Birdeye vs Yext: Reviews Platform or Listings Manager?
Birdeye vs Yext is not a like-for-like comparison, because they start from different jobs. As reported on 2026-11-13, Birdeye is a review and messaging platform, quoted per location at about $299 a month and up. Yext is a listings manager, priced per location per year at about $199 to $999. Birdeye asks customers for reviews and puts them in one inbox. Yext pushes your name, address and hours to many directories. A one-location business that wants more Google reviews will rarely need either one first.
Before you pay for software, see what you already have: check your Google reviews against your nearest rivals and get your review link, a printable QR sign and written replies, free.
Birdeye vs Yext at a glance
| Question | Birdeye | Yext |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Review requests, one inbox, replies, messaging | Syncing business details to directories and apps |
| How it is priced | Quote per location; no public price list | Yearly plans per location, plus quotes for larger teams |
| Reported price | About $299, $349, $449 a month per location | About $199, $449, $499, $999 a year per location |
| Same prices a year | About $3,588, $4,188, $5,388 | $199, $449, $499, $999 |
| Asks customers for reviews | Yes, by text and email | No, as reported |
| Replies to reviews | Yes, with suggested or automatic replies | Higher tier shows reviews; you write the answer |
| Listings | Higher tiers | Its main product |
| Free plan | None reported | None reported; a trial on Capterra |
| Contract | 12 months reported; ask | Yearly; ask about renewal |
These are the figures third-party sites and the vendors' pages show on 2026-11-13, and they disagree in places. Our full write-ups are Birdeye pricing and Yext pricing. Treat the table as a range, and get a written quote before you sign.
What does Birdeye do?
Birdeye is a reputation and customer messaging platform. The parts a local business usually cares about:
- Review requests by text or email, with your review link built in.
- One inbox for reviews from Google and other sites, so replies come from one place.
- Reply tools, including suggested or automatic replies.
- Listings and webchat on higher tiers, and reports on count and rating over time.
Sources report that Birdeye does not publish a price list, that plans begin around $299 a month per location on annual billing, and that add-ons or onboarding fees can apply. We could not confirm the add-on figures on its own pages, so use them as questions. Our guide to Google review management software breaks the features down.
What does Yext do?
You enter your business details once and Yext pushes them to a network of directories, maps and apps, so they stay the same everywhere. The reported plans are Emerging at $199 a year, Essential at $449, Complete at $499 and Premium at $999, plus custom quotes for large teams. One source says the top tier adds review monitoring and website pages. The job is accuracy across the web, not collecting reviews.
Birdeye vs Yext: which is better for Google reviews?
Birdeye, by a wide margin, because asking and replying are what it is for. Yext, as reported, helps only at the top tier, and then by showing you reviews rather than asking for them. If more Google reviews is your goal, Yext does not answer it.
But Birdeye's cost is large for one shop. The question is whether the same work can be done free, and for one location it can:
- A direct link to your review form: Google review link.
- A QR sign at the till or on the invoice: QR code generator.
- A saved text sent after the job: text message templates.
- Replies written once and adapted: response templates.
What the software saves is time and forgetting. If you ask every customer and answer every review already, it saves little.
Birdeye vs Yext: which is better for Google Maps ranking?
Neither moves ranking by itself. Google says local results rest on relevance, distance and prominence (see Google Maps ranking factors). Reviews count toward prominence, so a tool that helps you collect them can help indirectly. Consistent details across the web are a smaller signal, which is Yext's area. The biggest levers sit on your own profile: category, hours, photos, reviews with replies and a correct address. Our post Do Google reviews affect ranking? has what Google says.
What does each cost one location a year?
| Option | Reported yearly cost | Break-even at $150 profit a customer |
|---|---|---|
| Yext Emerging | $199 | about 2 customers |
| Yext Essential | $449 | 3 customers |
| Yext Premium | $999 | about 7 customers |
| Birdeye lowest tier | about $3,588 | about 24 customers |
| Birdeye mid tier | about $4,188 | about 28 customers |
Yext's price is a fraction of Birdeye's, but it buys a smaller job. Birdeye's price is high enough that a single-location shop has to be sure that automated asking and one inbox will add dozens of customers a year that its own asking would not.
Which fits which business?
