Birdeye vs GatherUp
An independent, review-free comparison compiled by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Both products are profiled in full, and neither can pay for placement here.
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The short answer
Both sides assessedBirdeye compared with GatherUp
GatherUp is the narrower, cheaper-to-evaluate alternative, with printed prices from $99 a month billed annually for one location and a card-based trial, where Birdeye bundles messaging, payments and referrals on quoted plans.
GatherUp compared with Birdeye
Birdeye covers reviews, listings, messaging, payments, surveys and referrals for multi-location service businesses and quotes its pricing. GatherUp is narrower, centered on review requests, NPS and replies, but prints its prices and sells to a single location with a card. Choose Birdeye for a consolidated customer platform; choose GatherUp when reviews and feedback are the job and a known price matters.
Choose Birdeye if
Local and multi-location service businesses, particularly healthcare practices, home services, automotive, and professional firms, that want reviews, messaging, and local presence handled as one system.
Choose GatherUp if
Local and multi-location service businesses, particularly in healthcare, home services, legal and restaurants, that want a steady flow of Google reviews and NPS feedback on autopilot, and local SEO agencies that want to resell that as a white-labeled service.
Side by side
13 attributes| Attribute | Birdeye | GatherUp |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Local SEO | Local SEO |
| Starting price | Quoted; commonly a few hundred dollars per location per month (free trial) | $99 per month billed annually ($124 billed monthly) for one location (14 days trial) |
| Pricing model | Quoted subscription per location with tiers by capability, typically annual. Sold through a sales process rather than self-serve, with pricing scaling by location count and modules. | Flat monthly price for one location, per-location pricing on a sliding scale for multi-location accounts, and quoted agency pricing, with listings sync and review defense sold as per-location add-ons. Every plan carries the same feature list. |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Free trial | Demonstration and trial arrangements through sales | 14 days; SMS marketing and the Web-to-Text widget are unavailable until a card is added |
| Best for | Local and multi-location service businesses, particularly healthcare practices, home services, automotive, and professional firms, that want reviews, messaging, and local presence handled as one system. | Local and multi-location service businesses, particularly in healthcare, home services, legal and restaurants, that want a steady flow of Google reviews and NPS feedback on autopilot, and local SEO agencies that want to resell that as a white-labeled service. |
| Setup time | Days to weeks. Connecting the source system that triggers review requests is the substantive work, and it is what makes the automation effective rather than manual. | Under a day for a single location: connect review sites, brand the request email and landing page, and upload or connect a customer list. SMS campaigns need an activated paid account. |
| Learning curve | Low for daily use, moderate for administrators configuring automation and multi-location governance. | Low for sending requests and replying; moderate for agencies configuring white labeling, permissions across many locations and integration triggers. |
| Platforms | Web application, Mobile apps, Messaging and telephony integration, REST APIs | Web app, responsive on phone and tablet, Review widget for HTML, WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and other sites |
| Compliance | GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA support on qualifying arrangements, SOC 2 | HIPAA-safe design with BAAs available (vendor statement), TCPA-oriented SMS opt-in and opt-out handling |
| Founded | 2012 | 2013 |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto, California, United States | Walnut Creek, California, United States (GatherUp, LLC, per the terms of use) |
| Ownership | Private, venture-backed | Part of ASG MarTech since 2019, according to the vendor's about page |
Strengths and limitations
Birdeye
Strengths
- Automated review generation tied to real appointment and transaction data, which is what actually produces volume.
- Unified inbox consolidating the channels local customers actually use.
- Strong multi-location reporting and benchmarking for groups and franchises.
- Payment requests by text, which shortens collection for service businesses.
Limitations
- Quoted pricing with no self-serve option and a sales-led purchase.
- Cost is significant for small single-location businesses.
- Local SEO depth is limited compared with specialist tools; no geo-grid tracking.
- Platform breadth means paying for capabilities some businesses will not use.
GatherUp
Strengths
- Published monthly and annual prices for single and multi-location accounts, with the per-location price falling from $60 to $25 annually as location count rises.
- One request flow collects first-party testimonials with schema markup and third-party reviews on Google and Facebook, which suits businesses that care about local search.
- AI reply tools at three levels of automation: editable drafts, templates chosen by the AI, and fully automatic replies to positive reviews.
- Built-in NPS, surveys and theme tagging, so feedback that never becomes a public review still gets used.
Limitations
- Listings sync and fake-review defense cost extra per location, so the headline price covers reviews and feedback only.
- No rank tracking or citation auditing, the jobs most local SEO tools are bought for.
- Help pages lag the product: the FAQ describes month-to-month billing only and a Whitespark listings partnership, while the pricing page sells annual plans and a Listings Hub.
- Review site coverage is stated as 100-plus on most pages and 50-plus on the small-business page.
Pricing compared
Birdeye
Quoted subscription per location with tiers by capability, typically annual. Sold through a sales process rather than self-serve, with pricing scaling by location count and modules.
