Birdeye vs Podium: The Better Communication Software

Introduction

Choosing the right software for your small business in 2023 can make all the difference. 

In the fast-paced and connected world; an automation tool that helps with Business Communication (Customer Interaction) and Growth is essential. From streamlining your customer acquisition process to helping with retention through follow-ups, reminders, and reviews – the right software can help your business spread its wings and have a profound impact on your business’s success. 

Finding a software that can help you 

• Manage customer reviews across multiple platforms, 
• Provides text messaging & calls for communicating with customers,
• Integrates with multiple platforms, and 
• Helps you understand your online presence and campaign success through analytics

are some of the key features that the software choice of your needs to have!

About Birdeye

Birdeye is a popular reputation management software used by business across various industries. It is also a customer enagegement and experience platform, albeit with way less features than other customer engagement platforms out there. Birdeye was founded in 2012, marking its decade long run in the SaaS market. 

About Podium

Podium is a popular lead conversion and customer engagement platform. It leverages text messaging to help customers improve their online reviews, convert more leads and retain more clients. 

Birdeye vs Podium

In this blog, we will be taking a deep dive into two of the most powerful business communication softwares on the market – Birdeye and Podium. We will also compare the two with Emitrr to gain an overall understanding of  features, pros and cons, and unique advantages. 

Whether you’re a budding startup or an established enterprise, this comparison will help you make an informed decision, ensuring that you harness the full potential of technology that is provided by these tools.

Birdeye vs Podium – Features to Consider

Here is how Birdeye and Podium stand with respect to the features they offer. We alspo compare Birdeye and Podium with Emitrr here for a general idea about the features offered by business texting platforms. 

Key Highlights

• Birdeye only offers 9/15 features and Podium offers 11/15 features. 
• Emitrr offers 15/15 

Below we have detailed explanations of the features mentioned in the table. 

1. Review Management: Nothing sparks more trust in your business than reviews by real customers. Review management software helps you automatically collect reviews online on the platform relevant to your prospective clients. The review management software also compiles all reviews across different review sites into a single dashboard for you to take action seamlessly. 

2. Business Messaging: Customers can reach out to your business through various channels, and it’s hard to maintain seamless conversation across all of them. Business communication software brings all conversations from different channels to a single platform for you to respond to. And the more powerful softwares also automate replies!

3. Call Management: Does being a business owner means forgetting what after-hours and weekends are? Not anymore! Business communication software helps your business by answering new customer calls, converts them to two way text messages, and responds automatically ensuring no appointment goes missed. 

4. Text Management: People prefer texts over calls. According to a study, 75% of Millennials prefer texting over Talking. Text Messages also have over 98% open rate, making them a highly effective communication channel. Any business communication software should provide your business with the following text message features – 

1. 2-way text messaging
2. Group text messaging
3. Missed call to text
4. Broadcast/Bulk SMS
5. Schedule-based text
6. Text follow-ups (reviews, cancellations, payment, birthday wishes, reminders)

5. Integration: Different businesses have different pre-established softwares or technology stacks such as EMR (Electronic Medical Records), PMS (Practice Management Software), and Scheduling Software that the new communication software needs to integrate with.

Birdeye vs Podium – Pricing Comparison

Let’s have a look at the pricing of both these platforms with respect to the features they offer. 

Birdeye Pricing

Birdeye’s pricing has 3 tiers: Starter, Growth and Dominate. The starter plan is prices at $299 per month amd Growth plan at $399 per month. Dominate plane is a customer pricing plan that depends on the size of the business and its requirements. 

Key Highlights

• You get the Reviews, listing and Messaging features across all plans. 
• Essential business texting feature such as mass texting comes as an add on off another $100 per month. So, regardless of the pricing plan you will have to pay an additional $100 to use mass texting. 

Podium Pricing

Podium pricing has 3 tiers: Core, Pro and Signature. 

The Core plan starts at $399 per month and Pro plan starts at $599 per month. The Signature plan is a custom pricing plan. 

You can send 250 bulk messages per month in the Core plan and 500 messages per month in the Pro plan. 

Key Highlights

• With the core plan  you can only send 50 marketing messages and 250 mass texts. 
• With the Pro plan you can only send 100 marketing messages and 500 mass texts. 

Birdeye vs Podium – Support

Support plays a very important role when it comes to a customer’s experience with a Software/Product. Rapid response and resolution contributes to a good customer experience. 

Birdeye Support

Birdeye offers support in the following forms: 24/7 (Live rep), FAQs/Forum, Email/Help Desk, Phone Support, Knowledge Base, and  Chat. 

