E-Commerce Review Platforms Compared: 2026 Study

A few days ago, a beauty brand asked me why ChatGPT quotes a weak rating when someone asks about experiences with their shop. In their own shop, the brand has excellent product reviews, collected with a Shopify app. The AI, however, cites a review platform the brand no longer maintains. Almost only complaints end up there.

That led to the question behind this report: which e-commerce review platforms do Google and AI systems actually show when someone looks for experiences with a shop, and what do they cost? To find out, I analysed the Google results for 90 brands from German e-commerce and compared the platforms' visibility in AI answers with their prices.

Short answer: which e-commerce review platform is best?

There is no single best platform, it depends on what you collect reviews for. In terms of visibility, Trustpilot is clearly ahead: for 77% of the brands studied, a Trustpilot profile ranks on the first results page, and Google links it as a source in 78% of AI Overviews.^[1] In Germany, Trusted Shops follows with 26% on page 1 and 47% in AI Overviews.^[1]

Shop apps such as Okendo, Judge.me or Yotpo do not appear in a single search result. They are built for the product page, where they drive conversion. If you want to be visible beyond your shop, you also need a platform with a public profile that Google and AI systems can read.

The study: what Google shows for “brand reviews”

On 14 October 2026, I pulled the search “<brand> erfahrungen” (German for “experiences”, the typical review query) on Google Germany for 90 brands from ten industries, on mobile and desktop.^[1] The sample includes online retailers such as Cyberport or Zooplus and D2C brands such as Snocks or Koro. The methodology is further down.

Google results: Trustpilot almost always on page 1

On mobile, at least one review platform ranks on the first page for 71 of 90 brands.^[1] Trustpilot leads by a wide margin, followed by communities such as Reddit and gutefrage. Classic German platforms such as Shopauskunft or eKomi appear only occasionally.

AI Overviews: review platforms as sources

Google shows an AI Overview on mobile for 55 of the 90 searches. In 48 of them, at least one review platform is linked as a source.^[1] Trustpilot appears in 43 of these answers, Trusted Shops in 26. In other words: anyone asking Google about experiences with a shop mostly gets a summary built from exactly these profiles, whether or not the shop maintains them.

Stars in the snippet: the rating is already in search

Google shows the platforms' rating directly in the search result. For Trustpilot, I counted 65 mobile results pages with stars; on 14 of them the rating is below 3, the median is 3.9.^[1] For Trusted Shops, there are 14 pages with stars, 7 of them below 3. The number is small, but the pattern matches what I see in projects: a profile nobody looks after mainly collects the customers who are annoyed.

One example with public data is PURELEI: the snippet shows Trustpilot with 4.4 stars from 5,490 reviews, and the AI Overview links Trustpilot and Trusted Shops as sources.^[1] Both profiles are actively managed, and that shows in search.

Mobile and desktop

On desktop, the results pages look different, but the order stays the same: Trustpilot ranks on page 1 for 81% of brands, Trusted Shops for 32%, and an AI Overview appears for 60 of 90 searches.^[1]

Visibility in AI answers: the platforms compared

The study covers Google. For ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, I used Ahrefs data: how often does a domain appear in the AI answers Ahrefs tracks?^[2] The values cover the entire domain and all countries, including the vendors' blog and help pages. They still work as a comparison of scale.

Two things stand out. First, Trustpilot is about 35 times ahead of Trusted Shops. Second, a shop app's visibility depends on whether it has public pages: Judge.me offers a public store page from ten verified reviews^[7] and reaches 21,700 AI answers, Okendo 389, a single one of them in ChatGPT.^[2]

Price and visibility: value for money

The chart plots each platform's cheapest paid plan against its visibility in AI answers. I converted USD and GBP prices at the ECB reference rate of 13 October 2026.^[18] eKomi and Trustami are missing because they do not publish a list price. Okendo is included with its Essential plan from the Shopify App Store.^[19] The y-axis uses a log scale: each gridline stands for ten times as many AI answers.

The picture is clear: Trustpilot offers by far the greatest visibility and also has a free tier with 50 invitations per month.^[4] Trusted Shops costs more, but in Germany it comes with a trust seal and buyer protection and appears in almost every second AI Overview. Low-cost German platforms such as Shopauskunft or Shopvote are hardly visible in search or AI.

