--- title: "Page 2 | Podium Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra" description: "Page 2 - Is Podium the right Conversational AI Platform solution for you? Explore 526 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/p/164285/Podium/reviews/?page=2" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" publication_date: "2026-09-30" --- Podium 4.2 (526) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/164285/Podium/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated September 30th, 2026 # Page 2 - Reviews of Podium ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 26-50 of 526 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use JO Jim O. CEO Hospitality Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great technology, but customer service failures cost us months of unnecessary charges" July 16, 2026 1.0 We ran into significant system downtime on multiple occasions, and each time, we couldn't get anyone from support to help us troubleshoot or resolve the issue in a reasonable timeframe. That unreliability, combined with unresponsive support, ultimately pushed us to switch to a different platform. When we tried to cancel, our request was ignored and we were billed for 6 more months. Between the downtime and the billing dispute, the good technology wasn't enough to keep us as customers. Pros The core technology worked well most of the time and delivered on the review management side — the review response tools were solid and made it easy to stay on top of customer feedback. Cons Customer service was the deal-breaker. Email responses took weeks, and phone calls went unanswered entirely. When we requested to cancel our account, that request was ignored, and Podium continued charging us for six additional months after we tried to cancel. Getting any resolution required far more effort than it should have. Switched from [Vonage Business Communications](https://www.capterra.com/p/159047/Vonage-Business/) We needed more features and better reporting. Review Source LK Larry K. IT Manager Construction Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Solid Customer Relations platform" July 23, 2026 5.0 Overall I would recommend Podium as a all in one call center and customer relation software. The ability to have all the call center interactions connected to the customers as well as the ability to handle text messages as well is a huge benefit. Pros Podium offers a streamlined platform that allows you to manage your customer and call center interactions seamlessly. The learning curve is not steep for the software which makes onboarding a breeze. The ability to have all customer records including messages and call records quickly accessible allows for better insight into the entire job lifecycle. Cons I really do not have any problems with Podium as it is a solid platform offering a very user friendly ui and feature set. Switched from [Dialpad](https://www.capterra.com/p/190976/Dialpad-Sell/) We were not pleased with the service we were receiving and wanted to try out the messaging and review management features. Review Source SG Stephen G. General Manager Consumer Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Podium not worth the money or effort" August 9, 2026 3.0 Once we decided to move to another company, they were given their 30 day notice and contiued billing our CC for an additional 4 months after, sometimes double billing us within that same month. Pros Hassle free monthly data input - lots of metrics to look at, included most of my staff with their metric campaign Cons Customer Service and the fact that they would indicate how many sales leads we were getting and they were completely inaccurate Review Source EB Erika B. Sales Administrative Assistant Consumer Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Great Communication Tool!" July 14, 2026 4.0 Total Comfort is overall very pleased with Podium and the abilty to have our customers text us directly through our website. Pros We love that we can text back and forth with our customers and create reminder text messages for the customer appointments. It saves a lot of time. Cons Having to use another screen to schedule an appointment can slow down the process, it would be easier to have access through the contact info page. Switched from [Textedly](https://www.capterra.com/p/150912/Textedly/) Better platform, better price, and ease of use Review Source JA Jhovanny A. Receptionist- New Client Liaison Law Practice Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "All in one communication app" December 21, 2025 5.0 Overall my experience has been great. It allows me to text potential new clients, current clients, manage workload and assignment among my team and communicate verbally, virtually and through attachments. Pros What i liked most about Podium was the all in one communication found in the application. Whether it was direct messages, attachment requirements, easily accessible and editable contact information and automatic formulas for messaging: all was found in Podium. Cons My least favorite detail about Podium may be the occasional glitch and lag. Podium really is just a great application and I cannot think of a dislike. Review Source JL Jessica L. Dispatcher, Project manager, Purchasing manager Construction Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Podium is very useful tool " February 18, 2026 4.0 Overall I like using Podium for calls and text messages versus using a regular landline. The AI is nice but still needs work. Podium is a very useful tool that we use on a daily basis. Pros I love the fact that you can go back in and listen to the calls. It helps getting more details that you may miss while actively on the call. Including if capturing the phone number of who is calling so if there is a disconnection we can call back. The recordings also help us when customers are stating that we said something that is untrue. Cons The typed transcripts are