How We Calculate Trust Scores: Peptigrity Review Methodology

Peptigrity’s Trust Score is a 0–5 weighted composite of community review average (40%) and independent HPLC purity average (60%), calculated from 2 data sources. As of March 2026, the platform covers peptide shops with independent lab tests and community reviews (currently 131 shops, 600+ lab tests, and 1,038+ reviews—growing with every new submission). The formula auto-recalculates with every new review or lab test—no manual update cycle, no editorial intervention.

The peptide market has no regulatory body that enforces vendor quality standards for research-grade products. Buyers choose between vendors with no standardised way to compare quality, reliability, or product authenticity. INTERPOL’s Operation Pangea XVII (December 2024–May 2025) seized 50.4 million doses of illicit pharmaceuticals across 90 countries, with peptide supplements flagged as an emerging enforcement category. Peptigrity’s trust score exists to solve the information asymmetry that enables these problems: it condenses community reviews and independent HPLC purity tests into a single, transparent quality indicator.

This article expands on the concise methodology published at peptigrity.com/general-rules. It explains why the formula works the way it does, how each input is collected and verified, how to interpret scores when choosing a vendor, and where the system’s limitations lie. For the broader buyer verification framework, see How to Verify Peptide Quality Before You Buy and What to Look for in a Peptide Shop: A Buyer’s Checklist.

What Is the Peptigrity Trust Score?

The Peptigrity Trust Score is a 0–5 quality indicator derived from 2 inputs: the community review average (40% weight) and the HPLC purity average normalised to a 5-point scale (60% weight). It is displayed on every shop listing in the peptide shop directory.

The trust score measures product quality (through independent lab data) and buyer experience (through community reviews). It does not measure or factor in shop age, listing date, product selection, pricing, website design, or social media presence. The calculation uses only 2 inputs—review ratings and HPLC purity data—because these are the 2 data points that can be independently verified and are hardest to fabricate.

Score Interpretation Scale

For scam-specific warning signs that a low trust score might indicate, see How to Spot a Scam Peptide Shop: Warning Signs & Red Flags.

Why Does HPLC Purity Carry 60% Weight?

HPLC analysis provides objective, analytically verifiable data—a laboratory number that cannot be gamed through marketing, astroturfing, or social media presence. Community reviews capture subjective buyer experience (delivery speed, customer service, packaging quality, pricing) but can be influenced by individual expectations, one-off experiences, or coordinated review campaigns.

The 60% purity weight ensures the trust score is anchored in analytical chemistry, not popularity. The study “Peptide Impurities in Commercial Synthetic Peptides” (PMC2238048) demonstrated that contamination at levels as low as 1% of total peptide weight produced measurable biological effects in T-cell assays—confirming that even small differences in purity percentages carry real consequences for research outcomes.

The normalisation process converts HPLC purity percentages to the 5-point scale. A shop with an average HPLC purity of 99.5% across 50 tests scores higher on the purity component than a shop averaging 95.2% across 10 tests. Both the average value and the number of tests matter—more tests produce more stable averages.

Why not 50/50 or 80/20? A 50/50 split would give equal weight to subjective opinions and objective laboratory data—undermining the reliability advantage of analytical testing. An 80/20 split would make community reviews nearly irrelevant, losing valuable information about delivery, service, and real-world purchasing experience. The 40/60 balance ensures both data types contribute meaningfully while prioritising the harder-to-fake input.

How Does the Sliding Weight System Work?

Peptigrity uses 3 weight configurations based on data availability, ensuring every shop with at least 1 data point receives a score.

A shop with 49 lab tests averaging 99.4% purity AND 169 reviews scores differently from a shop with 0 lab tests and 25 reviews. The badge tells you which configuration applies. Readers should prioritise ✓ Lab Verified shops—they have the most complete verification profile. Browse all peptide shops ranked by trust score.

What Do the 5 Review Sub-Ratings Measure?

Each community review on Peptigrity rates the shop across 5 dimensions, each scored 1–5.

1.    Overall — general satisfaction with the entire purchase experience.

2.    Quality — product purity, consistency across orders, packaging condition on arrival, and physical appearance of the lyophilised peptide.

3.    Delivery — shipping speed, tracking accuracy, cold chain compliance (insulated packaging, ice packs), and packaging integrity.

4.    Service — customer support responsiveness, technical competence, pre-sale transparency, and dispute resolution.

5.    Pricing — value relative to product quality and market rates for the specific peptide.

Each review also includes a “Would buy again” yes/no indicator and free-text descriptions for each sub-rating category. The aggregate across all sub-ratings forms the review average that constitutes 40% (or 100% for ⚠ Reviews Only shops) of the trust score. Read community buyer reviews to see the sub-ratings in practice.

