Ultimate FAQ is a WordPress plugin from Etoile Web Design that promises a reliable, easy-to-use and highly customizable frequently asked questions builder. The plugin comes in both a free and premium version.

Currently, according to the WordPress.org plugin repository, the free version of Ultimate FAQ has over 10,000 active users and a very good rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars.

Ultimate FAQ allows WordPress users to create, organize, and easily publish Frequently Asked Questions pages through the WordPress admin panel.

It boasts a high number of features and styles to meet the needs of both individual users and organizations of all sizes. Ultimate FAQ includes AJAX live search, the ability to add FAQs to WooCommerce products, user submitted FAQs, drag-and-drop ordering, mobile responsiveness, and more.

In this review, we’ll take a look at the main features of Ultimate FAQ, how the free and premium versions differ, and give you some final thoughts and recommendations.

Main Features of Ultimate FAQ

Free version features

• Mobile responsive

• Multiple styles

• Shortcodes and Shortcode Helper

• Supports categories and tags

• Customizable

Premium version features

Along with the free version features, the premium version also includes:

• Extra FAQ styling and display options (fonts, colors, toggle icon, etc.)

• Reveal effects for showing FAQ answers

• Live, AJAX FAQ search function with autocomplete FAQ titles

• User submitted FAQs and admin notification (even lets users propose answers)

• WooCommerce compatibility

• Drag-and-drop ordering of FAQs

• Extra shortcodes in Editor Helper

• FAQ user ratings for voting how valuable answers are

• Ability to change the FAQ slug base for URLs

• SEO-friendly FAQ, category, and tag permalinks (Pretty Permalinks)

• Social media support for sharing FAQs

• Export to PDF and spreadsheets

• Import from plugin and spreadsheets

• Email support

Setting Up and Using Ultimate FAQ

Here’s how to load the free version of Ultimate FAQ:

1. In the WordPress admin, go to Plugins… Add New.

2. In the search box type, Ultimate FAQ.

3. Click Install Now on the first returned result.

4. After installation, click Activate.

The FAQs menu will now appear in the WordPress menu bar.

To purchase and activate the premium version of Ultimate FAQ:

1. In WordPress, go to FAQs… Dashboard and select Click here to purchase the full version.

This will take you to the Etoile Web Design site.

2. After purchasing the plugin, you’ll receive the purchase key for the premium version through email. Copy that purchase key.

3. Go back to FAQs… Dashboard, and enter the purchase key for the plugin.

4. Click the Upgrade button.

Note: If you’d like to give the premium version a test run before purchasing, you can enter the trial code from FAQs… Dashboard and get a free 7-day trial.

How to Create a Frequently Asked Question

Of course, you need frequently asked questions to be able to use Ultimate FAQ, so let’s take a look at how to create one.

1. In WordPress, go to FAQs… Add New.

2. In the title section, enter your question.

3. In the content section, just below the title field, enter the answer to your question.

4. If you’d like, enter any FAQ details below the content section (e.g., Author Display Name).

5. Choose a FAQ category and FAQ tag(s) for the question.

6. Click Publish.

Ultimate FAQ Shortcodes

Ultimate FAQ comes with several shortcodes. It also comes with a Editor Helper, available from the WordPress page editor. Although you can manually type in any shortcodes into a page or post, the Editor Helper provides shortcodes with the click of a button.

With the premium version of Ultimate FAQ, the Editor Helper options are:

Display FAQs
Search FAQs
Submit FAQ
Recent FAQs
Popular FAQs

I found the user feedback for the Display FAQs and Search FAQs options in the Editor Helper a bit confusing. These two shortcodes include attributes that allow you to include or exclude certain categories from your FAQ list. Clicking on the available items in the Editor Helper menu took some trial and error. For Category to Include and Category to Exclude options in the Editor Helper, I had to click on blank, white areas of the menu to get the shortcode I needed. Although it worked in the end, it was a bit like poking around in the dark.

Here’s a summary of the available options through the Editor Helper:

Display FAQs

This is where you want to go to show all of your FAQ questions and answers. In that case, you’ll use a shortcode that looks like:

[ultimate-faqs]

Just place the shortcode as the content for any page or post you create, such as on a Frequently Asked Questions page. You can either type it in manually or use the Editor Helper.

