Trustpilot or Bust: Why Brokers and Prop Firms Are Going All-In on Review War Rooms

For brokers and prop firms, managing their Trustpilot presence has become more than just a branding exercise—it’s a necessity. With traders placing increasing weight on peer reviews over polished marketing, firms are under pressure to maintain strong ratings and swiftly address criticism.

Many firms have gone as far as assigning dedicated teams to respond to complaints and protect their public image—all while flaunting their Trustpilot Score, or TrustScore, as a signal of trustworthiness.

"Dealing with our Trustpilot profile became ridiculously time and resource-consuming," admitted one broker, "but we don't really have a choice."

Read the first part of this series: "Trustpilot’s Reputation Casino: Are Brokers and Props Playing or Getting Played?"

How did it all start? When did third-party review websites like Trustpilot become so popular?

"Reviews started mattering because there was a big trust gap," explains Tajinder Virk, co-founder and CEO at Finvasia Group, which owns ZuluTrade and FXView. "To fill the gap, platforms like Trustpilot stepped in. They promised fair user reviews to guide consumers. Fast forward a bit, these sites got so powerful because they heavily invested in SEO, ensuring they always showed up first whenever anyone Googled a broker’s name."

"The outcome", continues Virk, "Was that brokers everywhere—good, bad, or ugly—felt pressured to manage their online reputation closely."

Managing Trustpilot with "Dedicated Teams"

Multiple brokers and prop firms told Finance Magnates that they focus heavily on managing their Trustpilot profiles. The aim is to resolve issues as quickly as possible and prevent brand damage from spreading on social media, which, according to several prop firms, could lead to a cease-and-desist situation.

eToro, for instance, told Finance Magnates that it has a dedicated team of no fewer than five people handling review responses in multiple languages across Trustpilot, Google Play, and the Apple App Store.

"Their SLA (service level agreement) is to respond to reviews within 24 hours," said an eToro spokesperson. "We strive to build long-term relationships with our users and therefore take feedback from them very seriously."

The broker, which has been offering services since 2007, has over 26,000 Trustpilot reviews, 65 per cent of which are five-star (excellent) and 21 per cent one-star (terrible). It maintains an overall TrustScore of 4.1, which is displayed on its homepage.

The nearing IPO broker's path with Trustpilot had its rough moments. The reviews took a hit in early 2021 when eToro suspended trading of GameStop stock as it was experiencing a short-squeeze. The broker's move resulted in a flood of negative reviews overnight which then pushed its TrustScore to 1.7 (Bad). Eventually, it managed to recover from "Bad" to "Great" now.

"We track Trustpilot reviews, and we have people ensuring that any comment, negative or positive, is addressed," said AvaTrade’s CMO, Ori Matarasso. "If a negative issue is raised, we immediately assign someone to resolve it as soon as possible."

AvaTrade has over 9,000 Trustpilot reviews, with 75 per cent rated five-star and 14 per cent rated one-star.

Australia-headquartered broker TMGM also stressed the importance of customer feedback on Trustpilot and confirmed having "dedicated teams monitoring customer reviews and experiences."

New brokerage brands also prioritise reputation building on Trustpilot. Ultima Markets, which has over 200 Trustpilot reviews, confirmed having "a dedicated team to actively monitor its Trustpilot profile."

Jean Philippe, Board Advisor for Corporate Governance and Sustainability at Ultima Markets, elaborated that the task of the dedicated team is "not just to respond to reviews but to ensure that traders who need help are connected with the right people."

EBC Financial Group, another relatively new broker, has a "customer service team actively monitoring" Trustpilot reviews. It has over 150 Trustpilot reviews and maintains a Trustscore of 4.8, with 94 per cent five-star ratings and only 3 per cent one-star ratings.

"Trustpilot is an important touchpoint for us—not just for credibility, but as a direct channel for real client feedback," said Douglas Chew, Global Public Relations Lead at EBC. "In an industry where trust is everything, verified reviews help traders make informed decisions and provide us with valuable insights into user experience."

Brokers aim to approach distressed customers as quickly as possible, connect them with customer support, and resolve the issues. They even ask the traders who initially posted negative reviews to update them to positive ones once the problems have been resolved.

The AI Approach

Managing Trustpilot reviews can be challenging, especially for big brands. For instance, Deriv, an established CFDs broker that rebranded from Binary.com in 2020, has more than 59,000 reviews and often receives about 100 new reviews daily. However, most of these reviewers were invited by the broker to share their feedback, meaning they clicked on a link sent by Deriv rather than visiting the platform organically to write a review.

