Both put a trust seal on your site. Only one lets a shopper verify it with a cryptographic key. Here is the honest, side-by-side comparison, including where each one wins.
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TrustedOrigin
Our pick
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TrustedSite
The incumbent
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|---|---|---|
| A verification key a shopper can match | Cryptographic key | Clickable seal, no key |
| Malware & phishing scanning | Continuous | Weekly |
| SSL / TLS monitoring | ||
| Email authentication (SPF, DMARC) | Not listed | |
| Security headers | Not listed | |
| Domain age & reputation | Not listed | |
| Privacy signals | Not listed | |
| Manual business verification | ||
| Free public check for any website | ||
| Shopper identity-theft cover | Yes, to $100k | |
| Free tier to start | ||
| Brand recognition | Newer | Established |
Based on each provider's publicly documented features as of 2026. "Not listed" means the check is not among TrustedSite's published certifications.
We built TrustedOrigin to fix the thing that bothered us about trust seals. Most of them, including well-known ones, put a picture on your site. A picture can be copied. Here is what sets us apart.
Every TrustedOrigin badge carries a cryptographic key. The same key appears on a public profile hosted on our own domain, which the site owner cannot edit. A shopper checks that the two match and knows the badge is genuine. TrustedSite has a clickable trustmark, which is good, but there is no key to match, so a copied image is harder to catch. You can see exactly how it works on our verifiable badge page.
TrustedSite covers malware, phishing and SSL well. TrustedOrigin covers those too, and adds email authentication (SPF and DMARC), security headers, domain age and privacy signals. These are the checks a careful shopper and a browser actually notice, and we run them continuously rather than once a week. See the full list on our what we verify pages.
Anyone can run our free safety check on any website, with no signup, and see the result in seconds. It is the same engine that powers the badge. It is a genuinely useful tool, and it means you can see what we check before you commit to anything.
We sell trust, so we hold ourselves to the same standard. Our own site passes its own checks, our public profile is open for anyone to inspect, and we will happily tell you where a competitor is a better fit. This comparison is an example of that.
A fair comparison names the other side's strengths too. There are two good reasons a store might pick TrustedSite.
If you want a badge a shopper can verify, a wider set of continuous security checks, and a free way to see it all first, we think TrustedOrigin is the better choice. That is what we built it for.
If name recognition is your single biggest priority, or you specifically want shopper identity-theft cover, TrustedSite is worth a look. Either way, the honest next step is to see where your site stands today.
Start free, see what we check in seconds, and give your shoppers a badge they can actually confirm.
We think it is the strongest one. TrustedOrigin gives you a badge a shopper can verify with a cryptographic key, plus continuous checks for malware, SSL, email authentication and more, and a free tier. TrustedSite is the more familiar name, so the right pick depends on whether you value verifiability or recognition more.
Verification. Both put a clickable seal on your site, but a TrustedOrigin badge carries a cryptographic key that matches a tamper-proof profile on our own domain, so a shopper can confirm it is genuine rather than a copied image. TrustedOrigin also checks a wider set of technical signals, including email authentication, security headers, domain age and privacy.
Yes. TrustedSite, formerly McAfee SECURE, is the most recognised name in the category. We are newer. We would argue a badge shoppers can verify matters more than a familiar logo, but we will not pretend we have the same name recognition yet.
Yes. TrustedOrigin runs continuous malware and phishing checks, alongside SSL, email authentication, security headers, domain age and privacy signals. TrustedSite runs a weekly malware and phishing scan as its core Certified Secure check.
Yes. There is a free tier, and a free public safety check you can run on any website right now, with no signup. You can see exactly what we check before you decide.
See also: SiteLock vs TrustedOrigin →
TrustedSite is a trademark of its respective owner. This is an independent comparison by TrustedOrigin, based on publicly available information. We have aimed to be accurate and fair. If anything here is out of date, let us know.