Fakespot is gone: Mozilla shut it down on July 1, 2025, and the two tools most lists still recommend in its place, ReviewMeta and TheReviewIndex, did not load when we tried them. The Fakespot alternatives that worked on October 7, 2026 are FakeFind, RateBud, Null Fake and SocialCrawl's checker, all free and all Amazon only. We pasted the same Amazon listing into each one and wrote down what came back, how long it took and where each tool fell short.
Short version. For a quick verdict on an Amazon listing, paste the link into FakeFind (a 1 to 10 score in under a minute) or RateBud (an A to F grade, plus Chrome and Firefox extensions). Null Fake gave the most detailed written report but took several minutes and returned no grade on our second product. SocialCrawl's checker is the most upfront about its sample: it told us it had read 8 reviews. To check one review from any other site, our free fake review checker scores text you paste. Every tool below was opened and run on October 7, 2026.
Reviewed by Nicolas Provost, founder of Reviewz.ai. Insights based on auditing 500+ Shopify review setups and analyzing public pricing, schema, and conversion data across the leading review platforms. LinkedIn
What happened to Fakespot
Mozilla bought Fakespot in 2023 and announced the end of it on May 22, 2025, in a post titled Investing in what moves the internet forward. The dates in that post are the ones to remember:
- June 10, 2025: Review Checker, the Fakespot feature built into Firefox, was switched off.
- July 1, 2025: the Fakespot extensions, mobile apps and website stopped working.
Mozilla's explanation was short. It said the idea resonated with people, but "it didn't fit a model we could sustain," and that the company was refocusing on Firefox.
There is no official successor: the post points to no replacement.
ReviewMeta and TheReviewIndex did not load either
Most lists of Fakespot alternatives were written before the shutdown and still send you to two older tools. We tried both on October 7, 2026:
- ReviewMeta (reviewmeta.com) returned a raw 403 error instead of a page, in a normal browser.
- TheReviewIndex (thereviewindex.com) returned a 502 server error.
We cannot say whether either is gone for good, only that neither was usable on the day we tested, so both are off the list. If you came here for a ReviewMeta alternative, the tools below do the same job: you give them an Amazon link, they return a trust grade and an adjusted rating.
How we tested
We took one well-known Amazon listing, the Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 in the 6 quart size, and pasted its link into every tool on October 7, 2026. We used the web version of each tool with no account. We did not install browser extensions, so when a tool offers one we say so, but our notes describe the website.
A product this popular is a fair baseline: a good checker should say it looks clean. All four did, with different numbers.
The Fakespot alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Where it runs | What you give it | What you get | Price | Limit we ran into |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FakeFind | Website, Chrome extension | Amazon product link | Score from 1 to 10, adjusted rating, short summary | Free, no account | Results page lists other products with shop buttons |
| RateBud | Website, Chrome and Firefox extensions | Amazon product link | A to F grade, 0 to 100 trust score, written analysis | Free, no account | Showed us an analysis dated February 13, 2026 |
| Null Fake | Website, Chrome extension, Firefox add-on | Amazon product link | A to F grade, estimated share of fake reviews, adjusted rating, long report | Free, no account | Several minutes on one product, no grade on another |
| SocialCrawl checker | Website | Amazon link, product code or product name | A to F grade, 0 to 100 score, four signals, the reviews it read | Free, no login | Based on the 8 most recent reviews |
| Reviewz fake review checker | Website | The text of one review, from any site | Suspicion score from 0 to 100 and the red flags found | Free, no account | Does not fetch a listing, reads only what you paste |
The 5 Fakespot alternatives we tested
1. FakeFind: the fastest answer
FakeFind is the closest thing to the old Fakespot website. You paste an Amazon link, press Analyze, and a results page appears in well under a minute. For our test product it returned a FakeFind Score of 8 out of 10, an adjusted rating of 4.5 against the listing's 4.6, and three short paragraphs on authenticity, quality and price. Its FAQ explains the scale: 8 to 10 means mostly authentic reviews, 5 to 7 means some suspicious signals, and below 5 means you should distrust the star rating.
