Reliable customer reviews - how we verify authenticity

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

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

Furthermore, our review guidelines apply when submitting reviews.

Quality assurance of reviews

So that you as a visitor can rely on the authenticity of the reviews, we employ a range of measures to ensure a high level of quality assurance.

• We publish all reviews, positive as well as negative
• Every reviewer who submits a review must confirm their identity after completing their review – either via an email activation link sent to the address provided or by signing in with their Google account.
• Before publication an automatic word filter checks whether the review contains insults or manipulation.
• Non‑suspicious reviews are approved and published immediately after the check, once the reviewer has confirmed their identity.
• Suspicious reviews are not published immediately and, if applicable, are subject to manual review.
• If a review shows no signs of irregularity and has been published, the provider is notified of the new review. If the provider believes the review violates our review guidelines (for example because the reviewer is unknown), the provider can request a re‑examination of the review within 90 days. While a review is under investigation it is concealed. To examine the complaint we contact the reviewer and ask them to send written evidence supporting the review. Once we have received final evidence from both parties (provider and reviewer), we decide whether the review will be republished or remain disabled. 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 of 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 using spot checks based on various criteria. These include, for example, the email address, the IP address, the stated 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 comment and, if applicable, to provide evidence. If suspicions of, for example, fake reviews cannot be dispelled, they will be disabled. Providers will be warned and suspended in the event of a repeat offence.

This is how each review is verified:

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

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 so, 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 email address and identity. This largely excludes disposable addresses and automatically created accounts and increases reliability compared with simple email verification.

Signing in with a Google account confirms the reviewer's identity – 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 with their review, we automatically check whether that domain can be technically attributed to the reviewed provider. For this we evaluate publicly available DNS information – in particular the nameservers assigned to the domain and the associated IP assignment.

If these point to the provider's infrastructure, we label the review with the note “Verified Domain”. This provides verifiable evidence that the reviewer controls a domain that demonstrably uses the technical infrastructure of that provider – a significantly stronger proof of authenticity than simple verification via email 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 timeframe described in the review text. It is an additional trust signal and not a prerequisite for publishing a review.

Grade calculation based on the star rating

In some cases we 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 disable the public review function. If it is enabled, any visitor can write a review. If it is disabled, only users invited by the provider can participate in the review. Users will be notified on the provider's profile page and in the provider's transparency statistics as soon as the provider has disabled the public review function.

Are external reviews from other platforms taken into account?

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

Update: June 2026