Ratings check: what Trustpilot and App Store numbers say about scholarship sites

The numbers

All figures were. Ratings change daily.

• Bold.org: Trustpilot 4.8 from 218 reviews, claimed profile since May 2026. App Store 4.7 out of 5 from 3.2K ratings. The homepage also shows a badge reading "4.9 26k+ verified reviews" without naming the platform.
• ScholarshipOwl: Trustpilot 4.2 from 1,260 reviews, claimed since May 2015, with a note that it pays for a Trustpilot subscription. App Store 4.7 out of 5 from 228 ratings. The homepage shows a badge reading "4.4 1K+ Reviews" without naming the platform.
• Fastweb: Trustpilot 1.2 from 232 reviews on an unclaimed profile. App Store 2.7 out of 5 from 85 ratings.
• Scholarships.com: App Store 5.0 out of 5 from 5 ratings. Trustpilot 2.9 from 2 reviews.
• Niche: Trustpilot 1.7 from 18 reviews, on an unclaimed profile filed under "SEO Service", which may not be about the scholarship product at all.

How to read them

Look at three things before the average.

The count. Five ratings tell you almost nothing; three thousand tell you something. Scholarships.com's perfect 5.0 from five ratings and 2.9 from two reviews cancel out into "not enough data".

Whether the profile is claimed. A claimed Trustpilot profile means the company manages it and can invite reviews. An unclaimed one collects only reviews people find their way to, which tends to skew toward complaints. ScholarshipOwl's profile notes a paid Trustpilot subscription, which is worth knowing when you read it.

The category. A profile in the wrong category, as with Niche's, may mix reviews of different products.

Badges on a site's own homepage

Both Bold.org and ScholarshipOwl show rating badges on their homepages without naming the platform in the text we read. A badge is the site describing itself. Prefer the figures you can check on the rating platform.

What ratings measure

Ratings describe how people felt about using a service: ease, support, billing, emails. They do not measure how many scholarships users won. A site can be pleasant and win you nothing, or clunky and lead to an award.

How we use ratings in our scores

Ratings are one of eight criteria, weighted 5%, because samples are small or uneven and they rate experience rather than results. On that criterion Bold.org scores highest in the scored set and Fastweb lowest. The scoring rules explain the weight.

A better test than any rating

Ask people you know: a counselor, older students, a parent group. Ask what they used, what they won, and what they would not use again. One concrete answer from someone you trust is worth more than an average from strangers.

When ratings should change your mind

A very low average across hundreds of reviews is a reason to read the complaints and see whether they are about something you care about, such as billing, spam email or listings that are out of date. A high average across thousands is a reason for some confidence in the experience, though not in your odds.

Reading individual reviews

If you read reviews, sort by most recent and look for patterns rather than single stories. Useful questions: Is the complaint about billing, about emails, about listings, or about not winning? Did the company reply? Is the review about the same product you are considering? Billing complaints matter most for paid services, so read those before a free trial ends. Complaints about not winning are common for every site and say little, because no site picks winners.

The date matters

Every figure in this post was. Check the platform yourself for current numbers before you decide.

Where to look next

Our reviews list each site's ratings with the date we read them and a link to the profile, so you can check the current figures yourself.