not always accurate. The AI doesn't do the greatest but improves everyday. Customers can tell as soon as they call that they are speaking to an AI agent. Review Source JT Justin T. COO Construction Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Decent software, predatory practices." October 30, 2025 1.0 They love your credit card when the bill come through, hate customer service and doing the right thing. Pros It worked great in the younger growth phase of our company. The review tracking was especially helpful. Cons Absolute predatory and bottom notch customer service. After being a loyal, paying customer for years, it no longer suited our needs. They refused to cancel our plan citing 4 year old contract for auto renewal signed by an employee no longer with the company and absolutely refused to do the right thing and terminate the contract. After cancelling the card on file when the cancellation was refused, they went around the marketing contact, called our front desk and got an updated card from someone not even involved. Review Source RG Ravin G. CEO Consumer Electronics Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Poor Tech Support & Phone lines noted suited for Mid sized busienss. " August 29, 2025 1.0 Cons ⭐☆☆☆☆ Podium is still very much a product in development and not suited for mid-sized businesses (it may work for a small business or corner shop). The tech support is virtually non-existent. \[sensitive content hidden\], the sales rep, promised the world just to close the deal but clearly didn’t understand his own product. After investing 100+ development hours in just 30 days, we were left completely on our own. Even after sending a cancellation notice for phone lines, they insisted we cancel Dialpad, claiming Podium had the same level of functionality and support—which it does not. Bottom line: do not trust their promises. Do your own research before investing your time and money here. Review Source Scott S. Owner Retail Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Horrible to deal with! " February 28, 2025 1.0 Pros There initial sales guy was great but went downhill from there! Cons the worst company I've ever dealt with! They don’t connect to Shopify, fail to send abandoned cart texts as promised, and never notify when an order ships. When you need help, they’re MIA! But they have no problem Charging $635 per month. stay away, or you’ll regret it! Review Source CJ Céline J. Social Media Manager Consumer Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Podium SMS Manager " August 12, 2025 5.0 Pros Podium is a good tool, easy to use and offers an ergonomic space. It works well with our setup — we can send payment links and bulk SMS to clients quickly and securely. It’s a software that helps us respond efficiently to our clients’ requests. Cons I didn’t notice many downsides with Podium, but I wish it added some features like being able to offer a phone number so people can reach us if needed or in case of urgent issues. Review Source Alexa G. Assistant General Manager Sports Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Podium App" September 7, 2026 3.0 Pros Ability to schedule send individualized text messages and bulk messages. The use of tagging contacts to filter. Cons Frequent lagging during peak usage. Anytime bulk messages are sent there's no notifications coming through and there's a need to refresh the entire site to see incoming messages, they do not immediately pop up when coming through. Review Source RW Ryan W. Owner Furniture Used the software for: 2+ years ### "All in One Customer Contact" February 17, 2025 5.0 Easy to manage customer reviews and overall relationship, whether calls or texts Pros Easy to use with continually growing features and solutions Cons expensive compared to similar software providers Review Source BB Brendan B. Sales Consultant Retail Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Favorite Way to Send Payment links." October 18, 2024 4.0 A very straightforward and easy POS device, simple and clean GUI, and an overall great way to message customers. Pros So easy to send secure payment links and send mass-messages. Checking payments at the end of the day is simple and easy. Refunding payments is a breeze. Cons There is no archive of photos that have been sent by customers. The search function is finnicky and often does not find what I am looking for. Switched from [Clover](https://www.capterra.com/p/226864/Clover/) More features on Podium that we regularly wanted to use. Review Source Response from Podium October 21, 2024 Thank you for your detailed review! We're thrilled to hear that you find our payment links easy to use and appreciate the streamlined process for managing payments and refunds. Your feedback about the photo archive and search function is invaluable, and we’re continually working to enhance these features. We’re glad you made the switch from Clover and are enjoying the added functionalities. If you have any more suggestions or need assistance, feel free to reach out! CS Cate S. Owner Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Steer clear - you cannot get your information out!" November 3, 2024 2.0 Podium integrates with other systems, but only to bring contacts into Podium, it won't syncronise. After trying several ways, I spoke to support who were very hedgy and finally admitted that they account holders can request an export of their data and Podium review the requests "on a case-by-case basis". So you may or may not be able to get your data out, but only if you request it. I'm appalled. Pros It's very easy to use although the way that contacts are entered and default to being unsubscribed is weird and not very intuitive. Cons You can NOT get your contacts out. The only email marketing/CRM system that I've ever come across that does not allow users to export their own contacts. Review Source JA Jeffrey A. General Manager Automotive Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Podium