🙋 Askback
More Google reviews on autopilot, owned forever.
Podium charges $289+ a month, on an annual contract, for the review engine most customers actually buy it for. Askback is that engine as a tool you own, running on your own $5 VPS or desktop with your own Twilio and SMTP credentials. $34, once.
Askback screenshot is being captured — the app is shipped and real.
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.
Askback vs Podium
Podium at $289+/mo runs roughly $3468/year — $6,936 over two years. Askback is $34, once.
| Askback | Podium | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $34 once | $289+/mo |
| SMS costs | Twilio direct (~$0.008/msg) | Bundled + marked up |
| Review requests + smart routing | Yes | Yes |
| Private feedback inbox | Yes | Yes |
| Follow-up reminders | Yes | Yes |
| Your data | Your SQLite file | Their cloud |
| Self-hosted / offline | Yes | No |
| Contract | None, MIT source | Annual |
If you only need the review engine, Askback pays for itself in about four days versus Podium.
Three steps, no subscription
Buy once on Whop
One payment of $34 gets the packaged Windows installer, or clone the MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/review-request-automator and run it yourself for free.
Deploy or run desktop
Docker-compose onto a $5 VPS to run it public, or run the desktop build locally with data in your user profile.
Wire up creds and import customers
Set your Twilio and SMTP credentials, point your Twilio number's inbound webhook at the STOP handler, and import your customer CSV.
Honest answers
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes, Askback is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/review-request-automator. 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.
Own Askback forever
$34 once. Deploy on your own server — your data never leaves it. No renewal, no account with us, no meter. Or build it yourself from the MIT source — it's the same app.