Trustindex is two products under one name. The free WordPress plugin shows up to 10 Google reviews from one Google Business Profile in one widget, and you refresh them by hand, at most once every 10 days. The Trustindex account, which is what you use on Shopify, Wix, Squarespace or any other site, only shows widgets on a paid package. After a 7-day trial the widget is replaced by an error message until you subscribe or take it down.
Most people start looking for an alternative at one of those two points. We compared six, on WordPress and off it, on what the free plan includes, what paying costs, and where each one is a worse deal than staying put. Prices and limits come from each vendor's own pricing page, help centre or wordpress.org listing, all checked on November 10, 2026. Shapo is our product, so read that entry with that in mind.
The short answer
- You want reviews from Google and other sites in one widget, and a way to collect new ones: Shapo. The free plan covers up to 15 reviews in unlimited widgets with no view limit, on any website.
- You are on WordPress, only need Google, and want to keep paying nothing: Rich Showcase for Google Reviews. Add your own Google API key and it refreshes every day, for any number of locations.
- You need one hosted widget on a low-traffic site: Elfsight, from $5 a month billed yearly, capped at 5,000 views a month.
- You manage the Google Business Profile and want a free plan that syncs by itself: EmbedSocial, every 24 hours, up to 500 views a month.
- You want reviews, social feeds and chat buttons from one WordPress plugin, or a one-time licence: WP Social Ninja.
- Your site already runs Smash Balloon feeds: Reviews Feed by Smash Balloon.
- You run a hotel or rental and need Booking.com or Airbnb reviews: stay with Trustindex, or look at Smash Balloon's Elite plan. Shapo does not import from either.
- You have one business and only want more than 10 reviews with automatic updates: pay Trustindex $65 a year. For that one job it costs less than almost everything below.
Trustindex alternatives compared
| Tool | Free plan | Free view limit | Paid from | Review sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trustindex (for reference) | WordPress plugin only: 10 reviews, 1 widget, manual refresh | None | $65/year | 1 per free plugin, 130+ on paid |
| Shapo | 15 reviews, unlimited widgets | None | $29/month, 2 months free on yearly | Google and 30+ other sites, plus your own forms |
| Elfsight | 1 widget | 200 a month | $5/month billed yearly | Google, other platforms in a separate product |
| EmbedSocial | 1 Google Business Profile, unlimited widgets | 500 a month | $24/month billed yearly | Google on Free, 3 sources on Pro |
| Rich Showcase | 10 reviews on setup, unlimited places and widgets | None | $85/year | Google, plus Facebook and Yelp on paid |
| WP Social Ninja | Google and Airbnb reviews with auto sync | None listed | $89/year | Google and Airbnb, more on Pro |
| Reviews Feed (Smash Balloon) | 10 latest reviews, 1 business | None listed | $49 first year, then $98 | Google and Yelp, 9 more on higher plans |
Shapo, Elfsight and EmbedSocial are hosted widgets that go on any website with an embed code, and Shapo also has a WordPress plugin. Rich Showcase, WP Social Ninja and Reviews Feed are WordPress plugins and work nowhere else.
Why people leave Trustindex
The free plugin stops at 10 reviews and does not refresh itself
The plugin's wordpress.org listing spells out the free version: one Google Business Profile, one widget, up to 10 displayed reviews. The reviews are fetched once, when you set the widget up, and stored in your WordPress database. After that you can refresh them by hand from the My Reviews tab, once every 10 days. A review a customer left yesterday reaches your site when you remember to press the button.
Each free plugin covers one source
Trustindex publishes separate free plugins for Google, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Yelp, Booking.com, Airbnb and Amazon, and its help centre limits a free plugin to one review source. Putting your Google and Facebook reviews in the same widget is a paid feature.
