Setup & Getting Started
How quickly is Alpheris set up?
In just a few minutes. After signing up, a guided onboarding walks you through the steps: create an account, connect your shop, crawl your domain and embed the widget. For Shopify and WordPress, installation runs via 1-click (OAuth) — the widget is set up automatically. On all other platforms, you insert a short code snippet. The full process is described in the Quickstart.
Do I need technical knowledge?
No. For Shopify and WordPress, no code is required. For manual embedding, you just add a single <script> tag before the closing </body> tag of your page:
<!-- Alpheris Chat Widget -->
<script src="https://alpheris.com/widget.js" data-alpheris-key="INSTALL_ID" crossorigin="anonymous" async></script>
<!-- End Alpheris Chat Widget -->Replace INSTALL_ID with your personal Install ID from the dashboard. More on this under Widget Code.
Which platforms does Alpheris work on?
There are three ways to embed it:
Using the code method, Alpheris runs on any website, regardless of the shop system — you just need access to the theme or template to insert the snippet. Deep, bidirectional product and order sync is currently available for Shopify; all other systems are connected as a knowledge base via domain crawl and file upload.
Privacy & DPA
Where is my data stored?
Entirely in Germany / the EU. Hosting is provided by Hetzner Online GmbH in the Nuremberg and Falkenstein data centers; all processing takes place within the EU. For details, see Security & Privacy.
Is there a data processing agreement (DPA)?
Yes. You can find the data processing agreement (DPA) at alpheris.com/avv. Contracts under Art. 28 GDPR are in place with all subprocessors used.
Do I need to add a cookie/consent banner for the widget?
This is configurable per shop and off by default. You can enable the consent prompt in the dashboard; when it's active, the widget actively asks for consent before the chat. In addition, you can store a custom privacy URL per shop, which is linked in the widget. More under Security & Privacy.
How secure are file uploads?
Every upload is checked against an allowlist of permitted file types and scanned with a virus scan (ClamAV); active/executable files are blocked. Permitted formats include .pdf, .txt, .md, .csv, .docx and .xlsx — but not .html and .svg.
Pricing & Plans
What does Alpheris cost?
There are four tiers: Free, Basic, Business and Enterprise. The paid plans are billed monthly or annually via Stripe. You can find the current prices and the full feature set per plan under Plans & Billing as well as on alpheris.com.
Is there a free trial?
Yes — a 14-day trial for the Basic and Business plans. Enterprise has no trial. The trial applies once per user.
Which features depend on the plan?
Some features are reserved for higher plans:
| Feature | From Plan |
|---|---|
| Chat widget & grounded answers | All plans |
| Voice reply/input (Voice) | Business |
| API keys & external inbox API | Business & Enterprise |
| Own subdomain | Enterprise |
The exact feature matrix is available under Plans & Billing. Developer features are explained in the API Reference and Custom API.
Multilingual
Can Alpheris respond in multiple languages?
Yes, automatically. Alpheris detects the language of the customer's message and replies in the same language — without you having to configure anything. If a customer writes in English, the reply comes in English; in French, accordingly in French, and so on. A fallback language can be set. Details under Multilingual.
Data Sources & Knowledge Base
Where does the AI get its answers from?
Exclusively from your own content. Alpheris crawls your domain (including sitemap, product and OG metadata) and builds the knowledge base from it. The AI answers grounded via a hybrid retrieval (full text + vector/embeddings with reranking) — it doesn't make up content, but relies on the knowledge it finds.
Can I add my own documents?
Yes. In the dashboard, you can upload files to supplement the knowledge base — e.g. terms and conditions, shipping info or FAQ documents. Supported formats include .pdf, .txt, .md, .csv, .docx and .xlsx. For Shopify shops, a product and order sync is added on top. All permitted formats and sources are listed under Data Sources & Knowledge Base.
My crawl isn't working — what should I do?
If your site is behind a protection service or the crawl fails, Crawl Behind Cloudflare and Crawl Failed can help. General issues are covered in Troubleshooting.
Auto-Replies & Inbox
Which channels does the AI inbox cover?
The channels actually connected are email (Outlook/Microsoft Graph as well as generic SMTP/IMAP), Instagram and WhatsApp (each via Meta), and web chat (the widget itself). More under Inbox & AI Replies.
Does Alpheris reply automatically — or only make suggestions?
Both are possible, controlled by a maturity model per topic cluster:
The promotion from Copilot to Autopilot only happens once a cluster has reached a sufficient number of accepted suggestions and a high acceptance rate. The Complaint cluster permanently stays in manual mode and is never switched to Autopilot.
Still have questions?
If your question isn't answered here, the relevant detail page can help:
- Quickstart — from signing up to a running widget.
- AI Agent — tone, behavior and answer quality.
- Plans & Billing — prices, trial and plan features.
- Security & Privacy — data location, DPA and consent.
- Troubleshooting — when something doesn't work as expected.