helped moved us from 4.1 stars to 4.5 (Google)" February 24, 2024 5.0 Pros Easy to use and responsive - Podium made it easy for me to be personally responsive in our customer experience management. Cons I found a competing product that uses single initial qualifying query to help screen potential problems and allowing me to respond and mitigate prior to the push to review - this is a more effective and compliant approach. Podium made the invite and it the negative review posted even before I had the opportunity to mitigate. Review Source AB Audra B. Director Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "More interested in getting paid " October 16, 2023 4.0 Not great. I’m sure it’s the right fit for a large company with deep pockets and the need for a bunch of bells and whistles, but we are not that. Pros I chose the platform because I thought it was the only real option to replace ZipWhip which ends service in December. They were listed as a recommended vendor. Cons The people. They started out great, but at the onset I told them that most of the features they offered we wouldn’t use. And they didn’t have a Chrome extension, which we used a lot. But we needed a new text service as ours was going away. The cost was about 3x what I was paying and that was for the lowest level of service and they lock you in to a contract for a year. But I didn’t know of another option.I found Text Request, which is almost ZipWhip exactly, less than 48 hours after I signed their contract. I was transparent with them about Text Request really meeting our needs and price point perfectly and we weren’t paying for a bunch of features we wouldn’t use just to get texting. I asked to cancel before we even onboarded. They declined and said someone from legal would reach out. No one from legal reached out. They offered to move me to a more basic plan with a lower price point which, as I felt locked in, was willing to look at after I got back from vacation. Upon my return from vacation I reached out twice but that was the last I heard from \[sensitive content hidden\]. Out of the blue I got an email from another person at Podium cancelling my account. It just felt like a yucky experience overall. It felt like they are more interested in getting paid than making sure the platform is the right fit for their customers. Alternatives considered [Voxie](https://www.capterra.com/p/230480/Voxie/) Reason for choosing Podium Voxie didn’t have some of the features we loved. Switched from [Zipwhip](https://www.capterra.com/p/165106/Zipwhip/) Because ZipWhip is ending service in December and Podium appeared to be the only option. Review Source brandon B. Owner Insurance Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "I wouldn't use Podium if it was FREE" April 2, 2024 1.0 Pros I was lied to during onboarding and never told about the 1 yr contract until I read it for myself during the signing. They are not transparent and their customer service is the worst I've EVER experienced. Cons They have a huge lack of transparancy. They are willing to lie to you to onboard and try to keep your business. They will make HUGE mistakes like porting away your personal number with NO accountability or concerns for your business. Wasted countless hours during set up and after trying use their platform all while being charged for services not used. Review Source AA Amanda A. Insurance Claims Manager Construction Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Podium is an absolute small business must have!!" January 11, 2022 5.0 Our company's customer service has far exceeded expectations since implementing Podium. It has helped give our customers a way to reach us literally 24/7. It has helped get our company reviews up 1000%. It has also helped communications between our employees. Pros Podium is AWESOME!! We use it daily to text with our customers who love to communicate via text messages. With every employee having it up throughout the day any one of us can quickly respond to our customers texts and if it's after hours you can set an automatic reply text message that says we are not open at this time so they know someone will get back with them ASAP. It makes it so much easier texting on the PC than on your phone and it uses your company's phone number so you can just tell your customers to call OR text our number. For those who do prefer using their phone to text, Podium has an app that is absolutely awesome too! You will get push notifications on your phone whenever a customer texts or notifications for anything else in the app. You can send customer links and photos easily with Podium. Another great tool is you can direct message or have group chats with your coworkers in Podium. Podium has helped us tremendously with our company reviews too!! Allowing us to set up templates that text our customers once their project is completed asking them to rate us on a scale of 1-10 and texting them links to where they can leave a review online if they wish too. I know Podium also has a function where you can send an invoice amount text to your customers and have them pay via that link but we have not used this feature yet. Podium is awesome and has definitely made operations A LOT easier for our company. Cons There isn't really anything we don't like about Podium! Review Source DW Darren W. Marketing Coordinator Automotive Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Disappointed In This Company And Software" August 7, 2021 1.0 Signup featured a lot of great support and follow up but that disappeared a few months into our year long contract. For the price we were paying it's embarrassing that their customer support and our rep we hadn't heard for the last 6 months. Had brought countless questions and issues I was noticing with the platform on missing leads and review requests not reaching the targeted inbox but was never followed up on. Had also mentioned a mapped field being missed