Podium vs. Runner Comparison


Podium 4.5 out of 5 stars	Runner SHMAPLEX
Learn More about Podium Update Features for Podium	Learn More about Runner Update Features for Runner	Add To Compare	Add To Compare

Podium	Runner
		Related Products Birdeye Birdeye builds AI agents for multi-location brands — trusted by the largest enterprise brands globally, including Sutter Health, Aspen Dental, Sun Auto and Caesars Entertainment. We give you AI coworkers at every location — for marketing, operations, and customer experience — that do the jobs your business needs done by employing multiple agents that work together to win AI visibility, convert demand, and deliver a consistent customer experience. Enterprise-Ready → Built for Scale SSO, audit logging, HIPAA, SOC 2, and GDPR. Role-based access, tiered approvals, and location-level reporting give corporate and local teams the control they need. So you stay in control while AI handles execution across hundreds of locations. With teams across the U.S., U.K., Australia, and India, Birdeye is redefining how enterprises win locally at scale. 4.7 out of 5 stars 5,195 Ratings Visit Website for Birdeye SurveySparrow Transform organizations into brands by refining experiences with SurveySparrow. The experience management platform helps create not only engaging surveys but assists in closing the feedback loop efficiently. Supporting 70+ languages and dedicated NPS and Customer experience modules help better understand customer loyalty. SurveySparrow enables business organizations to collect feedback via a chat-like interface, gain insights, and make data-driven decisions to improve products, services, and customer experience. Set up automation and manage feedback with the in-built Ticket management tool. Monitor and manage online reviews efficiently with the Reputation management module. Join the bandwagon of 100k+ customers in 149 countries to deliver delightful customer experiences. 4.3 out of 5 stars 3,092 Ratings Visit Website for SurveySparrow Zoom Phone Zoom Phone is an AI-powered cloud-based business phone system that provides voice calling, messaging, and unified communications through a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) platform. The software enables employees to make and receive business calls from desktop computers, mobile devices, and compatible desk phones. Its calling features include auto receptionists, call queues, call forwarding, voicemail, call recording, SMS, and intelligent call routing. Built-in AI capabilities provide post-call summaries, voicemail transcription, action item extraction, and automated follow-up assistance. Zoom Phone also supports an optional AI receptionist that answers customer inquiries, schedules appointments, and transfers calls to appropriate employees. The platform integrates with Zoom Meetings, Zoom Chat, Salesforce, Microsoft, Google, and other business applications while providing centralized administration and call analytics. 4.6 out of 5 stars 2,944 Ratings Visit Website for Zoom Phone Jotform Trusted by over 25 million users, Jotform is an all-in-one, no-code platform that simplifies data collection, automation, and online sales. Using its drag-and-drop Form Builder, businesses can create customized forms and surveys to collect leads, payments, and e-signatures. With 10,000+ templates and advanced features like conditional logic and 200+ integrations, Jotform streamlines workflows. Jotform's AI-powered Agents provide real-time customer support, guiding users through form submissions, answering questions, and ensuring a smooth experience while reducing manual intervention. These AI agents learn from interactions to improve responses, enhancing efficiency and customer satisfaction. The platform also includes a Store Builder to sell products and services, accept payments through 30+ gateways, and tools like Approvals and Report Builder to automate workflows and generate actionable insights. Jotform App Builder for ChatGPT and Claude is an AI-powered no-code application builder that enables users to create, customize, publish, and manage applications through natural language conversations. The platform integrates Jotform Apps with ChatGPT and Claude, allowing users to turn ideas discussed with an AI assistant into functional applications without traditional programming. 