A Note from the Author: I’ve been running an Australian Shopify store for the past five years, specialising in electronics and furniture. With monthly order volumes ranging from 500 to 1,000 units, managing customer communications has been one of my biggest operational challenges. After 12 months with HubSpot and now 12 months with Podium, I’m sharing this detailed comparison based on real-world experience, not marketing promises. The data I’m presenting comes directly from our business metrics, and whilst I do include a referral link at the end, my primary goal is to help fellow store owners make an informed decision.
The Breaking Point: Why We Needed to Change
Let me start with where we were before making the switch. Our customer service operation ran on HubSpot with a two-person CS team handling all incoming enquiries through email. On paper, this seemed like a solid setup. HubSpot is, after all, one of the most respected CRM platforms in the market.
The reality, however, told a different story.
The Email Response Time Problem
Our average response time hovered around 60-90 minutes during business hours. For context, our products require significant pre-purchase consultation. Customers want to know about specifications, compatibility, delivery timeframes, and often need to compare multiple options before making a decision. When someone sends an enquiry at 10 AM asking if a product is in stock, and we respond at 11:30 AM, there’s a good chance they’ve already moved on to a competitor or lost interest entirely.
The problem wasn’t our team’s competence. It was the nature of email as a communication channel. Team members would be helping one customer, then need to refresh their inbox, read the next email, research the answer, compose a response, and send it. By the time they’d completed this cycle, several more enquiries had accumulated.
The Review Collection Challenge
Our Google rating told an uncomfortable story. We’d accumulated a series of 1-star and 2-star reviews, not because our products were poor, but because frustrated customers who’d experienced slow response times or communication gaps were the most motivated to leave feedback. Meanwhile, our satisfied customers—who represented the majority—simply moved on with their lives.
We were collecting approximately five reviews per month through automated email requests sent three days after delivery. The response rate was discouragingly low, around 2-3%. This created a vicious cycle: low ratings deterred potential customers, which meant fewer sales, which meant less opportunity to generate positive reviews.
Our average rating over 12 months. The dramatic drop in early 2025 coincided with our busiest period when email response times were at their worst. The recovery began when we implemented Podium.
The Hidden Costs of HubSpot
Our monthly HubSpot investment was $119.90 USD, which included Sales Starter, Service Starter, and two core seats. This seemed reasonable until we needed to add a third team member during peak season. The additional $30 per user might not sound significant, but it highlighted a fundamental issue: our costs scaled linearly with team size, regardless of whether we were actually getting more value.
There was also the phone integration issue. When customers called our business number, HubSpot would open a new browser window for the call interface. This wasn’t just clunky—it meant switching contexts, potentially losing track of what we were doing, and occasionally missing calls altogether when the popup failed to appear or got buried under other windows.
Evaluating Alternatives: The Research Phase
By mid-2024, we knew we needed a change. I spent approximately six weeks researching alternatives, reading comparison articles, watching demo videos, and speaking with other Shopify store owners in our network. The two main contenders were staying with HubSpot (but upgrading our plan) or switching to a more SMS-focused platform.
Why SMS Kept Coming Up
Several store owners in our business network had mentioned SMS as a game-changer. The statistics were compelling: whilst email open rates hover around 20-25%, SMS open rates consistently exceed 95%. More importantly, the average response time to a text message is under five minutes, compared to 90 minutes or more for email.
For our business model—where customers need quick answers to make purchase decisions—this speed advantage could be transformative.
The Podium Discovery
Podium came onto our radar through a recommendation from another Australian e-commerce business owner. What caught my attention wasn’t the marketing material, but the practical use case they described: managing all customer communications—texts, web chat, social media messages—in a single, unified inbox.
The platform had recently expanded its Australian presence, which meant proper support for Australian mobile numbers and time zones. This was crucial because we’d previously looked at US-based SMS platforms that either didn’t support Australian numbers or charged premium rates for international messaging.
