SEOchat vs Birdeye

Birdeye sells software for reviews, listings, messages, surveys, and social, mostly to businesses that operate many locations. The pricing page, checked November 2026, does not list a dollar price. It says pricing is “built around outcomes, not seat counts,” offers “one platform, one contract,” and sorts customers into bands: 1–3 locations, 4–9, 10–39, 40–249, 250–999, and 1,000+.

SEOchat sells an AI-run month of work for one local business: articles, Google Business Profile posts, review requests, and a report you can read. The prices are $99 and $179. You can see them before you talk to anyone.

If you are comparing the two because both say “local SEO” or “AI,” compare the job, not the adjective. A 40-location dental group and a two-truck plumbing company do not have the same problem.

On its own article about choosing a reputation company, Birdeye describes three levels. Starter covers reviews, listings, and messaging. Growth adds social. Dominate adds referrals. The article says all of them include payments, unlimited users and contacts, integrations, support, campaigns, team chat, and the mobile app. That is Birdeye describing Birdeye, and it is a real product surface: a staff can live in it all day.

The same article mentions “$299” with an asterisk while discussing what reputation management costs. That number is not on the pricing page, and the asterisk is not a public price list. We are not going to repeat it as Birdeye's current rate. If a salesperson quotes you a number, that quote is the price. Ask whether it is per location, what the term is, and which of Starter, Growth, or Dominate it maps to.

SEOchat will not sync your name, address, and phone to 50 directories, run a web-chat team inbox, or operate surveys for a franchise. Birdeye's small-business page does describe listing sync across 50+ sites, automatic review requests, and texting customers from one inbox. For a brand with a marketing coordinator, that inbox can be worth more than a blog.

A plumber, a dentist, or a realtor usually does not have a messaging team. They have a phone and a website that has not been updated since the last redesign. The searches that bring the call are specific: “water heater leaking,” “Invisalign cost,” “realtor in [neighborhood].” Those are articles and service pages. They are also what an AI assistant can cite when someone asks who to hire.

That is the work SEOchat does. Starter publishes 15 articles a month. Growth publishes 30, which is about one a day, and texts review requests. Both plans include weekly Google Business Profile posts once the profile is connected. You can publish in English, Spanish, or both. Setup is a 10-minute chat, not a demo calendar.

Birdeye's own 2026 comparison with Chatmeter says the platform monitors how a brand shows up in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. SEOchat's check is narrower and more concrete: each week (monthly on Starter) we ask an AI assistant with web search who it recommends near you, and we tell you whether your name came up. We do not claim a full multi-engine brand monitor.

Choose Birdeye if several of these are true: you have more than a couple of locations, reviews on many sites are a daily job, customers text and message you on several channels, and someone on staff will log in. Budget for a contract and a quote, because the public page will not tell you the dollar amount. Their tools are built for that company, and a $99 writing plan will not replace them.

Choose SEOchat if you are one business, the website is thin, and you want the writing and the Google posts handled. You can start at $99, move to $179 when you want a full month of articles and Spanish, and leave by text if it is not for you. You keep the articles.

A fair number of multi-location brands could use Birdeye for the inbox and listings, and still have thin location pages. That is a content problem. It is not solved by buying a second inbox.