Is Birdeye or Zoho Social cheaper?

Zoho Social is cheaper to start, from $10 against $299 for Birdeye. The unit each one charges by differs, so the real bill depends on how many channels or seats you run.

Does Birdeye or Zoho Social have a free plan?

Zoho Social has a free plan; Birdeye does not.

Which is better, Birdeye or Zoho Social?

Birdeye is the stronger pick for multi-location brands and franchises focused on reviews and reputation, while Zoho Social is the better fit for businesses already using Zoho CRM or the wider Zoho suite. We don't score them; the right call comes down to how you post.

Head to head

Birdeye vs Zoho Social

Last updated 4 June 2026

Birdeye

Birdeye is a reputation and customer-experience platform, reviews, listings, messaging, surveys, with social media management bolted on. It's priced per location, from around $299 a month, and aimed at multi-location brands rather than creators or small teams.

From: $299 per location / mo
Free plan

Visit Birdeye

Zoho Social

Zoho Social is the scheduler inside Zoho's wider business suite: capable publishing, a monitoring dashboard, and reporting that plugs straight into Zoho CRM. Pricing splits into single-brand business plans, billed per brand per member, and flat agency plans for managing many brands.

From: $10 /mo
Free plan

Visit Zoho Social

Bottom line

Birdeye and Zoho Social both cover the basics; the right one comes down to how you post. Birdeye is the stronger pick for Multi-location brands and franchises focused on reviews and reputation; choose Zoho Social for Businesses already using Zoho CRM or the wider Zoho suite.

Features compared

Feature	Birdeye	Zoho Social
AI captions	Yes	Yes
Basic analytics	Yes	Yes
Advanced reports	Yes	Yes
Bulk upload	Not assessed	Yes
Evergreen recycling	No	Partial
Team roles	Yes	Yes
Approvals	Yes	Yes
Link in bio	Not assessed	Yes

Platforms compared

Network	Birdeye	Zoho Social
Instagram	Auto	Auto
Facebook	Auto	Auto
X (Twitter)	Auto	Auto
LinkedIn	Auto	Auto
TikTok	Auto	Auto
Pinterest	Auto	Auto
YouTube	Auto	Auto
Threads	No	Auto
Bluesky	No	Auto
Google Business	Auto	Auto
Mastodon	No	Auto
Telegram	No	Auto

Pricing

Birdeye

Starter

$299 per location / mo

About $299 per location/mo
Core review management and reputation tools
Basic social publishing

Growth

Popular

$349 per location / mo

About $349 per location/mo
Adds Social AI for publishing and replies
Reviews, listings, messaging, and analytics

Dominate

$449 per location / mo

About $449 per location/mo
Adds a dedicated chatbot AI
Full reputation, social, and customer-experience suite

Birdeye is priced per location, starting around $299 (Starter), $349 (Growth), and $449 (Dominate) a month per location. These are starting rates; multi-location and enterprise deals are custom-quoted, and many buyers negotiate.
It's a reputation and customer-experience platform first, reviews, listings, webchat, surveys, and referrals, with social media management as one module. Social AI arrives on Growth.
There's no free plan and no public self-serve checkout; you go through sales.
Prices are USD from current listings; Birdeye doesn't publish a fixed price ladder, so treat these as approximate starting points.

Zoho Social

Free

Seats: 1
Accounts: 6

1 brand, 6 channels (Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn profile and page, Google Business), 1 member
Home dashboard, drafts, basic publishing, 5 AI credits
Forever free after the 15-day all-access trial

Standard

$15 /mo

$10/mo billed annually

Seats: 1
Accounts: 12

$15/mo, $10 on annual (per brand, per member)
1 brand, 12 channels (adds YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky), 1 member
Publishing calendar, multi-channel publishing, zurl shortener, summary reports, 40 AI credits

Professional

$40 /mo

$30/mo billed annually

Seats: 1
Accounts: 12

$40/mo, $30 on annual (per brand, per member)
1 brand, 12 channels, 1 member
Adds bulk scheduling, repeat posting, post insights, monitoring dashboard, media library, RSS, messages, first comment

Premium

Popular

$65 /mo

$40/mo billed annually

Seats: 3
Accounts: 14

$65/mo, $40 on annual (per brand)
1 brand, 14 channels (adds WhatsApp Business and Telegram Business), 3 members
Adds SmartQ, unified Inbox, content approvals and workflow, custom reports, UTM, Zoho CRM and Desk integration, 80 AI credits

Agency

$320 /mo

$230/mo billed annually

Seats: 5
Accounts: 140

$320/mo, $230 on annual
10 brands, up to 140 channels, 5 members
Client invite, customizable client portal, agency-branded reports, all Premium features

Agency Plus

$460 /mo

$330/mo billed annually

Seats: 5
Accounts: 280

$460/mo, $330 on annual
20 brands, up to 280 channels, 5 members
All Agency features, with 10 more brands available as add-ons

Zoho splits into business plans (one brand) and agency plans (many brands). The business tiers (Standard, Professional, Premium) are billed per brand per team member, so the headline is for a single brand with the bundled members; the agency tiers bundle 10 or 20 brands at a flat price.
Extra brands and members are add-ons: roughly $19.50 a brand each month and $10 a member each month on annual billing (a little more monthly, and the brand rate varies by plan), so a single-brand business with a few people climbs past the sticker price.
Annual billing is up to about 33% cheaper: Standard $10 vs $15, Professional $30 vs $40, Premium $40 vs $65 a month.
There's a forever-free plan (1 brand, 6 channels, 1 member) that kicks in after the 15-day all-access trial, no card required.
Records are USD. The live pricing page geo-locates and showed Australian dollars including GST here, so the USD list figures were taken from Zoho's US pricing and current third-party listings, then cross-checked by stripping the 10% GST from the AUD and converting (for example Premium A$66.91, less GST, times about 0.66, lands near $40).

Pros and cons

Birdeye

Best-in-class review and reputation management
Social publishing, inbox, and AI in the same platform
Revenue-tied outcome dashboards and listening
Built for multi-location scale
Social is a secondary module, not a dedicated scheduler
Expensive: per-location pricing from ~$299/mo, sales-led only
No free plan or self-serve checkout
Overkill if reputation isn't your priority

Zoho Social

Deep Zoho CRM and Desk integration, a genuine differentiator
Direct publishing to a dozen channels, with monitoring and a unified inbox
Forever-free plan and a clear annual discount
Flat agency plans for managing many brands
Per-brand-per-member pricing plus add-ons gets fiddly
WhatsApp and Telegram are Premium-only
No evergreen recycling queue or visual feed planner
Listed business-plan prices are before brand and member add-ons

Birdeye vs Zoho Social: FAQ

Is Birdeye or Zoho Social cheaper?: Zoho Social is cheaper to start, from $10 against $299 for Birdeye. The unit each one charges by differs, so the real bill depends on how many channels or seats you run.
Does Birdeye or Zoho Social have a free plan?: Zoho Social has a free plan; Birdeye does not.
Which is better, Birdeye or Zoho Social?: Birdeye is the stronger pick for multi-location brands and franchises focused on reviews and reputation, while Zoho Social is the better fit for businesses already using Zoho CRM or the wider Zoho suite. We don't score them; the right call comes down to how you post.