Frequently Asked Questions

ReviewSignal is an alternative data platform that transforms consumer reviews from Google Maps, Glassdoor, Trustpilot, and TripAdvisor into institutional-grade trading intelligence. Our 5 proprietary AI engines analyze 260,000+ reviews across 57,725 locations and 238 brands to generate sentiment signals, anomaly alerts, and research reports for hedge funds and asset managers.

ReviewSignal is built for institutional investors including hedge funds, private equity firms, asset managers, and equity research teams who use alternative data to generate alpha and monitor portfolio risk. Our clients range from multi-billion dollar systematic funds to fundamental long/short equity teams.

We aggregate and analyze reviews from 5 major sources: Google Maps (daily scraping, 21,000+ reviews), Glassdoor (weekly, 1,100+ reviews), Trustpilot (weekly, 3,600+ reviews), TripAdvisor (weekly, 950 reviews), and proprietary sources. This covers 238 brands across 57,725 locations in 50+ countries.

We cover 238 brands across 8 categories: QSR/fast food (McDonald's, Burger King, KFC), casual dining (Chipotle, Panera, Cheesecake Factory), coffee & bakery (Starbucks, Dunkin', Costa), retail (Walmart, Target, Best Buy), grocery (Whole Foods, Kroger, Aldi), hospitality (Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt), fitness (Planet Fitness, Equinox, CrossFit), and banking (Chase, Bank of America, HSBC). View full brand directory.

We use a multi-layered NLP pipeline. Neural Core generates 384-dimensional sentence embeddings using MiniLM (all-MiniLM-L6-v2) to capture semantic meaning beyond simple keyword matching. Isolation Forest anomaly detection flags statistically significant deviations from historical baselines. Sentiment scores range from -1.0 (extremely negative) to +1.0 (extremely positive), with thresholds of ±0.10 for gap-free classification into positive, neutral, and negative categories. Learn more about our methodology.

Google Maps reviews are scraped daily at 05:00 UTC. Glassdoor reviews are updated every Sunday. Trustpilot reviews are updated every Sunday. TripAdvisor reviews are updated weekly. Our Guardian Angel system continuously monitors data freshness and triggers additional scraping cycles when coverage gaps are detected. Reports are regenerated automatically when new data arrives.

Echo Engine's temporal interference module separates seasonal patterns from genuine sentiment shifts. Holiday spikes, summer dips, and recurring patterns are factored out using rolling baseline comparisons, leaving only true signal. Monte Carlo simulation with 1,000+ paths provides confidence-weighted predictions that account for normal variability.

Echo Engine generates trading signals by analyzing sentiment trends, anomaly patterns, and geographic/brand propagation effects. Each signal is validated through 1,000+ Monte Carlo simulation paths, producing a confidence-weighted recommendation with direction magnitude and temporal horizon. Average signal confidence is 0.78. Signals are designed as inputs to your existing investment process, not standalone recommendations.

The 14-day free trial includes sample data across multiple brands, access to 3 AI engines (Neural Core, Echo Engine, Cortex AI), an 18-page sample report in institutional format, and 100 API calls per day. No credit card is required to start. Start your free trial.

Starter (€2,500/mo) covers 30 chains with 3 engines and 1,000 API calls/day. Professional (€5,000/mo) covers 100 chains with 4 engines (adds Beacon Intelligence) and 10,000 API calls/day. Enterprise (€10,000+/mo) offers unlimited chains, all 5 engines (adds Singularity for causal analysis), unlimited API calls, and custom integrations. View full pricing details.

Yes. All ReviewSignal subscriptions can be cancelled at any time with no penalties or cancellation fees. When you cancel, your service continues through the end of your current billing period. We do not offer partial refunds for unused portions of a billing period. See our cancellation policy for full details.

Yes. Annual billing is available for all paid plans and includes a discount compared to monthly billing. Contact our sales team at team@reviewsignal.ai for annual pricing details.

Yes. All paid plans include REST API access with clean JSON endpoints, webhook alerts for real-time anomaly notifications, and CSV/JSON data exports. API authentication uses API keys with rate limiting appropriate to your plan tier. Full API documentation is provided during onboarding.

Data is available via REST API (JSON responses), downloadable CSV exports, and PDF research reports (18-55 pages depending on plan). Enterprise clients can also receive data via webhook push notifications and custom integrations with Bloomberg Terminal, FactSet, and other research platforms.

Yes. Our REST API integrates with any platform that supports HTTP/HTTPS requests. We provide integration guides for common research workflows. Enterprise clients receive dedicated integration support and can request custom data delivery formats, FTP drops, or direct database connections.

Yes. ReviewSignal is fully GDPR compliant. All data is stored and processed within the EU on Google Cloud Platform europe-west3 (Frankfurt, Germany). We only process publicly available consumer reviews posted voluntarily on public platforms. We comply with all data subject rights under Articles 15-21 of the GDPR. See our full compliance documentation.

We only collect publicly available consumer reviews that are voluntarily posted on public review platforms. We do not scrape private data, personal information, gated content, or any data behind authentication walls. Our data collection follows robots.txt directives and platform terms of service. Our public data policy provides full transparency on our sourcing practices.

All data is stored on Google Cloud Platform in the europe-west3 region (Frankfurt, Germany). Data never leaves the European Union. Our infrastructure inherits GCP's SOC 2 Type II certification, ISO 27001 compliance, and physical security controls. All data at rest is encrypted with AES-256 and all data in transit uses TLS 1.3.