Description

RetroChat is a live chat and AI chatbot plugin for WordPress that helps you turn website visitors into customers. A no-code chatbot greets every visitor and asks the questions you choose. An AI chatbot answers from your own website and documents, day and night. And your team takes over with live chat the moment a person is needed. Every conversation lands in one shared inbox, with the full history and everything the visitor told the bot. It brings live chat software, a chatbot builder and an AI chatbot together in one place.

Use it for customer support, sales and lead generation on business websites, WooCommerce and other online stores, agency client sites and membership sites.

The plugin is free and connects your WordPress site to RetroChat, a hosted live chat service. RetroChat starts with a free 14-day trial, no credit card needed.

Why add live chat and an AI chatbot to your website?

Most visitors leave without filling in a contact form. A chat window that answers straight away keeps the conversation going: the chatbot qualifies the lead, the AI chatbot answers routine questions instantly, and your sales or support team picks up the chats that need a human. You capture more leads, reply to customers faster and stop typing the same answers every day.

No-code chatbot builder

Build a website chatbot without writing code. Each step can show a message, ask a question with quick-reply buttons, or wait for a typed answer such as a number, an email address or a phone number. IF/ELSE conditions decide what the bot asks next, so every visitor gets a relevant conversation.

Lead qualification and lead capture without code. Ask about budget, team size or timeline, collect the visitor’s email address, and send big deals straight to sales.
Forms in the chat. Ask for several details at once (name, email, company, a dropdown or a longer message) in one form the visitor fills in and sends, then carry on with the flow, for example straight to your team.
Save every answer as a variable, reuse it in later messages (“Thanks, {{name}}!”), and see it on the contact in your inbox.
Start from a template, test the flow in the builder, then import or export flows to reuse them on other websites.

AI chatbot trained on your website (Autopilot plan)

Build the AI chatbot’s knowledge base from your website pages, PDF and Word documents, FAQs and notes. It answers visitors around the clock in their own language, which makes it a multilingual chatbot without extra setup. When it isn’t sure, it hands the chat to your team instead of guessing.

There’s no OpenAI or other AI API key to set up: the AI is built into RetroChat. The free trial includes 10 AI replies so you can try the AI chatbot on your own content.

Live chat with human handoff

Visitors can ask for a person at any time. Your team replies in real time from the RetroChat dashboard in any browser, with typing indicators and online status, and sees everything the chatbot already collected, so nobody has to repeat themselves. Set office hours: when nobody is online, the chat widget collects an email address so you can follow up.

Shared inbox for your support and sales team

See messages as visitors type them and reply faster with saved replies.
Assign chats, organize them with tags and snooze, and search every conversation.
Work together with private notes and @mentions.
Keep a contact record for every visitor, with their full chat history and CSV export.

Lead generation and proactive chat

Show a greeting that matches the page a visitor is on, for example on your pricing or contact page.
Catch visitors before they leave with a leave-intent prompt (desktop).
Ask for a name and email address first with an optional pre-chat form.
Show waiting visitors their place in the queue.

Reports

Track first response time, time to close, customer satisfaction ratings, busiest hours, top pages and per-agent performance, and see how many chats the chatbot and AI resolve on their own. A weekly email report keeps the team up to date.

Built for WordPress

Two-minute setup. Install the plugin, paste your widget key under Settings RetroChat and click Test connection.
Chat buttons anywhere. Add a “Chat with us” button with the [retrochat_button] shortcode or the RetroChat button block, or point any menu item at #retrochat.
Identify logged-in users. Optionally pass the name and email of logged-in WordPress users (members, customers) so they never have to introduce themselves, with optional identity verification.
Show the chat only where you want. Hide it for logged-in administrators and on chosen pages, by post ID or URL path, with wildcards such as /checkout/*.
Fast. One small script, loaded asynchronously in the footer, so your pages stay quick. Works with caching plugins.
Make the chat widget yours. Set its title, greeting, color and position in your RetroChat dashboard. Changes show up on your site straight away.
Privacy friendly. Visitors stay anonymous until they share their details, and the plugin adds suggested text to your privacy policy guide.

Secure by default

Two-step sign-in (which you can require for the whole team), signed-in device management, new sign-in alerts, an activity log and an allowed-websites list for your widget key keep your team’s account and your visitors’ conversations safe.

