Trustie — Reviews, Testimonials & Google Reviews

Description

Your customers have been saying good things about you. Trustie is a free reviews plugin that helps you bring all of it — customer testimonials, Google Business reviews, and WooCommerce product reviews — onto your own website, stored in your own database, displayed the way you want them. Tested with Elementor, Divi, and Bricks. Free, self-hosted, and yours to keep.

What makes Trustie different

Three things, mostly:

  • Your reviews live in your database. Not ours. Not a third party’s. They’re WordPress posts and comments, stored alongside the rest of your site’s content. If you ever want to export them, move them somewhere else, or just peek at what’s in there — they’re yours.
  • WooCommerce is optional. Trustie works on service sites, portfolios, bakeries, accountants — anywhere with happy customers and a WordPress install. When WooCommerce is there, Trustie leans in and handles product reviews too.
  • The free version is a whole plugin. Testimonials, Google reviews, product reviews, import tools, the floating widget, the reviews page, the visual designer — all included. If you never need more, brilliant. If you do, the rest of the Tracksies family is there when you’re ready.

On any WordPress site

No WooCommerce needed for any of these.

  • Google Business reviews on your own site — pull in your real Google reviews with star ratings, reviewer names, and a “View on Google” link. JSON-LD schema travels with them, so search engines can surface them in rich results.
  • Testimonials you collect yourself — a proper submission form, with grid, list, masonry, and slider layouts for display. Auto-approve above a rating threshold, or moderate manually.
  • A floating reviews widget — a slide-out panel showing your latest reviews on every page. Think of it as the polite version of those pop-ups that chase you around the internet.
  • A dedicated reviews page — a /reviews/ page with tabs, filtering, and pagination. Works automatically. No WooCommerce required.
  • Visual Designer — colours, star styles, card edges, and branding from one settings page. Auto-detects your theme’s fonts and colours on first run (we tried to be clever about it).

Even better with WooCommerce

Everything above, plus:

  • Better-looking product reviews — Trustie’s review cards include star summaries, rating breakdowns, and layouts designed to show your reviews off.
  • Star ratings anywhere — shortcodes for average ratings on any page, plus lightweight “loop stars” optimised for archive pages, so your category listings stay quick.
  • Automatic review request emails — we email customers after purchase asking for a review (because they’re not going to remember on their own). Smart cancellation: if the order is refunded, cancelled, returned, or already reviewed, the email quietly doesn’t go out.
  • Turn old comments into reviews — if you turned WooCommerce reviews on after already having product comments, one click converts those comments into star-rated reviews with a default rating you choose. You can tidy up individual ratings afterwards.
  • Catalogue-wide rating sync — recalculates average ratings and review counts across every product (handy after imports, migrations, or general database fiddling).

Tested with the page builders people actually use

Elementor, Divi, and Bricks are all tested. Oxygen is currently in active testing — we’ll update here once we’re happy with it. If you use a different builder and something looks off, please tell us. We’d much rather hear it from you than find out from a one-star review (ouch).

Moving from another plugin? We’ll meet you halfway

  • Testimonials — auto-detects and imports from Strong Testimonials, Easy Testimonials, and Starter Templates. Keep the originals or clear them out once you’re settled — your call.
  • Old product comments — as mentioned above: one click, pick a default rating, done.

Built to be accessible

Trustie is tested against WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines and we keep improving: keyboard navigation, visible focus indicators, screen reader announcements for form submissions and content loading, and descriptive labels on interactive controls. If something doesn’t work the way it should for you, tell us — accessibility is a commitment, not a checkbox.

Shortcodes

Without WooCommerce

  • [trustie_google_reviews] — your Google Business reviews with aggregate rating and schema. Needs a Google API key and Place ID in Settings > Google Reviews.
  • [trustie_testimonials] — testimonials in grid, list, or masonry.
  • [trustie_testimonial_form] — the submission form.
  • [trustie_testimonial_slider] — auto-advancing carousel.
  • [trustie_testimonial_grid] — grid layout wrapper (convenience shortcut).

With WooCommerce

  • [trustie_reviews] — reviews for a specific product, with optional form and summary.
  • [trustie_all_reviews] — all reviews, from all products, in a grid.
  • [trustie_reviews_page] — full reviews page with pagination.
  • [trustie_review_form] — standalone review submission form.
  • [trustie_rating] — average star rating for a product.
  • [trustie_rating_badge] — compact stars-plus-count badge.
  • [trustie_loop_stars] — lightweight stars optimised for archive loops.

