17 years helping Israeli businesses
choose better software

About Swell

Swell helps practices get better patient and employee feedback.

Learn more about Swell

Pros:

We switched from Podium to Swell and are so happy we did. We are saving tons of money for the same level of service.

Cons:

I think it asks people too many times to leave a review if they don't respond to the first message.

Swell ratings

Average score

Ease of Use
4.6
Customer Service
4.6
Features
4.5
Value for Money
4.5

Likelihood to recommend

8.5/10

Swell has an overall rating of 4.6 out 5 stars based on 349 user reviews on Capterra.

Have you used Swell before?

Share your experiences with other software buyers.

Filter reviews (349)

Mason
Mason
Assistant Manager in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Retail, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Great alternative!

4.0 3 years ago

Comments: We love the product and feel like they really listen to their customers!

Pros:

We love all the thoughtful extras they have built into the application. We made the switch and we are glad we did!

Cons:

It needs to run a little bit better. Swell hasn’t worked out all the kinks

Jacob
Marketing Coordinator in US
Health, Wellness & Fitness, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Good quality and price

4.0 last year

Comments: Good experience. The product is the same as other vendors and cheaper.

Pros:

I liked the ability to message clients through email and text.

Cons:

The automated messages needed to be set up by us.

Holly
Operations Manager in US
Hospital & Health Care, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Significant increase in google reviews

3.0 last year

Pros:

I love that I can acess all our offices reviews in one place without going into all three google business accounts. Swell also makes it easier for our patients to leave reviews that arent so technologically inclined by sending them a text with a link, they click it and it brings them right where they need to go to leave the review.

Cons:

The only thing I dont like it that if a patient leaves a review directly though google and not by clciking the sweep link it doesnt show up on swell, so we still have to monitor the google business pages for reviews.

Swell CX Response

12 months ago

Hey Holly, thank you for the review! We'd love to hear more about your experience and see if there are ways we can improve performance or better support you. Please reach out at [email protected] or give us a call at a (844) 560-2626.

archita
marketing professional in India
Accounting Software, Self Employed
Used the Software for: Free Trial
Reviewer Source

effectiveness

5.0 3 months ago

Comments: it was very good. doctors are so friendly and helpful.

Pros:

it is an affordable, priced at a fraction of the cost of more mature reputation management systems.

Cons:

- does not offer benchmarking tools -does not have all the minor features found in more mature alternatives

Savannah
Marketing Manager in US
Construction Software, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Game Changer

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: Overall our number of reviews has increased and a step was taken off of our team's plate since the links are sent automatically. Swell has also relieved the stress that our team used to have about having to answer chats immediately or risk losing the lead.

Pros:

We use Swell for two purposes, one being as our website chat and the other being as a way to request reviews from customers. The website chat feature has been a huge help because potential customers do not have to stay on the website for us to respond, all communication is to their phone, but through the Swell platform on our end. This has proved to be very efficient. As for the review requests, our reviews have increased exponentially, and we credit it to how easy Swell's links make it to leave us a review. On our end, we also like that once we convert a lead in our CRM to a customer they are automatically entered into Swell's system. They are then automatically scheduled to be sent a review request at 6:00 p.m. that evening. Overall this has automated our system for reviews and made the experience easier for our customers.

Cons:

It would be nice for the website chats to link up to our CRM so we can see if they are already a lead and be able to add them to our CRM from Swell if they are not. This is not a dealbreaker by any means. The other thing is that the company we worked with before had a widget that we could put on our website so that our reviews automatically showed on our website. Something like this would be nice to have again, but still not a dealbreaker.

Nicole
Marketing Coordinator in US
Hospital & Health Care, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

BirdEye was good; Swell is GREAT!

5.0 4 years ago

Comments: I’m writing this review because I have been very happy with Swell in our first 3 months of use. The software has exceeded my expectations! I have also been absolutely thrilled with Swell’s customer service. I always get an answer or solution within the day of my inquiry. Fantastic!