Pricing

The plugin is free. RetroChat plans start at $15 per month billed yearly, and the AI chatbot is part of the Autopilot plan. Your free 14-day trial includes all Business features and 10 AI replies, no credit card needed. See pricing.

How it works

Install and activate RetroChat – Live Chat & AI Chatbot.
Start a free 14-day trial of RetroChat and copy your widget key from Install in your RetroChat dashboard.
Paste the key under Settings RetroChat and click Save Changes.

The live chat appears on your site right away. Build your chatbot flow, add your content for the AI chatbot, and reply to visitors from the RetroChat dashboard in any browser.

External services

This plugin relies on RetroChat (https://theretrochat.com), a third-party live chat service, to provide the chat widget. Nothing is sent to RetroChat until you add a widget key.

On your public pages (wherever the widget is enabled), visitors’ browsers load the chat widget from https://theretrochat.com/widget.js. The widget sends RetroChat your widget key, the address of the page and the referring page, the visitor’s browser details, the messages they write and any details they choose to share (such as their name, email address or answers to chatbot questions). If you turn on “Identify logged-in WordPress users”, the name and email address of logged-in users are sent as well. The widget stores a token in the visitor’s browser (local storage) so the conversation can continue on their next visit.
In your WordPress admin, when you click “Test connection”, your site sends your widget key to https://theretrochat.com/api/widget/config to check it and to show your workspace name and how many agents are online.

RetroChat terms of service: https://theretrochat.com/terms
RetroChat privacy policy: https://theretrochat.com/privacy

Screenshots

The live chat widget on a website: the no-code chatbot greets visitors and asks questions with quick-reply buttons.

The shared inbox: the whole conversation, everything the chatbot collected and your team's live chat replies. — The live chat widget on a website: the no-code chatbot greets visitors and asks questions with quick-reply buttons.

Blocks

This plugin provides 1 block.

RetroChat button A button that opens the RetroChat live chat window.

Installation

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins Add New Plugin and search for “RetroChat”.
Click Install Now on RetroChat – Live Chat & AI Chatbot, then Activate.
Go to Settings RetroChat, paste your widget key and click Save Changes.

You’ll find your widget key under Install in your RetroChat dashboard. Don’t have an account yet? Start a free 14-day trial (no card needed).

FAQ

Is RetroChat free?: The plugin is free. RetroChat itself is a paid service with a free 14-day trial: the trial includes all Business features and 10 AI replies, and no credit card is needed. After the trial, plans start at $15 per month billed yearly. The AI chatbot is part of the Autopilot plan.
How do I add a chatbot to my WordPress site?: Install and activate this plugin, paste your widget key under Settings RetroChat, and the chat appears on every page. Your RetroChat workspace comes with a ready-made chatbot flow that you can edit in the no-code chatbot builder, or start from a template.
Can I train the AI chatbot on my own website content?: Yes. Add your website pages, PDF and Word documents, FAQs or notes to the AI assistant’s knowledge in your RetroChat dashboard. The AI chatbot answers from that content and hands the chat to your team when the answer isn’t there.
Do I need an OpenAI or other AI API key?: No. The AI is built into RetroChat, so there’s no API key to create and no separate AI bill.
Can the AI chatbot hand the conversation to a human?: Yes. Visitors can ask for a person at any time, and the AI hands over by itself when it isn’t sure. Your team sees the whole conversation and everything the chatbot collected. Outside your office hours, the chat widget collects an email address so you can reply later.
Does the AI chatbot speak other languages?: Yes. The AI chatbot replies in the visitor’s language. You can also change the chat widget’s title and greeting to match your site. The RetroChat dashboard is in English.
Does it work with WooCommerce?: Yes. The live chat widget works on WooCommerce store pages like on any other page, so the chatbot and the AI can answer questions about products, shipping and returns from your own content, and you can hide the chat on checkout pages. RetroChat does not read WooCommerce orders or carts.
Do I need coding skills?: No. Installing the plugin, building chatbot flows and teaching the AI all happen without code. Developers can still use the filters and the JavaScript API described below.
Do I need a RetroChat account?: Yes. The plugin connects your site to RetroChat, where you reply to chats and build your chatbot. You can start a free 14-day trial (no card needed) in about a minute.
Where do I find my widget key?: In your RetroChat dashboard, open Install and copy the widget key, then paste it under Settings RetroChat. If you paste the whole embed code by mistake, the plugin picks the key out of it.
How do I check that it works?: Click “Test connection” next to the widget key. You should see “Connected to (your workspace) · N agents online”. Then open your site in a private browser window: the chat launcher appears in the corner.
The chat does not show up on my site: Check that your site’s address is listed under Install Allowed websites in your RetroChat dashboard, that “Enable chat widget” is on, that “Hide the chat for logged-in administrators” is off (or look at your site while logged out) and that the page is not listed under “Hide on”. The widget is never loaded in feeds, AMP pages or the Customizer preview.
How do I add a “Chat with us” button?: Use the [retrochat_button] shortcode or add the “RetroChat button” block. Change the text with label and add your own CSS classes with class, for example [retrochat_button label="Talk to sales" class="button"]. Buttons only appear on pages where the chat widget loads.
Can a menu item open the chat?: Yes. Add a Custom Link to your menu with the URL #retrochat. Any link to #retrochat on a page with the widget opens the chat.
Can I hide the chat on some pages?: Yes. Under Settings RetroChat Hide on, list one entry per line: a post or page ID (like 42) or a URL path (like /checkout). End a path with * to hide the chat on everything below it too, for example /shop/*.
Does it work with caching plugins?: Yes. The widget loads from RetroChat, so cached pages keep working. If you turn on “Identify logged-in WordPress users”, make sure your caching plugin does not cache pages for logged-in users (the default in popular caching plugins).
Is it GDPR friendly?: You stay in control of what is shared: visitors are anonymous until they share their details, and logged-in users are only identified if you turn that option on. The plugin adds suggested text under Settings Privacy that you can use in your privacy policy, and the External services section above lists exactly what is sent.
Can developers change what is sent to the widget?: Yes. The retrochat_live_chat_widget_settings filter receives the settings object (key, host and the optional user) before it is printed as window.RetroChatSettings, and the retrochat_live_chat_should_load filter can switch the widget off for any request. In JavaScript, use window.RetroChat.open(), .close(), .toggle() and .identify({ name, email }).
What happens to my data if I delete the plugin?: Deleting the plugin removes its settings from your WordPress database. Your conversations stay safe in your RetroChat account.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“RetroChat – Live Chat & AI Chatbot” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

