Reliable customer reviews - how we verify authenticity

Users who have actual experience with providers listed on hosttest can submit reviews. In the review, users (hereinafter referred to as reviewers) can award up to 5 stars for individual categories such as reliability, speed, usability, support and price/performance. The displayed individual rating is the sum of the stars awarded divided by the number of categories. In addition, the reviewer can describe their experiences with the performance in a comment and provide information about themselves, their domain and the package they booked. For the overall rating, the average of all reviews submitted to hosttest within the last 5 years is taken into account.

hosttest offers no benefits or incentives for submitting reviews. We also do not reward the withdrawal of negative reviews.

In addition, our review guidelines apply when submitting reviews.

Quality assurance for reviews

So that visitors can rely on the authenticity of reviews, we take various measures to ensure high quality.

• We publish all reviews, both positive and negative
• Every reviewer who submits a review must confirm their identity after completing their review – either via an activation link sent to the provided email address or by signing in with their Google account.
• Before publication an automated word filter checks whether the review contains insults or attempts at manipulation.
• Non-flagged reviews are activated and published immediately after the check, as soon as the reviewer has confirmed their identity.
• Suspicious reviews are not activated immediately and may be subject to manual review.
• If a review shows no irregularities and has been activated, the provider is notified of the new review. If the provider considers the review to breach our review guidelines—for example because the reviewer is unknown—the provider can request a review of the review within 90 days. During the review process the review will be hidden. To examine the complaint we contact the reviewer and ask them to provide written evidence for the review. Once we have received conclusive evidence from both parties (provider and reviewer), we decide whether the review will be republished or remain deactivated. If the reviewer does not respond to us, we are obliged to delete the review. An overview of reported reviews and their outcomes can be found in the transparency statistics for the respective provider.
• Visitors to hosttest can also report suspicious reviews via the providers' profile pages. The review will then be manually checked by us and removed if necessary.
• Reviews are checked by means of spot checks against various criteria. These include, for example, the email address, IP address, stated domain name, company name or the content of the review. If there are indications of fake and/or manipulated reviews, reviewers and providers will be asked to comment and, if necessary, provide evidence. If the suspicion (for example of fake reviews) cannot be disproved, these reviews will be deactivated. Providers will be warned and suspended in the event of a further breach.

This is how each review is verified:

Step 1 – Identity verification (always required): Each reviewer confirms their identity in one of two ways – either via an email activation link or by signing in with their Google account. Without this step no review will be published.

Step 2 – Domain verification (optional, additional): If the reviewer provides a domain, we additionally check automatically whether it can be technically attributed to the reviewed provider. If this is the case, the review receives the label “Verified domain” – the strongest proof of authenticity on hosttest.

Identity verification via Google account

Since May 2026 reviewers can alternatively verify their review via their Google account. If the reviewer signs in with their Google account, Google confirms the authenticity of the registered e-mail address and identity. This largely excludes disposable addresses and automatically created accounts and increases reliability compared with simple e-mail verification.

Signing in with a Google account confirms the identity of the reviewer – not the existence of a contractual relationship with the reviewed provider. We process only the data necessary for verification in accordance with our privacy policy.

Verified domain – automatic technical attribution

Since July 2026: If a reviewer provides a domain in their review, we automatically check whether that domain is technically attributable to the reviewed provider. For this purpose we evaluate publicly available DNS information – in particular the nameservers configured for the domain and the associated IP assignment.

If these point to the provider’s infrastructure, we label the review with the notice “Verified domain”. This demonstrates that the reviewer controls a domain that demonstrably uses the technical infrastructure of that provider – a considerably stronger proof of authenticity than mere verification via e-mail address or Google account.

We expressly point out: Domain verification confirms the technical attribution to the provider, not necessarily an existing contractual relationship or the period of experience described in the review text. It is an additional trust signal and not a prerequisite for publishing a review.

Grade calculation based on star ratings

We sometimes display school grades alongside our star system. The following list shows the calculation of the school grade based on the average rating.

5.00 - 4.50 Very good
4.49 - 3.50 Good
3.49 - 2.50 Satisfactory
2.49 - 1.50 Sufficient
1.49 - 1.00 Poor

Does every provider have to be reviewed on hosttest?

The provider can decide whether to deactivate the public review feature. If it is activated, any visitor can write a review. If it is deactivated, only users invited by the provider may participate in the review. The user will be informed on the provider's profile page and in the provider's transparency statistics as soon as the provider has deactivated the public review feature.

Are external reviews from other platforms taken into account?

hosttest offers providers the technical option to display reviews from external platforms on 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 provider's overall rating.

Update: June 2026