How Does Peptigrity Collect and Verify Lab Test Data?

Lab tests are submitted by registered community members through the submission form at peptigrity.com/add/lab-test. The Peptigrity team verifies that the submitted data matches the Certificate of Analysis image and that the testing laboratory is identifiable before publication.

What Each Lab Test Includes

Every lab test entry displays: peptide name, brand/shop name, HPLC purity percentage, stated quantity (label) vs tested quantity (actual), endotoxin level (when tested), testing laboratory name, test date, batch ID (when available), and an image of the Certificate of Analysis.

The stated vs actual quantity comparison is one of the most valuable data points on the platform. A vial labelled 10 mg that tests at 7.2 mg actual content is 28% underdosed—a common form of peptide fraud invisible without independent testing. The review “Related impurities in peptide medicines” (International Journal of Pharmaceutics) confirms that counter-ion contamination and residual solvents routinely contribute to the gap between labelled weight and actual peptide content.

Testing Laboratory Independence

Peptigrity publishes only tests from third-party laboratories with no financial relationship to the shop being tested. In-house vendor testing is not accepted. The 9 laboratories currently listed on peptigrity.com/testing-labs include Janoshik Analytical (Czech Republic), Chromate (USA), peptidetest (USA), MZ Biolabs (USA), Freedom Diagnostics (USA), Liquilabs (Czech Republic), Lab4Tox (Poland), Trust Pointe Analytics (USA), and Vanguard Laboratory (USA).

Publication Transparency

All lab test results are published regardless of outcome. A test showing 85% purity receives the same treatment as a test showing 99%. Low purity results are not hidden, delayed, or deprioritised. This transparency is essential for the trust score’s credibility—if only high-purity results appeared, the purity averages would be meaningless. To submit your own results, visit peptigrity.com/add/lab-test. For instructions on sending a sample to a lab, see how to test peptides independently.

How Are Reviews Moderated on Peptigrity?

Reviews are moderated against 4 criteria before publication: relevance, registration, prohibited content, and duplication. Reviews meeting all 4 criteria are published without editing. Peptigrity never modifies review text.

Relevance: the review relates to the shop being reviewed. Registration: the reviewer has a registered Peptigrity account (username + email + password; email never displayed publicly). Prohibited content: no personal information, threats, hate speech, or illegal content. Duplication: the reviewer has not already reviewed this shop (limit of 1 review per shop per user).

Published reviews are permanent. Reviews cannot be edited after submission. A review can be removed only if the reviewer requests removal through Contact Us for a valid reason, such as the review being posted on the wrong shop page. Negative reviews are not suppressed, deprioritised, or modified. This permanence policy ensures the review data that forms 40% of the trust score is tamper-resistant.

The moderation standard is deliberately minimal: Peptigrity moderates for abuse, not for opinion. A review that rates a shop 1/5 across all sub-ratings and writes “terrible product, arrived degraded” is published exactly as submitted. A review that rates 5/5 and writes “perfect quality, fast delivery” is also published exactly as submitted. Both contribute equally to the review average. This approach means the 40% review component reflects unfiltered community experience—not curated testimonials.

What Safeguards Prevent Score Manipulation?

7 structural safeguards protect the trust score from manipulation.

6.    No paid placement or ranking modification. Shops are ranked by trust score in descending order. No shop can pay for priority placement, featured positioning, or ranking modification.

7.    No advertising, sponsorship, or affiliate commissions. Peptigrity accepts no revenue from listed shops, manufacturers, or testing laboratories. The independence statement appears on the homepage footer and /general-rules.

8.    Non-removal policy. Shops cannot request removal from Peptigrity. Once listed, a shop remains with all reviews and lab tests. The only exception: a listing created in error (domain never existed).

9.    Auto-recalculation. Trust scores recalculate automatically when new reviews or lab tests are published. No manual intervention in scores.

10. In-house testing excluded. Vendor self-testing is not accepted. Only third-party laboratory data enters the purity component.

11. Review moderation prevents astroturfing. 1 review per shop per user, registration required, moderation for prohibited content and duplication.

12. Claimed vs Community Submitted status does not affect scores. Shop owners can claim their listing to manage their profile and keep their domain URL current—but claiming does not modify the trust score. The score reflects only reviews and lab tests.

Dr. Eric Topol (Scripps Research) has documented the testing gaps in the unregulated peptide market in his analysis “The Peptide Craze.” Peptigrity’s safeguards address the verification void he describes—providing structured, transparent quality data where none existed before.

How Should You Use Trust Scores When Choosing a Vendor?

Look for ✓ Lab Verified first, then check the test count, then read review sub-ratings—not just the headline score.

