Every review platform looks the same from the outside: a star rating, a text, an author, maybe a reply. Getting at that data looks nothing alike. I spent the last months building Prisma Reviews , a single REST API for reviews, and these are the notes I wish I'd had on day one.

1. There are four kinds of "review API"

Once you've done a few platforms, every one falls into one of four kinds:

Kind Examples How you connect Can you reply?

OAuth, business-owner API Google Business Profile, Trustpilot The owner approves your app Yes

Keys from a developer console App Store Connect, Google Play The owner creates a key and gives it to you Yes

Shop-app tokens Judge.me, Trusted Shops, eKomi, Okendo An API token from the platform's admin Sometimes

No owner API at all Yelp, Tripadvisor, Booking.com Only the public listing URL No: link to the platform

Each kind needs its own onboarding UI, its own error handling and its own way to refresh credentials. If you design for only one, the next one won't fit.

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