=== Nishchoy Reviews for WooCommerce ===
Contributors: bytloop
Tags: woocommerce, reviews, product reviews, photo reviews, ratings
Requires at least: 6.3
Tested up to: 7.0
Requires PHP: 7.4
Stable tag: 1.0.0
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Self-hosted product reviews for WooCommerce with photo uploads, verified buyers, review request emails, and full data ownership. No monthly fees.

== Description ==

**Nishchoy** (pronounced NISH-choy, Bengali for "certainty") is the self-hosted reviews plugin your WooCommerce store deserves. Own your review data. Ship photo reviews on day one. Never pay a monthly SaaS fee again.

= Why Nishchoy? =

Most WooCommerce store owners end up on Judge.me, Loox, Yotpo, or Stamped — and end up paying $30 to $300 a month just to display customer reviews on their own store. Their review data lives on someone else's servers. Every export is a fight. Every price hike is your problem.

Nishchoy Reviews puts everything on your own site: photo reviews, verified buyers, review request emails, proper schema markup for Google, and a native WooCommerce admin experience — all for free.

= Features =

* **Star ratings** with a per-star breakdown chart
* **Photo reviews** — customers upload up to 3 images per review
* **Verified buyer badges** — automatic detection against WooCommerce orders
* **Review request emails** — automatic reminder emails after order completion
* **Merchant replies** — respond publicly to any review
* **Helpful voting** — customers upvote the most useful reviews
* **Advanced filtering** — filter by rating, verified only, or reviews with photos
* **Anti-spam** — honeypot, math captcha, rate limiting, word blacklist
* **Optional CAPTCHA services** — hCaptcha or Cloudflare Turnstile with your own keys (off by default; see Privacy)
* **Rich schema** — proper Product, Review, and AggregateRating JSON-LD for SEO
* **Import from WooCommerce native reviews** — one-click migration
* **Blocks + shortcodes** — for classic and block themes
* **Full REST API** — headless-friendly
* **WP-CLI commands** — power-user tooling
* **HPOS-compatible** — works with WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage
* **Translation-ready** — .pot file included, RTL support
* **Own your data** — reviews live in your WordPress database by default
* **GDPR tools** — hooks into WordPress personal data export and erase

= Compare with SaaS alternatives =

Unlike Judge.me, Loox, or Yotpo, Nishchoy Reviews:

* Never charges a monthly fee
* Stores every review in your WordPress database
* Does not phone home or send review data to Nishchoy servers
* Ships GDPR-friendly by default (native WP data export/erase)
* Is open source under GPLv2

= Privacy =

By default, all review content stays on your site. Reviewer IP addresses and user agents are stored only as one-way hashes for abuse prevention.

If you enable **hCaptcha** or **Cloudflare Turnstile** in settings (optional), the review form loads a script from that provider and sends a verification token (and typically the visitor IP) to their verify endpoint. Those services are governed by their own terms and privacy policies:

* [hCaptcha Privacy](https://www.hcaptcha.com/privacy) / [Terms](https://www.hcaptcha.com/terms)
* [Cloudflare Turnstile](https://www.cloudflare.com/products/turnstile/) / [Privacy Policy](https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/)

Leave the built-in math captcha (or captcha off) if you want zero third-party contact from the review form.

= Pro version =

An optional [Nishchoy Reviews Pro](https://nishchoy.bytloop.com/) adds video reviews, Q&A sections, multi-step email campaigns, competitor CSV importers (Judge.me, Loox, Yotpo, Stamped), review analytics, AI moderation using your own OpenAI/Anthropic key, and Elementor widgets. The free plugin is fully functional without it.

= Developer-friendly =

Actions and filters on every meaningful event. Overridable templates in your theme. Full REST API. Documented hooks. See the [developer docs](https://nishchoy.bytloop.com/) for details.

== Installation ==

= Standard install =

1. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New.
2. Search for "Nishchoy Reviews".
3. Click **Install Now**, then **Activate**.
4. Follow the setup wizard.

= Manual install =

1. Download the plugin ZIP.
2. Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
3. Upload the ZIP and click **Install Now**, then **Activate**.

= Requirements =

* WordPress 6.3 or newer
* WooCommerce 8.0 or newer
* PHP 7.4 or newer (8.1+ recommended)

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= Is this really free? =

Yes. The full feature set listed above is free, forever. There are no artificial limits (no "10 reviews then upgrade"). The optional Pro plugin adds video reviews, Q&A, analytics, and AI features, but the free plugin is not crippled.

= Will this replace my current WooCommerce reviews? =

No. On activation, the plugin offers to import your existing WooCommerce reviews (which live as comments) into the Nishchoy Reviews system. Your original data remains untouched. You can also run both systems side-by-side.

= What happens to my reviews if I uninstall the plugin? =

By default, your review data stays in the database when you deactivate. On uninstall, you're asked whether to delete all data or keep it. You can also export everything to CSV or JSON at any time.

= Does it work with my theme? =

Yes. Nishchoy Reviews uses standard WooCommerce templates and hooks, and works with any properly built WooCommerce-compatible theme, including Storefront, Astra, Kadence, Blocksy, GeneratePress, and block themes like Twenty Twenty-Five.

= Does it work with my SEO plugin? =

Yes. Nishchoy detects Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, and SEOPress, and hands off top-level Product schema to them to avoid duplicate markup. Review and AggregateRating markup is still emitted by Nishchoy.

= Is it HPOS-compatible? =

Yes. Nishchoy Reviews is fully compatible with WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS).

= Does it support multi-language sites (WPML / Polylang)? =

Reviews store a locale field so you can filter or extend display per language. Dedicated WPML and Polylang integrations are planned; until then, use the REST API, hooks, or a multilingual-friendly theme setup.

= How is spam prevented? =

Multiple layers: a hidden honeypot field, a simple math captcha, per-IP rate limiting, a customizable word blacklist, and optional hCaptcha/Cloudflare Turnstile integration (bring your own keys). Third-party captcha providers contact their servers only when you enable them — see the Privacy section above.

= Where can I get support? =

Support is available in the plugin's [support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/nishchoy-reviews/) on wordpress.org. Pro customers get email support with a 24-hour response SLA.

= How do I import reviews from Judge.me, Loox, Yotpo, or Stamped? =

CSV importers for these platforms are available in the Pro plugin. The free plugin includes an importer for native WooCommerce comment-based reviews.

= I'm a developer — where are the hooks? =

Every action and filter is documented inline in the source. More at [nishchoy.bytloop.com](https://nishchoy.bytloop.com/).

= Building from source =

The Gutenberg blocks are compiled with [@wordpress/scripts](https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-scripts/). The human-readable sources ship in the `src/` directory alongside the compiled `build/` output. To regenerate the build:

`npm install && npm run build`

== Screenshots ==

1. Reviews summary and individual reviews on a product page, with rating breakdown, filter, and sort.
2. Customer photo gallery aggregated from all reviews of a product.
3. Review submission form with star rating, photo upload, and honeypot anti-spam.
4. Verified buyer badges automatically applied from WooCommerce order history.
5. Admin: all-reviews list with filters by product, rating, status, and date.
6. Admin: individual review moderation screen with merchant reply.
7. Admin: settings page with email, display, schema, and anti-spam controls.
8. Setup wizard on activation.

== Changelog ==

= 1.0.0 =
* Initial release.

== Upgrade Notice ==

= 1.0.0 =
Initial release of Nishchoy Reviews for WooCommerce.