This shortcode includes two attributes for including and excluding different categories from the FAQ list:

include_category
exclude_category

For example, if you wanted to show all FAQs except those under the “returns” category, you would use this shortcode:

[ultimate-faqs exclude_category=’returns’]

Search FAQs

The Search FAQs shortcode displays a search bar that lets users search for FAQs containing the search query within the question or answer. It’s best to use the shortcode by placing it above the FAQs, like this:

[ultimate-faq-search]
[ultimate-faqs]

Like the Display FAQs option above, the Search FAQs shortcode includes the same two attributes for including and excluding different categories from your FAQ list.

Submit FAQ

The Submit FAQ shortcode provides users a submission form for making an FAQ out of their own questions. It looks like this:

[submit-question]

This option must be turned on at FAQs… FAQ Settings…Premium…Submit FAQ. You also have the option of allowing users to give answers to their submitted questions.

The questions (and potential answers) are saved as draft documents for you to modify and approve, if you wish.

Recent FAQs

By default, the Recent FAQs shortcode displays the five most recently created frequently asked questions. It looks like this:

[recent-faqs]

You can change the default number to whatever you wish, for example:

[recent-faqs post_count=’4′]

Popular FAQs

By default, the Popular FAQs shortcode displays the five most viewed frequently asked questions. It looks like this:

[popular-faqs]

You can change the default number to whatever you wish, for example:

[popular-faqs post_count=’3″]

There’s one more Ultimate FAQ shortcode that isn’t currently accessible through the Editor Helper menu. It looks like this:

[select-faq]

This shortcode allows you to select a specific frequently asked question. You can use any of three attributes to determine your FAQ selection:

faq_name
faq_slug
faq_id

For example, if one of your FAQs is titled “When will my order ship?”, and you only wanted to display that question, you would use a shortcode like this:

[select-faq faq_name=’When will my order ship?’]

A couple of other notes before we move on from shortcodes. Ultimate FAQ lets you order your FAQs in a number of ways, including by category. To group your FAQs by category, go to FAQs… FAQ Settings… Ordering… and select Yes for Group FAQs by Category.

The other option is not to have your FAQs grouped by category, but to have them mixed together in your list. By the way, you’ll get a different outcome with your shortcodes depending on whether your FAQs are grouped by category or not.

For instance, if you want to show the two most recent FAQs, you’ll have two FAQs listed for each category if your FAQs are grouped by category. Otherwise, if your FAQs are not grouped by category, you’ll only have two listed FAQs altogether.

Ultimate FAQ Categories and Tags

When you create your frequently asked questions, you’ll want to give them a category and tag(s), just like you would any WordPress post.

There are two ways to do this. One way is to create the categories and tags as you create the FAQ, on the right side of the WordPress page/post editor.

The other way is to create categories and tags ahead of time. Here’s how you do that:

1. From the WordPress sidebar, go to FAQs… FAQ Categories.

2. Under Add New FAQ Category, enter a Name and Slug for the category.

For the slug, make sure you use only lowercase letters. Also, instead of spaces for the slugs, use hyphens.

3. If you’d like, you can adjust settings for the Parent drop-down menu and/or add information for the Description area.

4. Click the Add New FAQ Category button. The new category will appear within the existing category list on the right side.

To create new tags, follow these same basic instructions at FAQs… FAQ Tags.

Ultimate FAQ Settings

To get to the Settings page for Ultimate FAQ, go to FAQs… Settings.

On the page that opens, you’ll see the tabs for:

Basic
Premium
Ordering
Fields
Labeling
Styling

Here’s a basic description of each:

The Basic tab are settings that come with the free version of Ultimate FAQ. This tab lets you write your own custom CSS, turn on the Editor Helper in the WordPress page/post editor, turn on/off FAQ Toggle and Accordion modes, hide/show categories and tags, display post author and date, and more.

The Premium tab include the various options you get when you upgrade to the premium version of Ultimate FAQ. This section includes additional FAQ display styles, reveal effects that happen when clicking on FAQ answers, the ability for users to rate FAQs, Pretty Permalinks for better SEO, FAQ Autocomplete Titles for the search bar, social media compatibility, WooCommerce compatibility, and user FAQ submission (where users can add, and respond to, their own FAQ questions).