- ReviewsQuoted per location
- Reviews and messagingQuoted per location
- Full platformQuoted
For a service business, review volume is one of the few marketing levers that compounds: more reviews improve local visibility, which produces more customers, who produce more reviews. Automating the request is worth more than most software a local business buys. Whether the wider platform justifies its price depends on whether messaging, listings, and payments are genuinely consolidated or simply duplicated alongside tools the business already runs.
GatherUp
Flat monthly price for one location, per-location pricing on a sliding scale for multi-location accounts, and quoted agency pricing, with listings sync and review defense sold as per-location add-ons. Every plan carries the same feature list.
- Small Business$99
- Multi Location, 2 to 10 locations$60
- Multi Location, 11 to 16 locations$45
- Multi Location, 17 to 25 locations$35
- Multi Location, 26 to 40 locations$32
- Multi Location, 41 to 100 locations$29
- Multi Location, 101 or more locations$25
- AgencyCustom
For one location, $99 a month on the annual plan buys the whole feature list, including AI replies, NPS, a schema-marked review widget and API access, and the price is printed rather than quoted, which is less common than it should be among reviews platforms. The per-location scale falls fast, to $35 at 17 locations and $25 above 100, so multi-location brands get a real volume discount without negotiating. The value weakens once add-ons stack up: a single location with Listings Hub and the middle Review Defense tier costs more than two and a half times the base price. A business that only needs review requests and replies is paying for SMS campaigns and reporting it may not use, but several of the reviews platforms it competes with in this directory, Birdeye and Synup among them, quote their prices instead.
Editorial verdict on each
Birdeye
Birdeye understands that for a local service business, reviews are not reputation management but acquisition, and it builds outward from that correctly. Triggering requests from real appointment data rather than hoping staff remember to ask is the difference between a business with forty reviews and one with four hundred, and that gap shows up in both search visibility and conversion. The unified inbox and text payments address the other half of the loop, responding fast and getting paid. It is a platform purchase with quoted pricing and a sales process, its local SEO depth is shallow next to specialists, and review automation needs configuring carefully to stay inside platform rules. For multi-location service businesses running customer communication at volume, it consolidates a genuinely awkward stack.
Read the full Birdeye profileGatherUp
GatherUp is the reviews half of local SEO done by people who came from local SEO. It automates email and SMS review requests, captures NPS and survey feedback, replies with AI at whatever level of automation a business is comfortable with, and publishes schema-marked reviews to the website, all for a printed price: $99 a month billed annually for one location and a per-location scale that drops to $25 above 100 locations. It does not track rankings or audit citations, listings sync and fake-review defense are paid add-ons, and some help pages lag the current pricing, so confirm terms at checkout. Buy it when review volume and customer feedback are the lever, and pair it with a rank tracker if you also need to measure the map.
Read the full GatherUp profileBirdeye profile last reviewed 2026-08-22; GatherUp last reviewed 2026-09-27. Pricing is compiled from public sources and can change without notice. See our methodology.
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Frequently asked questions
6 questionsWhat is the difference between Birdeye and GatherUp?
GatherUp is the narrower, cheaper-to-evaluate alternative, with printed prices from $99 a month billed annually for one location and a card-based trial, where Birdeye bundles messaging, payments and referrals on quoted plans.
Is Birdeye or GatherUp cheaper?
Birdeye starts at Quoted; commonly a few hundred dollars per location per month (free trial). GatherUp starts at $99 per month billed annually ($124 billed monthly) for one location (14 days trial). The billing models differ, so the entry price is rarely the whole cost. Birdeye pricing model: Quoted subscription per location with tiers by capability, typically annual. Sold through a sales process rather than self-serve, with pricing scaling by location count and modules. GatherUp pricing model: Flat monthly price for one location, per-location pricing on a sliding scale for multi-location accounts, and quoted agency pricing, with listings sync and review defense sold as per-location add-ons.
Does Birdeye or GatherUp have a free plan?
Birdeye has no free plan. Trial terms: Demonstration and trial arrangements through sales. GatherUp has no free plan. Trial terms: 14 days; SMS marketing and the Web-to-Text widget are unavailable until a card is added.
Who should choose Birdeye?
Local and multi-location service businesses, particularly healthcare practices, home services, automotive, and professional firms, that want reviews, messaging, and local presence handled as one system.
Who should choose GatherUp?
Local and multi-location service businesses, particularly in healthcare, home services, legal and restaurants, that want a steady flow of Google reviews and NPS feedback on autopilot, and local SEO agencies that want to resell that as a white-labeled service.
What are the best alternatives to Birdeye and GatherUp?
SaaSTracker profiles 16 products in Local SEO & Listings. The Summer 2026 awards in the category went to Localo (Ease of Use). Every profile is compiled from primary sources, so a shortlist can be built from pricing, limitations, and fit rather than from star ratings.
