GossipGarden and Podium, side by side: price, features and screening
What Podium charges, what its review requests include and whether its flow screens customers before the review ask. Each fact about Podium names its source and was checked on 16 October 2026.
Compare tools › Podium · Facts checked October 16, 2026
What Podium costs
Prices below were checked 16 October 2026. They are as published by Podium on its own pricing page, which we read in a browser [1]. The page draws its prices with JavaScript, so a tool that does not run scripts will not see them [1].
Podium's page says the monthly cost “may vary depending on your specific business needs and operations” [1]. It calls the figures “the base costs of our different plans” and notes a base 10DLC fee of $5 a month for all US locations [1]. It also says HVAC businesses should “contact sales for applicable pricing” [1].
Billing needs care. Podium's terms of service, effective 15 October 2026, set a default twelve-month initial term that renews automatically unless either side gives written notice at least thirty days before it ends, with subscription fees paid annually in advance [2]. An order can state different terms [2], and we could not confirm whether any plan is billed month to month.
Podium sells more than review requests. Its terms describe reviews and feedback tools, an inbox, webchat, automations, phones, bulk messages and payments [2], and its pricing page lists “Phone Systems Add-on Available” under Core [1]. A comparison on price alone is not like for like.
What Podium's review requests include
Podium lists Google Reviews, Facebook Reviews and Review Reminder Automation on all three plans [1]. It describes the reminder this way: “If a customer hasn't submitted a review after a request was sent, we'll text them a friendly reminder” [1].
Podium's Reviews page lists review automations for invites and reminders, an inbox that gathers reviews from several sites, and reporting on reviews received [3].
In the help center you pick a contact by name, mobile number or email address, so an invite can go by text or email [3][4]. The message must carry a variable that makes “a one-time review link” [4]. An automation can send it on a trigger such as “transaction completion or service fulfillment” [4].
For reminders, the help center describes an automation that sends “a single reminder” to a customer who has not opened the invite [5].
Does Podium screen customers before the review ask?
Google's Maps policy, as read on 16 October 2026, says merchants may not “discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers” [6]. A fair question to put to any review tool is whether it uses how a customer felt to decide who sees the review ask.
We found no rating step in Podium's help-center articles on sending review invitations and reminders [4][5]. The article on sending a review request covers choosing a contact, writing the message and setting an automation. It also says Podium “does not currently offer the ability to selectively exclude specific customers from receiving review invitations” [4].
Podium states its own position. A Podium article dated 2 May 2022, “Is Review Gating Allowed? Understanding Google's New Policy,” describes how Podium “has not and never will gate reviews” [7]. The Reviews Overview article in Podium's help center, which showed no date when we read it, has a section called “Avoiding Review Gating.” It says “Podium has been at the forefront of opposing review gating” [8].
Podium also sells survey tools. Its comparison table lists Text-Based Surveys and Hosted Surveys on the Pro and Signature plans, not on Core [1]. They are separate features, and the review-invitation articles we read describe no survey step [4][5].
GossipGarden has no rating step and no setting that could add one. Every customer you add gets the same ask. We do not claim to be the only tool that asks everyone the same way.
The case for GossipGarden
GossipGarden does one job. After a job, you add the customer. We email them your review link from your business's name, and one polite reminder follows 72 hours later by default. Every customer gets the same ask. Nobody is filtered, screened or routed by rating or sentiment.
In Podium you pick or create a contact and write the message, or build an automation with a trigger [4]. In GossipGarden you add the customer and the request goes out, within about 10 minutes and inside your sending hours, which are 8am to 8pm by default. You can add customers by typing them in, importing a CSV file, sharing a Google Sheet that we read every 15 minutes, or sending them from Zapier, Make or Housecall Pro through a private webhook.
We ask on Google first, and on Facebook, Tripadvisor, Trustpilot, BBB and Apple Maps. We never ask on Yelp, because Yelp asks businesses not to solicit reviews [10].
