18 Podium Alternatives: Best Reputation Management Software

Feeling unsure about using Podium for managing your customer interactions?

Reputation management is vital for the success of any small business. In fact, 95% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business, and 88% trust them as much as personal recommendations.

With numerous software options, finding the best one to manage your brand’s online presence can be challenging. Podium has been a popular choice, but is it the best solution for your business?

They’ve been trailblazers in the world of digital reputation management. If you’re aiming to score more positive customer reviews, gather feedback to refine your services, or simply want a smooth payment process, Podium could be the answer.

But some customers aren’t too thrilled with Podium’s not-so-clear pricing games and upsells. If you’re looking for platforms with more upfront pricing, there are some solid options worth checking out.

In this blog post, we’ll showcase the top 18 Podium alternatives and reveal which takes the number one spot.

So let’s dive in!

Disclaimer: The pros and cons listed for each software are based on user feedback and experiences, which can vary greatly. These differences can be due to individual use cases or practice needs. It’s recommended to thoroughly evaluate these factors and conduct a comprehensive assessment of the software in the context of your specific needs before making a decision.

• 18 Podium alternatives for reputation management
• 1. DemandHub:
• Why DemandHub outshines Podium?
• 2. Feefo
• 3. Vendasta
• 4. BirdEye
• 5. Swell
• 6. SurveySparrow
• 7. ReviewPush
• 8. NiceJob
• 9. Review Tool
• 10. Meltwater
• 11. Grade.us
• 12. Cision
• 13. Brightlocal
• 14. Reputation
• 15. Chekkit
• 16. Emitrr
• 17. Gatherup
• 18. Synup
• Why are users looking at Podium software competitors?
• Find the best solution for you

18 Podium alternatives for reputation management

These Podium alternatives bring several diverse solutions and price tags to the table. So, you can find the perfect match for your biz needs and wallet size:

1. DemandHub:

Summary: DemandHub is the top Podium alternative offering a comprehensive set of tools for small businesses. Its ease of use, exceptional customer support, and customization options make it the perfect choice for managing your online reputation and building a profitable brand.

DemandHub is an innovative reputation management software. It is specifically designed for small businesses looking to elevate their online presence.

With a user-friendly interface, superb customer support, loads of customization options, and an extensive suite of features, DemandHub offers a comprehensive solution to help you stay ahead of the competition.

Key benefits of DemandHub include:

Effortless online scheduling

With DemandHub’s smooth integration into your website, you’ll effortlessly convert more visitors into paying customers, ensuring your business keeps thriving.

No more no-shows

DemandHub’s got your back, sending appointment reminders and follow-ups straight to your customers’ phones so they never miss a beat (and neither do you!).

Streamlined checkout system

DemandHub offers a hassle-free, 3-step checkout process, making it easy to collect contactless payments without chasing down invoices.

Online forms and surveys to get the scoop

Want to know what your customers think? DemandHub makes sending online forms and survey links via SMS a breeze, giving you the insights you need to keep your customers happy.

Stay connected on the go with Web Chat

DemandHub’s web chat feature allows website visitors to text your business on the go, turning each conversation into a text message and providing flexibility for your customers. So, you can answer questions and close sales no matter where your website visitors land.

Automated review links

DemandHub allows you to send automated review links via SMS to encourage customers to share their experiences instantly. This is a great way to build trust with potential customers and garner more positive reviews.

DemandHub also ensures that your business get reviews only from verified customers, helping you to maintain credibility and trust.

Texting for the win

Build stronger customer relationships with DemandHub’s text messaging feature and AI-driven review reminders. Send appointment reminders, updates, special offers, and more, all with a few quick taps.

With a unified inbox, respond to Facebook, Instagram, Web chat messages and Google reviews with just one click, and that too on the go from your phone.

Seamless integration

DemandHub seamlessly integrates with your favorite health, dental, and automotive systems, automating everything from review collection to appointment scheduling. Also, it allows you to connect with popular CRMs to send automated review requests after purchases.

Stay on top of appointments

DemandHub’s central appointment manager keeps all your bookings in one place, making it a cinch to accept requests directly from your website.

Keep an eye on your growth

DemandHub’s NPS insights and competitor reviews give you the lowdown on your business’s performance, helping you stay ahead of the game and keep growing.