Every shortcode takes optional attributes for customisation. See the full shortcode reference for details.

When you’re ready for more

If your site grows and you’d like more, the Tracksies family plays nicely together:

  • Trustie Pro — photo reviews, custom review forms, advanced filtering, enhanced widget controls.
  • Tracksies HQ — the operational layer for WooCommerce stores: customer intelligence, order management, tags, branded email templates, returns workflow, packing workflow.

Visit tracksies.com if that sounds like your sort of thing.

Privacy & external services (in brief)

Trustie can connect to two external services. Full details are in the External Services section below.

  • Google Places API — used only when you’ve added your own API key and Place ID to display your own Google reviews. No visitor data is sent to Google.
  • Appsero — optional, opt-in diagnostic telemetry. Off by default. Nothing is sent unless you explicitly allow it.

Privacy Policy

Trustie uses Appsero SDK to collect some telemetry data upon user’s confirmation. This helps us to troubleshoot problems faster & make product improvements.

Appsero SDK does not gather any data by default. The SDK only starts gathering basic telemetry data when a user allows it via the admin notice. We collect the data to ensure a great user experience for all our users.

Integrating Appsero SDK DOES NOT IMMEDIATELY start gathering data, without confirmation from users in any case.

Learn more about how Appsero collects and uses this data.

External Services

This plugin connects to the following external services:

Google Places API

Trustie uses the Google Places API to retrieve your Google Business reviews for display on your site.

  • What data is sent: Your Google API key and Place ID (both configured by you in plugin settings).
  • When: When a page containing the [trustie_google_reviews] shortcode is loaded, or when you test the connection from Settings > Google Reviews. Results are cached for 24 hours to minimize requests.
  • No visitor data is sent to Google — only your business credentials are used to fetch your own reviews.
  • Google Terms of Service
  • Google Privacy Policy

Appsero

Trustie uses the Appsero SDK for optional, opt-in diagnostic data collection. This helps us troubleshoot issues and improve the plugin.

  • Tracking is disabled by default. Data is only collected after you explicitly allow it via the admin notice shown on plugin activation.
  • What data is sent (when opted in): Site URL, admin email, WordPress version, PHP version, server environment details, active plugin/theme information, and plugin version.
  • When: Once per week via a scheduled event, only if you have opted in.
  • You can opt out at any time from the admin notice or plugin settings.
  • Appsero Terms of Service
  • Appsero Privacy Policy

icanhazip.com (Cloudflare)

When you opt in to Appsero diagnostic tracking (see above), Trustie uses icanhazip.com to determine your server’s public IP address for environment diagnostics. This service is operated by Cloudflare, Inc..

  • What data is sent: A simple HTTP GET request with no payload.
  • When: Only when you have opted into Appsero tracking. Not called if tracking is disabled (the default).
  • What is returned: Your server’s public IP address, which is included in the Appsero diagnostic data.
  • Cloudflare Terms of Use
  • Cloudflare Privacy Policy

Screenshots

  • Google reviews display with aggregate rating
  • Testimonial grid layout
  • Testimonial submission form
  • Floating reviews widget
  • Product review cards with star ratings
  • Visual Designer color customization

Installation

  1. Upload the plugin files to /wp-content/plugins/trustie/ or install through the WordPress plugin screen.
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in WordPress.
  3. For Google reviews: Go to Trustie > Settings > Google Reviews and enter your API key and Place ID.
  4. For testimonials: Add [trustie_testimonials] and [trustie_testimonial_form] to any page.
  5. For product reviews: Ensure WooCommerce is installed and activated.
  6. Customize colors and branding in Trustie > Designer.

FAQ

How do I add customer reviews to WooCommerce for free?

Install Trustie. It integrates with WooCommerce’s existing review system and adds better-looking review cards, star-rating summaries, rating breakdowns, and an automatic review request email after purchase. No separate tables, no data lock-in — your reviews stay in the wp_comments table where WooCommerce already stores them. Free forever, with an optional Trustie Pro upgrade if you want photo reviews and custom forms later.

What’s the best free Google reviews plugin for WordPress?