Initial Concerns About Cost
The pricing gave me pause. At $759 USD per month, Podium was significantly more expensive than our HubSpot setup. Combined with Klaviyo for email marketing (which we were keeping at $510 USD/month for our 150,000-contact database), we’d be looking at $1,269 USD monthly—more than double our previous spend.
However, three factors made me seriously consider the investment:
- The cost was per location, not per user. We could add team members without increasing our subscription fee.
- Unlimited contacts meant no nasty surprises as our customer database grew.
- SMS marketing was included, whereas HubSpot charged an additional $75/month for their SMS add-on.
I calculated that if Podium could help us convert even 10-15 additional sales per month, it would pay for itself. If it could also improve our review collection and reduce customer complaints, the ROI would be substantial.
The Implementation: What Actually Happened
Month One: Setup and Learning Curve
Podium’s integration team scheduled a 90-minute onboarding call to configure our workflows. This was more thorough than I expected. They asked detailed questions about our business processes: When do customers typically enquire? What are the most common questions? What hours do we operate? How do we want to handle after-hours messages?
The Shopify integration was straightforward. Once connected, Podium automatically began syncing customer data, order information, and product details. Within 24 hours, we had our first enquiries coming through the platform.
The learning curve for our team was minimal. The interface resembles popular messaging apps, which meant our CS staff adapted quickly. Within three days, they were handling enquiries faster than they ever had with email.
Month Three: The Data Started Telling a Story
By month three, we had enough data to run meaningful comparisons. Our average response time had dropped from 60-90 minutes to under five minutes. This wasn’t just during business hours—the AI Employee was handling basic enquiries 24/7, providing instant responses to common questions about opening hours, shipping policies, and product availability.
More significantly, our conversion rate on enquiries had noticeably improved. We weren’t just responding faster; we were having actual conversations with potential customers. The back-and-forth that previously took hours over email now happened in real-time within 10-15 minutes.
Month Six: The Review Transformation
This is where Podium truly proved its value. Our review collection rate had increased from roughly 2% (email) to approximately 15% (SMS). The process was simple: after a positive customer service interaction, our team would send a quick text saying something like, “Glad we could help! If you’re happy with your purchase, we’d really appreciate a review: [link]”.
Because customers received this within minutes of their positive experience, they were far more likely to follow through. Our monthly review count went from five to an average of 15-20, with a peak of 30 in June 2025 when we ran a particularly successful campaign.
Monthly review collection over 10 months. The spike in June coincided with our busiest sales period, but the sustained increase is what matters for long-term SEO and trust-building.
Month Twelve: Measuring the Full Impact
After a full year with Podium, I analysed our performance metrics against the previous 12 months with HubSpot. The results exceeded my initial projections:
- Conversion rate: Increased from 1.1% to 2.3% (more than doubled)
- Average response time: Decreased from 75 minutes to 3 minutes (96% improvement)
- Monthly review collection: Increased from 5 to 18 average (260% improvement)
- Google rating: Recovered from 2.1 stars to 4.8 stars
- Customer service complaints: Decreased by 67%
Perhaps most tellingly, our repeat customer rate increased by 23%. Customers who’d had a positive experience with our SMS-based support were significantly more likely to purchase again and to contact us directly via text for their next order.
Real-World Workflows: How We Actually Use Podium
Scenario One: The Pre-Purchase Consultation
A typical interaction now looks like this:
11:23 AM – Customer: “Hi, do you have the ErgoMax office chair in grey?”
11:26 AM – Our team: “Hi Sarah! Yes, we have it in stock. Are you looking at the standard or executive model?”
11:27 AM – Customer: “What’s the difference?”
11:28 AM – Our team: “The executive has adjustable lumbar support and wider armrests. Here’s a comparison: [link]. Happy to answer any questions.”
11:31 AM – Customer: “Perfect, I’ll take the executive. Can I get it delivered by Friday?”
11:32 AM – Our team: “Yes, Friday delivery is available. Here’s your checkout link: [Shopify link]. I’ll make a note to prioritise your order.”
