Echo Knowledge Base – Documentation, FAQs, Chat & Smart Search vs Rapls AI Chatbot – Self-Hosted RAG & MCP Server

Echo Knowledge Base is a powerful documentation tool that helps you create and organize documentation, FAQs, quizzes, and articles. It includes built-in AI search and AI chatbot features and includes comprehensive features to help you build a visually appealing knowledge base. Designed with a modern and professional appearance by default, the plugin offers extensive customization options to align perfectly with your brand identity. FREE KB FEATURES Fast Search Bar: Enable users to find articles quickly with an AJAX-powered search bar. Deep Content Organization: Organize articles into categories and subcategories up to five levels deep. Display articles and categories across tabs or in an intuitive drill-down format. FAQs Layout and Shortcode: Deploy FAQs anywhere on your site with various eye-catching designs. Group questions logically and control their behavior for optimal user engagement. Article Enhancement Tools: Improve user experience with breadcrumbs, next/previous article navigation, print and PDF export options, and more. Table of Contents (TOC): Enhance navigation with a customizable table of contents on article pages for better user experience. Frontend Visual Editor: Customize your Knowledge Base pages live on the front-end with our intuitive visual editor or drag-and-drop Gutenberg blocks. Pre-made Layout Designs: Choose from many beautiful designs and layouts to make your knowledge base both stunning and functional. With dozens of combinations available, you’ll find the perfect look for your site. Most Popular and Recent Articles: Display lists of articles by popularity and recent publication to guide readers to trending and new content. Glossary: Build a centralized dictionary of terms and definitions for your knowledge base. Glossary Terms – Create and manage glossary entries. Published terms are automatically highlighted in your articles with interactive tooltips, helping readers understand key terminology without leaving the page. Glossary Index Shortcode and Block – Display an alphabetical index of all glossary terms on any page using the [epkb-glossary-index] shortcode or the Glossary Index Gutenberg block, with letter navigation and customizable accent color. AI-Generated Glossary Terms (PRO) – Automatically generate glossary terms and definitions from your knowledge base content using AI, saving time and ensuring comprehensive coverage of key terminology. Article Quizzes: Add interactive quizzes to KB articles to reinforce learning and increase engagement. Create custom multiple-choice or true/false questions, add answer explanations, and show published quizzes below the article content. Article Views Counter: Track views with the built-in counter and analyze your most and least popular content to optimize your knowledge base. Customizable Category Archive Page: Customize the category archive page with a custom header, description, and image. FREE AI FEATURES (Optional) All AI features are completely optional and disabled by default. You can enable them at any time if you choose to use AI-powered capabilities. AI Chat (Chatbot): Add a frontend chat dialog where users and visitors can ask questions and get instant AI-powered answers based on on your Knowledge Base, FAQs, internal documentation, notes, and any other source of information. AI Search: When users search, results show relevant KB articles plus an ‘Ask AI’ button to dive deeper with the same query. AI Content Analysis: Automatically analyze your knowledge base articles for quality and optimization. Get AI-powered insights including: Tags Analysis – Optimize article tags and categories for better organization and SEO Readability Score – Evaluate content clarity and structure with AI assistance Learn more. PRO KB FEATURES Advanced Search: Highlight search keywords on article pages, filter search by category, adjust search box styling, and add helper text or links below the search bar. Use advanced search analytics to discover popular queries and identify searches with no results. Granular Content Protection: Control access to documentation based on user groups, WordPress roles, or custom permissions. Seamlessly manage public and private knowledge base content. Unlimited Knowledge Bases: Create unlimited separate knowledge bases, each with its own articles, categories, and tags (great for managing multiple products or departments). Articles Import and Export: Import or export articles and categories using CSV or XML formats for easy migration or backup. AI Smart Search: Display intelligent search results with optional multi-panel sections User Feedback System: Gather valuable insights with article upvote/downvote and feedback forms. Article Links: Turn any article into a link