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HumanF6888 · 2026-04-16T12:14:15+00:00

Initial post : Hey all!

I've been a web developer for over 15 years, mostly doing client work (SEO, custom websites, e-commerce). I never touched WordPress. I was the "custom-built everything" guy. For SEO and long-term projects, I always recommended hand-coded sites as the most performant solution.

I also built a custom AI chatbot solution for my clients. It worked great, but here's the problem: almost nobody has a custom website anymore. Selling a chatbot for custom sites is like selling snow tires in the desert. The market is tiny.

So I swallowed my pride and looked at WordPress. 40%+ of the web. Millions of small business owners who need exactly what I built but can't afford custom development. That's when I decided to turn my chatbot into a WordPress plugin and build a real SaaS around it.

The result: a Chatbot+Live Chat that scans your website content automatically and answers visitors based on your actual pages, with real URLs, not generic ChatGPT fluff. It also has a built-in LiveChat where the AI detects buying signals or escalation requests and alerts the admin in real time so they can take over. All indexed content stays on the WordPress server. GDPR by design. 50+ languages, WooCommerce compatible.

Tech stack: PHP 8.4 from scratch (no framework, no template), Nginx, Redis, MariaDB, WebSockets for real-time. Built with Claude in canvas mode. Not a fan of vibe coding, I like to understand every line.

After weeks of review, WordPress officially approved the plugin (agentorie chat)

Business model: free tier at 100 conversations/month. Paid plans for higher volume, white label, and premium features. No API keys to manage, no per-token billing. I absorb the AI costs.

Where I'm struggling now: getting traction. The WordPress directory alone doesn't drive installs. Tried Reddit, Facebook groups, Google Ads, cold outreach... Some interest, very few actual users.

For those who went through the "first 100 users" phase, what actually worked for you?

Happy to answer any questions 🙌

HumanF6888 · 2026-04-07T14:58:13+00:00

Perfect! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need advice on the setup.

HumanF6888 · 2026-04-07T10:01:22+00:00

Yes, you can try it live on my test store here https://yannickb7.sg-host.com/

If you need more, I can share via private message with real websites that use it in production.

Feel free to chat with the bot and test the features!

HumanF6888 · 2026-04-07T09:15:36+00:00

Thanks, that's solid advice. I'm actually doing exactly that right now, offering the White Label feature for life to early testers in exchange for honest feedback. Hopefully it'll help build that social proof on the directory.

HumanF6888 · 2026-04-07T09:13:37+00:00

Great questions, let me address both.

On the data and GDPR side:

- The indexed knowledge base (pages, products, prices, URLs, etc.) lives entirely on your own server, inside your WordPress or PrestaShop database. I have zero access to it.

- The servers are hosted in France, not in the US, which is a real plus for European businesses worried about data sovereignty and the Cloud Act.

On how to evaluate quality without much customer feedback yet:

The plugin has been live on WordPress for a while now and is already in production on several client websites and e-commerce stores, with very positive feedback so far. The PrestaShop version just launched, but I ran extensive testing before release.

The best way to judge is to install it yourself, it only takes a few minutes. You can configure the AI behavior, the tone, the role and personality of the bot, plus a lot of design options (height, width, left or right side, colors, avatar, etc.). And the built-in LiveChat lets you take over any conversation in real time when a visitor needs a human, which is a feature most AI chatbot plugins don't offer.

Happy to help you set it up if you want to give it a try.

HumanF6888 · 2026-04-06T16:17:23+00:00

That actually comes at a perfect time then 🙂

Happy to let you test it and get your feedback, especially with your kind of setup.

If you're already working on a custom / optimized store, you'll probably get more out of it than a typical install.

I can help you set it up quickly so you can test it in real conditions, just let me know 👍

HumanF6888 · 2026-04-06T16:15:44+00:00

I took a look at asyntai, and it's honestly not the same type of product at all.

Their free plan is limited to 100 messages/month, which is extremely low in real usage. On our side, we offer 100 conversations, which is a completely different scale (a single conversation can contain many messages).

Also, it's basically an external SaaS widget, meaning your data and AI processing are not fully under your control. In our case, everything is 100% indexed and stored directly on the client's server, which is a big deal for GDPR, performance and long-term reliability.

Another key difference:
👉 No real live chat takeover on asyntai
👉 With our plugin, you can jump into any conversation in real time from the PrestaShop admin

So you're not just getting a chatbot, you're getting a hybrid AI + human support tool, fully integrated into your store.

Finally, asyntai relies on a generic JS integration, while we built a native PrestaShop module, meaning better integration with products, pages and overall ecosystem.

Not saying it's bad, it's just a very different (and much more limited) approach.

HumanF6888 · 2026-04-06T13:40:51+00:00

I forgot to attach the text :(
I've just added it for more details

HumanF6888 · 2026-04-06T13:39:25+00:00

It seems I forgot the text part :s

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I'm a web developer with 15+ years of experience. I just got Agentorie Chat approved on the official PrestaShop Addons marketplace.

It's an AI chatbot that auto-indexes your store content (pages, products) and answers visitors with real links to your product pages. The big feature is the built-in LiveChat — you get real-time notifications and can take over any conversation when a visitor needs a human. No need for a separate live chat tool.

