🙋 Askback
More Google reviews on autopilot, owned forever.
Askback at a glance
| Price | $34, once — no renewal |
| Replaces | Podium at $289+/mo — roughly $3,468 a year, every year |
| Type | Self-hosted web app |
| Platforms | Your own server (VPS / Docker), any browser |
| Category | Utilities |
Askback features
📱 SMS + email review requests
Bring your own Twilio and/or SMTP so you pay Twilio's roughly $0.008/SMS directly instead of a platform markup, on your own sender reputation.
🎯 Smart routing
4-5 star ratings go to your Google review page with click-through tracked, while 1-3 star ratings go to a private feedback form in your inbox.
📇 Customer import
Add customers manually or import a CSV from your booking or invoicing tool, with common header aliases accepted.
✍️ Templates with merge fields
Separate initial and follow-up templates per channel using name, business, link and job-ref placeholders.
🔁 Automatic follow-up
One polite reminder after N days if there is no response, never more than one, guaranteed at the database level.
🛑 STOP opt-out honored
An inbound Twilio webhook handles STOP/START, and opted-out numbers are never messaged again.
🧪 Dry-run mode
DRY_RUN=1 runs the whole pipeline of render, queue and log without sending anything so you can test templates safely.
$34 once — that's the whole pricing page
Podium charges $289+/mo — roughly $3,468 a year, every year. Askback is a single payment, and it keeps working whether or not we ever sell another copy.
Or get Askback inside the full suite — every app in the catalog, currently $97 for the bundle. See the bundle →
Askback guides & pages
Honest answers
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes, Askback is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/review-request-automator-mvp. The $34 buys the packaged Windows installer with everything wired up; building from source is free.
Where does my customer data live?
In a SQLite file on your own server. Every send is queued and logged locally, and secrets are masked in every API response.
Is this against Google's guidelines?
No. Askback does customer-experience routing, not review suppression: everyone is asked the same question, every rating is recorded, and nothing stops an unhappy customer from posting publicly. The rating only decides where feedback goes first.