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.
| Features | Birdeye | Podium | Emitrr |
| Review Management | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Business Messaging | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Call Management | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Missed call to text | No | No | Yes |
| Voicemail Transcription | No | Yes | Yes |
| Phone Systems (VoIP) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Text Management | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2-way text messaging | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Group text messaging | No | Yes | Yes |
| Webchat to text | No | No | Yes |
| Broadcast/Bulk SMS | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Text Follow-Ups | No | No | Yes |
| Schedule-based texting | No | No | Yes |
| Integration | Partial | Partial | Yes |
| Customer Support | 24/7 | Business Hours | 24/7 Live Rep |
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 –
- 2-way text messaging
- Group text messaging
- Missed call to text
- Broadcast/Bulk SMS
- Schedule-based text
- 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 – Additional Features Comparison
List of additional features offered by Podium
- Podium app
- Podium chatbot
- Podium api
- Podium live chat
- Podium payment
- Podium reputation management
- Podium review management
- Podium texting
- Podium transcription
- Podium VoIP
- Podium webchat
List of additional features offered by Birdeye
- Birdeye texting
- Birdeye reputation management
- Birdeye dashboard
- Birdeye chat
- Birdeye review management
- Birdeye sms
- Birdeye demo
- Birdeye surveys
- Birdeye payments
- Birdeye chatbot
- Birdeye webchat
Birdeye vs Podium – Integration Comparison
Birdeye integrations
Birdeye integrates with a variety of tools and software for different industries such as healthcare, retail, automotive, home services, etc. Here are some of the most popular Birdeye integrations that you can find:
- The Edge
- Housecall Pro
- NextGen
- Salesforce
- ChiroTouch
- Hubspot
- Yardi
- ServiceTitan
- and more
Podium integrations
Podium also integrates with a variety of tools and software for different industries such as healthcare, retail, automotive, home services, etc. Here are some of the most popular Podium integrations that you can find:
- Athenahealth
- AdvancedMD
- Airtable
- Filevine
- Freshdesk
- HwakSoft
- Insighlty
- and more
Birdeye vs Podium – Pricing Comparison
Let’s have a look at the cost of Podium and Birdeye 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.
| Plan | Birdeye Pricing | Features Offered |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $299 | Reviews, Listing and Messaging |
| Growth | $399 | Reviews, Listing ,Messaging and Webchat |
| Dominate | $449 | Reviews, Listing, Messaging, Webchat and Social |
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. However, Podium SMS pricing may differ based on your business texting needs. You can always take Podium demo call to learn more about this.
| Plan | Number of Bulk Messages | Marketing Messages |
|---|---|---|
| Core | 250 | 50 |
| Pro | 500 | 100 |
Key Highlights
- Cost of Podium is quite high, with the most basic plan starting at $399.
- 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.
| PLATFORM | PRICE RANGE (per month) | VALUE FOR MONEY RATING |
| Birdeye | $299 – $399 | 4.5/5.0 |
| Podium | $249 – $599 | 4.0/5.0 |
| Emitrr | $149 – $249 | 4.9/5.0 |
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
Birdeye phone number: (800) 561-3357
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
Podium contact number: (801) 999-8216
Birdeye vs Podium Support Summary
| Channel | FAQ | Knowledge base | Phone | 24/7 Live Support | Chat | |
| Birdeye | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Podium | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
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
Have a look at these Birdeye reviews below:
* 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
- Birdeye customer service is poor with no transparency
- Tricky Dashboard
Podium Reviews
Have a look at these Podium customer reviews shared below:
* Navigate to view all reviews
PROS
- Integrates well with CRMs
- Core Features are present
- Automated Social Media posts for 4 stars and above rating
CONS
- Podium customer service is pathetic
- Contractual obligations with hard-to-cancel subscription
- Expensive, with bare minimum features
Podium vs Birdeye: Alternatives
Check out companies like Podium and Birdeye below, if you are not that sure about either of these two options.
Birdeye Alternatives:
Some of the best Birdeye alternatives include, Emitrr, Brightlocal, Yext, etc.
Alternatives to Podium:
If you have used Podium before or are simply not that convinced to use Podium then you look at some of the best Podium competitors such as Emitrr, Weave, Chekkit, etc.
You can also look at this blog on Podium alternatives to know more!
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.
#5 Extra features
Have a look at this table showing list of extra features that Podium and Birdeye offers:
| Birdeye | Podium |
| Birdeye app | Podium app |
| Birdeye chatbot | Podium chatbot |
| – | Podium API |
| Birdeye chat | Podium live chat |
| Birdeye payments | Podium payment |
| Birdeye reputation management | Podium reputation management |
| Birdeye review management | Podium review management |
| Birdeye texting | Podium texting |
| – | Podium transcription |
| Podium VoIP | |
| Birdeye webchat | Podium webchat |
| Birdeye surveys | – |
Clearly, Podium offers slightly more features as compared to Birdeye.
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
- From the Feature section above you can see that Emitrr is the only software that offers all 15/15 features.
- Emitrr scores 4.8/5 on Capterra for its features which is higher than both Birdeye (4.6) and Podium(4.2).
- Emitrr offers all of the advance texting features regardless of the pricing plan
#2: Emitrr Pricing
- Emitrr pricing starts at $149.
- You only pay for the features you use.
- 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
- Emitrr has the highest customer support rating on Capterra 5/5.
- 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:
- Emitrr has better support.
- Emitrr is HIPAA compliant.
- Emitrr has unique features like:
- Missed Calls to Text
- Webchat to text
- Text Follow-Ups
- Schedule-based texting
- Group Text Messaging
- Highly Customizable Deployment
- Emitrr is priced more competitively.
FAQs
Birdeye’s basic plan starts at $299 and it goes up to $499 a month, so yes, Birdeye is definitely expensive. Emitrr is a much affordable alternative to Birdeye with pricing starting at just $149 a month.
Yes, Podium offers an app for both Android and iOS users that allows their customer to carry on their business tasks on their phones. You can download the Podium app easily from Playstore or App Store.
Podium’s basic plan starts at $249 a month and goes up to $599 a month, so it is quite expensive. The most affordable alternative to a Podium for sending text messages is Emitrr with pricing starting at just $149 a month.
Yes, Podium is a customer relationship management (CRM) for small businesses. The software offers plenty of features for the same, including communication tools, customer data management tools, and more.
Yes, Podium is HIPAA compliant and if a healthcare organization has signed BAA then they can use Podium service for communicating with their patients securely.
The monthly Birdeye price starts at $299 a month.
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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