This post is about customer reviews: the short comments and star ratings buyers leave. They act as social proof, and they nudge new visitors toward buying from you.
Few things spread the word about a brand as cheaply. Below you will find a roundup of the best WordPress review plugins.
How much reviews help depends on the kind of business you run. A clothing shop online might want buyers to post reviews right under each item. A local hardware shop, by contrast, might prefer to show its Google Reviews and point people to where they can add their own.
Whatever your business, these are the main gains you can expect:
- Reviews work as free marketing. Every review, on your own product pages or on Google, is a customer talking up your business. Figures from the Spiegel Research Center suggest close to 95% of buyers check online reviews before they spend money.
- You get customer feedback and build a connection – Some reviews point out things you can improve in your business. People also appreciate it when you reply to what they wrote.
- Social proof – Research shows that people buy more readily once they see friends or strangers vouching for a product or service.
- Your SEO gets a lift. Google can display rich snippets, which are visual extras in the search results, and it tends to favor them. Here, that means star ratings next to your listing.
- You become more transparent. Reviews often cover details your own pages leave out. Say your product description skips a spec: a helpful buyer may mention it in their review.
Features to Look for in a WordPress Review Plugin
Each plugin does things a little differently, yet most share a core set of features. Here is what to check for:
- A way to show reviews on your site, plus a form where customers can submit theirs.
- Ratings, for example stars or a thumbs up/down.
- Support for richer media in reviews, like photos or videos.
- Sorting, so visitors can view the best or worst reviews first.
- Search, so shoppers can look up words inside reviews.
- A tidy admin screen to read and moderate new submissions.
- Pulling in reviews you already have on sites such as Google and Yelp.
- WooCommerce support, which is handy for collecting reviews on each product.
- Several ways to place reviews on your pages, such as widgets and shortcodes.
- Custom review fields. Some businesses, for example, want a Pros and Cons section.
| Product | Price | Rating | Active installs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starfish Reviews | Free + paid | 4.6/5 | 100+ |
| Site Reviews | Free | 4.9/5 | 60,000+ |
| WP Customer Reviews | Free + paid | 4.3/5 | 20,000+ |
| Google Reviews Widget | Free | 4.9/5 | 100,000+ |
| Customer Reviews for WooCommerce | Free + paid | 4.8/5 | 80,000+ |
| WP Business Reviews | Paid | ||
| All In One Schema Rich Snippets | Free | 4.0/5 | 30,000+ |
| Photo Reviews for WooCommerce | Free + paid | 4.7/5 | 10,000+ |
| Reviewer WordPress Plugin | Paid | ||
| Taqyeem | Paid |
Starfish Reviews
Want more reviews on Google, Facebook, Trustpilot or another third-party review site? Then Starfish Reviews may be the plugin you were missing.
Starfish Reviews WordPress plugin
You can grab a pretty basic free version of Starfish Reviews on WordPress.org. Paying unlocks far more. “Business” costs $47.88 for a single site, with 5 funnels, full support and many extra features. “Marketer” stretches to 10 sites, each with 10 funnels, while “Webmaster” handles up to 100 sites and lets each run unlimited funnels.
Asking for reviews can feel risky. Request one from everybody and some unhappy customers may post bad ones. Starfish Reviews removes that worry. When you ask for a review, you share a funnel built with the plugin. Anyone who had a poor experience is steered toward sending that feedback privately to you.
Happy customers, on the other hand, land on the “leave a review” form. That is where fans of your brand or product can post a glowing 5-star rating with a helpful write-up.
Why it ranks among the top review plugins
- Setup is simple, and the settings look like the rest of WordPress.
- One link works for everybody you ask: clients, followers, podcast listeners, ebook readers and more. You never have to guess what sort of review someone will write.
- Connects to email tools such as MailChimp and MailPoet, so follow-ups go out on their own.
- Place funnels in posts or pages with shortcodes, or build a custom layout in Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder or the Block Editor.
- Analytics give you a quick overview of how things are going.
- Importing and showing reviews is among the features still to come.
Who Is It For?
Starfish Reviews suits any business or public figure who wants more good reviews on online review sites, whether for a product, a service, a podcast or a company. Rather than hoping reviews show up, you can ask for them in a simple, automated way. The plugin splits the happy and unhappy responses and sends each where it does the most good.