Off WordPress, the widget is paid after 7 days
This is the limit that surprises people. Trustindex's help article on free and paid packages says the Free package of a Trustindex account does not include review widgets on your website, except during the 7-day trial. When the trial ends, the account drops to Free, the widgets stop displaying, and an error message shows in their place until you remove the widget or subscribe. The Free package keeps review collection, the Review Summary Page, trustmarks and the review certificate. So on Shopify, Wix or Squarespace there is no free Trustindex widget to stay on.
Paid packages are yearly and priced by company
The three paid packages have the same features and differ only in how many companies they cover: Single at $65 a year for 1 company, Pro at $125 for 5, and Ultimate at $349 for agencies. The pricing page lists yearly prices only, with a refund on request within 30 days of purchase. Rich snippets, AI review summaries, review photos and the daily refresh all sit on the paid side.
When staying is the right call
If you have one business and what bothers you is the 10-review cap or the manual refresh, paying Trustindex $65 a year fixes both, with unlimited widgets, views and reviews from more than 130 platforms. Of the paid plans below, only Elfsight's Basic ($60 a year, capped at 5,000 views a month, Google only) and Smash Balloon's first-year price come in under it.
Look elsewhere if your site is not on WordPress and you want a free widget, if you want to collect testimonials as well as display reviews, or if you would rather pay by the month.
The 6 alternatives, one by one
1.Shapo
Best for reviews from several sites plus your own testimonials- Free plan:
- Up to 15 reviews, unlimited widgets, no view limit, Shapo branding
- Paid from:
- $29/month, or yearly with 2 months free (Pro)
- On WordPress:
- Shapo plugin, with a block and Elementor, Beaver Builder, Bricks and WPBakery elements
- Other sites:
- One embed code
Shapo is our product. It is a hosted widget, so the same widget goes on WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow or plain HTML with one embed code, and WordPress sites can use the plugin instead. You import Google reviews by searching your business name, choose which ones to show with a minimum star rating, and add reviews from 30+ other sites, such as Facebook, Yelp, Tripadvisor and Trustpilot, to the same widget.
The free plan covers up to 15 reviews in unlimited widgets with no view limit, in the carousel, single review and badge layouts, with Shapo branding. Pro, at $29 a month, removes the limit and the branding, adds the grid, marquee, list and floating popup layouts, and re-imports every connected source once a day.
The difference from Trustindex is on the collecting side: forms for text and video testimonials, NPS and feedback surveys, and a Review Booster page that sends customers to your Google, Facebook or Trustpilot review links. Trustindex fits better in two cases. Its paid package costs less per year for a single business that only displays reviews. And it covers Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia and Hotels.com, which Shapo does not import.
- Google reviews by business name, Maps link or Place ID, no API key
- Imports the reviews on your public Trustindex review page from its URL
- Pro re-imports every connected source once a day
2.Elfsight Google Reviews
Best for one hosted widget on a low-traffic site- Free plan:
- 1 widget, 200 views a month, Elfsight branding
- Paid from:
- $5/month billed yearly, or $6 monthly (Basic)
- Works on:
- Any site, by embed code
- API key:
- Not needed
Elfsight connects to Google with a Place ID, a business address or a business name, and says new reviews usually appear within 72 hours of being posted. Every plan is capped by views, counted each time the widget loads on a page. Elfsight describes the free plan, at 200 views a month, as good for testing.
Basic works out at $60 a year, the one regular price in this list below Trustindex's $65, with 3 widgets and 5,000 views a month. Reviews from other platforms need All-in-One Reviews, a separate Elfsight product that starts at $10 a month billed yearly with the same view caps. Our Elfsight comparison goes through the view limits.
- Basic: 3 widgets and 5,000 views a month
- Pro: 9 widgets and 50,000 views for $10/month billed yearly
- Going over the view limit temporarily deactivates the widget
3.EmbedSocial
Best for a free plan that syncs by itself- Free plan:
- 1 Google Business Profile, unlimited widgets, 500 views a month
- Paid from:
- $24/month billed yearly, or $29 monthly (Pro)
- Connection:
- Your Google Business Profile, through Google's official API
- Sync:
- Every 24 hours on Free, every 3 hours on Pro
EmbedSocial's free plan syncs new reviews every 24 hours. It reads them through Google's Business Profile API, so you need access to the listing itself, not only its name. The limit to watch is views: 500 a month on Free, shared by every widget in the account. At the limit, the widgets stop showing until the count resets.
