Reliable Customer Reviews - How We Verify Authenticity

Users who have had actual experience with providers listed on hosttest can submit reviews. In the review, users (hereinafter referred to as reviewers) can rate up to 5 stars for individual categories such as reliability, speed, usability, support, and value for money. The individual rating displayed is the sum of the stars awarded, divided by the number of categories. Additionally, the reviewer can describe their experiences with the service in a comment, provide details about themselves, their domain, and the package they booked. The overall rating takes into account the average of all reviews received on hosttest in the last 5 years.

Hosttest does not offer any benefits or incentives for submitting reviews. We also do not reward the retraction of negative reviews.

Furthermore, our review guidelines apply when submitting reviews.

Quality Assurance of Reviews

To ensure that visitors can rely on the authenticity of the reviews, we implement various measures for high-quality assurance.

• We publish all reviews, both positive and negative.
• Every reviewer who submits a review must verify their email address upon completion of their review. This is done via an activation link sent to the email address provided during the review.
• Before publication, an automatic word filter checks if the review contains insults or manipulations.
• Inconspicuous reviews are promptly approved and published after verification of the reviewer's email address.
• Conspicuous reviews are not immediately approved and may undergo manual review.
• If the review shows no irregularities and has been approved, the provider is informed of the new review. If the provider believes the review violates our review guidelines, for example, if the reviewer is unknown, the provider can request a review within 90 days. During the review process, the review is hidden. To review the complaint, we contact the reviewer and ask them to provide us with written evidence for the review. Once we have received conclusive evidence from both parties (provider and reviewer), we decide whether to republish the review or keep it deactivated. If the reviewer does not respond to us, we are obligated to delete the review. An overview of reported reviews and their outcomes can be found in the transparency statistics of the respective provider.
• Visitors to hosttest can also report conspicuous reviews via the provider's profile pages. Subsequently, we manually review the review and may remove it.
• Through a spot check, reviews are checked based on various criteria. This includes, for example, the email address, IP address, specified domain name, company name, or the content of the review. If there are indications of fake and/or manipulated reviews, reviewers and providers are asked to provide explanations and possibly evidence. If suspicions of fake reviews cannot be refuted, they will be deactivated. Providers are then warned and may be suspended in case of repeated violations.

Grade Calculation Based on Star Ratings

Sometimes we display grades associated with our star rating system. The following list shows the calculation of the grade based on the average rating.

5.00 - 4.50 Excellent
4.49 - 3.50 Good
3.49 - 2.50 Satisfactory
2.49 - 1.50 Sufficient
1.49 - 1.00 Unsatisfactory

Does every provider have to be reviewed on hosttest?

The provider can choose to deactivate the public review function. If activated, any visitor can write a review. If deactivated, only users invited by the provider can participate in the review. The user will be informed accordingly on the provider's profile page and transparency statistics once the provider has deactivated the public review function.

Are external reviews from other platforms taken into account?

hosttest offers providers the technical option to display reviews from external platforms in their profile (platform, average rating, and total number of reviews). These reviews cannot be verified as they were collected on external review platforms. Therefore, these reviews are not included in the overall rating of the provider.