- One location, few customers a day: neither first. Use the free route for a month.
- One location, high volume (a busy clinic, a restaurant): a review platform can pay if staff forget to ask. Compare cheaper ones in Birdeye alternatives before you accept a $299 quote.
- Several locations, changing details: Yext's job, a syncing service, becomes useful.
- Several locations, many reviews: Birdeye's one-inbox model starts to make sense; ask for a multi-location quote.
- An agency: check what each charges per client before you price your own service.
For more on how the review suites compare, read Birdeye vs Podium, Birdeye vs NiceJob and reputation management pricing.
Contract questions for both
- What is the total I will pay in the first twelve months, with any setup or onboarding?
- Does it renew by itself, at what price, and how much notice do I need to give?
- If I stop, what happens to my listings (Yext) or my request history and templates (Birdeye)?
- Is the price per location, and what is the discount for more?
- Can I export my data?
- Does any feature send only happy customers to Google? Google does not allow review gating; see incentives and what Google allows.
On replies, be careful with automatic ones. Generic answers read as fake. Read auto reply to Google reviews before you switch any on.
A worked example: a restaurant with one site
A restaurant sees 120 diners a week, has 210 Google reviews and gains about three new reviews a month. The owner is quoted Birdeye at about $299 a month. The yearly cost is $3,588. If texting every diner who books lifts reviews to ten a month, that is seven more than before. Whether seven reviews a month bring 24 extra customers a year is unknowable in advance. What the owner can do first is the free route: a QR sign on each table and a line on the receipt, for a month. If new reviews go from three to eight a month by asking, the platform's job has already been done by hand. If they stay at three, the tool may be worth a trial, and the owner can compare it with cheaper ones.
The same restaurant's address and hours on directories are another question. An hour of searching shows what is wrong. If four listings are out of date, an afternoon fixes them. If forty are, Yext starts to be worth its $449.
How to test either one without a bad year
Whichever you lean toward, run it as a test with a number to beat, not as a purchase.
- Write down today's numbers. Review count, rating, new reviews in the last 30 days, and calls or direction requests from your Google profile.
- Do the free version for four weeks. Link, sign, saved text, a reply to every review. Note the new count at the end.
- Set the bar. If the free route gave you six reviews a month, the tool must beat six by enough to repay its fee. At $299 a month, that means a number you can name, not a feeling.
- Ask for a month-to-month start or a trial. If the vendor will only sell a twelve-month term, treat that as part of the price.
- Judge at day 30 and day 90. Reviews arrive fast; customers from them arrive slowly. Look at calls from the profile at the three-month mark, not only the review count.
For a listings tool the test is shorter: search your name and phone before, fix what you can by hand, and see how many wrong lines are left. The tool must be worth the hours it replaces.
Common mistakes when choosing between them
- Buying a listings tool to fix a reviews problem. Accurate directories do not make customers leave reviews.
- Buying a reviews platform to fix a profile problem. If the category is wrong or the profile is unverified, more reviews will not fix who sees you.
- Paying for several locations you do not have. Both tools price per location; count carefully.
- Letting automatic replies run unread. A generic reply under a detailed complaint hurts more than silence.
- Ignoring the cancel terms. A reported twelve-month term at $299 is a $3,588 decision.
Frequently asked questions
Is Birdeye the same as Yext?
No. Birdeye is built around reviews and messaging, Yext around listings. They overlap at the top tiers.
Which is cheaper, Birdeye or Yext?
Yext, as reported: $199 to $999 a year per location against about $3,588 a year or more for Birdeye. They do different jobs.
Does Yext help me get Google reviews?
Not by asking customers. The reported top tier shows reviews. Asking is yours to do.
Does Birdeye have a free plan?
None is reported. Ask for trial terms in writing.
Do I need either for a single shop?
Not at first. Try the free route and add a tool when asking by hand has become the bottleneck.
What to do next
Start free: see your Google reviews next to your nearest rivals and use your review link and sign for a month. More plain guides are on the guides page.
Sources
- Birdeye pricing as reported by G2, Capterra and comparison sites, read 2026-11-12 and 2026-11-13.
- Yext plans page and listings on Capterra, G2 and SocialPilot, read 2026-11-13.
- Google Business Profile Help: policy on review solicitation and how local ranking works.