Trustpilot’s 2026 review removals in Instagram growth
The same Trustpilot profiles, counted on the same dates, before and after two sweeps in late August and late October 2026. Virallized, which runs this site, is in the table too.
Published · Trustpilot figures read 26 October 2026 · Written by the Virallized team
Short version: Between our reads on 18 and 26 October 2026, six Instagram growth services had 679 fewer Trustpilot reviews between them: UpGrow 470, Path Social 92, Outfame 61, Plixi 41, Ascend Viral 8 and Virallized 7.
Three of them, Path Social, Plixi and UpGrow, have shown no Trustpilot rating since a first sweep in late August. Each profile says “We’ve removed a number of fake reviews for this company.” Those three have 975 fewer reviews than on 19 August 2026.
Virallized runs this site. Its profile lost 7 reviews, all of them five-star, and still rates 4.8 with no notice.
October: 679 fewer reviews across six profiles
We read these profiles on 18 October 2026 for the rankings on virallized.com, again on 23 October, and again for this page on 26 October. Almost all of the fall came between the first two reads: our own profile lost its reviews between 21 and 23 October.
| Service | 18 Oct | 23 Oct | 26 Oct | Change | Share | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UpGrow | 3,768 | 3,298 | 3,298 | −470 | 12.5% | |
| Path Social | 1,399 | 1,311 | 1,307 | −92 | 6.6% | |
| Outfame | 229 | 168 | 168 | −61 | 26.6% | 2.1was 2.5 |
| Plixi | 393 | 354 | 352 | −41 | 10.4% | |
| Ascend Viral | 206read 19 Oct | 198 | 198 | −8 | 3.9% | 3.7was 4.3 |
| Virallizedruns this site | 100 | 93 | 93 | −7 | 7.0% | 4.8no change |
| All six | 6,095 | 5,422 | 5,416 | −679 | 11.1% |
Total reviews on each public Trustpilot profile, all languages, on the dates shown; the names link to the profiles. Rating is what each profile showed on 26 October 2026. UpGrow’s profile now sits at www.upgrow.com, and the old address forwards there. Ascend Viral was not re-read on 18 Oct, so its first October figure is from 19 Oct. Virallized’s count is read from its live profile at every build of virallized.com: 100 from 15 Oct to 21 Oct, then 99 on 21 Oct, 98 on 22 Oct and 93 on 23 Oct.
Outfame lost the largest share, more than a quarter of its reviews, and its rating fell from 2.5 to 2.1. UpGrow lost the most: 470 reviews.
Over the same days a few other profiles we follow fell by fewer than ten reviews. Social Boost stayed at 393 on all three October reads, and Upleap (150), Nitreo (148), Flock Social (62), Kenji (28) and Ampfluence (6) showed the same counts on 23 and 26 October as in August. Kicksta rose, from 627 to 629.
August: three ratings withheld
The first sweep came between our reads on 19 and 27 August 2026. By then Trustpilot had replaced the ratings of Path Social, Plixi and UpGrow with “This company’s rating is unavailable due to a breach of our guidelines.” Under it, each profile says “We’ve removed a number of fake reviews for this company.” Both notices were still on all three profiles on 26 October 2026.
| Service | 19 Aug | 27 Aug | 23 Sep | 18 Oct | 26 Oct | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UpGrowrated 3.1 on 19 Aug | 3,800 | 3,799 | 3,789 | 3,768 | 3,298 | −502 |
| Path Socialrated 3.3 on 19 Aug | 1,649 | 1,491 | 1,401 | 1,399 | 1,307 | −342 |
| Plixirated 3.2 on 19 Aug | 483 | 419 | 388 | 393 | 352 | −131 |
| All three | 5,932 | 5,709 | 5,578 | 5,560 | 4,957 | −975 |
Total reviews on each public Trustpilot profile, all languages, on the dates shown. Each change is net: new reviews kept arriving while others came off, which is why Plixi rose between 23 Sep and 18 Oct.
UpGrow lost only one review in August, along with its rating. Most of its fall came in October, when it lost 470 between our 18 Oct and 23 Oct reads. Ascend Viral kept its rating through August, while its count went from 234 on 19 Aug to 224 on 27 Aug and 210 on 23 Sep.
Checked against the Internet Archive
The Wayback Machine holds no usable copy of these profiles from October. Trustpilot blocks most archive captures: the archive’s copy of Virallized’s own profile from 2 October shows only Trustpilot’s “Verifying Connection” page, and a save we requested on 26 October 2026 failed. So the October figures above are our own reads.