Its free-widget page says in one place that the free widget collects up to 500 reviews and, in the FAQ further down, that it shows the latest 5. Check what yours displays before you rely on it. Pro adds Facebook reviews and Trustpilot and counts each connected account or location as one source. Prices were shown to us in US dollars.
- Pro: 3 sources and 5,000 views a month
- Pro Plus: 6 sources and 20,000 views for $49/month
- Widgets stop displaying when a paid subscription ends
4.Rich Showcase for Google Reviews
Best for staying free on WordPress with daily updates- Free plan:
- Up to 10 reviews on setup, unlimited places and widgets
- Paid from:
- $85/year (Business, 1 site)
- API key:
- Only for automatic updates
Rich Showcase is the closest like-for-like swap for the free Trustindex plugin: paste a Google Maps URL or Place ID and it loads up to 10 reviews with no key. It differs in two ways. It connects any number of Google places and widgets for free, where Trustindex's free plugin allows one of each. And once you add your own free Google API key, it checks for new reviews every day.
Google's Places API returns 5 reviews per request, so with a key the list grows as new reviews arrive instead of starting large. The paid Business version adds Facebook and Yelp at $85 a year for one site, which is more than Trustindex Single for fewer platforms.
- Several Google places in one widget, on the free version
- Reviews stored in your WordPress database
- Business adds Facebook and Yelp
5.WP Social Ninja
Best for reviews, social feeds and chat buttons in one plugin- Free plan:
- Google and Airbnb reviews, automatic and manual sync
- Paid from:
- $89/year for 1 site, or $349 once (lifetime)
- Works on:
- WordPress only
WP Social Ninja's free version includes Google Business Profile and Airbnb reviews with automatic syncing, and its wordpress.org FAQ says you can display an unlimited number of reviews. Hiding a specific review needs Pro. Pro is licensed per site: $89 a year for one site, or $349 once with lifetime updates, the only one-time price in this list. On the day we checked, the pricing page showed 20% off both, at $71 for the first year and $279 for the lifetime licence.
The same plugin carries Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok feeds and floating chat buttons. That is useful if it replaces two or three plugins you already run, and more than you need if reviews are all you want.
- Pro adds Facebook, Yelp, Tripadvisor, Booking.com and WooCommerce reviews
- 25-site licence for $249/year
- Hiding an individual review needs Pro
6.Reviews Feed (Smash Balloon)
Best for sites that already use Smash Balloon feeds- Free plan:
- 10 latest reviews for 1 Google or Yelp business
- Paid from:
- $49 for the first year, renews at $98 (Basic, 1 site)
- API key:
- Only for regular updates and more businesses on the free version
Smash Balloon's free plugin shows the 10 latest reviews for one Google or Yelp business once you verify your email, with no API key. Add your own key and it updates regularly and can take more than one business. Review schema markup is included for free.
The paid plans are sold at introductory prices that double on renewal: Basic is $49 for the first year and $98 after, Plus $99 then $198, Elite $149 then $298. Basic keeps reviews updated daily without a key and covers Google and Yelp. For hotels and rentals, Elite is the plan with Tripadvisor, Booking.com and Airbnb.
- Basic checks for new reviews daily and keeps every review it has fetched
- Plus adds Facebook, Trustpilot and WooCommerce for 5 sites
- Elite adds Tripadvisor, Booking.com and Airbnb, with updates twice a day
Facts checked on November 10, 2026 on each vendor's own pages: Trustindex (pricing, free and paid packages, wordpress.org listing), Shapo, Elfsight (Google Reviews, All-in-One Reviews), EmbedSocial (pricing, free widget), Rich Showcase (wordpress.org, pricing), WP Social Ninja (wordpress.org, pricing) and Smash Balloon (wordpress.org, pricing). Vendors change plans often, so check before you buy.
