Is Shopify actually addressing the fake review problem?

Shopify App Store
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Hey everyone,

Apologies – rant incoming. I know this topic has probably been raised before in other posts, but it’s important to bring it up again, because nothing seems to be changing.

I first raised this on the main Community boards, but I wanted to bring it up here too, because it affects every honest developer on the platform. You can read the original discussion here: https://community.shopify.com/t/is-shopify-ever-going-to-take-fake-app-store-reviews-seriously

The fake review problem on the Shopify App Store has got completely out of hand. I woke up this morning to six new emails offering fake reviews within about twelve hours, which shows just how widespread this has become.

Apps are clearly taking advantage of these offers. Reviews that are obviously fabricated, often posted within minutes of installation and using similar wording — or sometimes wording that isn’t even related to the app at all — are still sitting at the top of their categories month after month. Many of these reviews come from boilerplate “review farm” stores that anyone could identify with a quick check.

Meanwhile, genuine developers who spend months or years building quality products, supporting merchants properly, and earning real feedback are being buried under fake five-star ratings.

Shopify says that reviews are monitored and that suspicious activity can be reported, but in practice nothing seems to change. I’ve personally been reporting fake reviews and suspicious patterns for a good few years now, yet the same apps are still thriving on manipulated reviews. There are community threads going all the way back to 2016 saying exactly what we’re all still saying now, which really shows how long this issue has been ignored.

More transparency is also badly needed. It’s confusing that, rather than improving visibility, Shopify has actually taken steps backwards by removing links to the reviewing stores. That change has made it much harder to verify which reviews are real and which are fake. It feels like we’ve lost one of the few simple tools developers had to spot suspicious activity.

So my question is simple: is Shopify actually doing anything to tackle this problem?

It’s not just hurting honest developers, it’s also damaging merchant trust in the App Store as a whole. I’d really like to hear if anyone has seen any sign of progress or communication from Shopify on this (beyond the quiet removal of non-paid store reviews a few months ago), or if anyone has anything to add.

This isn’t meant as an attack on Shopify or anyone on the team. I know moderation and fraud prevention are challenging, and I completely understand that it’s not a simple problem to solve. But as developers who care deeply about the platform, we just want to see some transparency and real movement on an issue that’s been holding back honest apps for far too long.

Ollie

P.S. Having a dedicated email address or form where developers can forward fake review offers would be a simple and helpful first step for Shopify to take. It’s by no means a complete solution, but it would at least show that the issue is being taken seriously and help gather evidence on where these reviews are coming from.

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Agree with everything above.

I also get dozens of emails offering fake reviews. And I struggle with visibility on the app store, although I think I have a quality app. The same app for WordPress and JS has 30k sales on Codecanyon. Here it gets only couple of installs per day, despite having the the free plan, free trial for paid plans, optimized app listing, google ads, youtube videos about the app etc.

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Hey, completely feel the same. It’s disheartening seeing how much effort goes into building and promoting a genuinely good app, only to be buried under fake five-star listings that everyone knows are dodgy. The lack of visibility for honest apps is a huge problem, and it’s frustrating that Shopify still hasn’t introduced any proper system for reporting or verifying reviews. Hopefully, more of us speaking up will get some attention on it.

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Just to add — I had another six fake review offer emails come through today, all from the same “marketing” domain. It really shows how automated and widespread this has become. Has anyone else been getting a similar wave lately?

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Just adding a quick follow-up to keep this in view, as it’s still very much an active issue.

Over the past week I’ve had even more fake review offers come through, and I’m still seeing the same patterns across the App Store. The apps benefiting from these reviews are continuing to climb the rankings, while those of us playing by the rules are left at a disadvantage.

If anyone has heard anything from Shopify, even unofficially, about steps being taken behind the scenes, it would be good to know. At the moment it still feels like we’re all guessing.

Would be great to hear from other developers who are noticing the same thing, or who have ideas on how we can push for more visibility on this. The more noise we make about it, the harder it is for the issue to be ignored.

Ollie

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Just a quick update from my side. Since posting this, I haven’t seen any movement from Shopify at all. I’m still getting the same stream of fake review offer emails, and there’s still nowhere to send them. Even having a simple address where I could forward these offers would be a small but meaningful first step, yet there’s been no sign of anything like that.

What worries me even more is that a few developers I’ve spoken with privately have said they’re starting to feel the only way to keep up is to use fake reviews themselves. When honest developers reach that point, it shows how badly the system is tilting. I’m sticking with genuine reviews as always, because I’m hoping that if Shopify eventually steps in, it will have been worth holding the line.

If anyone is interested, I’m also looking into setting up a Slack group for developers who want to stay on the honest side of things. It could be a useful place to share information, compare notes, and support each other while this mess continues. If that sounds helpful, let me know and I’ll put something together.

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No updates or progress at all on the fake review issue. The apps I’ve reported and am monitoring are still growing with obviously fake reviews, and Shopify doesn’t seem interested in taking any action.

Shopify, can you please step in and address this?