AppsInsight Trust Center

Review Integrity — How Reviews Work

Every review comes from a registered account, passes spam protection, and is read by a human moderator before publication. Only approved reviews count toward scores — and none can be bought or removed for money.

Live rules Human reviewed Revenue separated

Every review on AppsInsight passes spam protection and is read by a human moderator before it is published. Only approved reviews count toward scores and rankings — and no vendor can pay to add, remove, or reorder them.

Who can review

Anyone can submit a review of an app or IT company with their name and email, or through a registered AppsInsight account. Email addresses are collected for moderation follow-up only and are not verified as proof of product or service use. One review per person per app or company; resubmitting replaces your previous review and sends it back for moderation. Every submission passes automated spam protection before it reaches our moderation queue. We do not accept imported review dumps or vendor-submitted testimonials presented as user reviews.

Reviewers who maintain an account for at least 30 days, publish three or more approved reviews, and have no spam-marked reviews in the last 90 days earn a Verified Reviewer badge on their published reviews. The badge reflects sustained, guideline-compliant participation — not a verified purchase and not a payment of any kind.

Domain Verified reviewers

Reviewers who verify a work email address at a non-consumer domain (for example you@acme.com, not a personal Gmail or Yahoo account) earn an additional Domain Verified badge once they also meet the Verified Reviewer engagement criteria above. Verification is confirmed by clicking a one-time link sent to that work address.

Domain verification confirms you control a professional email — not that you purchased the product you reviewed and not that AppsInsight employs you. It stacks with, and does not replace, the engagement-based Verified Reviewer badge.

Moderation before publication

New reviews are held in a moderation queue and published only after a human moderator checks them against the guidelines below. Reviews that violate the guidelines are rejected; everything else is published as written — including negative reviews of companies we have commercial relationships with.

What a review contains

App reviews carry an overall 1–5 rating, the review text, and optionally: a title, pros and cons, the reviewer’s company, and detailed sub-ratings for ease of use, value for money, support, features, and reliability. IT company reviews carry the review text plus dynamic service criteria ratings configured for that company type (for example communication, quality, or timeliness). The overall company rating is the average of those criteria.

Review guidelines

  • Write from first-hand experience with the product or company.
  • Disclose conflicts of interest — reviews by a vendor’s employees, competitors, or paid agents are removed.
  • No incentivized reviews: a review written in exchange for payment, discounts, or perks is not eligible.
  • Keep it factual and specific; profanity, personal attacks, and unverifiable accusations are rejected.
  • One review per app or company per reviewer; updates replace, not stack.

How reviews move scores and rankings

Approved reviews feed the Community portion of the AppsInsight Score: points accrue at review-count milestones weighted by average rating, with a separate recency component. Approving or removing a review automatically triggers a score recalculation, so published scores never lag moderation decisions. This structure makes scores expensive to manipulate — bursts of low-quality reviews earn little and are removed when detected.

Company reviews and Google reviews

IT company profiles show client reviews collected on AppsInsight and, on some profiles, a clearly separated section of Google reviews. External review data is always labeled with its source and is never mixed into AppsInsight review counts.

Disputing a review

Vendors can dispute a review only on guideline grounds — conflict of interest, no first-hand experience, factual impossibility — via Appeals & Corrections. “It is negative” is not grounds for removal.

Version history

  • v1.1 — Verified Reviewer badge criteria published.
  • v1.0 — guidelines published; automated spam protection added to the review form.

Frequently asked questions

How does AppsInsight handle fake reviews?
Three layers: reviews require a registered account and pass automated spam protection; a human moderator checks every review against the guidelines before publication; and score impact is milestone-based, rating-weighted, and recency-sensitive, so bursts of fake reviews earn little and are removed when detected — which recalculates the score automatically.
Can a vendor pay to remove a negative review?
No. Reviews are removed only for guideline violations, decided by moderators who are not told about commercial relationships. Payment plays no role.
Can I review anonymously?
You need a registered account, but only your display name is shown publicly. Your email is used for verification and is never published.
Why is my review still pending?
All reviews are human-moderated before publication. If your review meets the guidelines it will be published as written, including critical reviews.