Pros:

Swell is very easy to implement, and the dashboard is intuitive and user-friendly. My favorite Swell feature is one I thought might be a negative: customers leave a review after only one click. Why would a one-click system be a negative? We previously used BirdEye and were very happy with them. Unfortunately, a programming glitch did not allow our practice management software to function with BirdEye on our server, so we had to part ways. But one BirdEye feature I really appreciated was a system to help guide unhappy customers to contact us directly instead of leaving a poor review on Google or Facebook. As a marketer, I try to avoid negative reviews like the plague! What I didn’t realize was that BirdEye’s “safety valve” involved extra screens for even the most enthusiastic customer to click through. When we switched to Swell, our sales representative convinced me that, based on our practice’s outstanding history of 5-star reviews, we likely didn’t need that safety net. Additionally, he was certain the one-click-to-leave-a-review system would lead to more customers leaving reviews. He was absolutely correct! We averaged 1-2 reviews a week with BirdEye, but have already had several days in which we received 5-7 reviews per day(!!) with Swell!

Cons:

The two details I have asked Swell to address are: - A small review counting badge that we can install in the header of our website (they are working on it). - For our replies to reviews to be visible in the Swell review scroll that we have on our website. Again, I hear the technical wizards at Swell are working to fulfill this request.

Evan
Owner in US
Events Services, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

It's fine

3.0 2 years ago

Comments: Expensive and not amazing.

Pros:

I implemented Swell because I was very impressed with the sales person [SENSITIVE CONTENT] and needed a software that I could add to my website to both allow potential clients to ask questions, etc AND encourage guests to write reviews.

Cons:

I do not find the support to be great. In fact I initially stopped using Swell, because I did not like the person helping me and then when I was talked back into coming back, I was put with her again. She was not much nicer and then I reached out to ask question, she told me to go ask someone else because it was not in her job description anymore, so I did and I basically was told that I wasn't trained correctly...I wanted out of my expensive contract and was told no. So I am riding it out and hoping things get better and using it minimally. The app does not do half of what the website does. The back end of the website is not super intuitive. Review alert is slow.

Swell CX Response

2 years ago

Hi Evan, thanks for sharing this feedback - especially about your experience with our support and app. I've shared it with our team and we will take it into account going forward to make sure we can offer the best product experience AND support experience. Thanks for being a customer.

Karen
GM in US
Recreational Facilities & Services, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Very nice company

4.0 last year

Comments: Nice people, not our favorite but we liked their staff

Pros:

We found swell customer service to be available and helpful

Cons:

The automation system never worked right

Swell CX Response

last year

Hey Karen, thanks for your review! If there's anything we can do to help out with the automations, please reach out to us. Our phone support is open from 8 AM - 5PM MT at: 844-560-2626. You can also chat in on our website 7 AM - 5PM MT.

David
CEO in US
Recreational Facilities & Services, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Just do it! It works!

5.0 last year

Comments: We have been very happy with Swell overall. Just the one HUGE negative of text duplication on mobile.

Pros:

Simplicity of use. It's ability to garner reviews.

Cons:

Problem with mobile chat duplicating the test is on ongoing pain in the A$$. Fix it already.

Swell CX Response

12 months ago

Hey David, thanks a bunch for the review! We're glad we're making a difference for you :)

Crisel
CEO in Puerto Rico
Leisure, Travel & Tourism, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

I didn’t really help with much in my business

3.0 last year

Comments: Not very good. I feel they didn’t deliver what they had sold

Pros:

Automation of sending emails so that guest can leave a review.

Cons:

Customer service and price is too high for what they offer

Swell CX Response

12 months ago

Hey Crisel, we'd love to learn more about your experience. Please feel free to shoot us an email at [email protected] or give us a call at a (844) 560-2626. We'd be happy to see what we can do to help your account's performance.

Heather
Administrator in US
Hospital & Health Care, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Great helpful sight

4.0 last year

Comments: Great

Pros:

Swell is very helpful for getting reviews

Cons:

need more instructional videos to show how to do certain things

Swell CX Response

last year

Hey Heather, We really appreciate your feedback, so thanks for taking the time to leave us your thoughts!

Cassie
Practice Administrator in US
Hospital & Health Care, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

More reviews without the work

5.0 last year

Comments: More reviews without the work

Pros:

We love that Swell integrates with our practice management software and does the hard work behind the scenes. It is so easy to use the platform to monitor reviews. We have gotten so many more reviews without really putting in any effort at all. It is very reasonably priced as well. We would definitely recommend Swell to others!