Understand your target market’s sentiments and identify common phrases in reviews. This data can help businesses tailor their products, improve customer service, and shape marketing strategies, leading to a more customer-centric business.

Team chat

With DemandHub’s dashboard, team communication is a snap! Keep everyone in the loop and foster collaboration right from the platform, making teamwork more efficient and enjoyable.

Why DemandHub outshines Podium?

Ease of use

With DemandHub’s clean, user-friendly interface, you can manage your online presence effortlessly. Even if you’re not a tech whiz, you can easily navigate the platform, giving you more time to focus on your business.

Customer support

When you choose DemandHub, you’re never alone. Their stellar customer support team is always on hand to help you, whether you have a quick question or need assistance setting up your account.

Customization options

With DemandHub, you can tailor your experience to fit your unique needs. From custom surveys to personalized alerts, the platform integrates seamlessly with your business tools and strategies.

Competitive pricing

DemandHub offers a variety of pricing plans that cater to small businesses of all shapes and sizes. Choose a plan that best suits your budget without sacrificing any essential features or functionality.

2. Feefo

Summary: Feefo is a reliable Podium alternative offering features designed to boost trust, support sales, and foster customer engagement.

Feefo offers a dynamic, independent platform for reviews and insights. It equips businesses with the tools to create better customer relationships, enhance customer experiences, and strengthen their brand reputation. All of this is driven by real customer feedback.

Here’s what this Podium alternative has to offer:

• Feefo ensures credibility by allowing reviews from verified customers only.
• Customers can share their experiences more vividly with the option to include photos and videos in their reviews.
• Receive instant alerts for negative reviews, allowing businesses to promptly address and resolve issues.
• Manage and respond to reviews directly from a centralized dashboard for a streamlined experience.
• Identify opportunities and areas for improvement through reporting its tool, ensuring continued growth.

Downsides of Feefo

• Feefo’s customer service could be more responsive for a smoother user experience.
• The pricing is a bit steep, and the inflexible contract terms can be challenging, particularly if the service doesn’t live up to expectations.

3. Vendasta

Summary: As a Podium competitor, Vendasta simplifies scaling for agencies with white-label services, allowing them to focus on sales while relying on expert fulfillment under their brand name.

Vendasta offers a versatile, customizable reputation management solution for agencies catering to diverse customer needs.

Key features include:

• Enjoy a brandable interface with access to review management and listing solutions.
• Track and respond to reviews from over 100 websites while harnessing AI-powered insights for improvement.
• Capture feedback via email, SMS, or at the point of sale.
• Stay informed about online conversations, gauge brand sentiment, and refine your offerings.
• Display reviews on your website to build trust with your audience with a customizable review widget.
• Easily create and maintain accurate local listings across the internet.
• Competitive analysis tools offer insights to set benchmarks to refine your marketing strategies.

Downsides of Vendasta

Vendasta’s platform occasionally experiences technical issues, leading to potential delays in task completion and timely delivery of results.

4. BirdEye

Summary: BirdEye is the direct Podium competitor that excels in review and referral generation, helping businesses to convert leads and improve customer engagement.

BirdEye is a reputation management platform that helps businesses collect reviews, convert leads, and gain referrals. The platform offers various features, including:

• Engage with prospects in real-time using BirdEye’s Web Chat solution, backed by unlimited automated FAQs.
• Request reviews via email or SMS and showcase them on websites, social channels, and Google Ads.
• Create, send, and track referral campaigns to harness the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

BirdEye offers listings management and payment processing solutions for an extra fee, further enhancing its reputation management capabilities.

Downsides of Birdeye

• Birdeye’s customer support team sometimes closes support tickets even though the issues were not resolved fully.
• The cancellation process is not straightforward, and the lack of clear options in the user portal leads to unexpected charges.

5. Swell

Summary: Swell offers a comprehensive reputation management solution for diverse industries. It strengthens your online presence with its robust features and industry-specific expertise.

Swell is a reputation management platform that helps businesses collect customer reviews and feedback. As a Podium alternative, Swell offers guidance on improving your online reputation and caters especially to health and dental practices.

Swell has the following features:

• Analytics for informed decision-making
• Review management and generation
• Web Chat and messaging
• Appointment scheduling
• Payment processing
• Surveys for insights

Downsides of Swell

• Swell’s lack of full synchronization with certain practice management software leading to additional manual work.
• The platform does not support mass text messaging to all contacts.