11:35 AM – Customer completes purchase
Total time from first enquiry to completed sale: 12 minutes. Under our old system, the first response alone would have taken 60-90 minutes, by which point the customer may well have gone elsewhere.
Our actual Podium inbox (with identifying information redacted). Notice how Shopify integration automatically tags conversations with order information and flags new leads.
Scenario Two: After-Hours AI Support
We configured the AI Employee to handle common enquiries outside business hours (6 PM – 9 AM). Here’s how a typical after-hours interaction works:
8:47 PM – Customer: “When will my order arrive?”
8:47 PM – AI Employee: “Hi! I can see your order #3482 was dispatched yesterday via Australia Post. Current estimated delivery is Thursday 25th. You can track it here: [tracking link]. If you need anything else, our team is available from 9 AM tomorrow.”
The AI has access to our Shopify order database and can provide accurate, personalised responses instantly. For more complex queries, it provides helpful information and sets expectations: “Thanks for your question. Our team will review this and get back to you first thing tomorrow morning.”
Importantly, the AI doesn’t try to pretend it’s human or handle situations beyond its capability. If a customer expresses frustration or asks something outside its knowledge base, it immediately notifies our team and provides a clear handoff.
Scenario Three: Review Collection
Our review collection process is now almost entirely automated:
- Order delivered (tracked automatically via Shopify integration)
- Wait 48 hours (gives customer time to use the product)
- Send personalised SMS: “Hi [Name], hope you’re enjoying your [Product]. We’d love to hear your thoughts! [Google Review link]”
- If customer responds positively but doesn’t click link, AI follows up: “Thanks so much! Would you mind sharing that experience in a quick review? It really helps us.”
The two-day delay is deliberate. We tested various timeframes and found that 48 hours gives customers enough experience with the product to have an opinion, but isn’t so long that they’ve forgotten about us.
The Detailed Comparison: Podium vs HubSpot vs Klaviyo
Feature-by-Feature Analysis
Communication Channels
Podium centres everything around SMS and text-based communication. The platform treats SMS as the primary channel, with web chat, social media messaging, and even email as secondary inputs that all flow into the same unified inbox. For our business, this makes perfect sense—98% of our customer interactions now happen via text.
HubSpot is fundamentally email-centric. Whilst they offer SMS as a $75/month add-on, it feels exactly like that—an add-on rather than a core feature. The SMS functionality is separate from the main inbox, requires additional configuration, and doesn’t integrate as seamlessly with their other tools.
Klaviyo has recently added SMS capabilities (which wasn’t available when we first evaluated it), but their core strength remains email marketing automation. Their SMS feature charges per message (approximately AU$0.05 per SMS for Australian numbers), which can become expensive at scale. It’s excellent for automated campaigns but less suitable for real-time customer service conversations.
AI and Automation
Podium’s AI Employee is genuinely impressive. It’s not just a chatbot with canned responses—it understands context, accesses our Shopify data in real-time, and handles multi-turn conversations. I’d estimate it successfully resolves about 75-80% of after-hours enquiries without any human intervention. The remaining 20-25% are appropriately escalated to our team.
Critically, we can configure exactly what the AI can and cannot do. For example, we’ve set it to never offer discounts or make promises about custom orders. If a conversation ventures into those areas, it immediately notifies our team.
HubSpot’s chatbot is more basic. It can handle simple FAQs and routing, but doesn’t have deep integration with our product catalogue or order systems. It’s useful for qualifying leads and directing them to the right team member, but can’t have substantive product conversations.
Klaviyo doesn’t offer conversational AI at all. Their automation is entirely flow-based—excellent for sending the right email at the right time based on customer behaviour, but not designed for back-and-forth dialogue.
Review Management
This is where Podium truly stands apart. The platform has native integrations with Google, Facebook, and other review sites. When a new review appears, it alerts our team instantly. The AI can even draft responses, which we can edit and approve before sending.
