Challenge
Let any website prove its reviews come from real customers, without filtering out negative ones and without promising legal compliance only an adviser can assess.
Case study
Atesta: verified reviews plugin for WordPress
Atesta: verified reviews plugin for WordPress
Free WordPress and WooCommerce plugin that collects genuine customer reviews through single-use invitations, keeps tamper-evident proof of every review and publishes how they are verified.
WordPressWooCommerceIn-house product
Verified reviews with evidence, inside WordPress
Reviews drive buying decisions and regulation keeps asking for more transparency: the EU Omnibus Directive requires businesses to state whether and how they check that reviews come from real customers, and Spain's Law 10/2025 adds measures against fake reviews. Atesta, conceived and built by AGQ, brings that process into WordPress with no third-party platform.
Approach
Signed, expiring, single-use invitations sent after an order or via CSV, link or QR code, plus a chained evidence ledger that cannot be altered unnoticed.
Outcome
Reviews labelled as verified or unverified, PDF evidence dossiers and a public, versioned verification policy.
Technology
A plugin built for evidence that holds up
Built in PHP 8.1 for WordPress 6.5 or later, it integrates with WooCommerce (HPOS compatible), uses Action Scheduler for sending and reminders, and ships Gutenberg blocks plus shortcodes for classic themes and Elementor.
WordPressWooCommercePHP 8.1Action Scheduler
From invitation to evidence
Every review is tied to its invitation, its verification method and a ledger that proves where it came from.
Verified invitations
Verified invitations
After the WooCommerce order status you choose, or manual, CSV and QR invitations for restaurants and services. Signed, single-use, expiring links.
Evidence ledger
Evidence ledger
Append-only ledger with chained hashes, an integrity checker and PDF dossiers per review or date range.
Transparent moderation
Transparent moderation
Star rating is never a reason to reject: fixed rejection reasons, public replies and moderated photos.
Policy and privacy
Policy and privacy
Editable, versioned template explaining how reviews are verified, GDPR export and erasure, WPML, Polylang and multisite.
What Atesta brings to shops and businesses
Atesta is an in-house product that has just been released, so this case explains how it works rather than publishing usage figures.
Provable origin
Provable origin
Before: no way to prove who wrote a review. Now: every review tied to an order or invitation.
Tamper-evident proof
Tamper-evident proof
Before: screenshots and spreadsheets. Now: a chained ledger and a ready-to-share PDF dossier.
Transparency
Transparency
Before: no explanation of how reviews are checked. Now: a public, versioned policy linked from the reviews.
No third-party platform
No third-party platform
Before: monthly fees and data outside the site. Now: everything inside WordPress, with Google optional and off by default.
Frequently asked questions about Atesta
The essentials about the plugin and how it was built.
A free WordPress plugin, listed in the official WordPress.org directory, that collects reviews from verified customers, keeps proof of their origin and publishes the verification policy.
No. It provides technical controls, evidence and templates, but the texts and the legal decision belong to each business and its adviser.
No. With WooCommerce it sends invitations after each order, but manual, CSV and QR invitations work without it.
No. Star rating is not a moderation reason: reviews are only rejected for fixed, documented reasons, and the business can reply publicly.
PHP 8.1 on WordPress 6.5 or later, WooCommerce and HPOS integration, Action Scheduler for scheduled tasks and Gutenberg blocks with equivalent shortcodes.
Need a custom plugin?
I can review your case without assumptions and scope a realistic first version.