The short answer
Thryv is the best all-round local marketing software for a small business at $99 a month, covering listings, reviews and a website in one plan. NiceJob is the cheapest focused review tool at $75 a month. Semrush Local suits teams already paying for Semrush, at $30 per location a month.
Key takeaways
- Thryv Starter costs $99 a month and includes listings across 60+ directories, review management and an AI website builder.
- NiceJob Starter costs $75 a month with a 14-day free trial, and Pro costs $125 a month.
- Semrush Local Base costs $30 per location a month billed annually; Pro costs $60 per location a month.
- BrightLocal Grow costs $65 a month, or $49 a month billed annually, according to vendor-page checks in October 2026.
- Birdeye and Podium publish no prices on their pricing pages, so both are listed as pricing on request.
Which local marketing tool fits your situation?
- One location, one platform, tight budget: Thryv Starter at $99 a month.
- Reviews are the whole job: NiceJob Starter at $75 a month.
- Already paying for Semrush: Semrush Local Base at $30 per location a month.
- Local SEO plus reviews, agency-style reporting: BrightLocal Grow at $65 a month, or $49 billed annually.
- Listings on as many directories as possible: Moz Local Lite from $20 a month.
- Text-first sales and payments: Podium, priced on request.
- Several locations, one dashboard, big budget: Birdeye, priced on request.
The seven tools at a glance
| Tool | Starting price | Free option | What it covers best |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thryv | $99 a month | No free plan published | Listings, reviews, website, messaging |
| NiceJob | $75 a month | 14-day free trial | Review requests and referrals |
| Semrush Local | $30 per location a month | No free plan published | GBP management, review replies, rank tracking |
| BrightLocal | Grow $65 a month | 14-day free trial | Rank tracking, citations, reviews |
| Moz Local | $20 a month | No free plan published | Listings distribution |
| Podium | Pricing on request | No free plan published | Texting, reviews, payments |
| Birdeye | Pricing on request | No | Reviews, listings, messaging, surveys |
How we chose
The test for this list was practical: does the tool cover the jobs a local business actually pays for — listings, reviews, rank tracking and customer messaging — and can a single-location business see the price before talking to sales? Seven tools passed in different ways, from a $20 listings tool to two enterprise suites sold on request. Prices come from each vendor's pricing page as reported on 14 November 2026, with Thryv and Podium read directly on that date. No hands-on testing was done, so this post compares published pricing and documentation, checked on 14 November 2026. Where a vendor publishes no price, the post says so instead of quoting a third-party figure as fact.
1. Thryv: best for small businesses wanting one platform
Starting price: $99 a month. Best for: small businesses wanting one platform. Skip if: you need more than one user, since Starter includes one.
Thryv is an all-in-one marketing and business platform for small businesses, and its Starter plan is the cheapest way onto this list to cover several jobs at once. For $99 a month you get a digital marketing score, an AI website builder, posting to 60+ listing directories, AI review management, trackable phone numbers and digital performance insights. The Signature plan costs $399 a month and adds social media management, SEO and AEO tools, a custom website, advanced listings and AI lead insights, with five users instead of one.
The strength is consolidation. A plumber, a salon or a clinic that currently pays separately for listings, reviews and a website can replace three bills with one. The weakness is depth: each job inside Thryv is simpler than a dedicated tool for that job, so a business that lives on reviews or on rank tracking will outgrow it.
Skip Thryv if you need more than one user on the entry plan. Starter includes one user; Signature is the step up to five.
2. NiceJob: best for home services winning more reviews
Starting price: $75 a month. Best for: home services winning more reviews. Skip if: you need listings or rank tracking, since NiceJob covers reviews only.
NiceJob does one job and does it plainly: it asks customers for reviews by SMS and email after a job, then helps you share them. Starter costs $75 a month for up to 2,500 customers a year, with no contract and a 14-day free trial. Pro costs $125 a month and adds automated review responses, referral campaigns and booking reminders.
The strength is focus. A home services business does not need a full marketing suite; it needs review requests sent automatically after every job, and NiceJob sends them without a second tool. The weakness is scope: there is no listings management, no rank tracking and no citation building, so a business that needs those jobs must buy a second tool.
