These solve two different problems. Glowing Reviews shows the Google reviews your business already has, self-hosted in WordPress, with no new platform for customers to sign up for. The Trustpilot widget shows reviews collected on Trustpilot's own site, which means building a separate review history there first. Here is the honest difference, so you pick the one that matches what you actually need.
Competitor details based on publicly available information, checked July 2026
Self-hosted in WordPress
Choose Glowing Reviews if your business already has real reviews on its Google Business Profile and you want them showing on your WordPress site today, self-hosted, with no external account. Choose the Trustpilot widget if you want an independent, third-party-verified review network separate from Google, and you are willing to invite customers to write new reviews on Trustpilot.com to build that history.
The starting point is different: one displays reviews you already have, the other collects new ones on a separate platform. Everything else follows from that.
| What matters | Glowing Reviews (Free) | Glowing Reviews (Pro) | Trustpilot widget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Review source | Your existing Google reviews | Your existing Google reviews | New reviews collected on Trustpilot.com |
| Delivery model | WordPress plugin | WordPress plugin | SaaS platform + embeddable TrustBox widget |
| Where review data lives | Your WordPress database | Your WordPress database | Trustpilot servers |
| External account required | No | No | Yes, a Trustpilot business account |
| Requires inviting customers to a new platform | No, uses reviews you already have | No, uses reviews you already have | Yes, to build a Trustpilot review history |
| Google API key required | No | No | No, not applicable |
| CSV / JSON review import | Yes, for any source including exported Trustpilot data | Yes, for any source including exported Trustpilot data | Not applicable |
| Review slider / carousel | Grid only | Yes | Yes |
| Recurring subscription | Free forever | One price per year | Subscription tiers, verify current plans on Trustpilot's site |
| Best for | Showing Google reviews you already have | Agencies, multi-display sites | Building an independent, cross-platform trust badge |
Competitor details based on publicly available information and may change. Verify current Trustpilot features and pricing on their official site.
If your business already has genuine reviews sitting on Google, Glowing Reviews imports and displays them with nothing new to collect. If you are starting a review program from scratch, or want reviews independent of Google, Trustpilot's invitation workflow is built for that from the ground up.
Glowing Reviews stores imported reviews in your own WordPress database on your own server. Trustpilot reviews live on Trustpilot's platform, and the TrustBox widget loads from Trustpilot's servers on every page view, so your display depends on that service staying active.
Glowing Reviews Free covers the core grid at no cost, and Pro is a single yearly price. Trustpilot uses tiered subscription pricing for its business features; check their site for current plans before comparing total cost over a few years.
Some review widgets imply that displaying your reviews will produce gold stars in Google search results. That is rarely true. Google treats reviews a business shows about itself, on its own site, as self-serving, and self-serving reviews are not eligible for review rich results. This applies whether the reviews come from Google, Trustpilot, or any other platform, and to every review plugin or widget, including ours. What both tools genuinely deliver is on-page social proof that builds trust and can lift conversions. We would rather tell you that plainly than sell a snippet that Google does not grant.
It depends on what you already have. If your business already has real reviews on Google, Glowing Reviews displays them on your WordPress site in minutes with no new platform to sign up for. Trustpilot is an independent review network; using its widget means building a review history there first.
No. Glowing Reviews imports from your public Google Business Profile or Maps listing. The Trustpilot widget, or TrustBox, shows reviews customers wrote directly on Trustpilot.com after an invitation. They are two separate review pools.
Yes, through the CSV/JSON importer. Export your Trustpilot reviews to a file, map the columns, and Glowing Reviews will display them in the same self-hosted layouts used for your Google reviews. It does not pull live from Trustpilot's API.
Generally no. Reviews a business shows about itself are self-serving and not eligible for Google review rich results, regardless of whether they come from Google, Trustpilot, or elsewhere. Both still provide real on-page social proof.
Reviewer photos are free-to-use sample portraits shown to illustrate the layout.