Pros
- Funnels route happy customers to public review sites
- Testimonials and feedback collected on your own site
- Shortcode and embed options for funnels and testimonials
Cons
- Review importing, reports and scraping need Premium
- Freemius licence and account flow comes with the plugin
- Large plugin with many premium-gated screens
Site Reviews
With the Site Reviews plugin you get a plain but capable way to gather star ratings and reviews on your site. You can show reviews through blocks, widgets or shortcodes. They appear in a default order, though you can pin your strongest reviews so they sit at the top.
Best WordPress Review Plugins: Site Reviews
Few options make adding reviews this easy. If you like a clean look and classic review layout, it deserves a spot on your shortlist. It is also fully free, and nothing tries to sell you an upgrade.
Why it ranks among the top review plugins
- You can put reviews almost anywhere on your site, using blocks, widgets or shortcodes.
- Mark your strongest reviews so they show first.
- Akismet support helps keep spam out.
- A backup and restore tool protects you if data goes missing.
- You can set up custom alerts that fire when someone posts a review.
- Rich snippets add star ratings to your listings in search results.
- Reviews can be exported and imported, so you can move them between sites.
Who Is It For?
Site Reviews is light and tidy, made for people who only need the basics. Being free and open source, it also lets tight budgets add customer reviews.
Pros
- Reviews assignable to posts, pages, users and products
- Shortcodes, blocks and page builder elements
- Spam filters including captcha and blacklist options
Cons
- Premium add-ons are licensed separately from Nifty Plugins
- Captcha and Akismet options call outside services
- Many settings and shortcode options to learn
WP Customer Reviews
Here is another free option: the WP Customer Review plugin handles reviews on any part of your site. It is open source, and the developers earn only what people donate. You can use it two ways: gather general reviews of your business, or add review sections to single product pages.
Best WordPress Review Plugins: WP Customer Reviews
Good news for budgets: the WP Customer Reviews plugin costs nothing. Setup is fairly easy too, and a basic admin screen lets you approve or reject reviews. You get a few layout choices for the review box, plus a setting that caps how many reviews appear per page.
Why it ranks among the top review plugins
- As review plugins go, it is about as clean and simple as they come.
- Shortcodes let you put reviews in many spots on your site, sidebars included.
- Every field can be changed, including the questions you ask about a product.
- You moderate every submission from inside WordPress.
- Admins can reply to any customer review.
- Development is ongoing, and the plugin stays free.
- Search engines get rich snippets, which can lift your listings and show your ratings visually.
- You can cap how many reviews each page displays.
Who Is It For?
It is a sensible pick for businesses watching costs or new online shops. It also suits anyone who wants a simple review area without fancy extras.
Pros
- Reviews are moderated before they appear on the site
- Schema.org markup with aggregate star ratings
- Shortcodes place the review list and form on any page
- Custom review fields can be added and changed in settings
Cons
- Advanced options depend on a separate Pro add-on plugin
- Sends an admin email for each new submission unless mail is disabled
Google Reviews Widget
The Google Reviews Widget works differently from most plugins here. Customers do not write reviews on your site. Instead, it fetches the reviews your business already has on Google and displays them. Since it is a widget, you can drop those reviews into a sidebar, header or footer.
You can use it for free, or move up to a business license priced from $85 a year.
Best WordPress Review Plugins: Google Reviews Widget
The free version caps you at five Google reviews and three from Yelp, which may suit smaller brands. That is arguably plenty for most businesses. The business plan adds more platforms, Facebook among them, plus extras like filters, rich snippets and merging selected reviews.
Why It Ranks Among the Top Review Plugins
- Small businesses can use the basic free plan to show a few reviews pulled from Yelp and Google.
- Lots of review plugins only suit light designs, but this one also works on dark sites.
- Several themes let you change how your reviews look.
- Multiple languages are supported, so reviews can come in from anywhere.
- Layouts include less common options such as grids, sliders and trust badges.
- Shortcodes are there too, if you prefer not to use the widget.
- Google Rich Snippets are included to help your SEO.
- Supported review sites number three: Facebook, Yelp and Google.
Who Is It For?
Small businesses that want to show a few Google or Yelp reviews will find it a tidy choice. The Business plan is fairly cheap, so it is also worth a look for pulling in Facebook reviews.
Above all, it suits people who are comfortable working with widgets.
