Even Retreat Guru calls its website plug-in basic.
Retreat Guru calls its own WordPress plug-in “basic.”1 It shows lists and tables of programs, and a register button whose color you can set.2
For centers that run Retreat Guru
A Retreat Guru website that feels like the place.
Keep Retreat Guru for registrations and your back office. We build the website your guests read, with your programs and dates on your own domain, and connect it to Retreat Guru. This page is for the software, not the marketplace.
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The usual trouble
Your programs sit on your page. Registration happens on Retreat Guru’s form.
Registration happens on Retreat Guru’s form.
The plug-in lists your programs, then the guest clicks on to the Retreat Guru registration form.1 You can set your own thank-you page and add custom notes and headers for each program.3 Beyond that, we found no page saying how far the form can match your site.
The software takes a share of every booking.
Retreat Guru’s software plans take 1% of bookings on Standard, 0.9% on Premium and 0.8% on Enterprise, with a monthly minimum. Those rates include a 20% discount for using Retreat Guru Affiliate payments, whose card processing starts at 3.1%.4
The teardown
The guest’s road from your program list to the form.
Retreat Guru’s help names three ways to show programs on a website: a linked button, the plug-in, or the API. Step 1 happens every time. Step 2 is the button, step 3 the plug-in, and step 4 only happens when a guest pays by card.
To see a year of booking fees next to your own site, try the booking fee calculator. Running a retreat center? See how we build for retreats.
Booking teardown
When it happens, and who controls it
A guest registering for a program, from the first click
- 1
Every visitA visitor opens the page where your programs are listed.
Your page - 2
If you link a buttonThe button goes to the program page, or straight to the online registration form in Retreat Guru.1
Retreat Guru - 3
If you use the plug-inIt lists the programs. The register button then sends the guest on to the registration form.1,2
Registration form - 4
Paying by cardRetreat Guru recommends its integrated card processing with Paysafe, subject to qualifying. A setting can add a small extra fee for guests who pay by card.1,3
Card processing
On your own pages, you choose the steps, the words and the order before the guest registers.
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Programs and registration steps in your own words.
We build your site on top of your Retreat Guru, through its API. Programs, dates and availability are shown as part of your own pages, on your own domain. Retreat Guru keeps running your registrations and the back.
- Program pages, dates and the registration steps before payment are designed as part of your site.
- You decide the words and the order.
- Programs, dates and spaces left can be read live from your Retreat Guru, and registrations can be created in it.5 Retreat Guru lists the API as included in all plans.4
- Guests pay on your own payment page, with a card through your own Stripe account. Your site then creates the registration and records the payment on it as a transaction, through the API.6
Proof
Two sites we built, and what changed.
Eagle’s Nest Atitlán · Retreat center, Guatemala
98%
Stay booking value up, September 2026 vs September 2025.
Measured in their booking system. Ads, prices and the season play a part too.
Kalart · Rural coliving, Catalunya
4 to 18
Room applications a month.
Our cases so far are a retreat center and a coliving. We have no Retreat Guru case yet.
A few more questions
Is this for the marketplace or the software?
The software. We work with centers that run Retreat Guru as their own system. Listing on the marketplace is separate: Retreat Guru says it is free to list, and you pay a 14% commission when a booking is made.4
Is the Retreat Guru plug-in enough for my programs?
Retreat Guru itself calls the plug-in “basic”.1 It shows lists and tables of programs and a register button whose color you can set, and the guest then clicks on to the registration form.2 For a short list of programs that may be enough. We build the program pages and the steps before registering as part of your site, so the design and the words are yours.
I run WordPress today. Do I have to leave it?
Retreat Guru offers a basic WordPress plug-in and a generic plug-in for some other sites.1 The plug-in asks for your Retreat Guru subdomain.2 Our sites are not WordPress sites and have no plugins. We read your programs from Retreat Guru through its API instead. Retreat Guru says that takes “the skills of a web developer”,1 and that is our part. Your domain stays yours.
Can guests pay by card on my new pages?
Yes, on a payment page of ours. The guest pays with a card through your own Stripe account. Your site then creates the registration in Retreat Guru and records the payment on it as a transaction, with the amount credited. Both are documented in the API.6 Retreat Guru’s own card processing, with Paysafe, stays inside its software and is not part of this route.1 We confirm with your center how its accounts should read the recorded payment.
Does Retreat Guru have to approve the connection?
We found no approval step. You find your API token in your own Retreat Guru software, under Reg Settings and then API.7 Webhooks may need a request to Retreat Guru support.7 Retreat Guru also says its API is under active development.5
Does my Retreat Guru keep running the back?
Yes. Your programs, registrations and back office stay in Retreat Guru. We build the website guests see and use.
What do I pay, and when is the site live?
In three payments: a part up front, a part at launch, and a last part 90 days after launch, due only if your website booked more than in the same 90 days last year. We go through the numbers on the call. We found no approval step at Retreat Guru, so the thirty business days count from the day we have your API token.7 Guests pay on our payment page, and the payment is recorded on their registration through the API.6
Can I see my center’s homepage first?
Yes. We design your homepage for free, then show it to you on a call. You decide after.
Do you build for trainings too?
Yes. If your center runs teacher trainings or courses, read about websites for trainings and networks. Comparing systems? See our pages for Cloudbeds and Momence.
Where the Retreat Guru facts come from
Every fact about Retreat Guru on this page was read on Retreat Guru’s own pages on 2 November 2026. Retreat Guru changes its pages, so check yours before you decide.
How we build, what it costs and our results are ours, not Retreat Guru’s.
- 1Retreat Guru help: Configuration guideThe three ways to put programs on a website, and what Retreat Guru calls the plug-in.
- 2Retreat Guru help: WordPress plug-inWhat the plug-in shows, and the register button.
- 3Retreat Guru software: FeaturesThe thank-you page, form fields and card fee setting.
- 4Retreat Guru software: PricingPlan rates, the discount note, card processing, the marketplace commission and that the API is included in all plans. We leave the monthly minimum out: the page gives two different figures.
- 5Retreat Guru: API v1.1 documentationWhat the API reads and creates.
- 6Retreat Guru: API v1.1 specification (Swagger)That the API can create a registration and create a transaction on it, with the amount credited for payments made.
- 7Retreat Guru help: APIWhere to find your API token, and webhooks.
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