retrochat

Translate “RetroChat – Live Chat & AI Chatbot” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.0.7

Updates now come from the WordPress.org plugin directory, like any other plugin. Sites that installed the zip from theretrochat.com switch over automatically with this update.

1.0.6

New name: RetroChat – Live Chat & AI Chatbot. Now also available from the WordPress.org plugin directory.
Removed an unneeded translation loader; WordPress loads translations automatically.

1.0.5

Wording updates.

1.0.4

Maintenance release.

1.0.3

RetroChat’s previous server address is no longer supported. Sites still set to it switch to https://theretrochat.com automatically; update to keep the chat working.

1.0.2

New: Identity secret setting. Logged-in users are signed so your team can trust who they are (identity verification).
Security: the Server URL can only point at RetroChat (theretrochat.com); local test servers work only with WP_DEBUG on. Test connection uses WordPress’s safe HTTP API.

1.0.1

The chat server is now https://theretrochat.com. Existing settings update automatically.

1.0.0

Initial release: the RetroChat chat widget, Settings RetroChat with onboarding and Test connection, identification of logged-in users, hiding for administrators and on chosen pages, the [retrochat_button] shortcode, the RetroChat button block and #retrochat links.

Description

Why add live chat and an AI chatbot to your website?

No-code chatbot builder

AI chatbot trained on your website (Autopilot plan)

Live chat with human handoff

Shared inbox for your support and sales team

Lead generation and proactive chat

Reports

Built for WordPress

Secure by default

Pricing

How it works

External services

Screenshots

Blocks

Installation

FAQ

Is RetroChat free?

How do I add a chatbot to my WordPress site?

Can I train the AI chatbot on my own website content?

Do I need an OpenAI or other AI API key?

Can the AI chatbot hand the conversation to a human?

Does the AI chatbot speak other languages?

Does it work with WooCommerce?

Do I need coding skills?

Do I need a RetroChat account?

Where do I find my widget key?

How do I check that it works?

The chat does not show up on my site

How do I add a “Chat with us” button?

Can a menu item open the chat?

Can I hide the chat on some pages?

Does it work with caching plugins?

Is it GDPR friendly?

Can developers change what is sent to the widget?

What happens to my data if I delete the plugin?