Pros
- Slider, grid, list and rating layouts
- Widget, shortcode and block options
- Daily review refresh once an API key is set
Cons
- Daily updates depend on a Google API key
- Calls go to third-party hosts such as the theme CDN and an IP check
- Support debug and feedback forms send data when used
Customer Reviews for WooCommerce
Reviews are most at home in online shops. The Customer Reviews for WooCommerce plugin fills the gap if your theme’s review area looks dull. Its whole aim is social proof for shoppers arriving on your store’s product pages.
Best WordPress Review Plugins: Customer Reviews for WooCommerce
A few features make Customer Reviews for WooCommerce stand out. It reminds recent buyers who have not yet reviewed what they purchased. It also marks a review as verified when the person really bought the item from your shop, which adds to your social proof.
There are two plans, Free and Pro. The Pro version adds dedicated support and more features for $49.99 a year.
Why It Ranks Among the Top Review Plugins
- Even the free version has handy tools for any business, like review imports, reminders and trust badges.
- Review reminders tell buyers they can return to your site and review what they purchased.
- Every review is verified, so you know a real buyer wrote it. That makes reviews more believable to new shoppers.
- Customers can add photos and videos to their reviews.
- Email buyers a single-page form where they can review several items from your shop.
- Rich snippets on every review put your star ratings in Google results.
- reCAPTCHA helps keep spam out of your reviews.
- Reviews can be filtered by rating and other criteria.
- Place trust badges around your store so shoppers feel safer buying from you.
- Linking with Google Shopping puts star ratings in search listings.
- Offer coupons and discounts to people who leave reviews.
Who Is It For?
This plugin is for online shops only. If you run a WooCommerce store, it is worth considering. It fits best for brands that want customers to share photos and videos, and that are happy to reward reviewers with discounts.
Pros
- Automatic review request emails after orders
- Product Q and A tab and review photos
- Review reward coupons and a trust badge
Cons
- Some features need a Pro licence and the vendor's service
- Email verification and review feeds run on vendor servers
WP Business Reviews
Looking for a heavy-duty review plugin with lots of power? Try WP Business Reviews.
Pricing for WP Business Reviews begins at $99.50 a year for one site license with basic support. Higher plans cover more sites and save you a bit per site. There is no free version, but the plugin packs in far more features than many others in this roundup.
Best WordPress Review Plugins: WP Business Reviews
Its big selling point is that showing customer reviews takes almost no effort. Install it on your WordPress site, link accounts like Google, Facebook and Yelp, and you are done.
From there, the plugin does the work, fetching existing and new reviews from those sites. You can add custom reviews of your own as well, and filter out some of the bad ones.
Why It Ranks Among the Top Review Plugins
- It pulls reviews from big review sites like Google, Facebook and Yelp. It even links to Zomato, a worldwide restaurant site where diners leave reviews.
- You can add custom reviews you gathered yourself. Visitors can also post reviews right on your site rather than heading to Google.
- Hide reviews or ratings under a chosen star level. They stay in place but no longer sit at the top of your review section.
- Mark favorite reviews so they appear first.
- Pick the rating style and how it looks. You could show a plain 5.0, for example, or five orange or blue stars.
- Change the review styling to match a light or dark site.
- Choose from layouts such as galleries and lists.
- Show the source of each review, along with customer names and avatars.
Who Is It For?
WP Business Reviews works for every kind of business. It suits anyone who wants reviews to arrive on autopilot without chasing past customers. Odds are people already posted about you on Google and Facebook, and that is where your reviews come from.
Pros
- Combines several review platforms
- Rating filter and custom reviews
Cons
- Paid yearly licence only
Schema – All In One Schema Rich Snippets
The Schema plugin does one main job: showing rich snippets for your products in search results. It will not collect reviews on your site, so look elsewhere if that is what you need.
Best WordPress Review Plugins: Schema – All In One Schema Rich Snippets
Rather than replacing your review setup, Schema works alongside it and adds visuals for search engines. You might want star ratings shown, for instance, or a short preview of a recipe in Google.
Why It Ranks Among the Top Review Plugins
- Schema is free for everyone, with no paid upgrades to think about.
- It is light, so it will not slow your site or clutter the admin or the front end.
- It handles many schema types, including events, people, recipes and reviews. Reviews will be your main use, though a food blog could get recipe details showing in Google too.