Two we left out
Trustmary and Senja appear on other lists of Trustindex alternatives. We left them out of the six because they solve a different problem. Trustmary has a free Solo plan with 200 widget views a month, and the paid plans on its pricing page start at $191 a month. Senja is a testimonial collection tool whose free plan holds 15 testimonials. Neither is a close replacement for a $65-a-year Google reviews widget. If you are choosing between WordPress plugins only, our comparison of Google reviews plugins for WordPress covers eight of them in more detail.
How to move your reviews from Trustindex to Shapo
There is no export file to carry over. A review widget displays reviews that live on other sites, so moving means connecting the same sources again. Keep the Trustindex widget on your page until the new one is live.
1. List where your reviews come from
Open your Trustindex widget and note each platform it shows: Google, Facebook, Tripadvisor and so on. If any of them is Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia or Hotels.com, stop here. Shapo does not import from those, and a paid Trustindex package is the better fit.
2. Import your Google reviews
Create a free Shapo account. In the dashboard, open Testimonials, choose Google, and type your business name as it appears on Google. You can also paste your Google Maps link or Place ID. Set a minimum star rating, decide whether to skip reviews without text, tick the reviews you want and click Import Reviews. There is no API key or Google Cloud project.
Add testimonials fromGoogle
Brightside Coffee
412 Alder St, Portland, OR
186 reviews ★ 4.8
Select the ones you want to import from the 50 most recent reviews
Maya R.
"Best flat white in the neighbourhood, and the staff remember your order."
★★★★★ Sep 20
Daniel K.
"Great spot to work for a couple of hours. Fast wifi and the banana bread is excellent."
★★★★★ Sep 15
Priya S.
"Ordered a birthday cake with two days notice and it came out exactly like the photo."
★★★★★ Sep 10
3. Import the other platforms
Repeat the import for each remaining platform. Facebook, Yelp, Tripadvisor, Trustpilot and the rest are each imported from that platform's own page, so every review keeps its source's name and logo in the widget.
4. Import the reviews collected on Trustindex
If customers left reviews through Trustindex's own invitations, those sit on your public Trustindex page. Choose TrustIndex in the import list and paste the page's address, which looks like https://www.trustindex.io/reviews/www.yoursite.com. Shapo reads the reviews shown on that page: the reviewer's name, the date, the rating and the text. Our Trustindex integration page has more on this import.
5. Build the widget and swap it in
Create a widget, choose a layout and match the colours and fonts to your site. On WordPress, install the Shapo plugin and add the Shapo Widget block, or the Shapo element in Elementor, Beaver Builder, Bricks or WPBakery. On any other site, paste the embed code where the Trustindex code was. Once the new widget is showing, remove the Trustindex shortcode or code from the page, then deactivate the plugin.
6. Decide how new reviews arrive
On the free plan you import again from the dashboard when you want newer reviews, which is the same routine as the free Trustindex plugin without the 10-day wait. On Pro, switch on auto-import for each source and Shapo re-imports it once a day.
Before you remove Trustindex
- Take the shortcodes out first. WordPress prints the text of a shortcode whose plugin is no longer active, so a leftover Trustindex shortcode shows up on your page as code in square brackets.
- Check your refund window. Trustindex's pricing page promises a refund if you ask within 30 days of purchase. Past that, the package runs to the end of its year.
- Keep what still works for free. Trustindex's Free package keeps review collection emails and the Review Summary Page. You can drop the widget and leave those running.
- Know what changes in the page source. Trustindex's WordPress widget writes the review text into your HTML. Hosted widgets such as Shapo, Elfsight and EmbedSocial load in a frame or by script. If the review text on the page matters to you, Rich Showcase and Smash Balloon also store and print reviews locally.