We’re biased, obviously, but Trustie’s Google reviews integration is designed to be unfussy: add your Google API key and Place ID, drop the [trustie_google_reviews] shortcode wherever you want the reviews to appear, and Trustie handles the rest — star ratings, reviewer names, “View on Google” links, and JSON-LD schema for rich search results. It caches API responses for 24 hours to keep your Google quota happy.

How do I display testimonials on my WordPress site without WooCommerce?

Trustie works without WooCommerce. Use [trustie_testimonial_form] for a submission form, and [trustie_testimonials] to display them in grid, list, masonry, or slider layouts. You can auto-approve testimonials above a rating threshold you choose, or moderate manually. Works on service sites, portfolios, agencies, and any other WordPress site where happy customers want to say nice things.

Can I import reviews and testimonials from another plugin?

Yes. Trustie auto-detects testimonials from Strong Testimonials, Easy Testimonials, and Starter Templates, and lets you import them with one click. For product reviews, if you have existing WordPress comments on products from before you enabled WooCommerce reviews, Trustie can convert those comments into star-rated reviews with a default rating you choose.

Does this work without WooCommerce?

Yes. Google reviews, testimonials, the floating widget, and the reviews page all work without WooCommerce. Product review features (star ratings, review lists, review forms) require WooCommerce.

How do I show Google reviews?

  1. Create a Google API key with the Places API enabled.
  2. Find your Google Place ID.
  3. Enter both in Trustie > Settings > Google Reviews.
  4. Add [trustie_google_reviews] to any page.

Google’s API returns up to 5 individual reviews, but the aggregate rating reflects all your Google reviews.

Can I customize the colors?

Yes. Go to Trustie > Designer to set colors for stars, buttons, cards, and accents. Colors are applied site-wide through CSS variables.

Does this create its own review system?

For product reviews: No. Trustie displays your existing WooCommerce reviews (stored in wp_comments). It does not create separate tables.

For testimonials: Yes. Trustie creates a Testimonials custom post type to store customer testimonials separately from product reviews.

Can testimonials be auto-approved?

Yes. Set an auto-approve threshold in Trustie > Settings. Testimonials at or above your threshold are published automatically. Lower-rated testimonials are held for manual review.

Does Trustie help with SEO?

Yes. Trustie outputs JSON-LD structured data (LocalBusiness, AggregateRating, Review schema) that Google uses for rich results in search. This is automatic — no configuration needed.

Is the testimonial form spam-protected?

The form uses WordPress nonces for security. For additional spam protection, we recommend a CAPTCHA plugin like hCaptcha or reCAPTCHA.

Can I import testimonials from another plugin?

Yes. Trustie detects testimonials from Strong Testimonials, Easy Testimonials, and Starter Templates automatically. Go to Trustie > Settings > Testimonials (or the Import tab) and click Import. You can choose to keep or remove the originals.

How do I convert product comments to reviews?

If you have WordPress comments on products from before WooCommerce reviews were enabled, go to Trustie > Settings > Product Reviews. The “Convert Comments to Reviews” section lets you assign a default star rating and convert them in one click. You can edit individual ratings afterwards.

How do review request emails work?

When WooCommerce is installed, Trustie can automatically email customers after a purchase asking them to leave a review. You can configure this in Trustie > Settings > Review Requests.

Timing: Emails are scheduled when an order reaches “Processing” status. The delay (how many days after purchase) is configurable in settings.

Smart cancellation: Review requests are automatically cancelled when:

  • The order is cancelled or refunded
  • The order payment fails
  • The customer initiates a return for the order
  • The customer submits a review (for any product on the order)
  • The customer clicks the unsubscribe link in the email

This means customers will never receive a review request for an order that went wrong.

What happens if I upgrade to Trustie Pro?

Pro adds features on top of Free. When you activate Pro, Free is automatically deactivated. All your settings, reviews, and testimonials carry over — nothing is lost.