- Only the key, relevant details end up in the rich snippets.
- Those same key details also appear when someone shares one of your links on Facebook.
Who Is It For?
Choose it only if you want rich snippets on your reviews. Maybe you are after better search rankings, or you found your theme cannot show rich snippets. It also helps if you want special snippets such as recipes or video.
Pros
- Review and service snippets added without code
- Meta boxes in the post editor
- Free edition available
Cons
- Article and Book schema need the paid Schema Pro edition
- Product post types are excluded by default
- Shows an analytics usage-tracking consent notice
Photo Review for WooCommerce
Among WooCommerce review plugins, this is one of the strongest. Letting buyers add pictures to product reviews has become quite common, and that is the main job of this plugin. Customers just snap a photo of what they purchased and post it to your site.
Best WordPress Review Plugins: Photo Review for WooCommerce
Expect stronger social proof, plus a new marketing channel where buyers say more about your products than you ever could.
The free version covers most of what you will need. The premium version costs $26 and adds quite a list of extras, including masonry pop-ups, multilingual support and coupons for reviewers.
Why It Ranks Among the Top Review Plugins
- Free users already get fairly advanced extras: coupons tied to photo reviews and a designer for emails.
- You can require a photo with every review, or switch that off.
- Show ratings and let shoppers compare them on your site.
- Visitors can filter reviews by rating, verified purchase and more.
- In Pro, you can limit coupons to reviews from verified buyers.
- Reviews can also be imported from AliExpress.
- Pro lets you write reviews straight from the admin panel.
Who Is It For?
WooCommerce Photo Reviews is useful for online shops that want customer photos in reviews. It also suits anyone planning to hand out coupons in return for reviews.
Pros
- Customers can attach photos to reviews
- Review reminder emails after purchase
- Thank-you coupon emails for published reviews
Cons
- Video attachments and some options are premium only
- Reminder emails depend on WP-Cron running on the site
- A Premium version is promoted in the admin
Reviewer WordPress Plugin
Reviewer is a paid-only plugin that costs $28. Its support for visuals like badges and photos makes it fairly popular. It is among the most feature-packed options in this roundup, so the price feels reasonable.
You decide, for instance, whether users give a score out of 5 or just list pros and cons. Another strong point: you can set several criteria for customers to rate, such as the style or size of a shirt.
Best WordPress Review Plugins: Reviewer WordPress Plugin
All in all, it is among the more visual choices, with lots of ways to tailor it to any site. You get unlimited templates and can build any layout, whether that is a comparison table or a review broken into criteria.
Why It Ranks Among the Top Review Plugins
- Reviewer lets you build some very attractive review boxes. The designs look modern and are easy to tweak, with plenty of icons to choose from.
- Change things like grading scales, pros and cons, criteria, or the review list.
- Build comparison tables so customers can view two reviews side by side.
- Every user can add their own product photos to reviews.
- Choose stars or bars for ratings.
- Bundled widgets show review lists, top reviewers and top scores.
- Google Rich Snippets come with every search listing.
- Affiliate links can go into your reviews too.
Who Is It For?
Reviewer is a good fit for brands that want a very polished customer review section. It is also strong on customization and on letting users compare products and reviews. You do pay for it, but the features make the modest price worth it.
Cons
- No longer sold; listing removed
- No updates or support
Taqyeem
Its name is the oddest in this roundup, yet the Taqyeem plugin handles review display well. Its focus is near-endless customization, so your reviews can match your brand exactly. You could use bars, where people choose a score from 1 to 10, or a star system that runs from one to five.
Best WordPress Review Plugins: Taqyeem
Taqyeem supports lots of formats. It costs $29 once, unless you choose to extend customer support for another year. It is sold on CodeCanyon, so you can read what other buyers say about the developer.
Why It Ranks Among the Top Review Plugins
- Not many review plugins offer unlimited review criteria and unlimited colors, but this one does.
- Its collection of web fonts and typography gives nearly any business a style that suits its brand.
- Shoppers who see your listings in search get Google Rich Snippets from Taqyeem.
- Customers can also review using percentages.
- Review sections can go in many places on your site, like pages and posts.
Who Is It For?
Taqyeem suits businesses that want their review section to match the site’s branding as closely as they can. Unlimited colors make that easier, and the choice of rating systems helps you stand out.
Cons
- No listed update since February 2023