4.6 out of 5 stars 9,009 Ratings Visit Website for Jotform Zendesk Zendesk is an AI-powered service solution that’s easy to set up, use, and scale. It works out-of-the-box and adapts quickly, enabling businesses to move faster. Built on billions of CX interactions, Zendesk AI supports the whole service journey—from self-service to agents to admins—helping teams resolve issues faster and operate efficiently at scale. Zendesk empowers agents with tools, insights, and context to deliver personalized service on any channel—social messaging, phone, or email. It unifies personalized conversations, omnichannel case management, AI workflows, automation, and a Marketplace of 1200+ apps. Easy to implement, it frees teams from relying on IT or costly partners. Serving over 130K global brands in 30+ languages, Zendesk simplifies business complexity to create meaningful customer connections. Headquartered in San Francisco, it operates worldwide. 4.3 out of 5 stars 8,616 Ratings Visit Website for Zendesk Forethought Forethought delivers the world’s most advanced AI Agents built to think, act, and get smarter with every interaction. No matter the question, “Where’s my refund?”, “How do I update my plan?” or “Why isn’t this working?” - there’s a purpose-built AI Agent ready to help. From chat to voice to SMS, every conversation gets a smart, personalized response powered by your policies, tone, and data. This isn’t just plug-and-play automation. It’s AI with a strategic plan. Forethought helps businesses roll out a multi-agent system across the entire customer experience. With Forethought, your teams can stop piecing together tools and start running a smarter, faster operation. One that delights customers every step of the way. 4.3 out of 5 stars 166 Ratings Visit Website for Forethought Signalmash Signalmash is a boutique CPaaS built for businesses that need reliable communications and real human support behind every interaction. No tiers. No wait times. Real support for faster development and better outcomes for your customers. Our enterprise-grade customer gets a dedicated Slack channel with our engineers. Direct Tier-1 connections with AT&T, Verizon & T-Mobile. 94% first-time 10DLC approval rate. SMS: 10DLC \| Short code \| Toll-free \| SimplyRCS (simplyrcs.ai): RCS Rich \| RCS Media through API & No-Code Platform Voice: SIP Trunking \| VoIP \| Termination \| Origination Numbers/DIDs: Local, short code & toll-free numbers \| BCID (Branded Caller ID) Number Intelligence/Lookup: Subscriber Info (CNAM) \| Carrier Information \| Carrier Type (Fixed or Wireless) \| Federal DNC Status Signalmash enterprise-grade reliability, boutique-level support. 4.9 out of 5 stars 16 Ratings Visit Website for Signalmash SearchUnify SearchUnify is an enterprise Agentic AI platform that unifies enterprise knowledge and powers autonomous AI agents across the customer support lifecycle. Built on SearchUnifyFRAG™ (Federated Retrieval Augmented Generation) and Agentic RAG, it delivers contextually accurate, real-time responses across self-service, agent-assisted, and automated support workflows. Its product suite includes Cognitive Search, SearchUnifyGPT™, SUVA (Virtual Assistant), Knowbler, and Agent Helper. The Agentic AI Suite deploys eight specialized AI Agents handling case resolution, case classification, escalation management, knowledge management, case quality auditing, and L2 technical workflow automation. SearchUnify supports BYOLLM, enabling LLM flexibility without vendor lock-in, and uses Model Context Protocol (MCP) for secure enterprise integrations. A built-in governance layer provides role-based access control, PII masking, and compliance with ISO 27001, HIPAA, and SOC 2. 4.5 out of 5 stars 150 Ratings Visit Website for SearchUnify Dialpad Support Dialpad Contact Center is Dialpad's AI-native platform for customer experience — the connective layer where conversations, intelligence, and action come together in real time. At its core, Dialpad Contact Center is the world's first Agentic AI contact center: AI agents that don't just transcribe or summarize, but reason, resolve, and act autonomously across the full customer journey. Instead of routing customers between disconnected tools, Dialpad Contact Center unifies voice, digital, and human agents in one platform, connecting the voice and data silos that have historically kept support teams siloed and reactive. Every interaction becomes part of a compounding intelligence layer. With 775M+ AI recaps and counting, Dialpad Contact Center turns each conversation into operational insight that improves resolution rates, agent productivity, and CX outcomes over time. That intelligence is continuously optimized, governed, and made visible across your organization through Dialpad's Guardian safety layer, ensuring secure, enterprise-grade AI operations at scale. Dialpad Contact Center is built to resolve up to 80% of issues autonomously, reducing operational complexity while giving human agents the context they need for what still requires a human touch. People stay at the core; intelligence sits at the edge, ready to act the moment it's needed. Rather than asking enterprises to take autonomy on faith, Dialpad Contact Center is validated through Dialpad's Proving Ground, so teams can confirm ROI and reliability before committing at scale — a modern alternative to legacy, static bots and fragmented support stacks. 