GossipGarden costs $29 a month. Texting is not switched on yet, so every request goes by email today. It has no inbox, webchat, phones or payments.
Side by side, on the facts we can check for both:
| On 16 October 2026 | Podium | GossipGarden |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $399 (Core) or $599 (Pro) per month as published by Podium, paid annually in advance by default [1][2] | $29 a month |
| How requests go out | Text or email [3][4] | Email only today |
| Reminders | An automation sends a single reminder for an unopened invite [5] | One reminder, 72 hours after the ask by default |
| Rating step before the review ask | None described in Podium's help-center articles on invites and reminders [4][5] | None, and no setting that could add one |
| Review sites | Google, Facebook and industry-specific sites, including Angi and HomeAdvisor [1][8] | Google first, then Facebook, Tripadvisor, Trustpilot, BBB and Apple Maps. Never Yelp. |
| Beyond review requests | Inbox, webchat, phones, payments and more [2] | Review requests only |
When Podium is the better choice
Podium does a good deal that GossipGarden does not. It is the better choice if any of these describe you.
- You want texting, a shared inbox, webchat on your site, phones and payments in the same product as your reviews. Podium's terms list “Inbox,” “Webchat,” “Automations,” “Phones,” “Bulk Messages” and “Payments” [2], and its pricing page lists unlimited contacts, team members and one-to-one texts on every plan [1].
- You want review invites sent by text. GossipGarden sends email only today, and Podium's Reviews page speaks of “textable review invites” [3].
- You want a dedicated success manager and one-to-one onboarding. Podium's pricing page lists a “Dedicated Customer Success Manager” and “1-on-1 Personalized Onboarding” under Core [1].
- You run several locations. Podium's Signature plan lists “Advanced Multi-Location Management” [1].
- Your trade lives on review sites other than Google. Podium's help center lists integrated sites including Angi, HomeAdvisor, Healthgrades, Avvo, Edmunds and Zillow [8]. GossipGarden does not ask on any of those.
- You use Housecall Pro and want a connection built by the review vendor. Podium's marketplace lists one, “Developed by: Podium,” for the use “Request a review after a Job is completed in Housecall Pro” [9]. GossipGarden reaches Housecall Pro through a private webhook, with a guide in our help center, and has no native integration.
Questions about Podium and GossipGarden
- Why does Podium's page say per month when its terms say annual?
- The pricing page shows $399 and $599 “per month” [1]. The terms set payment annually in advance by default [2]. We could not confirm whether any plan can be billed monthly, so ask Podium before you assume either.
- Is it fair to compare Podium's price with GossipGarden's?
- Only for the part both do. Podium is a wider platform: its terms describe an inbox, webchat, phones and payments [2], and its Core plan lists phones as an add-on [1]. GossipGarden's $29 a month is for review requests.
- Does GossipGarden send review requests by text?
- Not yet. Texting is not switched on, so every request goes by email today. If you need texts now, Podium sends them [3].
Sources
Each number in the text points to the source it came from, as read on the date shown. Rules and prices change; check the source before you rely on one.
- Podium pricing page, read in a browser on 16 October 2026 (read October 16, 2026)
- Podium terms and conditions, effective 15 October 2026 (read October 16, 2026)
- Podium Reviews product page (read October 16, 2026)
- Podium help center: Sending a Review Request from Podium (undated) (read October 16, 2026)
- Podium help center: Reminding Customers to Leave a Review with Podium (undated) (read October 16, 2026)
- Google Maps User Generated Content Policy: prohibited and restricted content (read October 16, 2026)
- Podium article: Is Review Gating Allowed? Understanding Google's New Policy (2 May 2022) (read October 16, 2026)
- Podium help center: Reviews Overview, section Avoiding Review Gating (undated) (read October 16, 2026)
- Podium marketplace: Housecall Pro (read October 16, 2026)
- Yelp Content Guidelines (“Businesses should never ask customers to write reviews.”) (read October 16, 2026)
Every customer gets the same ask. GossipGarden never filters, screens or routes anyone by rating or sentiment. Why that matters.