More importantly, the SMS-based review collection has transformed our ability to generate positive reviews. The immediacy of text messaging means we can ask for reviews whilst the positive experience is still fresh in the customer’s mind.
Neither HubSpot nor Klaviyo offer comparable review management features. You’d need separate tools like ReviewTrackers or Birdeye to achieve similar functionality, which means additional costs and integration complexity.
Cost Structure and Scalability
Here’s where the comparison gets interesting:
Podium: $759/month, unlimited contacts, unlimited team members. As we scale from our current 2-3 CS staff to potentially 5-6, our costs remain the same.
HubSpot: Starts around $50/month for basic CRM, but most e-commerce businesses need Sales + Service hubs. With per-user pricing at $30 each, a 5-person team would cost $200-250/month. SMS is an additional $75/month. Total: $325+/month for comparable functionality.
Klaviyo: Pricing scales with contact count and email volume. We pay $510/month for 150,000 contacts. If we wanted to add serious SMS marketing, we’d need to budget another $200-400/month depending on message volume. Total: $710-910/month.
The tangible business impact of switching to SMS-based customer communication. These numbers represent actual data from our Shopify analytics and Google Business profile.
Who Should Choose Each Platform
Choose Podium If:
- Pre-purchase consultation is critical to your sales process. If customers need to ask questions before buying, SMS-based communication will dramatically shorten your sales cycle.
- You sell high-consideration products. Electronics, furniture, appliances, sporting goods—anything where customers research carefully before purchasing.
- Reviews significantly impact your business. If most of your customers find you through Google search, your review count and rating are crucial.
- Your team is small to medium-sized (1-10 people). The unlimited user model makes Podium cost-effective as you grow.
- Response speed is a competitive advantage. If your competitors are slow to respond, being the one who answers in minutes rather than hours can win you significant market share.
- You’re in Australia or another market where SMS is the preferred communication channel. SMS usage and preferences vary by market—in Australia, text messaging has near-universal adoption.
Choose Klaviyo If:
- Email marketing automation is your primary need. Klaviyo is unmatched for sophisticated, data-driven email campaigns.
- You have minimal pre-purchase enquiries. If customers generally buy without needing to contact you, you don’t need Podium’s conversational tools.
- You’re optimising for customer lifetime value through email. Klaviyo’s segmentation and flows are perfect for nurturing existing customers.
- You’re just starting out. Klaviyo’s free tier (up to 250 contacts) is generous and genuinely useful for new businesses.
- You want to add SMS gradually. Klaviyo’s usage-based SMS pricing means you can experiment with text messaging without committing to a fixed monthly cost.
The Honest Drawbacks of Podium
After a year of daily use, I’d be remiss not to mention the limitations and frustrations:
The AI Isn’t Perfect
Whilst Podium’s AI Employee is impressive, it’s not infallible. I’d estimate it makes mistakes or provides suboptimal responses about 15-20% of the time. Sometimes it misunderstands the question. Occasionally it provides information that’s technically correct but not helpful in context.
We’ve learnt to monitor the AI’s conversations and jump in when needed. Podium makes this easy—we get notifications when the AI isn’t sure how to respond, and we can override its messages before they’re sent. But it does require oversight, especially in the first few months as you’re training the system on your specific business.
The Cost Is Real
At $759/month, Podium is a substantial investment for a small business. Combined with Klaviyo at $510/month, we’re spending $1,269 monthly on customer communication tools—more than some businesses spend on their entire software stack.
I can justify this because our conversion rate increase has generated far more revenue than the additional cost. But if you’re running on thin margins or just starting out, this price point could be prohibitive.
SMS Has Limitations Too
SMS is excellent for quick exchanges, but it’s not ideal for everything. Complex technical explanations, detailed product comparisons, or situations requiring images and documents still work better over email. We’ve learnt to recognise when a conversation needs to move to email or phone, and Podium makes it easy to switch channels whilst maintaining the conversation history.
