Free vs Pro Chatbot Options (Visual & Behavioral Differences)

1. Base Chatbot Availability (Free & Pro) #

Both Free and Pro include:

• Floating chatbot bubble and popup.
• Full-page chat via shortcode.
• Login-required gate.
• Base theming (light/dark colors).
• OpenAI integration with:
  • gpt-4o-mini (default model).
  • System prompt.
  • Temperature.
• Optional site-search grounding for posts/pages.

These behave the same in both versions, except where Pro adds extra color fields and model selection.

2. Advanced Theming (Pro Only) #

Docs specify:

• Free:
  • All base colors and theme toggles (except human-specific fields).
  • Fixed model gpt-4o-mini.
  • Basic site search options.
• Pro:
  • Human bubble/text color fields:
    • light_human_text, light_human_bubble_bg.
    • dark_human_text, dark_human_bubble_bg.
  • Model selection UI and saving.
  • Additional site search options/fields.

Thus, in Pro, your chatbot can visually distinguish human messages vs AI messages more clearly, using extra color options.

3. OpenAI Model Selection #

• In Free, the openai_model option is effectively locked to gpt-4o-mini from the UI.
• In Pro, the OpenAI Integration tab allows selecting from other chat-capable models.

This affects:

• How handle_chat_request() builds the OpenAI request.
• The type of responses (speed, quality) you get, depending on the chosen model.

4. Extended Search Scopes (Pro) #

In Pro, additional search-related options become usable and are saved:

• search_products (for products) in chatbot site search.
• Extended URL include/exclude lists used more widely.

The docs also note that Pro-only fields are ignored or cleared if there is no license:

“sanitize_options() resets Pro-only fields to defaults/empty if no Pro license is present.”

5. Integration with Pro Modules (Telegram, Auto-Reply, AI Writer) #

While not strictly part of the basic Chatbot screen, from a user perspective, the Chatbot experience is enhanced in Pro because:

• Telegram human handoff adds an AI/Human toggle in the chat UI when enabled.
• Auto-Reply and AI Writer rely on the same OpenAI settings and debug system.

All of these are gated by my_fs()->can_use_premium_code() in the code, so they only run when Pro is active.

image IMAGE PLACEHOLDER: Screenshot of the chat UI in Pro with a visible AI/Human toggle (Telegram human handoff enabled). IMAGE image