Skip NiceJob if you need listings or rank tracking. Pair it with a listings tool, or pick Thryv or BrightLocal instead.
3. Semrush Local: best for teams already paying for Semrush
Starting price: $30 per location a month billed annually. Best for: teams already paying for Semrush. Skip if: you do not use Semrush, since Local is an add-on to a Semrush plan.
Semrush Local is a separate toolkit inside Semrush for local search. Base costs $30 per location a month billed annually and includes Google Business Profile management, review auto-replies and 375 Map Rank Tracker credits. Pro costs $60 per location a month and adds listing management, review management and generation, and 1,225 credits. Review generation sends post-service SMS and email requests.
The strength is the fit for existing Semrush customers. If the team already pays for Semrush, Local adds listings, reviews and map rank tracking without a new vendor, a new login or a new contract. The weakness is the dependency: Local is an add-on, not a standalone product, so a business without Semrush faces the base Semrush subscription first.
Skip Semrush Local if you do not use Semrush. The $30 entry price assumes the main subscription is already paid.
4. BrightLocal: best for local SEO plus reviews in one tool
Starting price: Grow $65 a month, or $49 a month billed annually. Best for: local SEO plus reviews in one tool. Skip if: you need review generation on the cheapest plan, since it sits on Grow.
BrightLocal is a local SEO platform covering rank tracking, citation building, listings and reputation management. Its pricing page currently leads with managed services and per-citation pricing, and vendor-page checks in October 2026 put the Grow plan at $65 a month, or $49 a month billed annually. Grow is the tier that includes review monitoring, review generation campaigns and a review widget, on top of rank tracking and listings. The Track tier below it covers visibility reporting without reviews.
The strength is the combination. Rank tracking across a map grid, citation management and review generation sit in one dashboard, which suits agencies and multi-location businesses that report on local visibility every month. The weakness is the tiering: the cheapest plan does not do the review job this list is about, so the real entry price for reviews is the Grow price, not the headline price.
Skip BrightLocal if you need review generation on the cheapest plan. Budget for Grow, or pick NiceJob for reviews alone.
5. Moz Local: best for listings across many directories
Starting price: $20 a month billed monthly, or $199 a year. Best for: listings across many directories. Skip if: you need review replies included, since Reviews AI is a paid add-on.
Moz Local distributes a business listing across 90-plus directories and keeps the name, address and phone number consistent. Lite costs $20 a month billed monthly or $199 billed yearly. Preferred costs $30 a month or $299 a year, and Elite costs $40 a month or $399 a year. Listings AI and Reviews AI are paid add-ons on top of the subscription.
The strength is price per directory. At $20 a month, Lite is the cheapest entry on this list, and it covers the listings job that most local businesses need first: consistent information everywhere customers search. The weakness is the add-ons. Review replies and AI listing help cost extra, so the bill grows once you add the features that other tools include.
Skip Moz Local if you need review replies included in the base price. Thryv and Semrush Local include review replies without an add-on.
6. Podium: best for businesses that sell by text message
Starting price: pricing on request. Best for: businesses that sell by text message. Skip if: your budget is under $300 a month, since Podium is priced for larger teams.
Podium leads with text messaging: a texting inbox, review requests by SMS, payments by text and an AI employee sold as an add-on. Its pricing page publishes no plan prices and asks visitors to talk to sales. Third-party checks in late 2026 put the Core plan near $399 a month and Pro near $599 a month, with a $5 monthly carrier fee per US location, but those figures are not on Podium's own page, so this post lists Podium as pricing on request.
The strength is the channel. For a business where customers book, ask and pay by text, Podium turns the inbox into the sales desk, and reviews follow naturally from the same conversation. The weakness is the price and the opacity. A single-location business cannot see what it will pay without a sales call, and the reported figures sit far above the rest of this list.
Skip Podium if your budget is under $300 a month. NiceJob or Thryv will cover reviews for a quarter of the reported price.
7. Birdeye: best for multi-location brands and franchises
Starting price: pricing on request. Best for: multi-location brands and franchises. Skip if: your budget is under $300 a month, since Birdeye is sold through sales.
Birdeye is a customer experience suite covering reviews across many sites, listings, webchat, surveys and messaging in one dashboard. It publishes no prices on its pricing page, and buyers report roughly $299 to $449 a month per location on an annual contract, with implementation fees on top. Those figures are third-party reports, not Birdeye's own published prices, so this post lists Birdeye as pricing on request.