There’s also the cultural aspect. Whilst most Australian customers are comfortable with SMS, some prefer email for business communications. We’ve had to maintain our email support channel alongside SMS, which means we’re not entirely eliminating our previous systems.
Reporting Could Be Better
Podium’s analytics are functional but not exceptional. You can see message volume, response times, and basic conversion tracking, but it’s not as sophisticated as HubSpot’s reporting suite or Klaviyo’s attribution models. For detailed analysis, I often export data to Google Sheets.
The December 2025 Update Resolved Our Biggest Complaint
For the first 10 months, our biggest frustration was the inability to customise email signatures. Every email we sent through Podium included “Powered by Podium” at the bottom, which looked unprofessional and couldn’t be removed.
Fortunately, Podium released an update in December 2025 that finally made signatures fully customisable. This was a significant improvement and showed that they’re listening to user feedback.
The Financial Reality: Our Actual ROI
Let me break down the real numbers, because this is ultimately a business decision:
Direct Costs
Before (HubSpot + Klaviyo):
- HubSpot: $119.90 USD/month
- Klaviyo: $510 USD/month
- Total: $629.90 USD/month ($7,559 annually)
After (Podium + Klaviyo):
- Podium: $759 USD/month
- Klaviyo: $510 USD/month
- Total: $1,269 USD/month ($15,228 annually)
Additional annual cost: $7,669 USD
Measurable Returns
Our conversion rate increased from 1.1% to 2.3%. With an average of 15,000 monthly website visitors and an average order value of $280:
- Previous monthly orders: 165 (1.1% of 15,000)
- Current monthly orders: 345 (2.3% of 15,000)
- Additional orders per month: 180
- Additional monthly revenue: $50,400
- Additional annual revenue: $604,800
Even accounting for product costs, marketing expenses, and other variables, the additional $639 monthly investment in Podium has generated approximately $30,000+ in additional monthly gross profit.
Intangible Benefits
Beyond the direct conversion improvement, we’ve seen:
- Reduced customer service complaints: Fewer angry emails and negative reviews means less time spent on damage control
- Improved team morale: Our CS staff report lower stress levels because they can actually solve problems in real-time rather than playing email catch-up
- Better customer lifetime value: Customers who have positive SMS interactions with us are 23% more likely to purchase again within six months
- Delayed hiring needs: Our current two-person CS team can handle significantly more volume than before, postponing the need to hire a third person
Implementation Advice for Other Store Owners
If you’re considering making a similar switch, here’s what I wish I’d known:
Start with a Trial Period Mindset
Podium offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Use it properly. Set clear metrics before you start: What conversion rate would justify the cost? How much do you need response times to improve? What review collection rate would make this worthwhile?
Track these metrics religiously during the first month so you can make a data-driven decision about whether to continue.
Invest Time in AI Training
The AI Employee is only as good as the information you give it. Block out 4-5 hours to properly configure it:
- Input comprehensive FAQs
- Provide detailed product information
- Set clear guardrails about what it can and cannot promise
- Review its first few dozen conversations and correct any mistakes
This upfront investment pays dividends. A well-trained AI will handle 75-80% of enquiries correctly. A poorly trained one will create more problems than it solves.
Don’t Abandon Email Entirely
SMS should complement, not replace, your existing communication channels. Some customers will always prefer email. Some conversations genuinely work better in that format. Keep your email support functional and let customers choose their preferred channel.
Set Response Time Expectations
One unexpected challenge: customers now expect instant responses because we’ve trained them that we’re usually available within minutes. When we’re genuinely busy or it’s after hours (and AI can’t help), customers occasionally get frustrated by 15-20 minute wait times that would have been perfectly acceptable in the email era.
We’ve addressed this by setting clear expectations in our auto-replies: “Thanks for messaging! We typically respond within 5 minutes during business hours (9 AM – 6 PM AEST). Outside these hours, our AI assistant can help with common questions, or we’ll get back to you first thing tomorrow morning.”
