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Gwolle Guestbook

By Marcel Pol

Community & Social / Comments & Discussions

Gwolle Guestbook Review - In-Depth Analysis

Gwolle Guestbook is a beautiful and easy-to-use guestbook for WordPress. It integrates seamlessly and provides a real guestbook experience.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.8/10

User Rating

4.8/5 (based on 113+ reviews)

Active Installations

20,000+

Update Frequency

Below Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

6 / 10 (Medium Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

Gwolle Guestbook is the WordPress guestbook you have just been looking for. It is designed to provide an easy and slim way to integrate a guestbook into your WordPress powered site. Instead of using the comment section incorrectly, you can install Gwolle Guestbook for a real guestbook experience.

The plugin features an easy-to-use frontend with a simple form for visitors. It includes a list of guestbook entries with pagination or infinite scroll, and a widget to display excerpts of your latest or best entries. The admin interface is simple and clean, integrating seamlessly into the WordPress admin. You can manage the latest entries from your Admin Dashboard using a dashboard widget.

Gwolle Guestbook supports easy import from other guestbooks and offers notification by mail when a new entry is posted. It includes moderation options, anti-spam features, and a simple form builder. You can create multiple guestbooks, and it supports MultiSite. The plugin also allows for localization and easy addition of languages.

For support, users are encouraged to use the support forum. The plugin is compatible with ClassicPress and has options for importing from other guestbooks. A demo is available to showcase its features.

Comparing to Alternatives

Gwolle Guestbook stands out as a dedicated guestbook plugin with unique features tailored for personal and memorial websites. While alternatives exist, Gwolle Guestbook offers a focused and user-friendly experience.

Top alternatives

Gwolle Guestbook

Strengths

Supports multiple guestbooks via IDs.
Allows formatting entries with links and images.
Excellent support and community feedback.
Simple and straightforward to use.

Weaknesses

Lacks built-in support for adding pictures to entries.
Some users report compatibility issues causing 403 errors on certain servers.
Spam management could be improved.
Limited customization options for notifications.

User Sentiment Analysis

User comments reveal strong satisfaction with Gwolle Guestbook's functionality and support, though some areas for improvement are noted.

Positive highlights

"I love this plugin!" - wanfeel
"Highly recommend it." - ingenuity
"Simply fantastic!" - wpapm
"Simple and easy to use." - fedor77
"Great add-on available." - wpapm

Common complaints

Causes 403 errors on some nginx servers.
No option to add pictures to guestbook entries.
Spam can accumulate over time requiring manual cleanup.
Limited email notification customization.

Weaknesses

Lack of picture upload feature.
Spam handling is not robust.
Some server compatibility issues.
Notification settings are not flexible.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users seeking a straightforward, reliable guestbook plugin for personal, business, or memorial websites will find Gwolle Guestbook ideal due to its ease of use and solid support.

Not ideal for

Those needing advanced media support like picture uploads or extensive customization options for notifications may find this plugin limiting.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers core guestbook features including multiple guestbooks, entry formatting, and basic notification options.

Pro version

The premium version typically includes enhanced features such as advanced spam protection, additional customization options, and priority support.

Final Verdict

Gwolle Guestbook is a dependable and user-friendly plugin that excels in providing a simple guestbook solution with good support and essential features.

While it has some limitations like lack of picture uploads and occasional server issues, its strengths make it a solid choice for users needing a straightforward guestbook plugin.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Gwolle Guestbook plugin.

Guestbook

Gwolle Guestbook

WordPress guestbook

Screenshots

FAQ

You could start by writing the first entry yourself, and invite people to leave a message.

You can add a parameter to the shortcode, like:

[gwolle_gb book_id="2"]

This will make that page show all the entries in Book ID 2. In case you read this on wordpress.org, the quotes are supposed to be standard double quotes, no backticks.

If you use the template function, you can use it like this:

show_gwolle_gb( array('book_id'=>2) );

There is no need to use id’s that are incrementing.
If you have a lot of guestbooks on lots of pages, you can just use the id of the post as the id of the guestbook. That way you won’t have double id’s.
You can set the book_id automatically to the post_id with this shortcode:

[gwolle_gb book_id="post_id"]

In case you read this on wordpress.org, the quotes are supposed to be standard double quotes, no backticks.

You can use a shortcode parameter for showing just one entry:

[gwolle_gb_read entry_id="213"]

In case you read this on wordpress.org, the quotes are supposed to be standard double quotes, no backticks.

Using a theme with AJAX navigation can give issues. Only on the guestbook page is the JavaScript and CSS loaded.
So you would need to load it on every page to have it available for the guestbook. You can add the following code to functions.php of your theme:

<?php add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'gwolle_gb_enqueue', 20); ?>

I don’t have any experience myself with AJAX themes. If it doesn’t work, please contact the theme author.

You could use this CSS. Please adapt the colors 😉
The CSS can be added in Appearance > Customizer > Custom CSS.

html body div.gwolle-gb input[type="button"], html body div.gwolle-gb input[type="submit"] {     color: #fff; /* white */     background-color: #f00; /* red */     border: 1px solid #0f0; /* green */ }  html body div.gwolle-gb form.gwolle-gb-write div.input input[type="text"], html body div.gwolle-gb form.gwolle-gb-write div.input input[type="email"], html body div.gwolle-gb form.gwolle-gb-write div.input input[type="url"], html body div.gwolle-gb form.gwolle-gb-write div.input textarea, html body div.gwolle-gb form.gwolle-gb-write div.input select {     border: 1px solid #0f0; /* green */ }