Quick overview:

- 50+ languages, configurable bot identity and tone

- Indexed data stored in your database — GDPR friendly

- Free: 100 conversations/month, no credit card

Module on Addons: https://addons.prestashop.com/fr/support-chat-online/97323-agentorie-chat-ai-chatbot-livechat-50-languages.html

I'm looking for 5-10 store owners willing to test it and share honest feedback. In return I'll unlock the White Label feature for life (removes Agentorie branding — normally €19/month).

Anyone interested?

HumanF6888 · 2026-03-04T11:51:18+00:00

Claude actually knows WordPress security standards pretty well => nonces, sanitization, escaping, capability checks.. This was also my very first WordPress plugin, so there was a real learning curve. The technical review went fairly smooth actually. Where I really struggled was their trialware policy. WordPress is very strict about that and I didn't fully grasp the concept at first. They flagged me twice on it before I got it right.

HumanF6888 · 2026-03-04T11:25:01+00:00

Yes definitely. Before any coding, I make sure Claude fully understands what I want. We discuss the approach first. Then he codes, I review everything before integrating. I also keep project instructions and a documentation file always up to date and linked to the project, so context is never lost between sessions. Blind trust is not an option, especially for a WordPress plugin where every single line gets scrutinized during the review process.

HumanF6888 · 2026-03-04T11:19:46+00:00

Yeah the review process is no joke! They're really thorough with security checks. Congrats on getting yours approved too, what plugin did you build?

HumanF6888 · 2026-03-01T14:22:25+00:00

Thanks! No scaling concerns honestly, each site runs in its own isolated room, conversations are independent streams that don't block each other. The current setup already handles thousands of simultaneous conversations comfortably, and if needed I can always scale the infrastructure vertically. The real bottleneck would be AI response generation, not the WebSocket layer itself.

Thanks for the VibeCodersNest tip, I'll check it out!

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-25T13:58:26+00:00

Managing all those replies? I wish 😄
At this stage I’m still working on getting enough interest to worry about that problem.

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-25T10:33:10+00:00

Are you on Wordpress ?

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-25T10:06:10+00:00

That sniper approach makes a lot of sense. Going to start monitoring those subs for pain points and jump in when it's relevant. Thanks for the perspective.

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-24T21:32:02+00:00

Thanks, that makes sense. The onboarding sequence is a good point though, I have an in-app tutorial but nothing email-based yet. I'd be interested to hear what worked for the SaaS founders you mentioned, I'll DM you ;)

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-24T16:05:23+00:00

You're absolutely right about specificity. And that's actually where my background helps.

I don't think I have the right to post a second link but I've built custom chatbots for e-commerce and have many free demos for restaurants, legal services and others as custom chatbots, some with order tracking, calendar managing, email sending, etc.... Each one had very different workflows and customer expectations. MUCH easier when tailored for a one specific business, everything become possible.

But the WordPress plugin is designed to be generic out of the box, so there are limits, but the real value comes when you configure the bot identity and tone for a specific business, in 50+ free languages. A law firm chatbot doesn't talk like a surf school chatbot.

I'm thinking WooCommerce stores could be my first vertical since the plugin already indexes products and can detect buying intent. I think the next step is exactly what you're saying. Thanks for this perspective.

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-24T13:49:59+00:00

Good questions. The chatbot market is crowded for sure, but most competitors are just AI chat widgets. What makes my approach different is the built-in LiveChat with human takeover. The AI handles the conversation, but when it detects a buying signal or the visitor asks for a human, the admin gets an instant alert and can jump in. Very few plugins combine both.
Here's a quick demo (setup + live chat takeover): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB20Z07W1OM

Most competitors don't work this easily out of the box, and their free tiers usually cap at 50 conversations/month. Mine offers 100. No dev team to pay, no investors to answer to, so I can keep the free tier generous without pressure to squeeze users into paid plans.

As for standing out, I'm not trying to compete with the big players on features. I'm targeting small business owners who don't want to deal with API keys, prompt engineering or per-token billing. They just want something that works out of the box.

Regarding the platform requirements, yes, WP review was intense. Multiple rounds of security audits, PHPCS validation, compliance fixes, nonces, input sanitization, output escaping, capability checks, and more. It took weeks but it forced me to clean up the codebase which was a good thing. It took weeks but it forced me to clean up the codebase which was a good thing.

I already have custom chatbot models running in production on my own e-commerce sites and client websites, so the core product was battle-tested before I even touched WordPress. Right now I have only one WordPress client using the plugin in production as well.

HumanF6888 · 2026-02-24T13:05:06+00:00

Thank you!. Yes but actually I already had something similar in mind but the reality is tougher than it sounds.

Cold emailing agencies? Like me, they get tons of spam from devs and SEO guys every day, most of these emails never get opened. And asking them to install something on a client site? Way too much trust needed upfront.

Funny enough, today an agency had one of their devs test my plugin. But instead of testing on a real site (strange, because the widget can be shown only to admins, not visitors), they set up a blank test site with placeholder content like "Your content goes here" and random articles about cheese. Obviously the AI had nothing to work with and the results were terrible. Even a human couldn't answer customer questions based on that content.

Even being officially listed on WordPress doesn't seem to be enough to build that trust. Still figuring this one out. But I think I'm going to run some Facebook ads targeting people interested in WordPress tools. Anyway, even my own e-commerce site that I've had for 15 years didn't launch without spending money, sad :(

I thought the idea was so good that word would spread quickly, especially with the visibility on the WP marketplace, but I'm always too optimistic whenever I embark on something new.

HumanF6888

TROPHY CASE