that points to PDFs, external documentation, videos, or other resources. AI Features: Content Gap Analysis AI Quiz Generation – generate quiz drafts from KB articles, then review and edit the title, intro, questions, answers, and explanations before publishing Expand training to include notes, posts, pages, and custom post types Email Notifications for AI insights Human Agent Handoff – lets users escalate from AI to your support team Feedback Buttons – collect thumbs-up/down ratings on AI responses PDF to Articles – upload PDF files and convert them into KB articles with optional AI formatting that organizes content into headings, lists, and paragraphs PDF to Notes – upload PDF files via drag-and-drop or the Media Library and convert them into AI training notes to expand your AI’s knowledge beyond KB articles AI Chat Access Control – restrict who can use AI Chat: everyone, logged-in users only, or specific WordPress roles. Set different access rules for each chat location See the official website for more details on Pro features. ⭐ WALK-THROUGH OF ECHO KNOWLEDGE BASE Watch a quick introduction to Echo Knowledge Base and see it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLwj8FpfBWc ⭐ PROFESSIONAL LAYOUTS INCLUDED Echo Knowledge Base comes with multiple layout options to suit your style: Basic Layout – Clean and simple design Tabs Layout – Organized content in tabbed interface Drill Down Layout – Intuitive navigation through categories Classic Layout – Traditional documentation style Category Focused Layout – Highlight your main categories See our comprehensive documentation here ⭐ ADDITIONAL FEATURES Gutenberg Blocks: Seamlessly integrate knowledge base elements using the WordPress block editor. Flexible Ordering: Order articles and categories alphabetically, by date, or manually with drag-and-drop. SEO Optimization: Built with SEO best practices to help your documentation rank well in search engines. Usage Analytics: Monitor knowledge base traffic and search queries to understand what users need. Interactive Learning: Turn knowledge base articles into quizzes with answer explanations to help readers retain information. Multilingual & RTL Support: Fully compatible with WPML, Polylang, GTranslate, and supports right-to-left languages. Responsive Design: Mobile-friendly and works with any WordPress theme, so your docs look great on all devices. Directory Shortcode: Use a shortcode to display an index of all articles (great for an A-Z index page). Multi-site Compatible: Perfect for WordPress multisite networks – manage documentation across multiple sites. Custom URL Structure: Customize category, tag, and article URLs for a clean and branded structure. Mobile Optimization: Ensures a smooth reading experience on smartphones and tablets. Content Migration: Easily convert existing posts or custom post types into Knowledge Base articles. ⭐ SEO & ACCESSIBILITY OPTIMIZED Echo Knowledge Base is optimized for search engines and adheres to accessibility standards. It supports multiple languages (including RTL scripts) and meets WCAG guidelines, making your documentation usable for a global audience. All layouts are fully responsive and retina-ready, so your knowledge base looks sharp on every device. ⭐ EASY TO STYLE WITH PRE-MADE DESIGNS No coding needed – make it your knowledge base with just a few clicks: 26 Pre-Made Designs: Choose from a variety of professional color schemes and styles. One-Click Theme Switching: Swap layouts (Basic, Tabs, Category-Focused, Classic, Drill Down, Sidebar, Grid, etc.) instantly to find the perfect look. Endless Customization: Further tweak colors, fonts, and styles to match your brand. ⭐ BUILDER COMPATIBILITY Echo Knowledge Base works great with popular page builders: Elementor & Gutenberg: Comes with native blocks and widgets for seamless integration. Other Builders: Fully compatible with Beaver Builder, Divi, Visual Composer, and more. ✅ WHY CHOOSE ECHO KNOWLEDGE BASE? User-Friendly: Designed for ease of use – no coding required and a gentle learning curve. All-in-One Support Hub: Manage documentation, FAQs, quizzes, AI chat, and smart search in one plugin. Professional Design: 26 beautiful, ready-to-use layouts give your docs a polished look out of the box. Highly Customizable: Extensive configuration options to tailor the knowledge base to your needs. Reliable Support: Our friendly, Canadian-based support team is ready to help with any questions. Regular Updates: Continuously improved with new features (our roadmap is packed with upcoming enhancements!). Global Ready: Translate your documentation and serve users in any language with full multilingual support. About Us: We are a Canadian company with over a decade of experience in WordPress and web technologies. We’re passionate about helping you provide better support to your customers.