Practical guidance for using trust scores:

•      Prioritise ✓ Lab Verified shops. These have both community reviews and independent HPLC data—the most complete verification profile.

•      Check the test count. A shop with “✓ Lab Verified (49 tests)” provides substantially more reliable purity data than “✓ Lab Verified (2 tests).” More tests produce more stable averages.

•      Read sub-ratings, not just overall score. A shop with 4.8 Quality but 2.5 Service tells a different story than 3.5 across all categories.

•      Compare within peptide categories. Shops selling BPC-157 may have different purity averages than shops selling semaglutide or tirzepatide—synthesis complexity affects achievable purity.

•      Verify domain URLs. For claimed shops, always check the correct domain on peptigrity.com/shops before visiting a vendor’s website. This protects against clone domains.

A trust score of 4.9 with 50 lab tests is more reliable than 5.0 with 1 lab test. Use trust scores as a starting point, then read individual reviews and lab test results for the specific peptide you want to purchase.

How Does Peptigrity Compare to Other Rating Systems?

3 platforms currently provide peptide vendor ratings. Each uses a different methodology, scope, and transparency standard.

Peptigrity’s strengths: complete formula transparency, in-house testing excluded, negative reviews retained permanently, and auto-recalculation. Finnrick’s strength: larger sample count (5,930+ samples across 196 vendors). Peptide Protocol Wiki’s strength: broader criteria coverage (8 evaluation dimensions). Reddit provides unstructured community intelligence but no formal scoring.

Promotion System Transparency

Peptigrity offers a promotion system for shops with a trust score of 3.5 or higher. Promotions are reviewed before publication and display the shop’s current trust score and latest lab test purity alongside the promotional content. Expired promotions remain visible on peptigrity.com/promotions for transparency. Promotions do not affect the trust score, ranking position, or review moderation. A shop paying for a promotion still receives the same score it would without the promotion—the score is calculated from reviews and lab tests, not commercial relationships.

What Are the Limitations of the Trust Score?

6 limitations define what the trust score cannot tell you. Transparency about these constraints is essential—overclaiming accuracy would undermine the trust the system is designed to build.

13. Only 2 inputs. The trust score does not directly capture pricing fairness, regulatory compliance, manufacturing standards (GMP vs non-GMP), or business registration status.

14. Volatile scores for shops with few data points. A shop with 2 reviews and 1 lab test has an unreliable average. Scores stabilise as data accumulates.

15. Community reviews have inherent subjectivity. A reviewer’s expectations, shipping location, and personal experience influence ratings. The 5 sub-rating system reduces but does not eliminate this variance.

16. HPLC purity does not test for all contaminants. Endotoxins, heavy metals, and sterility require separate assays. The FDA’s Bacterial Endotoxins/Pyrogens guidance sets the injectable threshold at 5 EU/kg body weight—a parameter HPLC cannot assess. For a deeper explanation of what HPLC measures and what it misses, see What Is HPLC Testing and Why It Matters for Peptide Purity.

17. Cold-start problem. New shops with no reviews and no lab tests have no score. A shop’s absence from Peptigrity does not mean it is fraudulent—it means no independent data exists yet. Users can submit a new shop to begin the verification process.

18. Score does not guarantee product safety. The peptide market is unregulated. A trust score of 5.0 indicates strong purity data and positive buyer feedback—it does not constitute a safety certification, medical endorsement, or regulatory approval.

Conclusion

Peptigrity’s Trust Score is designed to be the simplest possible signal that contains the most important information: how pure are this shop’s peptides (HPLC data), and what do other buyers report about the experience (community reviews)? The 0–5 scale, the 40/60 weighting, and the 3 badge configurations (✓ Lab Verified, ⚠ Reviews Only, Lab Tests Only) give you the tools to make an informed purchasing decision in a market with no regulatory consumer protections.

The full scoring rules are published at peptigrity.com/general-rules. Browse all 131 peptide shops ranked by trust score. Verify purity claims against independent lab test results. Read community buyer reviews to understand what real buyers experienced. If you have data to contribute, submit lab test results or submit a new shop to help the community verify more vendors.

For the complete buyer verification workflow, see How to Verify Peptide Quality Before You Buy, How to Spot a Scam Peptide Shop: Warning Signs & Red Flags, What to Look for in a Peptide Shop: A Buyer’s Checklist, and How to Read Peptide Lab Test Results: HPLC & Mass Spec Explained.

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Research peptides are not approved for human consumption by the FDA or EMA. Always consult a qualified physician before using any peptide product. Peptigrity is an independent review platform with no financial relationship to any listed shop, manufacturer, or testing laboratory.