Everyone in Norway trusts Trustpilot. I've never fully understood it.

Not because the platform is full of fake reviews, though it is, more on that in a second. But because nobody seems to ask the one question that should be obvious: does the person leaving this review actually own the product?

With Trustpilot, the answer could easily be no. With Judge.me, it can only be yes.

The problem with Trustpilot that nobody talks about

Trustpilot is a publicly open platform. Anyone with an email address can find a business listed there and leave a review. You don't need to have bought anything. You don't need to have ever visited the store. You don't even need to know what the company sells.

This isn't a conspiracy theory or an edge case. Trustpilot themselves acknowledge the problem and have entire systems trying to detect fake or incentivised reviews. They work on it. I'm not saying they don't. But the fundamental architecture of the platform is open by design, and that means the problem never fully goes away.

A competitor can leave you a one-star review. An unhappy former employee can do it. A troll who disagrees with something you wrote on Instagram can do it. Someone who once emailed you a question and didn't like the reply can do it. None of those people bought anything. None of them have any direct experience with your products. But the review sits there and counts.

Why I chose Judge.me specifically

When I was setting up the store I looked at all the options. Trustpilot was the obvious choice because everyone in Norway knows it. That brand recognition felt like it would add credibility. I get why people choose it for that reason.

But I kept coming back to the same thing: I sell health devices. Red light panels, grounding mats, blue light glasses. These are things people buy because something isn't working in their body and they're looking for something real. If someone reads a glowing review of a panel and that review was left by someone who never received the thing, I've misled them. I've contributed to a decision made on false information. That's not something I'm willing to do.

Judge.me solves this at the architecture level. The review workflow only begins after a confirmed purchase. The email goes to the buyer's address. The review is tagged as verified. There is no mechanism for someone without a transaction to enter the system. That's the thing that matters.

It also means when a review is critical, I know it's real. Someone bought the product, used it, had a problem, and said so. That's useful. That's information I can actually act on.

What verified reviews look like in practice

The reviews on this site are mostly pretty good, which I'm glad about. But I want to be straight with you: there has been critical feedback. Someone who had a question about delivery that took longer than it should have. Someone who felt the instructions for their first panel setup could have been clearer. Those are fair observations. They're still there. I haven't removed them.

A system where the store owner decides what stays and what goes is almost as bad as an open platform. Judge.me doesn't give me that option for verified buyer reviews. They stay, good or bad. What I can do is respond, which I do.

(If you've had an experience you haven't told me about, negative or positive, the review invitation should have come via email. If you didn't get it or lost it, message me directly. I want to know.)

The Norway angle, and why this matters more here

Trustpilot is Danish. It launched in 2007 and became the default review platform across Scandinavia in a way it never quite did in some other markets. In Norway especially, the green star logo carries real weight. People see it and assume it means something.

I think that trust is somewhat misplaced, and I say that as someone who understands why it developed. There was nothing else. Trustpilot filled a gap and got there early. But "first to market in Scandinavia" is not the same as "most trustworthy."

If you're buying something from an online store in Norway and you want to know whether the products are any good, find the verified buyer reviews. Look for the label. Ask the store directly where their reviews come from. If they can't tell you that every review was left by a confirmed purchaser, that's worth knowing.

What I'd ask you to consider

I'm not asking you to distrust every Trustpilot page you've ever read. Some businesses on there have genuine reviews from genuine customers and the rating reflects reality. I'm asking you to look at the reviews on this site knowing exactly where they came from, because I can tell you precisely: from people who bought something, received it, and responded to a review request. Not one of them could have left a review otherwise.

That's what I want when I read a review. I suspect you want the same.

If you're considering a purchase and want to know about a specific device before you decide, the reviews are there. So am I. Message me and ask what people who've bought it have said. Or ask me what I'd say about it. I test everything with a spectrometer before I'll stock it. I've sent things back when the numbers didn't match the claims. The reviews are one part of the picture.

Nothing on this page is medical advice. The products on this site are for general wellness use. If you have a medical condition, speak to your doctor.