Add an AI chatbot that answers visitors from your own content — and admits when it doesn’t know. Rapls AI Chatbot searches your posts, pages, and knowledge base first, then replies in natural language, in the visitor’s own language. With Grounded Answers Only mode, if your content has no answer, the bot says so instead of making something up. You can be live in about five minutes, for free, with no credit card. On first setup a guided “Start for free” panel hands you a free key from OpenRouter or the Google Gemini free tier, tests it, auto-selects a working model, and switches the chatbot on — no AI or API experience needed. Watch the setup, start to finish: No monthly SaaS fee — and no runaway bill. It runs on your own API key with no markup, and built-in Usage Control caps daily usage per visitor, so you can open the bot to the public without worrying about your API spend. A Monthly Cost Guard lets you set a hard budget, and Model Fallback keeps the bot answering on a lightweight model when your main model hits its quota. Conversations and keys stay on your own server. Built for site owners, agencies, and developers who want control over the model, the data, and the cost. Connect OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, or OpenRouter, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint such as Alibaba Tongyi Qwen (DashScope) — useful where OpenAI and Gemini are hard to reach — and switch anytime. Why site owners pick Rapls Free to try, fast to launch. Guided onboarding gets you from install to a working chatbot in minutes, with a no-credit-card OpenRouter or Gemini key. Grounded answers, or an honest “I don’t know.” RAG hybrid search grounds replies in your actual posts, pages, and knowledge base — and Grounded Answers Only mode keeps the bot from inventing answers your site doesn’t contain. Your bill can’t run away. Self-hosted and BYOK with no markup, plus per-visitor daily caps (Usage Control) so public traffic can’t drain your API budget. Replies that don’t sound like a robot. An optional AI-smell score reviews the bot’s Japanese replies for machine-sounding wording, so you can tune the tone. (Detection only — replies are never altered.) No lock-in. Switch between OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and OpenRouter whenever you want. Speaks your visitors’ language. Automatic multi-language replies, so one bot serves an international audience. What it does Bring your own key: OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (Alibaba Qwen/DashScope, DeepSeek, Zhipu), switchable per site. Site learning: indexes your posts and pages so the bot answers from your content. Knowledge base: add Q&A or upload PDF/DOCX files, with priority over general answers. RAG hybrid search: combines keyword and semantic retrieval for grounded replies. Grounded Answers Only: an optional mode that makes the bot reply “I couldn’t find that” instead of inventing an answer your content doesn’t support. Web search: lets the bot pull current information when configured. MCP tools: exposes 5 Model Context Protocol tools, so agents such as Claude or ChatGPT can read and act on your site through conversation. Usage dashboard: tracks conversations, messages, and API cost. Usage Control: optional per-visitor daily caps so public traffic can’t run up your API bill. Unanswered Questions: records what the bot could not answer, with one-click “Add to knowledge” and an AI-drafted FAQ page. AI-smell score: an optional read-only score that flags machine-sounding wording in Japanese replies (detection only — replies are never altered). Industry starter templates: one click applies a ready-made system prompt and preset questions for hotels, shops, clinics, professional services, or company sites. Gutenberg block: drop the chatbot into any page or post. Deep-link auto-send: a ?raplsaich_q= URL opens the chatbot and sends the question automatically, so end-of-article “suggested questions” become one-click conversations. Turns visitor questions into content The bot doesn’t just answer — it tells you what your site is missing. Questions it could not answer from your content are recorded on the dashboard, one click turns them into a knowledge entry, and another click drafts an FAQ page from the last 30 days of real visitor questions. Answer gaps become content, content improves the bot, and the same pages work for SEO and AI search (LLMO). Self-hosted and private Conversations and keys stay on your own WordPress install. You are billed by your AI provider directly, so cost is transparent and there is no markup. Visitors can delete their own chat history from the widget (optional), and retention is configurable — GDPR-friendly by design. Free and Pro Free — not a trial. The free version is the full product: chatbot, site learning, knowledge base, RAG hybrid search, Grounded Answers Only, MCP server (5 tools), a usage dashboard (conversations, messages, and cost), and per-visitor daily caps. Run it forever at no cost on a free-tier key. Pro — for sites that run the bot as a business tool: Lead capture automation — collect contacts from conversations, with Google Sheets and Slack sync. Analytics — conversation, cost, and quality metrics at a glance. Usage Control suite — role-based limits, per-user monthly credits with auto-reset, and a usage-control dashboard to grant and track credits, so members and guests each get a fair share of your API budget. Extra MCP tools — product-search and analytics