Short answer: don't. Paying for app reviews or ratings breaks the rules of both big stores, and it puts your listing and your developer account at risk for a result that does not last.
What the stores say
Google Play. The policy "User Ratings, Reviews, and Installs" says: "We prohibit any manipulation of ratings, reviews, or install counts." It names "paying for fake reviews" and "offering an incentive" for ratings as violations, and it asks you not to "use automated services to inflate installs or ratings." The policy page does not list penalties; it points to the full policy. Source: Play Console Help, retrieved 2026-10-17.
Apple App Store. The App Review Guidelines (section 3) say that if Apple finds you "attempted to manipulate reviews, inflate your chart rankings with paid, incentivized, filtered, or fake feedback, or engage with third-party services to do so on your behalf", it may take steps "which may include expelling you from the Apple Developer Program." Source: App Review Guidelines, retrieved 2026-10-17.
Notice the last part: hiring a service to do it for you does not move the responsibility away from you.
Why it is a bad trade
- The risk is yours. The account that publishes the app carries the consequence, not the seller.
- It teaches you nothing. A bought five-star review tells you nothing about why users leave. Real feedback does.
- It does not fix conversion. If people uninstall after a minute, ratings will not hold them.
- Review swaps are the same thing in a different coat. Trading reviews for reviews is still a rating given for a reason other than your honest opinion.
What to do instead
- Fix what real users hit. Read your first sessions, crashes and onboarding. A small fix often moves a rating more than any campaign.
- Ask for private feedback first. An in-app "How is it going?" with a link to a feedback form catches problems before they become one-star reviews. See how to ask for in-app feedback without nagging.
- Use the stores' own prompt, at a good moment. After a success, not at launch, not repeatedly, and without rewards.
- Test before you launch. Most early one-star reviews come from bugs a few testers would have found.
How AppReviewX is different
AppReviewX is a community of developers who give each other private, structured feedback. One feedback you write earns one credit; credits buy feedback on your own app. There are no ratings for sale, and nothing is traded for store reviews or installs. If a tester likes an app and wants to leave a store review, that is their own choice, unpaid and unasked.
For Google Play there are also test groups for the 12-testers-for-14-days closed-test requirement. That is testing, not rating.
Start free and get feedback you can act on.
This is general information, not legal advice. Policies change; check the linked pages before you decide.