This is the complete guide to installing SmartWidget on Eleventy. Step-by-step from signup to first answered visitor, including the exact paste location for the snippet in layout template before closing body, customisation options, and GDPR cookie integration. From £19/mo.
SmartWidget on Eleventy is the difference between a website that passively waits for visitors to email and a website that actively engages every visitor in real time. The widget reads your Eleventy site automatically during signup, builds the AI receptionist trained on your services and pricing, and deploys via a single snippet into layout template before closing body. Five-minute install. £19/mo. Multi-site from the Growth tier upwards. UK GDPR compliant by design.
The full install end-to-end. Five steps, about five minutes from signup to the first answered visitor.
The exact panel and field to paste the snippet on every supported platform. Eleventy is highlighted first.
This is what you'll see when you sign up SmartWidget for your Eleventy site. The dashboard organises everything the AI knows about your business into editable sections — services, pricing, opening hours, locations, qualifying questions, FAQ overrides. The AI populates these from reading your Eleventy site automatically, then you review and refine. Most Eleventy businesses spend ten minutes here on day one, then check in weekly to add new Q&A pairs as customer questions evolve.
For UK Eleventy sites, missed website enquiries are missed revenue. The contact form has a single-digit response rate. The live chat, if you have one, is only staffed in office hours. The FAQ page is mostly unread. The widget engages every visitor in real time, answers them in under eight seconds, captures the enquiry, and alerts you on SMS. Five-minute install into layout template before closing body. £19/mo.
The messaging inbox surfaces every visitor conversation from your Eleventy site in one place. Each conversation card shows the visitor's name, contact details, the question they asked, the AI's answer, and the qualification status. You can take over any conversation, mark any conversation for follow-up, send any conversation to your CRM, and reply to any visitor by email after the chat ends — the email thread continues from where the chat finished.
Yes. Multi-site is built in from the Growth tier. One SmartWidget subscription can run widgets across multiple Eleventy sites, each with its own AI personality, knowledge base and unified inbox. Particularly useful for agencies running client Eleventy sites or operators with multiple brand sites.
Yes. The widget is responsive by default and works on every Eleventy mobile breakpoint. The chat bubble sits in the bottom corner on every screen size and the chat interface adapts to mobile-optimised layout when a visitor opens it on a phone.
Yes. The widget integrates with Google Calendar, Outlook (Microsoft Graph), and the built-in SmartWidget scheduler. Visitors browsing your Eleventy site can be offered specific appointment slots and book directly inside the chat. The event writes back to your calendar with the conversation transcript attached.
A small number of Eleventy entry-level tiers restrict custom code. In that case, upgrading to a tier that allows custom JavaScript is the only path. If Eleventy does not allow custom code on any tier, SmartWidget cannot be installed — but this is rare. Almost every modern Eleventy Business or Pro plan supports it.
No. SmartWidget operates on monthly billing with no contract and no minimum commitment. Cancel any time directly from the dashboard with no notice period and no exit fee. The lowest tier is £19 per month, billed monthly, so the maximum risk on the decision is a single month's spend.
Live chat support inside the SmartWidget dashboard answers within minutes. The dashboard also contains a step-by-step Eleventy-specific install guide with screenshots and the exact menu paths. If the install does not work, support will remote into a screenshare and complete it with you.
The widget includes a configurable consent notice that integrates with the major UK cookie banner solutions including OneTrust, Cookiebot, CookieYes, Iubenda, and the platform-native banners on Eleventy where available. Consent state is respected — the widget does not initialise until consent has been granted on visitors in scope of UK GDPR.
The AI knowledge base is built from publicly accessible pages on your Eleventy site. Content gated behind login is not included automatically. If your Eleventy site has paid-content or member-only sections, the AI's knowledge will reflect only the public pages — which is typically what you want for visitor chat anyway.
English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese are supported on the Growth tier and above. The widget detects the visitor's language from their first message and replies in the same language for the rest of the conversation. Particularly valuable for Eleventy sites serving overseas customers or operating in tourism-driven markets.
The dashboard exposes filtering rules. You can block visitors by IP range, exclude conversation triggers on specific URLs of your Eleventy site, restrict the widget to certain pages only, and configure honeypot-style anti-spam rules. The defaults are sensible for most Eleventy businesses; the controls are there if you need them.
Conversation transcripts and visitor contact data are retained for 30 days after cancellation, then deleted permanently. Within that 30-day window you can export the full transcript archive and the contact database as CSV from the dashboard. The widget snippet on your Eleventy site stops loading immediately on cancellation.
No. The widget loads asynchronously after the page has rendered. The bundle is under 30KB. There is no impact on Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift, or First Input Delay. Lighthouse audit before and after the install on a Eleventy site typically shows zero score change.
Yes. The dashboard supports WhatsApp Business API integration for escalations. When the AI flags a high-intent enquiry on your Eleventy site, it can send you a WhatsApp message with the visitor's details and the conversation context. The integration runs on top of the standard email and SMS escalation options.
The install on Eleventy takes about five minutes end-to-end. You sign up at smartwidget.co.uk, paste your Eleventy site URL so the AI can read it, review the auto-generated answers, copy the JavaScript snippet, paste it into layout template before closing body, and save. The widget is live and answering visitors the moment the page saves.
4.9 out of 5 from 199 reviews. A selection of install-experience reviews from real UK businesses.
We migrated to a new accounting firm site last spring. SmartWidget was the only chat tool that installed cleanly without breaking the theme. Five minutes from signup to live.
Our firm uses a Drupal site that an agency built nine years ago. I expected the install to be painful. The agency added the script tag in eleven minutes and the widget went live the same afternoon.
Our firm runs a heavily customised Webflow site. SmartWidget installs into the End of body tag custom code field — exactly where Webflow places all scripts. Zero animation conflicts.
My Framer site is mostly animation and the widget had to coexist with three other custom code blocks. SmartWidget installed cleanly without breaking any of the existing animations or transitions.
My Format portfolio is built around lots of high-resolution images and very minimal text. SmartWidget did not slow the gallery load at all — it loads async and the widget bubble only renders once images are done.
My WordPress site uses a heavily customised theme. I worried the SmartWidget snippet might conflict. The Insert Headers and Footers plugin route kept everything isolated and the theme has not been touched.
SmartWidget installs cleanly on every major platform in this category. Explore install guides for related platforms.
Sign up, paste the snippet, save. From £19 a month. No card to start.
