SmartWidget loads asynchronously on WordPress.com with a Shadow DOM that isolates its styling. Lighthouse scores unaffected. CLS at zero. The snippet goes into Business plan custom code or footer widget and the widget is live the moment the page saves. From £19 a month, UK built.
SmartWidget is the AI receptionist that lives on your WordPress.com site, available to every visitor 24 hours a day. The install is a single line of JavaScript pasted into Business plan custom code or footer widget. 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. WordPress.com is highlighted first.
The SmartWidget setup dashboard is where you review and refine the AI receptionist for your WordPress.com 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 WordPress.com business — services, prices, opening hours, the way you handle out-of-hours enquiries.
The reason an AI chat widget matters so much on WordPress.com is that WordPress.com sites typically rely entirely on a contact form for visitor enquiries. Contact forms get a single-digit response rate. Visitors fill the form, never get a reply, and tab to a competitor. The widget engages every visitor at the moment of arrival — answers their question, qualifies the enquiry, captures the contact details, and alerts you on SMS. The conversion uplift on the same traffic is typically twofold.
This is the inbox you'll use to manage every visitor conversation from your WordPress.com site. The AI handles most conversations end-to-end without human involvement, but the ones that matter — high-value enquiries, complex questions, urgent issues — are flagged for your attention. SMS alerts ping your mobile the moment a qualified lead lands. The inbox shows every conversation with full transcript, visitor metadata, and a single-click handover button.
Yes for any WordPress.com plan that lets you paste a script tag or custom JavaScript into Business plan custom code or footer widget. On a small number of WordPress.com entry-level tiers the custom code feature is restricted; in that case upgrading to the next plan unlocks it. Most WordPress.com Business or Pro tiers and above support SmartWidget directly.
No. There is no plugin for WordPress.com. SmartWidget installs via a single line of JavaScript pasted directly into Business plan custom code or footer widget. Avoiding the plugin route means fewer dependencies, zero conflicts with your other WordPress.com 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 Business plan custom code or footer widget, 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 WordPress.com 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 WordPress.com 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 WordPress.com site immediately.
Remove the single line of JavaScript from Business plan custom code or footer widget and save. The widget disappears immediately. There is nothing else to uninstall from WordPress.com — 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 WordPress.com sites, each with its own AI personality, knowledge base and unified inbox. Particularly useful for agencies running client WordPress.com sites or operators with multiple brand sites.
Yes. The widget is responsive by default and works on every WordPress.com 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 WordPress.com 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 WordPress.com entry-level tiers restrict custom code. In that case, upgrading to a tier that allows custom JavaScript is the only path. If WordPress.com does not allow custom code on any tier, SmartWidget cannot be installed — but this is rare. Almost every modern WordPress.com 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 WordPress.com-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 WordPress.com where available. Consent state is respected — the widget does not initialise until consent has been granted on visitors in scope of UK GDPR.
4.9 out of 5 from 199 reviews. A selection of install-experience reviews from real UK businesses.
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.
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.
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.
