Before you buy
Shopping online has never been easier. Knowing who you're buying from hasn't. Before You Pay helps you understand an online store by bringing together publicly available information, website trust signals and business details into one clear report.
Information is gathered from trusted public sources and online signals. Where businesses provide additional information directly, it's always clearly identified.
Why check an online store?
An online store can have beautiful branding, polished photography and thousands of followers. That doesn't tell you who is behind the business.
Beautiful branding
A slick storefront is a template away for anyone. It tells you nothing about who owns it or how long it's traded.
Partial view
Polished photography
Product shots can be stock images or lifted from a supplier. They don't reveal where an order actually ships from.
Partial view
Thousands of followers
Follower counts and on-site ratings can be bought. They're not the same as a verifiable, independent record.
Partial view
What you'll discover
WHOIS · Companies House
When the website was first registered, the registrar, and whether the company behind it is on the public record — including director history.
Page & shipping signals
Shipping language, warehouse location, third-party dropship trackers, and unusually long delivery estimates.
Trustpilot · on-site copy
On-site rating vs. independent review platforms, whether reviews are individually verifiable, and countdown or urgency language on the page.
How we work
Transparency means knowing where information came from. That's why we clearly identify every source used within a Before You Pay report.
Information gathered from trusted public sources and online services — domain registries, Companies House and published reviews. Whenever possible, we link directly to the original source.
We don't score businesses. We don't recommend businesses. We simply organise information, explain where it came from and help you understand it.
For online stores
Customers already research businesses before buying. Being open about who you are and how your business operates helps build the confidence that turns a visitor into a customer.
We're building the ability for online stores to add verified information directly to their Before You Pay listing — displayed alongside public information, never instead of it. If that's something you'd want for your store, get in touch and we'll let you know when it's ready.
Get in touchFrequently asked questions
Ready when you are
Before you buy, understand who you're buying from. Because better decisions begin with better information.
Free, instant, no account needed. We fetch the page and run public checks — nothing is bought, no cookies set on the shop's site.