The AI content assistant Bertha.ai is exiting from the WordPress plugin repository after a compliance review identified code, licensing, and naming issues, according to co-founder Andrew Palmer.
Palmer clarified that the decision was unrelated to security concerns and stemmed instead from the significant effort required to meet repository standards—work he estimated would take more than 50 hours for a product that had “reached a natural stopping point.” He described the move as part of “closing a chapter the right way.”
Bertha.ai
Bertha.ai was launched in 2019 by Palmer and Vito Peleg. With its intuitive interface, it helped users streamline the content creation process by offering SEO-friendly copy suggestions, blog post drafts, product descriptions, headlines, and even image alt text generation.
It quickly gained attention with roughly 20,000 signups reported in a single weekend and the WordPress community was impressed by its performance.
But its growth was arrested with the rise of ChatGPT. As AI capabilities advanced and new tools reshaped the competitive landscape, maintaining momentum became increasingly difficult. In 2024, they slashed pricing to $10 a month and $96 a year. Despite this price reduction and its continued refinement, the broader evolution of AI ultimately outpaced the plugin’s original scope.
Today, both founders remain involved with Atarim, where lessons from Bertha.ai helped inform newer AI-driven collaboration and automation features used by thousands of customers.
The Future
The removal affects only the repository listing. Existing users can continue using Bertha.ai, including its Chrome extension, without interruption or forced cancellations. They will continue to review the product over the next 6 months. Palmer also noted the team remains open to potential acquisition discussions “for a small financial consideration”.
At the time of closure, Bertha.ai recorded more than 700 active WordPress installations. Reflecting on the decision, Palmer said ending a product is “never easy—but sometimes, it’s the most responsible thing to do.”