The archive does hold Path Social and Plixi from 8 February 2026, and anyone can open those copies.
| Profile | Reviews | Five-star | One-star |
|---|---|---|---|
| Path SocialWayback copy, 8 Feb | 1,340 | 264 | 1,029 |
| Path Sociallive, 26 Oct | 1,307 | 184 | 1,082 |
| PlixiWayback copy, 8 Feb | 324 | 31 | 277 |
| Plixilive, 26 Oct | 352 | 10 | 333 |
Archive copies from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, captured 8 February 2026; the figures are the ones in each archived page. Live figures read 26 October 2026.
Path Social has fewer reviews now than in February, after climbing to 1,649 by August, and 80 fewer five-star reviews. Plixi has 21 fewer five-star reviews than in February. A five-star count only falls when five-star reviews are removed, deleted by the people who wrote them, or changed to a lower rating.
The February copies also show the ratings rising before the sweep. Path Social rated 2.3 and Plixi 2.1 in February. On our 19 Aug read they rated 3.3 and 3.2. By 27 Aug both ratings were withheld.
Our own profile
Virallized runs this site and is one of the six, so its figures are here on the same terms. Its count went from 100 reviews (96 five-star) to 93 (89 five-star) between 21 and 23 October 2026. All 7 of the reviews that came off were five-star. The rating stayed at 4.8, and the profile shows no notice.
Trustpilot’s profile pages do not list which reviews came off. Virallized’s Trustpilot profile is open to check.
What the notices mean
Trustpilot explains its warnings in its help article on consumer warnings. It places one on a business’s profile when the business misuses the platform, for example by fabricating reviews, and keeps it until the misuse stops and a reasonable time has passed.
A withheld rating and a falling count are different things. Path Social, Plixi and UpGrow carry the notice. Outfame, Ascend Viral and Virallized lost reviews in October without one, and all three still show a rating.
Trustpilot acts under its own guidelines, as its notice says. Fake reviews are also a legal matter: in the US, the Federal Trade Commission’s 2024 rule banning fake reviews and testimonials applies to the businesses that write or buy them.
Checking a growth service yourself
A Trustpilot count can change in a day, so check any service against your own account too. Instagram’s Help Centre covers each step.
- Before paying. Open the service’s Trustpilot profile and look for a notice above the reviews. Then sort by most recent and read the one- and two-star reviews first.
- On day one. Note your follower count and the reach of your last few posts, then compare them later in Instagram’s free insights, which cover any period in the last 90 days.
- After the first week. Open Account Status in Instagram’s settings. Instagram says it shows whether anything on the account goes against its rules and may lead to restrictions.
- If spam accounts arrive. Instagram filters followers that are likely to be spam into a Potential spam list that can be cleared in one go (Instagram Help Centre).
Instagram also lists the accounts it may not recommend to people who do not follow them. One kind it names: “Repeatedly engaged in misleading practices to build followings, such as purchasing ‘likes’.” (Recommendations on Instagram).
How these figures were read
Each figure is the total Trustpilot shows on the company’s public profile, with reviews in every language included, on the date shown. Star counts come from the same page.
The reads from 19 August 2026 to 23 October 2026 were made for the rankings on virallized.com and published there with their dates. The 26 October 2026 read was made for this page. Virallized’s own count is read from its live profile at every build of virallized.com.
Every read on this page is in one file: download the data (CSV). This page is published by Virallized, which competes with every other service named here. How this site works.
Common questions
Did Trustpilot remove fake reviews from Instagram growth services in 2026?
For three of them it says so on their profiles. Since late August 2026, Path Social, Plixi and UpGrow have shown no rating and carry Trustpilot’s notice “We’ve removed a number of fake reviews for this company.” Between 18 and 26 October 2026, those three, Outfame, Ascend Viral and Virallized had 679 fewer reviews between them.
Which Instagram growth service lost the most Trustpilot reviews?
UpGrow: 470 fewer between 18 and 26 October 2026, and 502 fewer since 19 August 2026. Its rating has been withheld since late August.
Why does Path Social have no Trustpilot rating?
Trustpilot withheld it in late August 2026. The profile says “This company’s rating is unavailable due to a breach of our guidelines.” and “We’ve removed a number of fake reviews for this company.” Both notices were still there on 26 October 2026.
Did Virallized lose Trustpilot reviews too?
Yes. Its count fell from 100 to 93 between 21 and 23 October 2026, and all 7 were five-star reviews. The rating stayed at 4.8 with no notice on the profile. Virallized runs this site.
Keep reading
Sources checked 25 October 2026
Primary sources cited on this page, besides the Trustpilot profiles linked beside each rating.
- Trustpilot Help Center: Trustpilot Consumer Warnings and Alerts
- US Federal Trade Commission: Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials (14 August 2024)
- Instagram Help Centre: View account and content insights on Instagram
- Instagram Help Centre: Check your Account Status on Instagram
- Instagram Help Centre: How to remove spam or bot followers on Instagram
- Instagram Help Centre: Recommendations on Instagram