Cons:

We have nothing to complain about. We love Swell and what it has done for our online reputation!

Swell CX Response

last year

Hey Cassie, thanks for the stellar review!

Star
Igniter Web Designer and in US
Marketing & Advertising, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Fairly Good So Far

4.0 3 years ago

Comments: The initial swell representative that gave us a demo gave us the false impression that we could manage client messages easily from text messaging on our phones. It only works that way for the customer side. The app for swell on phones is not very good, it doesn't look great, and the features are very limited.

Pros:

The integration with google reviews has made it easy for our customers to leave reviews quickly. I like being able to respond to reviews in swell. The webchat is decent for what we need after getting some guidance on how to set it up. The way that messages with clients are viewed is nice to see all the communication that has happened.

Cons:

The dashboard is not complete. swell trained me on how to use the new dashboard but not all of it works completely which is frustrating and using the old dashboard is difficult. Some of the features such as the webchat, adding scheduling to webchat, and creating webchat groups was very confusing and not something i could figure out on my own, and I'm an intuitive person.

Corey
Mortgage loan officer in US
Real Estate, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Swell is very helpful for client reviews

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: Swell has been positive for my business and I will continue to use it.

Pros:

It automatically links closed clients to review platforms and takes that task off of my plate

Cons:

When my reviews slowed down, I don’t know why it was happening or what changed. When the review platforms change their permissions or algorithms swell really has no control over that.

Swell CX Response

2 years ago

Thanks for leaving this review Corey, we really appreciate it. I'm glad to hear Swell has helped you earn reviews! I know a slow down can be frustrating - it's true that we're always working to get ahead of changes to search algorithms. If you're still seeing a slump, please reach out so we can look into it and make sure everything is good to go on the Swell side. [email protected]

Michelle
Dir of Info Services in US
Health, Wellness & Fitness, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Great overall product for what it is designed for. Simple to use. Good results.

4.0 3 years ago

Comments: We collect and monitor reviews

Pros:

Simplifies the process of collecting and monitoring reviews and gives us the flexibility to have multiple campaigns for each organization.

Cons:

The support team is knowlegeable but the time to resolve support issues using the chat function is super slow as if the team is helping multiple customers at a time. There is a long lag time between communication. Pretty consistent on every interraction. The chat window should remain on top of other windows to avoid forgetting there's an actual chat in progress because of the delay.

Steven
Marketing & Media Director in US
Construction Software, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

After Using For Months, We Are Switching Off of Swell

1.0 3 years ago

Comments: Negative experience overall. They stopped letting us send out reviews, and reviews that were "sent" weren't being counted accurately so I couldn't track my employees correctly. We definitely got more reviews, but for the cost we expected to be able to use the API to integrate and automate the reviews but that didn't happen because the API is the worst we've seen.

Pros:

The ease of sending a text message out to customers and having them review in 1 tap is great.

Cons:

I feel like we were lied to during the sales process. The API is absolute garbage compared to other software and the salesman said we'd be able to use it to do whatever we needed to in our in-house software based on Quickbase. That was a lie and the API is a mess to even sift through. Don't advertise use of an API when the API is worthless.

Nicholas
Dentist in US
Health, Wellness & Fitness, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Satisfied Customer for 2+ years

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: Overall the software has been tremendous in getting us more google reviews and generating more business as new customers are able to see the positive reviews and thus it makes them want to check us out

Pros:

I enjoy the review management, ease of use, customers are able to leave reviews and they post right to google

Cons:

Nothing stands out as a least favorite quality of the software

Jen
Director of Operations in US
Medical Practice, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Great Service and Easy to Use!

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: It has been very easy and the process has been great! No complaints.

Pros:

I love that we can customize which providers patients are sent the text message to write a review. We have multiple providers in our practice and some providers team's choose to send them manually and some want them automatically sent at the end of the day. I also love that you can choose to send certain messaging contingent on the service that took place. Great Software!

Cons:

I wish that it had the option to help with negative reviews. We don't get many, but it would be great if those could be filtered, in order to give us time to respond to them before they are posted. However, I know this is not possible for Swell to do, but would love that capability.

