Customer retention and reputation software for small service businesses ranges from about $59 to $799 per month in 2026. Appreciate Engine has the lowest published starting price at $59/month, and Broadly is the highest at $799/month. Two major players, Podium and Birdeye, do not publish pricing and quote per location on annual contracts.
Brandon Cavazos
Founder, Appreciate Engine
Published August 2026
"How much does it cost?" is the first question every small business owner asks, and the hardest to get a straight answer to, because half the vendors in this space hide pricing behind a sales call. So we did the work: below is every published price for the tools small service businesses actually compare when they want to keep customers and earn more reviews, verified against each vendor's own site.
What does each tool cost?
Here is the full picture, cheapest to most expensive, with whether each vendor publishes a price at all. Appreciate Engine is a retention tool; the rest are review and reputation platforms of varying size, which is a big part of why the prices spread so far.
| Tool | Starting price | How it's priced |
|---|---|---|
| Appreciate Engine | $59/mo | Flat monthly, month-to-month |
| Podium | Custom quote | Custom quote (contact sales) |
| Birdeye | Custom quote | Per location, annual contract (quote) |
| NiceJob | $75/mo | Flat monthly, month-to-month |
| Broadly | $799/mo | Flat monthly bundle, month-to-month |
| GatherUp | $99/mo | Per location, monthly or annual |
Why won't Podium and Birdeye show a price?
Both sell per location on annual contracts and route every prospect through sales so they can quote based on your size. That is normal for mid-market software, but it has two consequences for a small business: the real number is usually higher than the publicly-priced tools, and you are signing up for a year. Birdeye's most common complaint theme in third-party reviews is auto-renewal and difficult cancellation, so read the terms before you sign.
What are you actually paying for?
Price tracks scope. A retention tool that reminds you who to reach out to and drafts the message is inexpensive. A full review platform adds monitoring, response tools, webchat, and a shared inbox, and costs more. A done-for-you managed bundle, where a team runs it all for you, costs the most, which is why Broadly's AI Workforce sits at $799 a month while a focused tool like Appreciate Engine starts at $59.
How we got these numbers
Every figure here was read directly from the vendor's own pricing page and cross-checked against public G2 and Capterra listings. Where a vendor does not publish a price, we show a custom quote rather than estimate one. Nothing here is a guess.
What is the cheapest way to keep customers?
If your goal is monitoring reviews across dozens of sites or running a lead inbox, you will need a full platform and should budget accordingly. But if what you actually want is repeat business, referrals, and a steady trickle of reviews from the customers you already have, that job does not require the most expensive tool on the list. Appreciate Engine covers it at the lowest published price, and you send every message yourself, so it stays personal.