6. SurveySparrow

Summary: SurveySparrow is a flexible Podium alternative that combines reputation management with customer service ticket handling.

SurveySparrow is a versatile reputation management software. It offers customer service ticket management, making it a valuable asset for businesses striving to maintain their online reputation.

SurveySparrow enables users to:

• Generate, manage, and respond to reviews from a unified dashboard.
• Assign tickets for efficient customer service follow-up.
• Generate brand reputation reports for insights on sentiment and trends.
• Embed reviews on business websites.
• Create customer surveys for feedback collection.

Downsides of SurveySparrow

• SurverySparrow’s site is a little tricky to navigate, and need to use customer support to get answers.
• Price is quite high, especially for occasional users.

7. ReviewPush

Summary: As a Podium alternative, ReviewPush streamlines reputation management for businesses with multiple locations.

ReviewPush offers a user-friendly reputation management solution, ideal for multi-location businesses. As a Podium competitor, its features focus on simplifying review monitoring and response processes.

It offers store rankings, missing profile alerts, and social media monitoring to keep you in control of your online reputation.

Key features of ReviewPush include:

• Convenient response options, such as responding to reviews directly from email alerts.
• Multi-level dashboards and reporting for tailored insights across different management levels.
• Multi-site monitoring allows businesses to track reviews from popular platforms.
• Support for unlimited locations to accommodate growing businesses.
• Store-by-store rankings for easy comparison of different locations.3

Downsides of ReviewPush

• ReviewPush appears outdated and lacks regular updates.
• ReviewPush’s email solicitation lacks detailed data tracking, limiting insights into open rates, bounce rates, and customer interactions with the emails.

8. NiceJob

Summary: NiceJob is a word-of-mouth marketing solution for local businesses eager to expand and thrive.

![NiceJob]/assets/images/demandhub/articles/podium-alternatives/podium-alternatives-21.webp){:class=”dh-article__body-image”}

NiceJob is a growth-oriented platform for local businesses seeking to enhance their word-of-mouth marketing. It offers user-friendly reputation management tools, such as:

• Simple review management software for effortless customer feedback.
• Smart funnel to distribute reviews effectively across platforms like Google and Facebook.
• Automated review sharing on social media channels.
• Versatile widgets for displaying reviews on websites and social media stories.
• Ability to add photos to reviews for a more personalized touch.
• Automated referral invitations to expand your customer base.

Downsides of NiceJob

• NiceJob’s user interface requires multiple clicks to navigate, particularly in the Settings area, which can be time-consuming.
• The mobile app lacks the ability to manage Settings, often redirecting to the website that occasionally fails to load these pages.

9. Review Tool

Summary: Review Tool is ideal for businesses seeking a straightforward solution to collect reviews.

Review Tool offers a cost-effective and feature-packed alternative to Podium. While it might not have the extensive integrations of some other competitors, it’s still a solid and user-friendly choice.

With Review Tool, you can:

• Generate consistent reviews through text, MMS, and email invitations.
• Gain valuable competitive insights and establish benchmarks.
• Use AI for auto-responses or manually respond to reviews from the dashboard.
• Showcase your best reviews with the review tool widget.

Downsides of Review Tool

• Review tool doesn’t have a mobile app for the platform which can limit accessibility and convenience for users.
• The web platform sometimes experiences slow loading times, which can affect productivity and user experience.

10. Meltwater

Summary: Meltwater is a comprehensive media intelligence and social analytics platform that tracks brand sentiment.

As a Podium alternative, Meltwater leverages machine learning and social listening to collect data from reviews, blogs, and social media, providing valuable brand sentiment insights.

Meltwater’s smart alerts deliver timely updates on essential real-time insights. These notifications enable decision-makers to detect search volume spikes promptly, identify the cause, and take appropriate action when necessary.

Meltwater offers a range of features such as:

• Identifying top influencers mentioning your brand
• Monitoring various media channels
• Analyzing sentiment

Though Meltwater doesn’t focus on review generation, it excels in delivering top-outstanding social listening tools.

Downsides of Meltwater

• Meltwater’s daily newsletters don’t give enough details about readers’ statistics, unlike cheaper services like MailChimp.
• When you ask for changes or new features, they often don’t get done, and problems can take a long time to fix.

11. Grade.us

Summary: Grade.us streamlines review collection and promotion across various platforms. It enables you to manage your online reputation and track progress with automated reporting.

