Verdict judges whether a review is genuine, not just whether it is spam.
A free WordPress plugin for WooCommerce stores. It reads one review, asks a hosted decision model a small set of typed questions, and writes the answer to a log you own. It starts in shadow mode, where it decides everything and changes nothing.
Coming soon to the plugin directory.
See our other plugin on WordPress.org[ one decision ]
One review in, one typed answer out
When a review is submitted, Verdict sends the fields it names: the title, the body, the rating, the product it is about, whether the reviewer actually bought it, and what Akismet already thought. It does not send your visitor's IP address or the reviewer's email address.
Back comes a typed answer, not a paragraph of prose. authenticity is one of three values with a probability on each, and written_from_real_experience is a single number between zero and one. The probability on the winning value is the confidence, and the confidence is what your threshold acts on.
[ three modes ]
You decide how much it is allowed to touch
Shadow decides every review and changes nothing. The review stays exactly where WooCommerce put it, and the decision goes to the log so you can read a month of them before you trust it. Shadow is the default, on every decision, always.
Assist acts only when the confidence is at or above your threshold, which starts at 0.85. Everything below it falls to the pending queue, which is where the review would have sat anyway.
Auto acts on every decision that comes back, whatever the confidence. It is still limited to hold, tag, approve and recoverable spam, and turning it on takes a typed confirmation that names those actions, not a checkbox.
A review, decided
decidingStainless Steel Deck Screws, 3in, 100-pack
Great fit, arrived fast
Ordered these for a deck rail repair, matched the existing hardware exactly and shipped within two days.
authenticity
Action taken
Nothing. Logged as genuine at 0.95 confidence, and the review stays where WooCommerce put it.
Verdict gives a review decision 600 ms. Past that it stops waiting, logs the timeout and lets WooCommerce hold the review exactly as it already would.
[ how it fits ]
It lands in the queue you already use
WooCommerce already holds a first-time reviewer's review for moderation, so the queue exists before Verdict does. Verdict does not build a second one. It writes its answer next to the review in Products, Reviews, and it writes the reasoning to its own log.
Install it
Install from the plugin directory and activate. Nothing binds to a hook and nothing leaves your site until you have read the disclosure and connected an account.
Connect an account
Create or sign in to one account from inside wp-admin and the site registers itself. There is no licence key to paste and no model key to supply, because the decision does not run on your server.
Watch the log
Every decision gets a row, shadow ones included: the answers, the probabilities, the confidence, the model that ran and how long it took. Override any row, and the accuracy view starts comparing what Verdict predicted against what you actually did.
Your reviews queue
Products, Reviews, with its own pending counter. Verdict never builds a queue of its own for reviews.
Your decisions log
Kept on your site for 30 days by default, anywhere from 7 to 365. It stores a 200 character excerpt, not the whole review, and the accuracy view is computed locally with no network call.
[ the promise ]
What it never does
A wrong call should cost you a click, never a customer's words.
It never deletes, trashes or cancels anything.
Not in any mode, not with any setting. An action marked destructive is refused when it is registered, so the capability is not there to switch on.
It never blocks the review from posting.
If the service is slow, down, or out of decisions, the review posts and WooCommerce holds it exactly as it already would. A decision that cannot be made is a hold, not an error.
In assist mode it never acts below your threshold.
Below your number it falls to the pending queue. Auto is the exception and says so plainly: it acts on everything that comes back, which is why turning it on takes a typed confirmation.
It never claims to detect AI-written content.
That claim is not available here in any wording. Detectors misclassify writing by people who learned English second, and we will not build a product that accuses them.
It never says a review is fraudulent.
It cannot prove that and does not pretend to. It produces agreement or disagreement with your own judgement, and the accuracy view shows you which.
[ why now ]
There is a rule about this now
Hosting reviews on your own site now comes with a rule attached.
The FTC's Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials took effect on 21 October 2024. It carries civil penalties of USD 51,744 per violation, and it binds any business that hosts reviews on its own site, not only the review platforms. Akismet, which most stores already run, catches spam: a real person writing a paid or incentivised review passes it clean, because it is not spam. That gap is the thing Verdict is pointed at.
This is a description of a rule, not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer about what it means for your store.
[ the account ]
An account, about a hundred free decisions, and no keys
Verdict is a client for a hosted decision service, so an account is required and there is no model key to bring. Every account starts with a free allowance of decisions, about a hundred, granted once and never renewed. Shadow decisions count against it, which is worth knowing before you leave it running for a month.
When the allowance is spent, further decisions need a paid balance, sold as decision packs. Pricing is announced at launch. If you already have an account for AI Workflow Automation, it is the same account and the same balance, and connecting Verdict does not use up a site slot.
[ questions ]
Before you ask
Does this replace Akismet?
Does it work without WooCommerce?
What leaves my site?
What happens when the service is down?
Can I see whether it is any good before trusting it?
Is it really free?
Put it in shadow mode and read the log
It decides everything and changes nothing until you say otherwise.
Coming soon to the plugin directory.
See our other plugin on WordPress.orgMade by the team behind AI Workflow Automation.