Platforms with a public profile

Google partner status is a lever of its own: for seller ratings, Google generally needs at least 100 reviews from an approved source.^[15] ProvenExpert is not on the list.

Shop apps for product reviews

For the product page, these apps are strong, and no visibility measurement captures that. Beyond the shop, however, their reviews largely stay on the shop's own site.

What this means for online shops

For me, review management has become a discipline of its own, much like SEO. I take three points from the study:

1. Claim existing profiles. Trustpilot and Trusted Shops often create profiles without the shop doing anything. Claiming them lets you reply and report violations. Future customers read those replies, and so does the AI.
2. Distribute invitations fairly. Two approaches are common: split by type (shop review on the platform shortly after delivery, product review in the app a few weeks later) or send a fixed, random share of orders to the platform. Trustpilot explicitly prohibits forwarding only satisfied customers.^[5] In Germany, a shop also has to state whether and how it checks that reviews come from real customers.^[16][17]
3. Combine app and platform. The shop app carries the product page, the platform carries visibility in search and AI. You can also invite existing customers through your CRM, again all of them or a random selection.

Methodology and limitations

• Sample: 90 brands from ten industries (fashion, beauty, food, home, electronics, pets, sports, health, jewellery and eyewear, gifts and family), chosen by awareness in German e-commerce, excluding brands I advise. One further brand failed during retrieval. The selection is not representative.
• Retrieval: Google Germany, German language, mobile and desktop, the first ten organic results and the AI Overview per search, with Visibly AI on 14 October 2026.^[1] AI Overview sources are the pages linked in it.
• Generic queries: The study uses a single, generic search per brand. It does not show how a brand performs in buying advice, comparisons or questions about delivery and returns. That requires a dedicated prompt set per brand, measured per AI system. This is exactly what I do in consulting.
• Fluctuation: Results pages change between two retrievals, even on the same day. The values are a snapshot.
• AI values: Ahrefs counts answers to its own prompts, at domain level and for all countries.^[2] The values are not broken down by individual profile or by Germany.
• Prices: Vendors' list prices excluding VAT, 14 October 2026. Many vendors price by revenue, orders or invitations.

Conclusion

The best review platform for an online shop in Germany is usually a combination: a shop app for the product page and a well-maintained platform for search and AI. In terms of visibility, Trustpilot leads, followed in Germany by Trusted Shops. Shop apps without public pages remain almost invisible beyond the shop.

If you do not maintain your profiles, you leave your image in Google and in AI answers to the customers who are annoyed. A quick search for “<your brand> erfahrungen” on your phone shows where you stand.

Sources

1. Own study: Google search results for “<brand> erfahrungen” for 90 brands, Google Germany mobile and desktop, retrieved with Visibly AI on 14 Oct 2026.
2. Ahrefs Site Explorer, “AI responses” overview, all countries, domain level, retrieved 14 Oct 2026. ahrefs.com
3. Trusted Shops, pricing. business.trustedshops.de/preise, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
4. Trustpilot, pricing. business.trustpilot.com/pricing, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
5. Trustpilot, Guidelines for Businesses. corporate.trustpilot.com, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
6. Okendo, pricing and Google seller ratings partnership. okendo.io/pricing, okendo.io/resources/blog, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
7. Judge.me, Awesome plan and Judge.me Reviews site. judge.me/help (Awesome plan), judge.me/help (Reviews site), retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
8. Yotpo, pricing. yotpo.com/pricing, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
9. eKomi. ekomi.de, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
10. ProvenExpert, What does ProvenExpert cost. help.provenexpert.com, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
11. Händlerbund, Shopauskunft review management pricing. shopauskunft.haendlerbund.de, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
12. Shopvote, features. shopvote.de/features, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
13. Reviews.io, pricing. reviews.io, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
14. Feefo, pricing. business.feefo.com/pricing, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
15. Google Merchant Center Help, store ratings. support.google.com/merchants/answer/190657, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
16. Section 5b(3) of the German Act against Unfair Competition (UWG). gesetze-im-internet.de, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
17. UWG, Annex nos. 23b and 23c. gesetze-im-internet.de, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.
18. European Central Bank, euro reference rates of 13 Oct 2026. ecb.europa.eu
19. Shopify App Store, Okendo Reviews & UGC. apps.shopify.com/okendo-reviews, retrieved 14 Oct 2026.