Whether you’re looking to book your next holiday, preparing for home improvements, hoping to invest your savings or searching for somewhere to dine out, the internet can provide a review website to help you make an informed decision. We’ve put together our top 10 of the best reviews websites in the UK for trusted reviews, so you can be sure you’re making the right choices in life.
Trustpilot
Trustpilot is probably the best-known general reviews website for many different types of consumer businesses in the UK. It hosts user and customer reviews on a wide range of companies. The site has struggled with issues around fake reviews, but says it is working hard to make improvements, and provides a good general site for reviews where a more specialised platform is not needed.
Tripadvisor
We’ve all been there: you’re trying to plan a holiday or mini-break and you want to scope out the local attractions before you arrive. Enter Tripadvisor to offer you comprehensive listings and reviews on everything you might want to experience on your travels. From hotels, to restaurants, to tourist attractions, Tripadvisor has it covered. Like Trustpilot, the site has received some negative press as companies try to ‘game’ their reviews, but is also working on improving its accuracy.
HomeViews
When buying or renting a new home, you need a specialist review site to differentiate between the UK’s many developers and developments. HomeViews is the UK’s only review site dedicated to new build property, offering detailed, carefully verified reviews from the people who know best – the residents who already live there.
Buyers and renters can read detailed reviews and check ratings for individual developments and developers. We show building ratings for Location, Design, Management, Value and Facilities, as well as an overall Star Rating. Our area guides and blog also provide a useful source of information on top developments, locations and all aspects of the property buying and renting experience.
Checkatrade
Home improvements, maintenance and construction can be some of the biggest investments you can make. If you’re putting your hard-earned money into improving your home for your family, you want to make sure you’re bringing in the best to get the job done to a high standard.
Everyone’s heard horror stories about ‘cowboy builders’ or construction teams upping and leaving before a job’s completed. Checkatrade gives consumers a place to find reliable reviews of tradespeople. With its reviews, you can choose from the most trusted suppliers in your local area.
Google Reviews
Google Reviews service has an ever-expanding library of reviews attached to listings, venues and businesses on Google Maps. If a business or location features on Google Maps, you can be sure to find reviews of it on Google. Whether a local retailer or tradesperson, a major workplace, a tourist attraction, a leisure facility, a supermarket or even a carpark, you can find what people think of it on Google.
Amazon
Amazon is a vast resource for consumer reviews of almost any product. If you’re shopping for anything and Amazon sells it, you’ll find reviews of it there. Amazon allows reviewers to upload photos and videos of their products. It has a system to verify that reviewers have genuinely purchased the product, and also recognises the most prolific and influential reviewers on its platform.
Which?
A genuinely authoritative voice in the UK consumer sector, Which? has been providing independent reviews and consumer advice for decades. Members can access an extensive database of product reviews, from electronics to financial products, to cars and home products. Which? also provides backing for consumer rights campaigns in a variety of different areas.
Techradar
If you’re looking for a new smartphone, laptop, pair of headphones, TV, tablet, smartwatch or almost any other electronic gadget, Techradar is a great place to start. They regularly publish up-to-date top 10 lists of products in any given category. The tech website reviews products fairly and with an unrivalled level of detail. If you really want to know the performance difference between an A15 Bionic and a Snapdragon 8 smartphone chip, Techradar has got you covered.
Booking.com
As well as being a comprehensive holiday rental and hotel booking site, Booking.com has a reliable bank of accommodation reviews that can help you choose your next holiday destination. Sort accommodation according to reviews to compare your options in your chosen holiday haven. You’ll find the best combination of high review score and value for money, to make that trip of a lifetime even more satisfying.
Expert Reviews
Expert Reviews is one of the UK’s most reputable independent product review websites. If you’re overwhelmed by the sheer choice on offer across the market, Expert Reviews can help. They publish detailed reviews of the latest products and up-to-date listings for the most popular consumer products, with a level of detail and advice that can give you confidence in sending your hard-earned money.
Trusted Reviews
Yes, we’ve slipped in an 11th review site just to keep you on your toes. Did you notice? Trusted Reviews is another UK-based tech specialist review site. They provide reviews on all the latest computing, tablet, smartphone and audiovisual kit. Their site can help you to wade through all the confusing product names and numbers to find the tech that’s truly right for you.
What to look for in a trusted reviews website
There are plenty of things to look for in a trustworthy reviews website. You’ll ultimately have to decide whether you trust the website, but several things might help you make up your mind. Here are our top five things to look in a trusted reviews website:
- Independent, unbiased reviews: The first thing you’ll want to check is that the reviews contained on the site are unbiased and independent. That means they’re not sponsored by the company or product being reviewed.
- Verified reviews: When it comes to user reviews, you’ll want to know the reviewer is actually a customer of the company or owner of the product. You can only be sure of this if the reviews are verified before being published.
- A clear scoring matrix: If you’re going to make a purchase decision based on website reviews, you’ll want to know how the scores for each product have been put together. Look for a clear, transparent scoring process with a breakdown of how the ratings have been compiled.
- Moderation services: A high-quality reviews website moderates and checks its reviews for legitimacy. If you read enough reviews, you’ll start to spot fake ones, and a trustworthy review site should make sure they have a mechanism to remove these.
- Thorough and extensive review criteria: The more extensive and detailed the review criteria, the more trust you can place in the review score.
- Good grammar: While the quality of writing on a site doesn’t necessarily make it more or less trustworthy, it’s still an important factor. Correct, consistent grammar and spelling are an indication that the company takes its image seriously. This shows that the company makes an effort to do things properly. Accordingly, this suggests that it also spends time and resources on verifying reviews and generally checking that everything it puts out online is clear, honest and transparent.
HomeViews only publishes independent, verified reviews from residents who actually live in each new build property development. We provide moderation of reviews and each review is made up of scores in five different categories of the lived new build experience. When it comes to finding out what it’s really like to live in a new build property development, HomeViews has got you covered.
Have we missed your blog or site? We’re always on the lookout for innovators and new arrivals on the scene, so please do get in touch and we’ll try to include you in a future update.
HomeViews is the only independent review platform for residential developments in the UK. Prospective buyers and tenants use it to make an informed decision on where to live based on insights from carefully verified resident reviews. Part of Rightmove since February 2024, we’re working with developers, house builders, operators, housing associations and the Government to give residents a voice, recognise high performers and to help improve standards across the industry.
Leave a Reply