The Ordering tab allows you to sort FAQs by category and other various ways. With the premium version of Ultimate FAQ, you’re able to sort with the Order Table, which allows for dragging and dropping of individual FAQs in whatever order you wish.

The Fields tab is a premium option that allows you to add extra fields to your FAQs in order to display or gather more information.

The Styling tab is another premium option. It allows you to choose and style different toggle symbols. It also lets you style the FAQ question, answer, post date, categories, tags, and headings.

Using Ultimate FAQ with WooCommerce

With Ultimate FAQ, you can create a Frequently Asked Questions section for WooCommerce products. Here’s how to do that:

1. In WordPress, go to FAQs… Settings… Premium and set WooCommerce FAQs to Yes.

2. Go to FAQs… FAQ Categories.

Here, you want to create a category with the same name as the WooCommerce product you want the FAQ tab for. The FAQ category has to be the exact same name as the product.

For the slug, make sure to only use lowercase letters and replace any spaces with hyphens.

3. Go to FAQs… Add New.

This is where you’ll create the frequently asked question for the WooCommerce product tab. After adding the title (question) and the response below it, make sure to select the product name category (under FAQ Categories) that you created in step two above.

4. Click Publish.

If you want to create additional frequently asked questions for the product, repeat step three.

Now, when you go to your WooCommerce store, and click on the product details for the chosen product that you wanted to add the FAQ tab for, you should see a tab labeled FAQs. Click on the tab and you’ll see your FAQs for that product.

Video Tutorial: Setting Up and Using Ultimate FAQ

Support & Documentation

Ultimate FAQ offers very good support, including:

Online documentation
FAQ page
Video tutorials
Support forum
7-day live demo
Social media
Email support with 24 hours on business days (premium version)

Etoile Web Design gives first priority to questions that don’t have answers posted online (through their FAQ section, tutorial videos, etc.).

Users who only have the free version of the plugin and don’t have premium-level support can find help through the dedicated WordPress plugin support forums.

Etoile Web Design offers users help in modifying the CSS output for Ultimate FAQ. For specific customization services, users can contact them to talk specifics, and get a quote in return.

Pricing

Ultimate FAQ offers a free and premium version of their WordPress plugin.

The free version can be found here at the WordPress.org plugin repository.

The premium version comes in a single site license, developer license, and enterprise license. It can be purchased here.

Ultimate FAQ Single Site License:

$30 (single site lifetime license)
Includes six months email support ($14.99 per period for continued support)
Two week money back guarantee

Ultimate FAQ Developer License:

This license is appropriate for developers working with multiple clients/projects.
$100 (5 site license)
$170 (10 site license)

Ultimate FAQ Enterprise License:

Etoile Web Design says this license option is coming soon and will offer premium support for critical online installations.

Conclusions & Recommendations

Ultimate FAQ provides a easy-to-use and highly customizable FAQ plugin for WordPress users.

The free version is fully functional for anyone who wants to quickly set up their own FAQ pages. The premium version comes with impressive extras that add additional styling, user interactivity, WooCommerce compatibility, live AJAX search, and much more.

For the most part, I found Ultimate FAQ to be a nicely designed and easy-to-use FAQ builder. The only quibble I had was with the somewhat odd user feedback I received from the shortcode Editor Helper within the WordPress page/post editor.

That said, it didn’t deny me any of the functionality of the plugin, of which it has quite a lot to offer.

I especially liked the depth of styling options that come with the premium version, the ability to add FAQ sections to WooCommerce products, and the option to let users submit their own FAQ questions.

Customer service is critical to any online business, and a plugin like Ultimate FAQ makes it easy to address the most pressing questions of your users in a responsive and professional solution.

If you’re a WordPress user who’s looking for an FAQ builder for your site, you’ll definitely want to take a look at Ultimate FAQ.

If you just need a nice-looking, basic FAQ for your site, the free version just might do the trick. But if you’re looking for an FAQ builder with more customization options that works nicely with an ecommerce solution like WooCommerce, give their free 7-day trial version a test run and see if the premium upgrade fits the bill for you.

To find out more about Ultimate FAQ, you can visit their website here.