Rating: 5 stars
As a non-profit, we’re always looking for most bang for less buck. When trying to get “related reading” and “you might like” content suggestions on our website, we kept finding that our host banned most of these plugins because they are extremely resource intensive. Especially for childmind.org, which gets over 1MM visits monthly. Contextly helped us offload this task, provides smart recommendations, and gets better over time.
Install simple, or install complex and customize. Whichever way, the guys at Contextly are always there to help.
Additionally, we get a 10-15% click rate, which adds thousands of page views (and reduced bounce rates) across our website.
]]>Rating: 5 stars
Contextly is truly a great plugin for adding additional links at the end of your blog posts. They also have great plugin support which is something that you don’t always get with WordPress plugins. Thanks, Contextly!
]]>Rating: 5 stars
I evaluated dozens of “You might like” related content plugins. Of all of them, this one was cloud based (which my hosting site made a requirement, and disabled my original one) and had the best set of features available for my environment. A few other plugins stated some nice features, but every time I tried them out, they didn’t work as advertised.
The support, if you happen to run into an issue, is stellar. They are professional and expeditious.
I would recommend this plug-in!
]]>Rating: 5 stars
Contextly is a life saver for me. I don’t get a lot of traffic on my site, so it’s great to see visitors landing on one article, then bouncing over to other related articles because of the Contextly recommendation.
]]>Rating: 5 stars
What is up with that? It makes no sense at all. If you are offering to monetize, that is stupid because everything you earn goes to the monthly charges. So whats the point? To give all the money back, and if it is not monetizing then it is still not worth it because there are so many options out there to go for free. So to me their tactic is way off.
]]>Rating: 1 star
Is not free. Jetpack work best and for life.
]]>Rating: 5 stars
Thanks for the plugin, it works very well on my site.
I had very good experience with a quick support, better than on premium plugins!
Thanks again,
Tom
Rating: 1 star
It seems you have to actually pay to the use the plug in or Contextly cuts you off. Bite me.
]]>Rating: 1 star
We used Contextly for free quite happily while they developed and tested. Undoubtedly Contextly received some benefit from the data they gathered from our users.
We were sent a bill two months ago and had the service suddenly cut off. When we signed up to use Contextly it was free, and this was the first time we had ever heard about paying for their service. I switched to the WordPress Jetpack built in related posts plug-in.
Contextly contacted us and enquired why we had switched off their plug-in. I explaining that it was no longer working, and they had sent us a bill, and also that I would be happy to pay for their service if they in some way added some value to our site, particularly that I would be happy to use it if they brought new traffic to us.
I was assured that the bill was an error, and that we were part of their free tier, they would indeed be bringing more and better services in the near future, and they re-activated the service.
A month later we were cut off again. This time there was no explanation, no response to our emails, just the message that our API key was no longer valid, and when I clicked on the button to get a new API code, I received the message “Ooops, it looks like something went wrong. We’re working on it right now.”
Poor show from Contextly. No communication about this issue, cut off without explanation. After trying for several times over the next few days to get a response from Contextly and to get an new valid API key, we gave up.
We will be using WordPress’s built in Related Posts from now on, which is free, matches our theme better, can be modified to our needs, and won’t be deactivated on a whim.
]]>Rating: 2 stars
While the creators of contextly state that on the contextly.com homepage that their plugin is not free, they are skirting the issue here on the WordPress plugin site.
I ask you – which users at the wordpress plug-in page check developer’s home pages? Certainly not most people who download the plugins directly from the wordpress plugin site.
And nowhere
I discovered this via an email sent to me about 1 month into the service. Why didn’t they email this pricing structure at the BEGINNING when you install the plug-in?
When I pointed this out in an email exchange I was told that information is on their main web site. Great. This was after I invested many hours modifying the related posts.
They offered me an extension of three months for free, which was not honored.
I was cut off from the service after about 7 weeks.
(Did I have write back to say I accept?) Please, come on. You made the offer not me.
Anyway the plugin does what it says and works. Two faults – you cannot modify the photo to show what you want displayed to your related post. And the contextly related posts do not show up
the viewer clicks on the actual link to the story.
If you install just be prepared to pay. There are many free alternatives out there. Many may have consequences such as slowing your site down, ads etc.
Rating:
Product 4*
Ethics 1*
Rating: 1 star
Contextly works really well. I especially love the Sidebars
However, they need to be clear that when you download from WordPress, you are only using a TRIAL version. They will force you to pay a monthly fee of $24 per month
I don’t mind paying for plugins — if right from the very start they are clear that what I downloaded is a TRIAL version and eventually I have to pay. Or right at the start, they say that this is a paid version and the free version only gives you this much
But there is absolutely nothing in Contextly description here on WordPress that this plugin is just a trial version and they will pull the plug on you if you don’t cough up to pay.
I also thought that the free version will still let you use the service albeit for a limited amount of pageviews. But the email I got from them says
” … we are scheduling a shutdown of Contextly services in 24 hours.”