tools for AI agents, on top of the five in Free. Context & embedding controls — reprocess embeddings and shape the context retrieved for each reply. LINE integration (add-on) — connect the chatbot to LINE messaging, the dominant messenger in Japan. Up and running in about 5 minutes (free, no credit card) You do not need an API key or any AI experience to start. On first setup the plugin shows a “Start for free” panel with two no-credit-card paths: an OpenRouter free key or a Google Gemini free-tier key. Pick OpenRouter or Gemini. Click through to get a free key (about a minute) and paste it in. Press Test Connection — the key is validated and saved, a working free model is auto-selected, and the chatbot is switched on. That’s it. Each option states its data-handling trade-off up front (the Gemini free tier may use submitted content to improve Google’s models), so you choose with eyes open. You can switch to your own OpenAI, Claude, or Gemini key at any time. Learn more: Plugin details | Source code (GitHub) See it in action Watch the full setup — from install to first reply — in about 5 minutes, no credit card required: See it answer from your own content, and how that differs from plain ChatGPT: External Services This plugin connects to the following external third-party services. No data is sent to any service until you configure an API key and enable the feature in the plugin settings. Each service requires the site administrator to create an account and obtain API credentials. By using these services, you agree to their respective terms and privacy policies listed below. 1. OpenAI (GPT models): AI Provider Used when you select OpenAI as your AI provider. User messages and optionally site content are sent to generate AI responses. Service URL: https://api.openai.com/ Terms of Use: https://openai.com/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://openai.com/privacy/ 2. Anthropic (Claude models): AI Provider Used when you select Anthropic Claude as your AI provider. User messages and optionally site content are sent to generate AI responses. Service URL: https://api.anthropic.com/ Terms of Use: https://www.anthropic.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://www.anthropic.com/privacy 3. Google (Gemini models): AI Provider Used when you select Google Gemini as your AI provider. User messages and optionally site content are sent to generate AI responses. Service URL: https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/ Terms of Use: https://policies.google.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy 4. OpenRouter: AI Provider Used when you select OpenRouter as your AI provider. OpenRouter is a unified API gateway that routes requests to various AI models. Service URL: https://openrouter.ai/api/ Terms of Use: https://openrouter.ai/terms Privacy Policy: https://openrouter.ai/privacy 5. OpenAI-compatible endpoints (e.g. Alibaba Qwen/DashScope, DeepSeek, Zhipu): AI Provider Used only if you select the “OpenAI-compatible” provider and enter a base URL. User messages, and optionally your site content (including indexed content for RAG embeddings), are sent to the endpoint you configure to generate responses or embeddings. Because the endpoint is chosen by you, please review the terms and privacy policy of the specific provider you connect to. For example, Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (DashScope), which powers Tongyi Qwen: Service URL: https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/ Terms of Use: https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/legal/ Privacy Policy: https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/legal/latest/alibaba-cloud-privacy-policy/ 6. Google reCAPTCHA v3 (Optional) Used only if you enable reCAPTCHA in the plugin settings for spam protection. The visitor’s IP address and interaction data are sent to Google for verification. Service URL: https://www.google.com/recaptcha/ Terms of Use: https://policies.google.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy 7. LINE Messaging API (Pro Add-on, Optional) Used only if you enable the LINE integration via the Pro add-on. Connects to the LINE Messaging API for chatbot-to-LINE messaging. Service URL: https://api.line.me/ Terms of Use: https://terms.line.me/ Privacy Policy: https://line.me/en/terms/policy/ Cross-Site Embed The plugin includes an optional embed loader script (embed-loader.js) for embedding the chatbot on external websites via an iframe. This script does not load any external CDN resources or third-party scripts. It creates an iframe pointing back to your own WordPress site, and all data processing occurs on your server. Data Transmitted to External Services User messages: Chat messages entered by visitors (sent to the configured AI provider only) Site content (if Site Learning is enabled): Excerpts from your published posts/pages (sent to the configured AI provider) Knowledge base (if configured): Custom Q&A entries you create (sent to the configured AI provider) IP address (reCAPTCHA only): Sent to Google for spam verification Data Storage Conversation history: Stored locally in your WordPress database (can be disabled) Visitor IP: Stored as SHA-256 hash (not plain text) for rate limiting Retention: Configurable auto-deletion period (default 90 days) User Controls You can disable these features in the plugin settings: * Conversation history saving * Site content crawling/learning * Google reCAPTCHA verification * Web search