What customers say about the big review management platforms, and what to check before you sign
We read recent customer reviews of three platforms many small businesses look at first: Birdeye, Podium and Weave. This page sums up what customers repeat most, with links so you can read them yourself.
The ratings are mostly good
It is worth saying first: most customers are happy. Birdeye scores 4.3 out of 5 from 401 reviews on ProductReview.com.au, with 84% positive. Weave averages 4.4 out of 5 from 708 reviews on Capterra Australia. Podium has more than 500 reviews on Capterra. People like having reviews, replies and messages in one dashboard, and several praise the training they got at the start.
The complaints that repeat
The reviews we read were a sample (one page or filter per site), so treat the counts as a rough guide. Five themes came up again and again.
| Theme | What customers say |
|---|---|
| Contracts and cancelling | Birdeye customers on ProductReview.com.au describe a notice period of around 90 days and automatic 12-month renewals when the date was missed, and some report being billed after they cancelled. A TrustRadius customer (March 2024) says a 12-month term renewed for another 12 months. A Weave customer on Capterra reports a US$3,500 early termination fee. Some Podium customers on Capterra say they were billed after cancelling. |
| Price and add-ons | Birdeye customers on Capterra call it expensive for smaller teams and say extras such as mass texting cost more. Roughly a third of the Podium reviews on the page we read called it expensive, and some had moved to cheaper tools. Weave is listed from US$199 a month per location, and one customer says add-ons raise the total. |
| Support and account managers | On ProductReview.com.au, Birdeye customers mention unanswered emails and calls and frequent changes of account manager. Podium customers say support seemed to get worse after the first months. Weave support is mostly praised, with a few complaints. |
| Integrations and setup | Birdeye customers report CRM or booking links that failed and review requests sent twice to people who had already reviewed. Podium customers mention gaps with accounting and other tools, and setup that took weeks. One Weave practice says phone porting and staff training took longer than expected. |
| Too much product | The most common Birdeye complaint on Capterra is that the platform is hard to learn and overwhelming when you only wanted reviews. |
These are broader products than Deestro. Weave includes a phone system and Podium includes messaging and payments, so some of the cost buys things a review-only tool does not do. The question is whether you need them.
What the Birdeye mobile app reviews say
On Google Play the Birdeye app is rated 3.7 out of 5 from about 277 ratings, lower than its website ratings. We could only see three reviews on the page, so treat this as a small sample. All three were complaints: one person was locked out of the app and told it was over an unpaid bill he says he never received, one could not sign in with a Google email, and one said a directory site still listed a business that had closed and asked him to create an account before removing it. Birdeye replied to some of them and pointed people to support. Read the current reviews on Google Play yourself.
Seven questions to ask any review software vendor
- How long is the contract, and does it renew by itself? If it does, ask for the exact notice date in writing.
- What does it cost to cancel? Ask about notice periods and early termination fees.
- What is the price per location, and what is extra? Text messages, extra users and extra features are where bills grow.
- Who answers when something breaks, and how fast? Ask if you get a named person or a queue.
- How do review requests avoid reaching the same customer twice? Ask what happens with duplicates and with people who already reviewed.
- Does every customer get the public Google link? Google's rules do not allow showing the public review link only to happy customers. Private feedback should be an extra, not a gate.
- Can you take your data with you? Ask how contacts and reviews are exported.
How Deestro answers those questions
- Contract: none. You can cancel any time, and there is no setup fee.
- Price: public, in Australian dollars: Starter A$98, Growth A$197 and Scale A$395 a month, with two months free if you pay yearly.
- Trying it: 14 days free, and nothing is charged if you cancel during the trial. After the first payment there is a 30-day refund.
- Public link: always shown. Private feedback is an extra that only you see.
We are a small company and we cannot tell you our support is better than theirs. Judge us the way you would judge anyone else: ask the seven questions above, and read the terms before you pay.
Want to see how it works in a real business? Read how Design Dental in Baulkham Hills went from 53 to 665 reviews, or get a free report on how your business shows up on Google and AI search today.