So it’s either PAY or LOSE it.
I just do not like how they do business where they never mention it here on WordPress
]]>Rating: 1 star
Contextly works really well. I especially love the Sidebars
However, they need to be clear that when you download from WordPress, you are only using a TRIAL version. They will force you to pay a monthly fee of $24 per month
I don’t mind paying for plugins — if right from the very start they are clear that what I downloaded is a TRIAL version and eventually I have to pay. Or right at the start, they say that this is a paid version and the free version only gives you this much
But there is absolutely nothing in Contextly description here on WordPress that this plugin is just a trial version and they will pull the plug on you if you don’t cough up to pay.
I also thought that the free version will still let you use the service albeit for a limited amount of pageviews. But the email I got from them says
” … we are scheduling a shutdown of Contextly services in 24 hours.”
So it’s either PAY or LOSE it.
I just do not like how they do business where they never mention it here on WordPress. They should be upfront and say it here on WordPress that their plugin is just a trial version
]]>Rating: 1 star
Contextly works really well. I especially love the Sidebars
However, they need to be clear that when you download from WordPress, you are only using a TRIAL version. They will force you to pay a monthly fee of $24 per month
I don’t mind paying for plugins — if right from the very start they are clear that what I downloaded is a TRIAL version and eventually I have to pay. Or right at the start, they say that this is a paid version and the free version only gives you this much
But there is absolutely nothing in Contextly description here on WordPress that this plugin is just a trial version and they will pull the plug on you if you don’t cough up to pay.
I also thought that the free version will still let you use the service albeit for a limited amount of pageviews. But the email I got from them says
” … we are scheduling a shutdown of Contextly services in 24 hours.”
So it’s either PAY or LOSE it.
I just do not like how they do business where they never mention it here on WordPress
]]>Rating: 2 stars
I have no idea how Contextly′s algorithm works, but the posts it finds related are simply not related… The ones that are actually related, don′t show up as such…
]]>Rating: 5 stars
Was very pleasantly surprised at the results. Haven’t had it installed long enough to see what impact it might have, but the results LOOK good.
Support is responsive, which is nice.
If I had any criticism it would be to have a little more documentation. Since it has a wizard style configurator, it’s not as necessary.
Moving from a staging server to production was a little more complicated than I wanted it to be. I wish there was a way to save the settings or transfer them somehow since each instance of the plugin is tied to a single api key and it’s partially based on the server address.
I ended up just copying and pasting the settings from one site’s instance to the other.
]]>Rating: 5 stars
It is simple and useful!
]]>Rating: 5 stars
This is a great plugin. It doesn’t slow your site down because it lives somewhere else. It’s very user friendly, and the support is incredible.
If you create content, Contextly is a must use plugin!
]]>Rating: 5 stars
Easy to use and the team provides good support.
]]>Rating: 5 stars
I am a tiny local service provider in Texas and therefore have a limited budget to spend on my website. I am beyond thrilled with what Contextly has done with my website. It has transformed it into something spectacular! No one, I mean no one – ever read my blog posts (I blog for SEO purposes mainly) but now people do.
Potential clients are spending more time on my website. Learning about what I do and what I can offer them. Every second people spend on my website allows me to wow them just a little more.
I started to use Canva shortly before coming across this plugin and now I can show off my great images in tiny bite sized places on my site.
Works great! No issues or bugs.
]]>Rating: 2 stars
As the free version is limited to 10 k pages/month – on my main site with 200/300 visitors/day, it won’t be enough – I consider the plugin cannot be used as free.
I put two stars because there is no information on the description about the difference between paying and free version – but it seems to work.
Rating: 5 stars
Working great so far. Had trouble with some other plugins that wouldn’t work correctly, not sure if it was my theme, or what. Glad to find this one. Thanks.
]]>Rating: 5 stars
Working great so far. Had trouble with some other plugins that wouldn’t work correctly, glad to find this one. Thanks.
]]>Rating: 5 stars
I looked a lot for a plugin that would let me include a box with external links below my posts. Contextly does exactly that! And it lets you customise the layout of this box just as you need so it fits the rest of your design.
Customer Support was also excellent. I got a question answered with great detail.
Rating: 5 stars
I trust Mike he knows what works
]]>5 stars Awesome Solution By Mike Zielonka (mikezielonka), August 23, 2013
So many plugins are resources hogs! Contextly makes it easy and it just works! ??
Rating: 3 stars
Awesome potential. My big frustration: There does not seem to be any obvious way to install as sidebar widget, although the plugin appears to insist that this can be done “in seconds.” For the life of me, I can’t see how it’s done at all. Instead, contextly sticks a gigantic gray box at the bottom of posts. The functionality is kind of cool but the aesthetics leave something to be desired.
I’m certain the intention is for maximum flexibility but, at the moment, something big and obvious is missing. What that is, I have no idea. Hope the contextly guys figure it out soon, though!
]]>Rating: 5 stars
So many plugins are resources hogs! Contextly makes it easy and it just works! ??
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