Like other brokers, Deriv "actively monitors its Trustpilot reviews to better understand our customers' experiences." However, keeping track of so many daily reviews can be daunting.

"Our business strategy in 2025 is to go all in on AI," said Jeyavarthini Vairakanan, Vice President of Customer Experience at Deriv. "In customer experience, that means automating routine requests so our team instead focuses their expertise where it matters most—helping clients with complex needs that require personal understanding. When we identify trends in feedback, we work with the relevant teams to drive change."

However, not all brokers receive positive reviews organically, neither they resort to fake ones. Almost all brokers track the performance of the traders on their platform and some often approach them, when they are profitable and satisfied with services, seeking reviews. Although these reviews are not fake, their trustworthiness can be questioned.

The Prop Entry

The emphasis on Trustpilot scores intensified when prop trading platforms entered the space. These platforms are unregulated, meaning their services are not guaranteed. They cannot obtain licences from strict jurisdictions like the United Kingdom to demonstrate compliance. However, they must establish trust with traders quickly, which is where Trustpilot plays a role.

You may also like: "Prop Firm Hola Prime Had 1,300+ Trustpilot Reviews Yesterday, but Only 49 Today. What Happened?"

“Trustpilot is a hugely important,” said George Kohler, Managing Director at Alpha Capital Group, a UK-based prop firm. “Right from the start, we have placed a strong emphasis within the company on encouraging customer reviews, including recruiting employees whose sole role is to manage our Trustpilot account.”

Alpha Capital responds to all negative Trustpilot reviews in detail. One of its replies to a 1-star review stated:

"Upon further review and careful consideration of the outcome, we have decided to withdraw your access to our services. During the interview, [you] stated that you never traded EURJPY; however, it is evident that this is the asset from which you accumulated most of your profits. During the interview, you did not provide a sufficient explanation of your trading strategy and did not show proficiency in utilising a strategy on any trading platform."

Trustpilot recently took action against multiple prop trading platforms, taking down "fake" reviews from their profiles. The latest action was against AudaCity Capital, a 12-year-old prop firm, which came only about two weeks after the review website took down "fake" reviews of Hola Prime. Blue Guardian, another prop platform, also faced similar consequences.

Read about TrustPilot's latest actions here: "Trustpilot Did It Again: Removed “Fake” Reviews of 12-Year-Old Prop Firm AudaCity Capital"

Finvasia's Virk further pointed out that "Offshore or less-regulated brokers (now many prop firms too) started gaming the system by straight-up buying fake reviews. It’s practically become an underground industry now—reviews sold cheaply by the dozen."

"Faking reviews only gets you so far", he added. "Eventually, customers see through the cloud. Just look at how brokers got called out during the WallStreetBets saga, and how it crushed reviews for some very large brokers when users sensed they weren’t being transparent."

Trustpilot also told Finance Magnates that it has identified and requested shutdowns for almost 5,000 review seller sites or social profiles since July 2024. Out of those, over 250 were subsequently taken down. "We condemn the trade in selling fake reviews, and when we’re made aware of review sellers, we investigate the site in question and decide what action to take," a Trustpilot representative said.

The Rise of Alternatives

Many industry insiders are questioning the position of Trustpilot when it comes to the brokerage and prop trading industry. "Trustpilot does not care about our industry," said The5ers' CEO, Saul Lokier. "There have been some recent alternatives to Trustpilot. They ensure that you are a verified user of the company and that both positive and negative reviews are authentic."

Indeed, some industry segments are shifting away from Trustpilot and towards more specialised platforms. In the prop trading industry, one such platform is PropFirmMatch, which reviews firms and even tracks payout times. There are also multiple platforms for reviews of brokers: one is Forex Pace Army that is exclusively adds retail trading platforms and also highlights regulatory warnings against the brokers, if any. It also faces the menace of fake reviews, but actively removes them. The platform removed the fake reviews from the profile of IC Markets and also put out a notice on the action.

Although Trustpilot has a higher authority than any niche review platforms, it covers all industries. However, the trading industry-specific platforms, despite facing the same fake review issues, are more flexible on addressing them. For instance, PropFirmMatch was quick enough to flag prop firms in the past as soon as genuine users complain about payout delays or cancellations.