and reviews were being sent to the correct number and was told they were waiting on another company to finish an API...strange how I switched to a competitor and it works flawlessly. Save yourself the money and find the competitors out there that offer the exact same product for 1/10th the price. The UX may not be as great as Podium but the delivery rates are much better which is leading to us having more leads (and ultimately sales) to our dealership. Pros The product is easy to use and the UX is top notch. While I wish there was a few more customizable options from team management it is easy to use even for people who aren't tech savvy. Cons The marriage with Podium was good at the start but absolutely TERRIBLE when it ended. The software does its job when it works but I began to notice that over time SMS review requests were no longer being received. Had numerous clients and friends who should have received the auto generated review request but it never hit their inbox. I began to question the validity of Podiums claims and asked numerous times if they could provide an actual report on sends and fails which they never did. While this may not necessarily be a Podium issue (maybe a Twilio one) the lack of support and concern to fix this problem was non existent. The front end facing of the platform looks sharp but don't let that fool you as there seems to be more issues in the back end with send and receive rates and we missed out on A LOT of reviews along with leads. Alternatives considered [Chekkit](https://www.capterra.com/p/173154/Chekkit-Reputation/) Reason for choosing Podium Product on the front side looked more polished but believe the backend work of the other products considered is far more robust. Review Source PW Peter W. Innovation + Communication Officer Government Administration Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Just send us a text! - Podium brings texting to business" November 4, 2022 5.0 The overall experience has been great! The software is easy to use and easy to set up. They assign you a customer success agent and take you through about 12 weeks of training and check-ins to make sure you're good to go. We have loved it and recommend it all the time. Pros I love how Podium allows teams of employees from different departments to work together to answer customer questions and requests. One beautiful thing is they were able to port our regular phone number and turn it into a text-able number. So our landline number that all of our customers are familiar with has now become a texting number as well. We're able to tell our customers those beautiful words: "Just send us a text." Cons The only downside I see in Podium is the search feature. It is actually astounding how bad it is. You would think in this day and age a basic keyword search feature would be pretty standard. Not so in Podium. The only way to look up old conversations is remembering the name of the person you were chatting with. I'm honestly dismayed by it. Switched from [Slack](https://www.capterra.com/p/135003/Slack/) We were using an integration with our organization's Slack channel that would allow us to chat through our website with customers. It worked ok but it wasn't very robust and the instant chat thing didn't work that well for our set up. Being able to text people was much better. Review Source EJ Erik J. Owner Consumer Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### ""We wish we could do more to help, but this really is as far as we can go."" February 18, 2021 1.0 Podium will use that 1-yr agreement you sign against you no matter how many issues you have with their services. They will ignore you, say they've cancelled services with the same template email over and over again, and yet your credit card will still be charged each month. We hope that everyone takes pause when signing that 1-year contract with Podium. We wish we had taken pause before signing up. Pros When the software works, it really is a nice system. Our issue is that the software never worked. My employees had consistent issues with messages not showing up in the inbox or not receiving notifications when new messages came in. I myself did not receive a single notification for a new message for over a month, and it was still not fixed by the time we finally decided we had enough and switched to another system. I also had to reach out to them weekly to see if my issues have been figured out because they will never reach back out to you about the issues you're having. Cons Trying to cancel with Podium is the worst experience we've ever had with a company. My partner had to pretend to be a new client prospect to get Podium to help us because they will dodge and outright ignore correspondences about cancelling service. They've admitted their issues, told us they are letting us out of the 1-yr contract, yet they are still charging our credit card each month. We have finally had to take the issue up with our credit card company. Alternatives considered [Birdeye](https://www.capterra.com/p/152997/BirdEye/) Reason for choosing Podium That sentence in my title was in every cancellation template email we received from Podium. We’ve received multiple “your services have been cancelled” template emails with that sentence in it, and yet we still have not had our services fully cancelled. We believe this sentence to be very fitting and a view into how Podium treats their customers. This is the first bad review I’ve ever written. We’re in customer service. We know how important reviews are to businesses, and we would rather just move on from a bad experience than write a bad review about a company. We know most companies are trying their best, and sometimes bad things just happen. I feel it necessary to write this though as to help others when making a decision about starting services with Podium. Podium will use that 1-yr agreement you sign against you no matter how many issues you have with their services. They will ignore you, say they've cancelled services with the same template email over and over again, and yet your credit card will still be charged each month. No customer should have to resort to pretending to be a new customer to get someone to help, and no customer should have to finally deal with their credit card company because Podium will not cancel your account properly no matter what they say. We hope that everyone takes pause when signing that 1-year contract with Podium. We wish we had taken pause before signing up. