail address unless a retention obligation applies – for example because a review procedure is ongoing.
Access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection to processing based on legitimate interests. An informal message to datenschutz@truststar.eu is enough; we reply within one month. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority – for us the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of Rhineland-Palatinate is responsible.
Responsible for the content is the person who submitted the review. As a service provider, TrustStar is responsible for third-party content under Section 10 DDG only from the moment we become aware of an infringement. As soon as we receive a specific notice we review it and remove unlawful entries without delay. Our complete provisions can be found in the Terms & Conditions.
Technology & accessibility
Yes, the site is fully responsive and usable without horizontal scrolling – from 320 pixels width to the large desktop monitor. All controls are at least 44 × 44 pixels, and search works with keyboard and screen reader.
Without your consent: exclusively technically necessary cookies, e.g. for form protection and session management. Statistics and marketing cookies are only loaded after your consent and are then listed individually in the cookie overview. You can withdraw your decision at any time with effect for the future.
The widget uses an open JSON interface (widget-api.php) that you can also call – your profile's widget token is enough. A REST interface beyond that for multi-location analyses is available on request. Limits: 60 requests per minute per token.
That is the core principle of TrustStar: without a review code your review first arrives with status “awaiting confirmation” and stays unpublished. During this phase the company sees only your name, the date and your short note “What was it about?” (e.g. “painting work” or “purchase”) – not the stars, not the text. Only when the business confirms that you were a customer is the review published and readable for the company. This rules out companies cherry-picking reviews by content or applying pressure – and conversely businesses are protected against reviews by people who were never customers. If the company does not react within 3 working days, the review is published automatically – visible without the verified badge (“Unconfirmed”); the company can report the entry at any time afterwards, and we review and remove inadmissible content.
When the server interface is unreachable – for example in a static preview or during a network fault – the page shows a yellow “Demo mode” notice and falls back to sample data. This keeps the site testable instead of aborting with an error message. In normal operation you will not see this notice.