Reviews

April 20, 2026
I’ve used quite a few testimonial plugins over the years, and this is one of the easiest to get up and running properly. What I really like is that it brings everything into one place. You can collect testimonials directly on your site and also pull in your Google reviews, which saves a lot of faff and makes it easy for clients to keep their social proof up to date. The layouts are clean and flexible without needing loads of tweaking, and it’s easy to customize rather than looking like a clunky add-on. One thing worth mentioning is how responsive Sarah (the developer) is. It’s clear she really cares about the plugin and the people using it, which makes a big difference, especially with a newer tool. Overall, it’s a really solid option if you want something simple, well thought out, and genuinely useful. It’s a great alternative to all of the Saas-based options out there.
Read all 1 review

Contributors & Developers

“Trustie — Reviews, Testimonials & Google Reviews” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

1.1.17

  • Update: Readme refreshed — clearer positioning, friendlier voice, and better search visibility on the WordPress.org plugin directory
  • New: Masonry layout now renders properly for product review grids — use layout="masonry" on [trustie_reviews] or [trustie_all_reviews]
  • Fix: Owner responses on reviews now show “Our reply” instead of the site name, so replies read as a single voice across product listings
  • Update: Google Reviews documentation clarifies that the 5-review cap is a Places API limit, not a universal Google constraint
  • Update: Minor style amendments for review and testimonial cards

1.1.16

  • Fix: Floating widget review summary now renders “Based on N reviews” and the sources line on separate lines instead of collapsing inline
  • Fix: Widget star colours respect Brand Hub variable with fallback
  • Fix: Review request cron recovers cleanly from a stalled state
  • Improvement: Review tile polish — uppercase labels, smaller scale indicator, 2-col grid for custom fields, slider rendering for scale fields
  • Improvement: Custom form fields hidden on reviews-archive tiles (belong on product page only)
  • Fix: Feature registration cleanup — removed ghost toggles and duplicates

1.1.15

  • Fix: Testimonial shortcode now respects the columns layout setting (was defaulting to 3 instead of 2 on fresh installs)

1.1.14

  • Fix: Removed dark mode styles from floating widget — widget now always renders with Brand Hub colours regardless of device theme
  • Fix: Testimonial slider track no longer wraps cards incorrectly
  • Fix: Slider navigation hover uses star colour variable instead of inline styles
  • Fix: Removed inline slider CSS in favour of CSS variables from Brand Hub

1.1.13

  • Improvement: Font override fields and CSS variable fallbacks

1.1.12

  • Fix: Body font now correctly inherits theme font (CSS sync from Pro)
  • Fix: Font capture reads from content text instead of document.body

1.1.11

  • Fix: Google Reviews tab no longer shows on Reviews Page when API is not configured
  • Fix: Floating widget tab star icon now matches text colour instead of forcing gold
  • Fix: Display Name field shown for all reviewers (logged-in users can edit, pre-filled from profile)
  • Improvement: Appsero tracking limited to environment data only — no personal info collected

1.1.10

  • Fix: WordPress 6.7 translation loading notice — defer Appsero SDK init to init hook

1.1.1

  • Sync: Shared features class v2.0.0 and settings template synced with Pro

1.1.0

  • Major: Plugin-owned feature registration — Trustie Free now registers its own features independently

1.0.6

  • Fix: Floating widget review count and source breakdown now use accurate DB totals
  • Fix: Widget handles WP_Error from unconfigured Google Reviews without crashing

1.0.5

  • Fix: Designer settings not saving — hidden logo width field blocked form submission (added novalidate)
  • Fix: Google reviews CSS registered too early — moved to proper enqueue hooks

1.0.4

  • Fix: Reviews page performance — batch meta/product queries (800+ queries ~10)
  • Fix: Floating widget CSS/fonts not loading on non-product pages
  • New: Reviews page transient caching with 5-minute TTL, auto-invalidated on review changes
  • New: Lightweight widget-only CSS enqueue — saves ~30KB on non-review pages

1.0.3

  • New: Unified email system — review request emails use Brand Hub wrap_document()
  • New: All WooCommerce emails automatically styled with Brand Hub colours

1.0.2

  • Fix: Designer Interface tab cleaned up (UI Style only)
  • New: Emails tab in Designer for header/footer and social link settings

1.0.1

  • Fix: Review request cron now queries shipped orders when HQ is active
  • Fix: Prevent double-scheduling when both Trustie and HQ set review request due dates

1.0.0

  • Initial release
  • Product review shortcodes (rating, reviews, review form)
  • Testimonial collection and display with customizable star colors
  • Google Reviews shortcode with JSON-LD schema markup
  • Floating reviews widget showing reviews from all sources
  • Standalone /reviews/ page (works without WooCommerce)
  • Review request emails after WooCommerce orders
  • Visual Designer for customizing colors and branding
  • WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility compliance