Use the Shopify Integration Fully
Podium’s Shopify integration can pull in order data, product information, customer history, and more. Make sure your integration team sets this up properly during onboarding. The more data Podium has access to, the more useful it becomes.
For example, when a customer texts asking about their order, Podium can automatically display their recent orders, shipping status, and tracking information in the conversation sidebar. This eliminates the need to switch between Podium and Shopify to look up information.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Customer Communication
After a year with Podium, I’m convinced that SMS-based customer service is the direction e-commerce is heading, at least in markets like Australia where text messaging has near-universal adoption.
The expectation of instant, conversational commerce isn’t going away. If anything, it’s intensifying. Younger customers especially expect to be able to text businesses the same way they text friends—quickly, casually, and with immediate responses.
The businesses that adapt to this reality will have a significant competitive advantage. Those that cling to email-only customer service will increasingly struggle to convert enquiries into sales.
That said, I don’t think Podium is the only answer. Klaviyo’s SMS features are improving. HubSpot will eventually better integrate their SMS add-on. New competitors will emerge. The key is recognising that the communication channel matters as much as the CRM features behind it.
Final Recommendation
If your Shopify store matches the profile I described—high-consideration products, frequent pre-purchase enquiries, small to medium team, operating in a market where SMS is widely used—I’d strongly encourage you to try Podium.
The $759/month price tag is substantial, but if you’re currently losing sales due to slow response times or struggling to collect reviews, the ROI can be dramatic. Our experience certainly validates the investment.
However, if you’re just starting out, have minimal customer enquiries, or primarily need email marketing automation, Klaviyo alone (or HubSpot for more complex B2B scenarios) might be more appropriate.
The worst outcome would be paying for capabilities you don’t use. Be honest about your actual business needs rather than aspirational ones.
A Note on the Referral Link
Full transparency: I’ve included a referral link below. If you sign up through it and remain a customer for 60 days, both you and I receive a $500 USD credit. I’ve debated whether to include this, as I want this review to be genuinely helpful rather than just a sales pitch.
Ultimately, I decided to include it because:
- It’s a legitimate benefit—you get $500 either way, might as well be through a referral
- I’m providing detailed, honest analysis based on real experience, not marketing copy
- I’ve clearly outlined the situations where Podium isn’t the right choice
Whether you use the referral link or sign up directly makes no difference to the quality of service you’ll receive from Podium. The decision should be based on whether the platform fits your business needs.
If you’d like to try Podium and receive the $500 bonus, you can sign up here: https://share.podium.com/mzDc4bf
What’s Next for Our Business
We’re currently exploring Podium’s SMS marketing features more deeply. Up until now, we’ve primarily used the platform for customer service and review collection. However, the same high open rates that make SMS effective for support should work equally well for promotional campaigns.
I’m also looking closely at Klaviyo’s evolving SMS capabilities. Whilst I’m happy with Podium for customer service, Klaviyo’s sophisticated segmentation and automation might be better suited for digital marketing campaigns. I may end up using both platforms for their respective strengths—Podium for conversations, Klaviyo for campaigns.
This might seem redundant, but the ROI on both platforms justifies the cost. This is the advantage of being profitable enough to invest properly in your customer communication infrastructure.
Questions I’m Happy to Answer
If you’re considering a similar switch and have specific questions about our experience, leave a comment below. I check regularly and try to respond within a day or two. Some topics I can speak to in detail:
- Specific configuration recommendations for Podium’s AI
- Our review collection process and templates
- How we handle the transition from email to SMS with existing customers
- Integration challenges we encountered and how we solved them
- Which Klaviyo features we still rely on despite having Podium
I can’t promise I have all the answers, but I can share what’s worked in (and what hasn’t) for our specific situation.
References and Further Reading
- Podium Shopify Integration Official Documentation
- Podium AI Employee for Retail
- Podium December 2025 Update Notes
- HubSpot Pricing 2026
- Klaviyo Pricing 2026
Article last updated: January 2026. Pricing and features current as of publication date but subject to change by providers.