The strength is scale. A brand with dozens of locations gets per-site reporting, review monitoring across many sites and a single dashboard for the whole estate. The weakness is the entry cost and the sales process: no free plan, no trial, and no published price to budget against.
Skip Birdeye if your budget is under $300 a month. A single location will get more from Thryv, NiceJob or BrightLocal for far less.
What one location pays in a year
| Tool | Monthly cost | Yearly cost, one location |
|---|---|---|
| Moz Local Lite | $20 billed monthly, or $199 a year | $199 to $240 |
| Semrush Local Base | $30 per location, billed annually | $360 |
| BrightLocal Grow | $65, or $49 billed annually | $588 to $780 |
| NiceJob Starter | $75 | $900 |
| Thryv Starter | $99 | $1,188 |
| Podium | Pricing on request | Pricing on request |
| Birdeye | Pricing on request | Pricing on request |
The cheapest stack that covers listings and reviews is Moz Local Lite at $199 a year plus NiceJob Starter at $900 a year, totalling $1,099. Thryv Starter alone costs $1,188 a year and covers both jobs plus a website, which is the simpler choice for a business that wants one bill. At ten locations, Semrush Local Base costs $3,600 a year while Thryv's flat $99 stays flat, so per-location pricing punishes multi-location businesses and flat pricing rewards them.
For the profile at the centre of local marketing, see the local SEO for restaurants guide and the Google Search Console vs Google Analytics guide. The best website analytics software post covers measuring the traffic these tools bring, and Adziq's SEO services cover local search setup for teams that want it handled.
Local Marketing Software for Small Businesses at a glance
| Pick | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thryv | Small businesses wanting one platform | From $99 a month (Starter) | No free plan published |
| NiceJob | Home services winning more reviews | From $75 a month (Starter) | No, 14-day free trial |
| Semrush Local | Teams already paying for Semrush | From $30 per location a month billed annually (Base) | No free plan published |
| BrightLocal | Local SEO plus reviews in one tool | Grow $65 a month, or $49 a month billed annually | No, 14-day free trial |
| Moz Local | Listings across many directories | From $20 a month billed monthly (Lite), or $199 a year | No free plan published |
| Podium | Businesses that sell by text message | Pricing on request | No free plan published |
| Birdeye | Multi-location brands and franchises | Pricing on request | No |
Common questions
What is the best local marketing software for a small business?
Thryv at $99 a month, because one plan covers listings, reviews, a website and messaging. If you only need reviews, NiceJob at $75 a month is cheaper. If you already pay for Semrush, Semrush Local at $30 per location a month adds local tools without a second vendor.
How much does BrightLocal cost?
Vendor-page checks in October 2026 put the Grow plan at $65 a month, or $49 a month billed annually. Grow is the tier that includes review monitoring and generation; the cheaper Track tier covers rank tracking and listings without reviews.
Is Podium or Birdeye better for a single location?
Neither is built for a single small location at list price. Both publish no prices and sell through sales, with third-party reports putting them near $299 to $449 a month. A single location usually gets more value from Thryv, NiceJob or BrightLocal.
Do I need local marketing software if I already have a Google Business Profile?
A free profile covers the basics: hours, photos, posts and reviews. Software earns its price when you manage several locations, need review requests sent automatically, want rank tracking across a map, or need listings kept consistent on dozens of directories.
What does per-location pricing mean?
You pay the stated price for each physical location. A tool at $30 per location a month costs $30 for one shop and $300 for ten. Flat-rate tools such as Thryv and NiceJob charge the same whether you have one location or, within their limits, several.
Sources
- Thryv pricing
- Review management software: six tools and prices (NiceJob, BrightLocal, Semrush Local)
- Best local SEO tools 2026: one-location cost compared (Moz Local, Semrush Local, NiceJob)
- BrightLocal pricing
- Best local SEO tools 2026: one-location cost compared (Moz Local pricing)
- Podium pricing
- Best Google review management tools 2026 (Birdeye publishes no prices)
Adziq sells marketing services and does not accept payment for placement in its articles. See our editorial policy.