What is a trust score?
A trust score is a number that summarises how likely a site is to be worth your time. It combines what we can verify (payout evidence, monitoring data, site age) with what the community reports (votes from real users). A high score means "as of the last check, this site appears to be currently paying with no significant red flags". A low score means the opposite.
It is not a guarantee. Nothing can be. But it's a substantial improvement over "here's a list of links, good luck".
Why we built this system
Most "make money online" directories are one of two things. Either a wall of raw links with no verification (useless) or an affiliate page that pushes whichever sites pay the highest referral commission, regardless of whether they actually pay users. The scam ecosystem survives on the second kind.
We wanted something better: a score that reflects currently paying rather than who pays us the most. That meant building a formula that can't be bought and that changes as the sites do.
The six signals
The editorial component is composed of five weighted signals. The sixth — the community score — is separate and blends in on top.
1. Live payout evidence
The single strongest signal. FaucetPay publishes a live directory of faucets that have sent a payout through their system in the last 7 days. We check whether the site appears there, how much was paid, and to how many users. A site paying £20 to 300 users is a stronger signal than one paying £20 to 3 users.
2. FaucetPay health score
FaucetPay's own reliability metric. High health means the site processes FaucetPay payouts consistently. It's a signal, not the signal — a high-health site can still be tiny or low-earning, and a low-health site can still be currently paying. We weight it alongside the others.
3. Site age and continuity
A site that has run continuously for 4+ years has survived multiple market cycles, ownership changes, and policy shifts. A site registered two months ago has survived nothing. Age is not sufficient on its own — plenty of old sites have turned bad — but it's a meaningful input.
4. Independent monitoring data
Tools like Faucet Monitor crawl faucet payment pages continuously, recording exact timestamps of when each site last paid and to whom. If we see a payment timestamp minutes before the last crawl, we know the site is active right now. If the last payment was weeks ago, that's a signal too.
5. Known complaints and rules
Patterns of complaints across Trustpilot, Reddit and independent review sites are penalised heavily. So is vagueness — sites that don't clearly state their minimum withdrawals, prohibited practices, or terms score lower than sites that do.
6. Community votes
The only crowd-sourced input. Every visitor can vote a site as trustworthy, scam, or unsure. One vote per device, no account needed. Once a site reaches 3 votes, the community score activates and blends with the editorial score 50/50.
The four-tier scale
The final score falls into one of four visual tiers:
- 80–100 — Trusted. Strong current payout evidence, established history, no significant complaints. Sites at this level are the safest bets in the space, though nothing is guaranteed.
- 50–79 — Reasonable. Currently paying with evidence, but some signal (health, age, feedback, or volume) is weaker. Worth testing with small amounts.
- 0–49 — Caution. Weak current evidence, low health, or a pattern of complaints. Test only with disposable information and never leave a balance sitting.
- — (Unrated). New or casino/gambling site. No editorial score assigned. Not part of the free-earning category.
How editorial and community blend
The community score formula is simple: trustworthy = 100, unsure = 50, scam = 0. Average them. If a site has 8 trustworthy votes, 1 unsure, and 1 scam:
(8 × 100 + 1 × 50 + 1 × 0) / 10 = 85
Below 3 votes, the community score is ignored entirely — otherwise one scam vote would tank a new site to zero. Once 3 votes are in, the community score and the editorial score are averaged:
displayed score = (editorial + community) / 2
This protects against two failure modes. A brigade of 3 people can't tank a well-reviewed site, and a site with glowing editorial can't ignore the community forever. Both sides have to agree.
What the score is NOT
- Not a guarantee. A score of 92 means the site has strong current signals. It does not mean the site will pay you. Sites change ownership, terms and reliability without warning.
- Not permanent. Scores update with every vote and every editorial refresh. A site's score today may be different from its score in three months.
- Not an endorsement. A high score means "no red flags we can see right now". It doesn't mean we recommend the site, or that you should use it.
- Not affected by affiliate relationships. Some sites in the directory include our referral link in their Visit button. This never affects the score. Scam sites are blacklisted regardless of whether they offer referrals.
How to use the score
Treat it as a filter, not a decision. Here's what I'd actually do:
- Filter to status = Active and sort by trust score
- Pick the top 2–3 sites in the category you're interested in
- Sign up on one, earn a small amount, and withdraw as soon as you hit the minimum
- If the withdrawal succeeds, vote trustworthy; if it fails or takes too long, vote unsure or scam
- Only after a successful test withdrawal should you invest real time
Vote on sites you've used
The trust score is only as good as the voting. If you've used a site — successfully or unsuccessfully — take 5 seconds to vote on it. Your vote updates the score for the next visitor and helps build the pattern that makes this directory useful.