Birdeye alternative with published pricing: reviews $197 a month per location, run for you, no annual contract (2026)

Ziwi publishes this page and lists its own prices first: reviews and reputation at $197 a month per location, Ziwi Engage lead answering at $99 or $299 a month, local SEO at $297, $597 or $997 a month per location, ads management at $297, $497 or $797 a month by total ad spend, and a $0 website build with a hosting or Ziwi Care plan kept 12 months, with reviews, Engage, SEO and ads month to month. Birdeye is software for reviews, listings, messaging and surveys built to run many locations, and it prints no price: its pricing page asks how many locations you have and a sales call follows. For a single location, this page sets what Birdeye publishes and what a price tracker reports beside Ziwi's published price for the same job, says where Birdeye is still the better buy, and works out what a switch costs. Every Birdeye figure is labelled with its source and the month we checked it, October 2026.

What are cheaper alternatives to Birdeye for a single-location business?

A third-party price tracker reports Starter at $299, Growth at $349 and Dominate at $449 per location per month, last verified August 26, 2026, and none of those figures is published by Birdeye (CostBench, checked October 2026). Because Birdeye prints no price, no published figure proves which costs less for your location; the reported range is a third party's figure, not Birdeye's, and Birdeye is software your team runs while Ziwi's line is run for you.

What does Birdeye cost, and what is the contract?

Birdeye's pricing page prints 0 prices and 1 form, with a Get Pricing button, the line pricing built around outcomes, not seat counts, and a number of locations field that runs from 1 to 3 up to 1,000 or more (birdeye.com, checked October 2026). CostBench, a third-party price tracker, reports Starter at $299, Growth at $349 and Dominate at $449 per location per month, a Premium tier for 4 or more locations by contact sales, and a 1-year minimum reported by users, last verified August 26, 2026.

None of those figures is published by Birdeye, so the honest reading is a reported floor of $299 a month per location and a reported upper plan at $449, with the real number on a written quote. Birdeye's terms, effective May 13, 2026, set the term in the Order Form, make payments non-cancellable, renew the order for the same length unless written notice of non-renewal lands at least 90 days before the renewal date, and add an 8% fee to recurring fees at each renewal, so a single location at the reported $299 floor is $3,588 for a 12-month term and about $3,875 the year after.

• Birdeye, as published. No price, no plan names, a form that asks for your location count, and the line one platform, one contract.
• CostBench, reported. Starter $299, Growth $349, Dominate $449 per location per month; Premium for 4 or more locations by contact sales; last verified August 26, 2026.
• Birdeye terms, effective May 13, 2026. Term per Order Form, payments non-cancellable, 90 days written notice of non-renewal, an 8% fee added at each renewal.
• Setup and onboarding. Fees set in the Order Form, not printed; onboarding described as up to 2 hours over 4 weeks.

The reported figures are a price tracker's, not quotes, and your Order Form sets the term, the fees and the renewal, so none of them should be read as what your location would pay. Before you compare, ask Birdeye for the price per location with the plan name beside it, the term and the renewal date, any setup fee, and how you export your reviews and contacts if you leave, in writing.

What does Ziwi charge instead of Birdeye?

Ziwi does: reviews and reputation at $197 a month per location, Ziwi Engage lead answering at $99 or $299 a month, local SEO at $297, $597 or $997 a month per location, and ads management at $297, $497 or $797 a month by total ad spend, one fee for Google, Facebook and Instagram, every price printed on the site before any call. SEO, ads, reviews and Engage run month to month with no notice period, and the website is a $0 build with a hosting or Ziwi Care plan kept 12 months, otherwise $1,000 for a designed template or $2,500 custom.

The business owns the website, the domain, the Google listing and the ad accounts from day one, with hosting access through the Ziwi portal.

• Reviews. $197 a month per location: the same review request to everyone you invite, replies written, the profile kept clean.
• Lead answering. Ziwi Engage at $99 a month texts back every missed call and new lead within seconds; Engage Pro at $299 answers, qualifies and books; AI usage is billed at cost on both.
• Local SEO. Essentials at $297 a month per location covers the Google Business Profile, business listings, fixes to your own pages and two new pages or posts a month; $597 steps that up to two a week; $997 adds landing pages per service and area.
• Website. A $0 build with a hosting or Ziwi Care plan kept 12 months, live in 3 days from kickoff, with no page cap; otherwise $1,000 for a designed template or $2,500 custom.
• Hosting and care. $99 a month for hosting and maintenance, or $299 a month per location for Ziwi Care with a new post every week and unlimited small edits, first month free, changes done within 24 hours.