Swell CX Response

2 years ago

Thanks for this great review, Jen!

Will
owner/manager in US
Retail, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Great way to interact with customers

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: Love it! It's much more beneficial than we could have hoped for communicating with customers.

Pros:

When we started with Swell it was originally to piggyback on our kayaking program registration software. We got it for folks to ask questions and get a quick response, in regards to classes and trips. What we found is customers are using it to find products and inquire about other services our business offers, much more so than just the programs we offer.

Cons:

It is not super intuitive to edit features in the backend of the module. However, their customer service is quick to respond and help make corrections or show you how to make those needed edits.

McKenna
Manager in US
Consumer Services, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Life Saving

5.0 4 years ago

Comments: The customer service always goes above and beyond, from set up to daily use, they are always helpful and on top of it.

Pros:

Swell is overall super easy to use, especially with their new app. When we first opened the salon we had multiple fully booked stylists, and it made it seamless getting in contact with all the guests. They helped us send review requests and we were able to build our reviews up over 100 within the first few months, so now we are one of the top salons on Google. It also lets you read and reply to them right away. I love being able to text our guests, it is the feature we use daily. Swell saved my life when the salon had to close due to Covid-19. It made us feel so much better that we were able to reach all of our guests at the same time to keep them up to date with what was going on, and then made it easy to get everyone rescheduled when we reopened. At this point I feel like Swell is a necessary part of our day to day life, and refuse to work without it. Would recommend Swell to anyone and any business.

Cons:

I honestly wouldn't change anything. I didn't know there was anything like Swell out there, and it checked all of our boxes.

Kyle
Marketing Systems Manager in US
Financial Services Software, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

It's swell!

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: Overall experience with Swell has been fabulous! Our CSM [SENSITIVE CONTENT] is absolutely outstanding to work with!

Pros:

The ease of use from account set up to receiving your first review. I like that I'm able to connect all of our necessary review accounts and that we're even able to connect our Google & Facebook accounts so that we can respond in real time.

Cons:

That there are still 2 version of the software available. It could be user error but there are still times where I'm unable to do something in the new version and have to revert back to the old version.

Annette
Practice Coordinator in Canada
Health, Wellness & Fitness, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Swell is better than Swell!

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: We rarely received reviews in the past. They are now a daily occurrence. Thank you Swell!

Pros:

Our reviews have increased exponentially. Swell makes it REALLY easy to work with. I highly recommend this product.

Cons:

I honestly can't think of anything that I don't like in Swell. It is a great software.

Eric
CEO in US
Marketing & Advertising, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Online review generation needs to be simple - Swell does it the best!

5.0 5 years ago

Comments: Phenomenal product and support!! I run a marketing agency that works with hundreds of dental practices, and Swell is by far our favorite partner. Their system works seamlessly and is so simple for our dental clients to use. We have seen reviews increase by 50-100X in the first 6-months. We recently had a practice that wanted to get to 100 reviews. They were at 47 reviews for the first 3-years in practice. By the end of the second month using Swell, we had accomplished our goal of 100 reviews. That was more reviews in 2-months than that practice had in 3-years. Thanks for all the success!!

Pros:

Managed service. Swell will do the install for you, and once it is installed, it is extremely easy to use for dental practices.

Cons:

Drill down and data aggregation functionality is not the best

Gabrielle
Practice Manager in US
Medical Practice, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Incredible increase in reviews

5.0 3 years ago

Comments: Highly recommend to anyone looking to boost reviews. Also for sending out campaign emails/texts automatically.

Pros:

Our reviews sky rocketed after we started working with Swell. I also really enjoy the email/text campaigns! The previous company we used put a limit of 3 campaigns per month, which was extremely limiting. We also get multiple reviews per week now!

Cons:

There is nothing we don't like at the moment.

Becky
Office Manager in US
Health, Wellness & Fitness, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Great to up your reviews with minimal effort!

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: Great product which makes getting reviews a breeze!

Pros:

Ease of use, automated and worry free reuests!

Cons:

Would like to have more platforms when patients dont have google!

Swell CX Response

2 years ago

Thank you Becky! That's great that you've found Swell to be so easy to use!