An AI chat widget for Sitecore installs in three steps: paste your URL into SmartWidget, review the AI-generated knowledge base, drop one line of JavaScript into your Sitecore site (layout MVC view before closing body tag). The full walkthrough is below. From £19 a month, no contract.
SmartWidget is the AI receptionist that lives on your Sitecore site, available to every visitor 24 hours a day. The install is a single line of JavaScript pasted into layout MVC view before closing body tag. The AI learns your services from the site during setup. Every visitor question is answered in under eight seconds. Every qualified enquiry is captured and handed to you on email or SMS. From £19 a month.
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. Sitecore is highlighted first.
The SmartWidget setup dashboard is where you review and refine the AI receptionist for your Sitecore site. The AI reads your site during signup, builds a draft set of question-and-answer pairs, and presents them in the dashboard for review. You edit anything that needs refining, add answers to gaps, set the tone of voice, and configure escalation rules. The dashboard is where the AI is shaped to match your specific Sitecore business — services, prices, opening hours, the way you handle out-of-hours enquiries.
For UK Sitecore 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 MVC view before closing body tag. £19/mo.
The dashboard you'll spend most of your time in is the messaging inbox. It shows every conversation the AI has on your Sitecore site, lets you jump into any live one with one click, and keeps a searchable archive of every conversation the widget has ever had. Visitor contact details from every qualified conversation are captured automatically. Most Sitecore businesses check this inbox once a day and the AI handles the rest 24/7.
No. There is no plugin for Sitecore. SmartWidget installs via a single line of JavaScript pasted directly into layout MVC view before closing body tag. Avoiding the plugin route means fewer dependencies, zero conflicts with your other Sitecore extensions, and no plugin marketplace approval process.
A single script tag with your unique widget key. Around 200 characters total. You copy it from the SmartWidget dashboard after signup, paste it into layout MVC view before closing body tag, and save. The script tag loads our widget client asynchronously when a visitor lands on your page.
No. The widget loads asynchronously after the page has rendered, so it does not block any of your Sitecore site's critical rendering path. PageSpeed and Lighthouse scores are unaffected. The widget bundle is under 30 KB and lazy-loads its UI when the visitor first interacts with the chat bubble.
SmartWidget is UK GDPR compliant by design. Conversation transcripts are encrypted at rest in UK-based data centres. The widget includes a configurable consent notice that integrates with most Sitecore cookie banner solutions, and the dashboard exposes the controls needed for data-subject access and deletion requests.
Yes. The widget appearance is fully customisable from the SmartWidget dashboard — primary colour, accent colour, chat bubble position (bottom-left, bottom-right), avatar, welcome message, and trigger behaviour. The customisation is centralised, so changing it once updates the widget on your Sitecore site immediately.
Remove the single line of JavaScript from layout MVC view before closing body tag and save. The widget disappears immediately. There is nothing else to uninstall from Sitecore — no database tables, no orphaned files, no leftover configuration.
Yes. Multi-site is built in from the Growth tier. One SmartWidget subscription can run widgets across multiple Sitecore sites, each with its own AI personality, knowledge base and unified inbox. Particularly useful for agencies running client Sitecore sites or operators with multiple brand sites.
Yes. The widget is responsive by default and works on every Sitecore 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 Sitecore 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 Sitecore entry-level tiers restrict custom code. In that case, upgrading to a tier that allows custom JavaScript is the only path. If Sitecore does not allow custom code on any tier, SmartWidget cannot be installed — but this is rare. Almost every modern Sitecore 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 Sitecore-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 Sitecore 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 Sitecore site. Content gated behind login is not included automatically. If your Sitecore 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.
4.9 out of 5 from 199 reviews. A selection of install-experience reviews from real UK businesses.
My GoDaddy site was the third platform we tried — none of the chat tools we previously bought worked on it. SmartWidget installed via the HTML section block in twelve minutes and has been running clean since.
My Strikingly site does not support most chat widgets I tried. SmartWidget installed via the advanced footer HTML field cleanly and the widget appears on every page including the single-page sections.
My BigCommerce store and my WordPress information site needed one chat widget across both. SmartWidget Multi-Site handles both with separate knowledge bases. One subscription, two installs, identical experience.
My Pixieset client gallery site does not support most chat tools. SmartWidget installed via the custom code tracking field with zero modification needed. The widget appears only on the public site, not the client galleries.
My site is on Wix and the developer who built it is no longer around. SmartWidget gave me copy-paste instructions for the Wix custom code section. Live in seven minutes.
My BigCommerce store has six payment processors and four tracking scripts. I expected another script tag to cause problems. It did not. The widget loads asynchronously and does not block anything on the page.
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.