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,629 Ratings Visit Website for Dialpad Support CTM CTM, formerly known as CallTrackingMetrics, is a conversation intelligence and call tracking platform that helps businesses measure marketing performance, manage customer communications, and improve sales conversions. The software tracks phone calls, text messages, website forms, and chats to identify the advertising campaigns and channels that generate customer inquiries. Its AI-powered conversation analytics provide call transcription, summarization, sentiment analysis, and lead scoring. CTM also offers intelligent call routing, automated follow-ups, AI voice agents, and contact center management tools. Reporting dashboards help organizations analyze marketing attribution, advertising return on investment, customer interactions, and sales team performance. The platform integrates with Google Ads, Google Analytics, HubSpot, Salesforce, and other business applications to connect marketing data with customer conversations and revenue outcomes. 4.5 out of 5 stars 939 Ratings Visit Website for CTM
Podium: About Podium is a comprehensive AI-driven lead management and communication platform utilized by over 100,000 businesses seeking to enhance customer acquisition and retention. At the heart of Podium’s innovation is its AI employee, which ensures businesses respond to incoming leads instantly around the clock, dramatically improving conversion rates and revenue growth. The platform assists businesses in generating more customer reviews, improving their Google rankings, and unifying their lead channels into a single, manageable dashboard. Through the web and mobile applications, businesses can call and text customers, send payment links for quick transactions, and deploy bulk messaging campaigns to boost repeat sales. Podium’s powerful AI-driven automations seamlessly manage customer interactions across multiple communication platforms, providing accurate and timely responses that help drive sales.	Runner: About Runner is an AI-powered marketing and growth application for small businesses, including software companies, online businesses, and local retailers, cafés, and restaurants. It uses a business’s code or point-of-sale sales data to tailor an AI team to its products and customers. Runner can help find leads, draft social posts and customer emails, follow up on enquiries and abandoned checkouts, respond to failed payments, and plan activity around quieter periods. Users can set goals and limits, review proposed work, and choose whether to approve actions individually or enable the team to act within those limits. The service connects to business and marketing tools to coordinate customer outreach and report on activity and results. It is offered through web and mobile applications, with plans for businesses that bring their own AI provider credentials or use Runner’s included AI.
Podium: Platforms Supported Windows Supported Mac Supported Linux Not Supported Cloud Supported On-Premises Not Supported iPhone Supported iPad Supported Android Supported Chromebook Not Supported	Runner: Platforms Supported Windows Not Supported Mac Supported Linux Not Supported Cloud Supported On-Premises Not Supported iPhone Supported iPad Supported Android Supported Chromebook Not Supported
Podium: Audience Business owners	Runner: Audience Small businesses: apps, software and websites, and shops, cafés and restaurants
Podium: Support Phone Support Supported 24/7 Live Support Supported Online Supported	Runner: Support Phone Support Not Supported 24/7 Live Support Not Supported Online Supported
Podium: API Offers API Supported	Runner: API Offers API Supported
Podium: Screenshots and Videos View more images or videos	Runner: Screenshots and Videos No images available
Podium: Pricing $399 per month Try Podium for free for 14-day, no strings attached. Free Version Not Supported Free Trial Supported	Runner: Pricing $49/month Solo with your own AI provider credentials is $49/month; AI provider charges are separate. The Solo plan with Runner-managed AI is $79/month. Annual billing is available at a lower monthly equivalent and is paid upfront for the year. The annual Solo rate is displayed as $40.84/month with your own key or $65.84/month with included AI. There is no free plan or trial; a 14-day money-back guarantee applies to the first plan payment. Free Version Not Supported Free Trial Not Supported
