SiteLine vs Podium, for contractors.
This is the closest head-to-head. Podium does lead conversion, reviews, and an AI employee — well. Its published plans start at $399/month for Core ($599 for Pro) on a twelve-month term, and the AI Employee that answers your calls is an add-on with no published price. SiteLine does the contractor-shaped version of the same job, free to start and $29/mo for Pro — month-to-month, no call required. Here's the honest read.
Podium's pricing page and terms read 2026-09-12: Core $399/mo, Pro $599/mo, 12-month initial term.TL;DR for contractors
- Most overlap of any comparison here: both do missed-call text, webchat-to-text, reviews, and AI replies. This one's a real fight.
- Broadest platform wins: Podium. Text marketing, payments, surveys, advanced segmentation across many industries.
- Low floor + no contract + trades fit wins: SiteLine. Free Basic tier; Pro at $29/mo for the whole business, month-to-month. Podium's floor is $399/mo on a twelve-month term. (Verify ours at siteline.bizbottech.com/pricing.)
- The honest math: Podium Core is $399/mo, so the first year commits you to at least $4,788 before phone seats or the AI Employee, which has no published price. SiteLine's full six-module stack — Pro + Receptionist — is $96/mo ($1,152 a year), and you can stop in any month.
Same job. Different shape, different price.
What Podium does well: it's a broad, mature lead-conversion and reputation platform — webchat, missed-call text, reviews with AI responses, text-marketing campaigns, payments, surveys, segmentation. Sold across many industries. If you want one big platform doing multi-channel marketing and you have the budget, Podium has the surface area.
What SiteLine does: the same core job, built narrowly for contractors. Missed-call text-back (Recall) tuned for trades emergency intent — "Pipe burst, kitchen flooding" gets triaged and booked, not just logged. Reviews (Stars). Website-to-text (Chat). Dispatch on Pro. It's not as broad as Podium, and we won't pretend it is. What it is: priced in public — $0 or $29/mo, on the page — and shaped for a truck-and-tools business, not a multi-location enterprise.
So the trade is simple and honest: breadth and brand (Podium) vs trades fit, a published price, and a low floor (SiteLine). For a solo electrician or a small HVAC crew, a twelve-month commitment at $399 a month for surface you won't use is the wrong shape — and Podium's pricing page tells HVAC businesses to contact sales rather than quoting them at all. For a multi-location operation that lives in marketing campaigns, Podium may well be worth it. Just remember it comes in pieces: the base plan, the phone seats, and the AI Employee add-on are billed separately, and the AI Employee has no public number.
Side-by-side, honest.
| Podium | SiteLine | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $399/mo Core · $599/mo Pro · Signature quoted (HVAC: contact sales) | Free Basic · $29/mo Pro |
| AI call answering, all-in | AI Employee add-on — price not published; sits on top of a $399+ base plan and Podium Phones seats | $96/mo (Pro + Receptionist, all six modules) |
| Missed-call text-back | Yes | Yes · ~8s · emergency-intent aware |
| Webchat-to-text | Yes | Yes — Chat module |
| Reviews + AI reply drafting | Yes | Yes — Stars module |
| Trades-specific dispatch / job board | Horizontal platform | Yes — Pro tier |
| Text-marketing campaigns / surveys | Yes — broad suite | Not the focus |
| Payments suite | Yes | No |
| Free tier (no card) | No — every tier's button is “Talk to Sales” | Free Basic tier |
| Contract term | 12-month initial term, auto-renews unless you give a month's notice | Month-to-month, cancel any time |
Pick the right one.
Pick Podium if…
You run a multi-location operation, you live in text-marketing campaigns, surveys, and a payments suite, and $399–$599 a month on a twelve-month term pays for itself in your volume. Podium is a mature, broad platform — for the right size of business it's a strong tool. Just get the whole thing in writing before you sign: the base plan, the phone seats, and the AI Employee add-on are three separate line items, and the AI Employee is not priced publicly.
Pick SiteLine if…
You're a contractor — one truck or a small crew — and you want the core job done (catch the call, book it, get the review) without a twelve-month commitment to a platform you'll half-use. Start free at siteline.bizbottech.com and prove the fit before paying anyone. When you want the full stack (Voice + Recall + Stars + Confirm + Chat + Scout), that is Pro + Receptionist at $96/mo total — $67 more than Pro alone, for the whole business, not per user.
The same job, shaped for your truck.
SiteLine Basic is free with no card. Prove it catches your missed calls before you pay anyone. When you're ready for the full stack, Pro + Receptionist is $96/mo, month-to-month.