It is free with no account and no stated usage cap. The trade-off is how it pays for itself: FakeFind's FAQ says it earns money through Amazon affiliate links, and the results page lists other products with shop buttons under the verdict. That does not make the score wrong, but you should know the tool earns when you buy.
Best for: a quick yes or no before you add to cart. Runs on: website and a Chrome extension. Price: free.
2. RateBud: a familiar A to F grade, with a Firefox extension
RateBud gives the output Fakespot users are used to: a letter grade from A to F and a trust score out of 100, followed by a written analysis and a breakdown by signal such as review velocity and reviewer credibility. Our test product came back as grade A, 93 out of 100.
Read the date before you trust the grade. The analysis RateBud showed us was dated February 13, 2026, 234 days before our test, and the page said so in small print next to a Re-run analysis button. We pressed it, and when we reloaded several minutes later the page still showed the February analysis. For a product with a long, stable history that matters little. For a new listing that picked up hundreds of reviews last month, an old analysis can miss exactly what you are looking for.
RateBud's FAQ says it supports more than 20 Amazon country sites and that its Chrome and Firefox extensions are desktop only, while the website works in a phone browser. The result page carries an Amazon Associate notice and a Buy on Amazon button.
Best for: Firefox users who lost Review Checker. Runs on: website, Chrome and Firefox extensions. Price: free.
3. Null Fake: the most detailed report, and the slowest
Null Fake is built by Shift8 Web, a Toronto web agency, and it produces the longest report of the group: a letter grade, an estimated percentage of fake reviews, an adjusted rating, and several paragraphs that point at specific reviews. For our test product it returned grade B, an estimate of 15 percent fake reviews, and an adjusted rating of 4.50. It also explained its reasoning, including one review it found templated.
Two things went less well. The site promises 30 to 90 seconds for a first analysis, and ours sat on the review gathering step for several minutes. Then we tried a second product, and Null Fake came back with grade U and a message that no reviews could be extracted, which it attributes to Amazon blocking automated collection. Expect good depth when it works and an occasional blank. One detail to read with care: the report gives an original rating of 4.89, although the listing itself showed 4.6 stars the same day.
Null Fake is free with no account, and its FAQ says there is no native phone app. The report page carries an Amazon Associate notice.
Best for: readers who want to see why, not only a grade. Runs on: website, Chrome extension, Firefox add-on. Price: free.
4. SocialCrawl's checker: the most honest about its sample
SocialCrawl is a data company that sells access to social and shopping data to developers, and its Amazon fake review checker is a free tool on its site. It accepts a link, a product code or just a product name. Within a minute or two it gave our test product grade A, 88 out of 100, with four signals scored separately: share of verified purchases, share of five-star reviews, posting bursts and repeated wording.
What we liked is the sentence under the score. It told us the grade was based on the 8 most recent reviews Amazon returned, and that a small sample is a signal and not a verdict. It then listed the reviews it had read. Eight reviews out of more than 180,000 is thin, and the tool does not pretend otherwise.
Best for: a second opinion with the evidence shown. Runs on: website only. Price: free, no login. Expect a cookie banner and a pop-up on first load.
5. Reviewz fake review checker: one review at a time, from any site
This one is ours, so here is exactly what it does and does not do. The Reviewz fake review checker is not a browser extension and it does not fetch an Amazon listing. You paste the text of a review, and it returns a suspicion score from 0 to 100 with the red flags it found: stacked superlatives, heavy capitals and exclamation marks, generic template phrasing, repeated words, no product specifics, no nuance. It runs in your browser and nothing you paste is uploaded.
It is no use for grading a whole listing. It is useful as an Amazon review checker for the one or two glowing reviews you are unsure about, and it works the same way on a review copied from Walmart, Trustpilot, Google or a Shopify store, where the link-based tools cannot help.
Best for: checking a single suspicious review on any site. Runs on: website. Price: free, no account.