Podium: Reviews/Ratings Overall 4.5 / 5 ease 4.8 / 5 features 4.8 / 5 design 4.7 / 5 support 4.7 / 5 Read all reviews	Runner: Reviews/Ratings Overall 0.0 / 5 ease 0.0 / 5 features 0.0 / 5 design 0.0 / 5 support 0.0 / 5 This software hasn't been reviewed yet. Be the first to provide a review: Review this Software
Podium: Pros & Cons from Real Users Pros The best part of this software is that you can handle all of it from your phone as if you were just texting someone. If someone hops on your website and has any questions or concerns a notification comes up on the bottom corner of the page providing a way for the visitor to contact the company. These messages do go straight to the phone of the the individual over the website, which makes the communication personable and quick. Podium has an excellent interface; it has a high quality in sending files, I can send images or audios without losing quality. Besides that, I use it to create more effective communication and with guaranteed security conditions. Podium cloud is incredible for storing information. This is by far the best review gathering platform for Google around. I think they are actually backed by Google. To get all your reviews from different platforms makes it easier and saves time in the process. A very user friendly app which is easy to set up. It makes interactions easy. Using only one platform we can reply to each and every messages. Google, Facebook, Instagram we can easily connect with our customer on any platform using this software. Responses very quickly. Simple and easy to use. Also we can check the history of any customers interaction. Cons At this time during the free trial that I have used I haven't had any cons happen. I'm not too fond of that without running the application, the messages don't arrive, I have to open the application, and it starts to connect to receive the Podium. They are the most expensive option for managing reviews by far. I cant really think of any cons for such an amazing and insightful software. No dislikes. Clean, simple and easy to use features.
Podium: Training Documentation Supported Webinars Supported Live Online Supported In Person Not Supported	Runner: Training Documentation Supported Webinars Not Supported Live Online Not Supported In Person Not Supported
Podium: Company Information Podium Founded: 2014 United States www.podium.com	Runner: Company Information SHMAPLEX South Korea www.runtheworld.ai
Podium: Alternatives WEX Field Service Management 4.6 out of 5 stars	Runner: Alternatives Relevance AI
Podium: Birdeye 4.7 out of 5 stars	Runner: Limova
Podium: KUKUI Kukui 4.8 out of 5 stars	Runner: Salesforce Agentforce Salesforce 5.0 out of 5 stars
Podium: RedPodium Webconnex	Runner: Atonom
Podium: Podium DAW Zynewave View All	Runner: Runner H View All
Podium: Categories Agentic AI Supported AI Agents Supported AI Customer Service Supported AI Customer Support Agents Supported AI Employees Supported AI Lead Generation Tools Supported AI Marketing Supported AI Phone Answering Agents Supported AI Receptionists Supported AI Review Management Supported AI Sales Assistants Supported AI Sales Tools Supported AI Voice Agents Supported Brand Management Supported Bulk SMS Supported Business Phone Systems Supported Business Text Messaging Supported Business VoIP Supported Chatbot Supported Cloud PBX Supported Conversational Support Supported Customer Communications Management Supported Customer Experience Supported Customer Feedback Supported Customer Satisfaction Supported Customer Service Supported Dental Supported Email Management Supported Lead Capture Supported Lead Generation Supported Lead Management Supported Live Chat Supported Local Marketing Supported Online Form Builders Supported Payment Processing Supported Reputation Management Supported Review Management Supported SMS Marketing Supported Survey Supported Video Conferencing Supported	Runner: Categories AI Agents Supported AI Employees Supported AI Marketing Agents Supported
