Open methodology
The Trust Score, fully in the open.
No black box. Every company on WelzTrust is scored 0–100 by the same public formula, recomputed nightly.
The formula
Each component is normalised to 0–1, multiplied by its weight, then summed:
trust_score =
verified_ratio × 35
+ (avg_rating / 5) × 30
+ min(1, total / 50) × 15
+ reply_rate × 10
+ recency_decay × 10Component weights
Verified-by-entry ratio
35%
Share of approved reviews left by a confirmed entrant of the draw.
Rating quality
30%
Average star rating across all approved reviews.
Review volume
15%
Capped at 50 reviews — more isn't always more, but a handful isn't enough.
Company reply rate
10%
Companies that engage with feedback score higher.
Recency
10%
Exponential decay from the latest review (180-day half-life).
What we don't do
- We don't accept payment to raise a score.
- We don't downrank companies that don't pay us.
- We don't include unverified-cluster reviews flagged by our anti-fraud model.
When it updates
- Recomputed every night at 03:00 UTC.
- Recomputed on-demand whenever a moderator approves a review.
- Companies with zero approved reviews show as "Not yet rated".
Spotted something wrong?
We publish the formula because we want it stress-tested. If you think a company's score doesn't match reality, file a report and our moderators will investigate.