Birdeye has a Customer Support rating of 4.7/5 on Capterra

Podium Support

Podium offers support in the following forms:

Chat, Phone Support, Email/Help Desk, and Knowledge Base. 

Podium has a Customer Support rating of 4.1/5 on Capterra

Birdeye vs Podium Support Summary

Key Highlights

• Podium does not offer 24/7 live support. 
• Birdeye offers all support formats. 
• Birdeye is rated higher than Podium for support. Birdeye rates 4.7/5 while Podium rates 4.1/5 

Birdeye vs Podium – Reviews

Reviews are crucial to understanding what customers say about the product.

Birdeye Reviews

* Navigate to view all reviews

                       PROS

• Robust Review Management Software
• Tons of Features
• Customizable Social Management

                       CONS 

• Difficulty using the product
• Issues with integrations 
• Contractual obligations
• Poor customer support, no transparency
• Tricky Dashboard

Podium Reviews

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                       PROS

• Integrates well with CRMs
• Core Features are present
• Automated Social Media posts for 4 stars and above rating

                       CONS 

• Pathetic Customer Support
• Contractual obligations with hard-to-cancel subscription
• Expensive, with bare minimum features

Podium vs Birdeye: The Verdict

Now that you have acquired a comprehensive understanding of both platforms, it is time to understand where both of these stand in all four aspects. 

Here is an overall comparison of the two:

#1: Overall Rating

The Overall Rating takes into consideration multiple aspects of the lifecycle of the products – from deployment to use to customer support. 

Birdeye is rated at 4.7 stars

Podium is rated at 4.3 stars

#2: Ease of Use

Ease of use can be defined by a few important characteristics- 

• How easy is it to deploy the product
• How well it integrates with other softwares
• The end-user experience of the product
• How streamlined the dashboard is

The Ease of Use Rating for Birdeye is 4.7 stars

The Ease of Use Rating for Podium is 4.4 stars. 

#3: Features
– From the feature section above we can guage that Birdeye has most features, but even the most basic features require you to upgrade from the basic plan – making essential features expensive.

– Birdeye also misses out on some great features like group texting. 

– Similarly, Podium lacks essential features for a higher price bracket. 

– The feature rating for Birdeye is 4.6 stars

– The feature rating for Podium is 4.3 stars

You can tell from the Feature table that Podium is more feature rich than Birdeye. Features that are an add on Birdeye are part of their pricing plans in Podium. 

#4: Value for Money

– Birdeye has a ton of features and charges a premium accordingly, with an annual sign-in. 

– Podium charges the most to unlock even the most basic features. The ‘Starter’ package of Podium starts at $299 and only offers dashboard access to 3 team members and allows only 1000 contacts. 

Emitrr: The Better Choice Over Birdeye and Podium

About Emitrr

Emitrr is a complete customer communication and engagement platform that allows businesses to streamline their operations and serve their customers better. 

Irrespective of the size of your business, you can make the most of Emitrr’s functionalities, grow your revenue, broaden your customer base, and build a strong online reputation. 

From business messaging to text message marketing, from automation to forms; Emitrr has something for everyone. 

#1: Emitrr Features

1. From the Feature section above you can see that Emitrr is the only software that offers all 15/15 features. 
2. Emitrr scores 4.8/5 on Capterra for its features which is higher than both Birdeye (4.6) and Podium(4.2). 
3. Emitrr offers all of the advance texting features regardless of the pricing plan

#2: Emitrr Pricing

1. Emitrr pricing starts at $149.
2. You only pay for the features you use. 
3. Value for Money rating for Emitrr is 4.9 which is the highest in comparison to Birdeye (4.4) and Podium (4.0).

#3: Emitrr Support

1. Emitrr has the highest customer support rating on Capterra 5/5. 
2. Emitrr offers support in all the support formats. 

#4: Emitrr Reviews

Emitrr has an overall rating of 4.8/5 on Capterra. Here is what some of the customers have to say about Emitrr: 

* Navigate to view all reviews

After comparing the ratings, reviews, pros and cons, and pricing we can conclude that Emitrr is the better choice when compared to Birdeye and Podium:

1. Emitrr has better support. 
2. Emitrr is HIPAA compliant.
3. Emitrr has unique features like:
   • Missed Calls to Text
   • Webchat to text
   • Text Follow-Ups
   • Schedule-based texting
   • Group Text Messaging
   • Highly Customizable Deployment
4. Emitrr is priced more competitively.

FAQs

Conclusion

The right software for your business depends on a lot of factors, but if you are looking for a Business Communication and Review Management software, and are confused between Birdeye and Podium, maybe you need to rethink your options and check out Emitrr.  

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