Ziwi's reviews line covers one Google Business Profile at a time, and the request goes to everyone you invite, with no treatment details in it. It is explained in what reputation management costs, Engage in what an answering service costs, and the SEO rungs in what local SEO costs.

When is Birdeye still the better buy?

Birdeye is still the better buy for a business with several locations and a team that will log in and run the software, with a budget that a price tracker puts at $299 a month per location or more, because the platform is built to run reviews, listings, surveys and messaging across many offices from one dashboard (checked October 2026). A group with 20 locations may need reporting, permissions and listing control that a per-location service does not offer, and Birdeye's AI coworkers for multi-location brands, as its site puts it, are part of what the quote buys.

Ziwi's line suits a one-location owner who wants the review requests sent and the replies written by someone else, at $197 a month, with nothing to log into.

• You run many locations. Birdeye's dashboard, permissions and listing sync are built for groups; Ziwi prices one Google Business Profile at a time.
• Your team will run it. Software needs a person to send, reply and monitor; Birdeye gives that person the tools, Ziwi is that person.
• You want surveys, webchat and listings in one platform. Those are Birdeye products; Ziwi sells reviews and lead answering as separate lines.

What does switching from Birdeye to Ziwi cost?

The main switching cost from Birdeye is the renewal date, because its terms make payments non-cancellable for the term and renew it for the same length, with an 8% fee added, unless written notice of non-renewal lands at least 90 days before that date, so the first thing to find is the date 90 days before renewal (checked October 2026). Your Google reviews stay on your Google Business Profile whatever software sent the requests, and the terms say you own your data but write no export right after termination, so pull the contact list, the review replies and any survey results while access lasts.

At Ziwi reviews at $197 a month start the same week with no setup fee, month to month, and the Google Business Profile stays in your name. If you also want a website, it is a $0 build with a hosting or Ziwi Care plan kept 12 months, live in 3 days from kickoff, with the first month of that plan free.

1. 01

   Find the renewal date. Read the Order Form for the term, and diary the day 90 days before renewal, the latest the terms accept notice of non-renewal.

2. 02

   Export while access lasts. Download contacts, review replies and survey results before the term ends; the reviews themselves stay on Google.

3. 03

   Confirm the listing is yours. Make sure your business is the primary owner of the Google Business Profile, not the software vendor.

4. 04

   Start the Ziwi line. Reviews at $197 a month go live the same week, with the requests sent and the replies written for you.

How do I compare a Birdeye quote with Ziwi's published prices?

Put a Birdeye quote and Ziwi's price list side by side on 5 lines: the monthly fee by line, the ad spend kept separate, any setup or onboarding fee, the length of the initial term and how it renews, and who owns the website, the domain and the accounts. With Birdeye, ask for the price per location with the plan name beside it, the term and the renewal date, whether the 8% renewal fee applies, and whether the quoted plan includes listings and messaging or only reviews. Ziwi's answers to all five are printed on the pricing page, and SEO, ads, reviews and Engage stop at the end of any month you cancel, with no notice period.

• One bundled number. A single monthly price with no lines hides what each part costs and what you would keep if you left.
• Ad spend inside the fee. You cannot tell how much reached Google or Meta, so ask for the spend as its own line, paid from your own account.
• A term you only learn about in the agreement. A 6-month or 12-month initial term, or an auto-renewal, belongs on the price page, not in the fine print.
• A promised ranking or lead count. No company controls Google's results or who calls, and no Ziwi plan claims to.

Birdeye quotes after a form and renews on 90 days notice with an 8% fee; Ziwi prints $197 a month per location for reviews, month to month. For what Birdeye itself publishes and what others report, read Birdeye pricing: what is published and what is reported; for the reviews line on its own, see what reputation management costs; and for the same side-by-side against other vendors, start at Ziwi compared with ten marketing vendors, including the Podium alternative.