One listing, four verdicts
| Tool | Verdict on the same Instant Pot listing | Reviews it reported |
|---|---|---|
| FakeFind | 8 out of 10, adjusted rating 4.5 | 182,940 |
| RateBud | Grade A, 93 out of 100 (analysis dated February 13, 2026) | 180,091 |
| Null Fake | Grade B, 15 percent estimated fake, adjusted rating 4.50 | 186,255 |
| SocialCrawl checker | Grade A, 88 out of 100 | 8 read |
All four agree on the direction: this listing looks trustworthy. They do not agree on the number, and they were not even looking at the same count of reviews. Use the grade to decide which listings deserve ten minutes of your own reading, and run a second checker when the first one surprises you.
What these tools still cannot do
- They are Amazon only. Every link-based checker we tested describes itself as an Amazon tool.
- Several earn from your purchase. FakeFind says so in its FAQ, and the Null Fake and RateBud result pages carry an Amazon Associate notice.
- They work from what is public on the listing. Platforms look at more than the text, and our guide on how to spot fake Amazon reviews covers how they catch fakes behind the scenes.
- Machine-written reviews are harder. We put 12 AI review detection tools through a separate test.
Check by hand when it matters
For an expensive purchase, a grade is a starting point. Sort the reviews by most recent, read the three-star ones, and open a couple of reviewer profiles. The full list of red flags, with examples, is in how to spot fake Amazon reviews, so we will not repeat it here. To see what an honest review looks like from the writer's side, read how to write a product review.
Fake reviews are also illegal to buy or sell in the United States. The FTC announced its final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials on August 14, 2024, and it lets the agency seek civil penalties against knowing violators.
If you sell online: the fix is real reviews
If you run a store, these checkers show how your own reviews will be judged. What reads as genuine is what fake campaigns cannot copy: reviews tied to real orders, written in the buyer's own words, arriving steadily and not in bursts. See our FTC review rule audit of 50 Shopify stores and why buying Trustpilot reviews backfires.
The honest route is to ask every customer. Reviewz is a Shopify app that does this after each order over WhatsApp, SMS and email. More than 350 Shopify stores use it. It is free to start, and the Starter plan is $59 a month for up to 250 orders (pricing). The wording of the request matters as much as the tool: see how to ask customers for reviews.
Real reviews from real orders: Reviewz asks every customer over WhatsApp, SMS and email.
Install Reviewz on ShopifyFAQ
What happened to Fakespot?
Mozilla, which bought Fakespot in 2023, shut it down. Review Checker in Firefox ended on June 10, 2025, and the Fakespot extensions, mobile apps and website stopped working on July 1, 2025. The address fakespot.com now redirects to Mozilla's announcement.
What is the best Fakespot alternative?
For speed, FakeFind. For a Fakespot-style A to F grade and a Firefox extension, RateBud. For the most detailed written report, Null Fake. All three are free and worked when we tested them on October 7, 2026.
Is ReviewMeta still working?
Not when we tried it. On October 7, 2026, reviewmeta.com returned a 403 error instead of a page. TheReviewIndex returned a 502 server error the same day.
Is there a free Amazon review checker?
Yes. FakeFind, RateBud, Null Fake and SocialCrawl's checker all analyze an Amazon link for free without an account. Reviewz also has a free checker that scores the text of a single review you paste.
Are Amazon review checkers accurate?
They are useful for triage, not proof. On the same listing, four tools gave us four different numbers, from 8 out of 10 to grade B with 15 percent estimated fakes. Treat a bad grade as a reason to read the reviews yourself.
Sources, checked on October 7, 2026:
- Mozilla, Investing in what moves the internet forward (May 22, 2025): Fakespot and Review Checker shutdown dates. Link
- FakeFind: home page, FAQ and our test result. Link
- RateBud: FAQ and our test result. Link
- Null Fake: FAQ, About page and our test result. Link
- SocialCrawl, Amazon fake review checker. Link
- FTC, Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials (August 14, 2024). Link
About the author
Nicolas Provost · Founder of Reviewz.ai
Nicolas built Reviewz.ai after auditing 500+ Shopify review setups while running Kanal (WhatsApp marketing for Shopify). He has spent four years inside the Shopify ecosystem and writes about review collection, brand trust SEO, and the actual economics of running customer-feedback flows on ecommerce sites.