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Jewellery Claims Advisor Retail Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Quality platform, but with a cost" February 2, 2023 4.0 Quality of platform was good, level of customer service / support was good, although somewhat scattered . There were few issues with the functionality of the platform, but it did take a bit to get answers at times and it also felt like once we started to question the cost of the platform that there was a certain assumption were going to be gone, rather than presenting a collaborative environment to look at creating a package that would keep us on board. Pros The platform works well and there are some specific features that others do not have employed, such as the ability for the platform to identify landlines in advance when attempting to initiate SMS messaging, whereas others simply allow the message to go out and you wait for the failure.. Cons The least desirable component of this platform is cost, especially if you happen to be looking at it as a platform to deploy for use with multiple locations. We were a 2 store implementation, so higher cost, but not large enough for volume pricing leverage. the interface for synchronizing contact database information was not overly straightforward. Reason for choosing Podium Podium was a good platform that checked a lot of boxes and there was a bit of a hurry on, to get something implemented. As a result, some research really didn't get done until after implementation and although Podium was still probably the superior platform, the cost was multiples higher. Review Source HR Heather R. Office Manager Medical Practice Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "office manager" October 14, 2024 4.0 My experience with podium was positive. I didn't have any issues with the program while using it Pros the simplicity of the Program was great. Cons I am not sure there was anything that I didn't dislike Switched from [Weave](https://www.capterra.com/p/141842/Weave/) I think that the owner made the decision when changing our phone system to weave. Review Source Response from Podium October 21, 2024 Thank you for your positive review! We’re delighted to hear that you found our program simple and effective. It’s great to know you had a smooth experience with Podium. If you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement, we’d love to hear them. We're here to support you, so feel free to reach out anytime! TG Tiffany G. Operations Manager Consumer Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "If you aren't using Podium, what are you waiting for? " March 18, 2021 5.0 The podium has been instrumental in the overall growth of our company. From google reviews to sales, to collections, Podium has been part of the experience every step of the way. Also as we were growing Podium was also growing and their innovations consistently kept the fire in us to push ourselves beyond our own limits and become the paperless, and digital company that we are today :) Pros What I like most about Podium is its ease of not only use but training anybody new. We are a growing company hiring annually now more and more and Podium is by far the easiest trained software that we use. It's not only self-efficient but training is clean, straight-forward, and it's beyond user-friendly. Cons There are at this stage in the game a lot of add on's that you can certainly do with Podium. It goes from a very low cost to mid-range cost quickly as you realize you really do need and want all the bells and whistles that Podium can offer. It's not so much that it is a negative, but it does become a challenge sometimes when having to pitch a wonderful new feature of Podium to your decision-makers when the words "and it cost ---- extra" comes into play. Alternatives considered [Captivated](https://www.capterra.com/p/152912/Captivated/) Reason for choosing Podium The cost being unlimited text vs other companies were charging for a threshold of texts coming inbound and outbound. So although other companies gave you a package deal with the bells and whistles the true cost was in the inbound and outbound text, and when your business is 95% text-based for communication thousands of text per month can break the bank when you charge per text. Podium being on an unlimited text made it an easy decision and makes it understandable when sometimes the bells and whistles are add-on cost. Review Source HDD H David D. Installed Sales Manager Building Materials Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Wish we never left!" October 30, 2023 5.0 We previously used Podium and we switched to a less expensive option. Well, you get what you pay for. Podium is a far better product. Reviews increase, we get paid faster using card readers or text to pay. Excellent customer service! Pros Podium works so well. Easy to communicate with customers, request reviews and get payments either at the jobsite or from the office. Cons Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. Alternatives considered [Birdeye](https://www.capterra.com/p/152997/BirdEye/) Reason for choosing Podium Used Podium previously, more impressed by their product and their people. Switched from [Swell](https://www.capterra.com/p/172802/Swell/) Swell was awful in every phase! Review request failed to send. The did away with text to pay. Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.