Grade.us is a handy tool for businesses to collect, monitor, and display their reviews at any stage of their progress. This Podium alternative delivers a scalable solution for various organizations.

With Grade.us, you can:

• Set up recurring automated reports to track progress and meet benchmarks
• Promote reviews on any website using Grade.us widget
• Collect reviews from more than 100 niche-specific websites.
• Manage reviews directly within the GradeUs platform.

Downsides of Grade.us

Grade.us sometimes sends review request links to customers’ phones that either don’t appear or lead to a static URL, delaying the review collection process.

12. Cision

Summary: Cision offers a comprehensive blend of reputation and media management, providing valuable insights and analytics for businesses.

Cision combines reputation and media management capabilities in one solution. As an alternative to Podium software, it collects data from social media, customer interactions, and other sources to offer insights into brand reputation.

Cision allows you to:

• Enhance your content’s reach through traditional and digital channels via Cision’s PR Newswire.
• Monitor brand sentiment, product positioning, and additional metrics.
• Capture leads from online mentions.
• Analyze your competition.

Downsides of Cision

• The turnaround time for press release proofs in Meltwater has increased significantly, leading to potential delays and a higher likelihood of minor errors in the final release.
• The platform’s learning curve and less intuitive filtering options can make it challenging to navigate and conduct precise searches.

13. Brightlocal

Summary: BrightLocal is a powerful local SEO solution to improve your online presence and search rankings.

BrightLocal helps businesses improve their local rankings, get more leads and traffic from local searches, and easily manage their reputation.

As a Podum alternative, it offers a range of tools that help businesses boost their online reputation and stay on top of their online business listings.

With BrightLocal, users can:

• Build local listings to boost rankings and ensure consistent information across the web.
• Identify common issues within reviews to improve their business
• Respond to Facebook and Google reviews with just one click
• Generate more reviews to boost online reputation
• Monitor and respond to customer reviews
• Create engaging feedback campaigns
• Rank higher in local search results

Downsides of BrightLocal

• The agency tools and white-label resources provided are not polished enough to meet higher quality standards.
• The pricing model is not very transparent and scalable to accommodate varying business needs.

14. Reputation

Summary: Reputation.com is a comprehensive reputation management software designed to help businesses maintain, monitor, and improve their online presence.

Reputation.com enables users to effectively manage their social media, customer surveys, online reviews, and business listings by offering a suite of tools.

This podium alternative provides valuable insights and analytics to help businesses deliver better services, increase customer value, and ultimately drive growth.

Key features include:

• Listing management to maintain accurate and consistent information across the web.
• Social media monitoring and management for effective customer engagement.
• Advanced reporting and analytics tools for data-driven decision-making.
• Customer survey creation and analysis to gather valuable feedback.
• Sentiment analysis to understand customer opinions and emotions.
• Customizable response options for efficient review management.
• Online review tracking to boost ratings and brand perception.
• Social media metrics for better engagement strategies.

Downsides of Reputation

• The inability to set up automatic responses to star-rating reviews without comments limits the platform’s response capabilities.
• New Review Feeds causes inconsistencies in new and old reviews feed.

15. Chekkit

Summary: Chekkit is an online reputation management solution for service-based businesses, including dentists, brokers, and chiropractors.

With Chekkit, businesses can efficiently manage their reputation, capture leads and manage customer queries on their websites. As a Podium alternative, it simplifies managing customer relations while providing an efficient method for creating, controlling, and capitalizing on online reviews for businesses of all sizes.

With Chekkit, you can:

• Manage their reputation on the go via mobile apps for Android and iOS.
• Respond to customer queries instantly with its web chat feature.
• Keep track of business procedures in an internal dashboard.
• Monitor and manage reviews and responses.
• Analyze customer sentiments.
• Manage negative feedback.
• Manage campaigns.

Downsides of Chekkit

• The Chekkit system doesn’t allow customers set reminders for themsleves to follow up with clients after the initial message is received.
• There’s no options for manual entry of events and follow-up tasks.

16. Emitrr

Summary: Emitrr is a customer interaction tool that helps local businesses streamline the customer journey through text messages and automation.

Emitrr is a powerful customer engagement tool, helping local businesses easily communicate with their customers through SMS automation. Its robust features and capabilities allow a seamless customer journey from acquisition to retention.