Podium: Show More Features Customer Communications Management Features Batch Communications Not Supported Chat / Messaging Supported Content Management Supported Email Distribution Not Supported Interactive Content Not Supported Multi-Channel Communications Supported On-Demand Communications Supported Personalization Supported Print Management Not Supported Template Management Not Supported Video Content Supported Customer Experience Features Action Management Supported Analytics Supported Customer Segmentation Not Supported Dashboard Supported Feedback Management Supported Knowledge Management Not Supported Multi-Channel Collection Supported Sentiment Analysis Supported Survey Management Supported Text Analysis Supported Trend Analysis Supported Customer Feedback Features Alerts / Notifications Not Supported Behavior Analytics Not Supported Bug Reports Not Supported Community Feedback Tools Not Supported Live Chat Supported Negative Feedback Management Not Supported Net Promoter Score (NPS) Supported Screenshot / Screen Capture Not Supported Surveys Not Supported User Testing Tools Not Supported Video Feedback Not Supported Visual Feedback Tools Not Supported Voice of the Customer (VoC) Not Supported Website Feedback Not Supported Customer Satisfaction Features 360 Degree Feedback Supported Analytics Supported Call Reporting Not Supported Complaint Monitoring Supported Feedback Collection Supported Survey Management Supported Customer Service Features Alerts / Escalation Not Supported Appointment Management Not Supported Call Center Management Not Supported Email Management Not Supported Knowledge Base Supported Live Chat Supported Performance Metrics Not Supported Queue Management Not Supported Self Service Portal Supported Social Media Integration Not Supported Surveys & Feedback Supported Virtual Assistant Not Supported Workflow Management Not Supported Lead Generation Features Contact Discovery Not Supported Contact Import/Export Not Supported Lead Capture Supported Lead Database Integration Supported Lead Nurturing Supported Lead Scoring Not Supported Lead Segmentation Not Supported Pipeline Management Not Supported Prospecting Tools Not Supported Visitor Identification Not Supported Live Chat Features Canned Responses Supported Customizable Branding Supported Geo Targeting Not Supported Offline Form Supported Proactive Chat Not Supported Screen Sharing Not Supported Third Party Integration Not Supported Transfers / Routing Not Supported Website Visitor Tracking Supported Local Marketing Features Advertising Management Supported CRM Supported Email Marketing Not Supported Feedback Management Supported Live Chat Supported NAP Management (Name/Address/Phone) Not Supported Online Listings Management Not Supported PR Management Not Supported Reporting / Analytics Supported Review Management Supported SEO Management Not Supported Social Media Management Not Supported Store Locator Not Supported Website Management Not Supported Payment Processing Features ACH Check Transactions Not Supported Bitcoin Compatible Not Supported Debit Card Support Not Supported Gift Card Management Not Supported Mobile Payments Supported Online Payments Not Supported POS Transactions Not Supported Receipt Printing Not Supported Recurring Billing Not Supported Signature Capture Not Supported Reputation Management Features Campaign Management Supported Gamification Not Supported Response Management Supported Review Generation Supported Review Monitoring Supported Sentiment Analysis Supported Social Media Metrics Not Supported Social Media Monitoring Supported White Label Not Supported Review Management Features Campaign Management Supported Dashboard Supported Negative Feedback Management Supported Response Management Supported Review Monitoring Supported Review Notification Supported Review Request Supported Sentiment Analysis Supported Social Sharing Not Supported White Label Not Supported
Podium: Integrations Facebook Supported Instagram Supported AIM POS Supported Ema Supported Gusto Supported JobNimbus Supported Kindo Supported Model Context Protocol (MCP) Not Supported Nekton.ai Supported Open Dental Software Supported Practice-Web Dental Supported QuickBooks Online Supported Reddit Not Supported Refold Supported Rides Rental Software Supported STORIS Supported SalesRabbit Supported Shift Supported Square POS Not Supported Stackreaction Supported Show More Integrations View All 34 Integrations	Runner: Integrations Facebook Supported Instagram Supported AIM POS Not Supported Ema Not Supported Gusto Not Supported JobNimbus Not Supported Kindo Not Supported Model Context Protocol (MCP) Supported Nekton.ai Not Supported Open Dental Software Not Supported Practice-Web Dental Not Supported QuickBooks Online Not Supported Reddit Supported Refold Not Supported Rides Rental Software Not Supported STORIS Not Supported SalesRabbit Not Supported Shift Not Supported Square POS Supported Stackreaction Not Supported Show More Integrations View All 8 Integrations
Podium: Claim Podium and update features and information Claim Podium and update features and information	Runner: Claim Runner and update features and information Claim Runner and update features and information