Strong Testimonials Review: Best Testimonials Plugin

If you were looking for a testimonials plugin for your WordPress site, look no further than Strong Testimonials. With 90,000 plus installations, Strong Testimonials is currently the most installed Testimonials plugin on the WordPress repository. But do you need Strong Testimonials for your website? That’s what we hope to help you answer in our Strong Testimonials Review.

Strong Testimonials Review: Introduction

Testimonials are important in business. While we can blow our own horns, it is a different matter when a client blows it for us. That’s why referral based organisations like BNI does well.

But the process of collecting testimonials is difficult. Normally we end up hoping and not collecting anything. Plus, we usually don’t have a system in place and end up collecting testimonials manually.

This results in few if any testimonials. Plus the tedious task of keying them in manually. Furthermore, they don’t get the benefit of structured data, which will help with SEO results.

Thankfully, we have a bunch of WordPress testimonials plugins nowadays that can help simplify the process. However, is Strong Testimonials the best WordPress Testimonials plugin? With dozens of results on the WordPress repository, it can be a hassle to find the best.

That’s why we decided to stick with a testing methodology that hopes to help you find only the best out there. And it might not be Strong Testimonials. Or is it?

Finding the Best WordPress Testimonials Plugin

To begin with, we tested ten different WordPress Testimonials and Reviews plugins. These ranged from the popular plugins on the WordPress repository to a famous one not on the repo (Thrive Ovation).

We then ran them through a series of criteria to assess how relevant are these plugins. Are these plugins the best out there? These are the criteria used:

• Custom Fields – Can we create and assign random custom fields to the submission form?
• Structured Data – Does the testimonials come with proper structured data to help with SEO?
• Advanced Views – Can we show only reviews with four stars and above?
• Collection – How many ways can we collect testimonials from our visitors?
• Integration – Can we pull testimonials from various external platforms? How many platforms can we pull it from?

And then we tabulated the results in the table below.

Best WordPress Testimonials Plugin: The Results

As you can see, Strong Testimonials does really well in our comparison test. Compared to regular WordPress testimonials plugins, Strong Testimonials clearly leads the pack.

An exception has to be made for Thrive Ovation as it has limited capability on custom fields, structured data and advanced views. However, Thrive Ovation has the unique ability to convert Facebook and Twitter comments into reviews.

The other group of plugins that emerged in this review, are what we call the Platform Reviews Plugins. As the name imply, these plugins (WP Review Slider Pro, Business Review Bundle and BNE Testimonials) focuses on integration with popular platforms such as Yelp, Google Maps and Facebook. WP Review Slider ups the ante with a massive 26 platform integration.

While we like these Platform Reviews Plugins, they still fall short of SaaS-based platforms such as Grade.us and ReviewShake. This is because these platforms integrate emails and SMS automation to get customers to review.

Strong Testimonials Review: The Unique Value Proposition

We feel that would be unfair to lump Strong Testimonials with these Platform Reviews Plugins, as Strong Testimonials strengths lies elsewhere. While the Strong Testimonials team has hinted on pushing the upcoming Facebook, Google and WooCommerce integration further ahead on the roadmap, it might take months or years before we get there.

Strong Testimonials strengths are its dedication to collect simple testimonials. After testing out the set of testimonials and reviews plugins in the table above, we would dare say that Strong Testimonials are second to none in this aspect.

Let us highlight what we like about Strong Testimonials

1) Strong Testimonials Custom Fields Extension

The Strong Testimonials Custom Fields is a must have. Unlike its competitors, you can easily customise your testimonial submission forms with various types of additional fields.

This flexibility helps Strong Testimonials be relevant to various types of businesses and products. I like the fact that I can capture seemingly obscure but relevant details such as product model numbers, services used and the likes.

2) Strong Testimonials Assignment Extension

If you offer more than one type of category or service, you need this. And thank me for telling you that.

While you can lump all testimonies under one roof, it gets hard to filter the relevant testimonies for a particular product range or service.

For example, if I offer both board games AND console games on my site, I would want to keep testimonials for these two separately. That’s because relevant testimonials at the right time and place, converts better than a random hogwash of five star testimonials.

3) Strong Testimonials Properties Extension

This is a simple but important extension. You can easily change the details of your testimonials. Don’t like the word testimonials and prefer the word, reviews? You can easily change it to make it relevant for your audience.

4) Strong Testimonials Advanced Views Extension

I like this extension. With this, we can filter the testimonials shown. Why bother showing 2 star reviews when you can choose to only show reviews with four stars and above.

This ensures that only testimonials that accurately represent you and your business appear on your website.

Strong Testimonials Review: The Conclusion

We hope you enjoy our Strong Testimonials review.

We love Strong Testimonials. It is well-built and has a number of game changing extensions that helps you collect simple testimonials. With upcoming integrations with Google Maps, Facebook Page and WooCommerce, Strong Testimonials is bound to get better.

At the time of writing, Strong Testimonials is having an exclusive once only lifetime deal with the Martech Wise Facebook Group. Because of that, we urge you to strongly consider getting yourself a lifetime license before it ends.