AutomationFire Replaces Podium: Here's What You Actually Get

If you''re running Podium today and considering AutomationFire, here''s the practical migration path. We''ve walked through this with operators of single-location shops up to multi-location brands.

What Podium gives you

Podium centers on three things: review collection, customer messaging, and webchat. The product is mature. People stay because the alternative is replacing it with three other tools.

What AutomationFire covers from day one

• Review collection through the Reputation Engine integration. Email + SMS templates, branded review request landing pages, smart routing (good reviews to Google, bad ones to a private feedback flow).
• Customer messaging through SMS via your carrier on a dedicated DID. Two-way conversations from the dashboard.
• Webchat is a fast follow on the roadmap; in the meantime, the booking widget plus the AI receptionist cover most use cases.

What you also get that Podium doesn''t do

• AI voice receptionist
• Local SEO grid tracking
• Two-way Google Business Profile sync
• AI-generated content for social and blog
• AI-generated website with service-area pages
• Auto-aggregated CRM
• private workflow builder for custom workflows

The migration path

1. Set up your AutomationFire account and connect the Reputation Engine.
2. Port your business number to the Voice Engine (or use BYON to bring your carrier).
3. Set the SMS templates and review request flow.
4. Run both Podium and AutomationFire for two weeks in parallel.
5. Cancel Podium at the end of the parallel run.

Total cost during the parallel run: $79 + Podium''s monthly. After cancellation: $79.

Start the migration.