Its key features include:

• Integration with 1000+ scheduling softwares, PMS, EMR and CRMs.
• Missed call conversion to text for improved customer experience.
• Text follow-ups for customer re-engagement and better recall.
• Webchat conversion to text for faster response times.
• Text messaging for direct customer communication.
• Reputation management through review requests.
• 24/7 support with no contract or setup fee.

Downsides of Emitrr

• Emitrr does not provide free trial or plan.
• Emitrr offers limited flexibility in adding or modifying contact information. It doesn’t allow you to add additional details without importing from a spreadsheet.

17. Gatherup

Summary: GatherUp helps businesses collect and manage customer reviews and testimonials with automated workflows and a centralized reputation management dashboard.

Gatherup is an all-in-one solution to gather, manage and market customer feedback and online reviews. As a Podium alternative, it allows you to create automated workflows, collect net promoter scores, sentiment analysis, and review responses.

With GatherUp, you can automate the review process, manage your reputation and highlight your best reviews on social media.

Its key features include:

• Reputation management and theme tags
• Inbound and outbound text messaging
• First or third-party reviews acquisition
• Record feedback at the point of sale
• Automated review generation
• Kiosk mode for email capture
• White-label email requests

Downsides of GatherUp

• GatehrUp is expensive, especially for multilocations business.
• People complained that they can not pause campaigns for reviews once they send out a list, unlike other competitors.

18. Synup

Summary: Synup is a digital solution that helps businesses maintain consistent brand identity across various digital platforms.

Synup is an AI-enabled digital listing management solution. It is designed to help businesses acquire and retain customers by streamlining their operations.

As a Podium alternative, it empowers businesses to build a strong brand identity and update their information across various digital platforms, including social media, search engines, voice search, mobile marketing, and more.

By leveraging the power of AI, Synup boosts brand visibility and search rankings by accurately predicting customer intent and purchase behavior.

Synup features include:

• User-generated content monitoring and management
• AI-enabled technology for improved brand visibility
• Integration with third-party applications
• Review tracking and promotion
• Customer sentiment analysis

Downside of Synup

• Synup is can not integrate with Apple maps.
• Synup needs versatility and details in the reports and analysis.

Why are users looking at Podium software competitors?

Podium has no doubt changed the game in online reputation management. But, lately, people have been checking out Podium’s competitors to see if they can find a better fit.

Turns out, Podium has a few drawbacks that are making users scratch their heads and wonder if there’s a more user-friendly and cost-effective option out there.

Let’s discuss why users are giving Podium alternatives a closer look.

High prices

Let’s start with the elephant in the room: the cost. Want unlimited reviews on Podium? Prepare to fork over a cool $449 per month. And that’s just the beginning – you’ll also need to invest in add-ons to make the most of your plan.

Compared to 18 alternatives, you can get similar features for less, minus the add-ons and setup fees.

A bumpy user experience

Mastering Podium can be a real challenge, as it takes time to learn the ins and outs of the platform. But just when you think you’ve got a handle on things, software glitches can throw a wrench in the works – missed notifications, issues with analytics, glitches in payments system and problematic reporting tools, to name a few.

Support that leaves you hanging

Unfortunately, Podium’s customer support has caused some customers to complain. Users report waiting an entire week for issues to be resolved, often with less-than-satisfactory results. While Podium seems to be hiring more support staff to address this problem, inadequate training is leading to a less-than-stellar support experience for some.

Limited review collection

Podium falls short when it comes to gathering reviews from various sources. With a focus on Facebook and Google Maps, reviews from sites like Yelp or other social media platforms are left by the wayside.

Find the best solution for you

Podium offers some handy tools for managing customer reputation and experience, but it might not be the perfect match for your unique needs.

Plus, Podium’s missing some essential features you might want for reputation management. So, go ahead and give the tools from our list a spin, and find the Podium alternative that’ll really take your business to the next level.

Overall, DemandHub stands out as the best alternative to Podium. It offers a more user-friendly, easy-to-set-up, and straightforward set-up experience.

This advanced review platform helps businesses monitor, manage and boost their online reputation. You can access all your customers and prospects’ conversations in a single inbox.

With DemandHub, automate review requests after a service or appointment, convert site visitors into paying customers with Web Chat, offer flexible payment options via text to your customers and more!

Grow your business to new heights and gain a competitive edge with DemandHub. Get your Free Demo today.