Growth Bull vs Grade.us: Reviews and Growth for Agencies in 2026

What is Grade.us?

Grade.us is a review management platform, best known with marketing agencies that resell review services to their clients.

It sends review requests by email, SMS and MMS (text messages with a picture), in campaigns and sequences. Each business gets a review funnel landing page that customers visit to leave a review. It connects to other software through an API, Zapier and a WordPress plugin.

Its standout feature for agencies is free basic white label on every plan, including a custom domain, emails and reports. White label means the tool carries your agency's brand rather than the software maker's. It holds 4.8 on Capterra from 244 reviews (third-party figure).

What is Growth Bull?

Growth Bull is an all-in-one business growth suite for local businesses such as contractors and home service companies (plumbers, electricians, roofers, HVAC, builders, landscapers, cleaners), plus salons, barbers, dentists, clinics, accountants, attorneys, real estate agents, mechanics and cafes, and the agencies that serve them.

The suite has four tools, with a fifth on the way:

• Review Builder, Growth Bull's flagship review automation tool, $89 a month, sends one text and one email with your Google review link after every paid invoice.
• Rank Map, $39 a month, is a Google Maps rank grid that shows map pack positions across the area every week.
• Keyword Tracker, from $22 a month, checks your Google rankings every morning from your own town or nationwide, on desktop or mobile, with every result kept forever.
• AI Visibility, $43 a month, is commercial AI visibility tracking across ChatGPT, Claude and Google's AI.
• Social Posting with AI is opening soon: write a post once, or let Growth Bull write it, and it goes out to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and the Google Business Profile at natural-looking times. "Plan my month" writes a month of posts from the business's own details in one press, and new 5-star reviews turn into thank-you posts automatically. It will be included free with Complete Growth and switches on automatically for Complete Growth accounts.

Complete Growth, the all-in-one plan, puts every tool in one monthly price: $169. For agencies and freelancers, every client gets all four tools. There's no contract, you can cancel any month, and every plan has a 7-day free trial.

Why is Review Builder the big difference for agencies and owners?

Review Builder is the feature that most separates Growth Bull from rank trackers and reporting tools, because it produces the result instead of only reporting on it.

For business owners, it's the tool they can see working. New Google reviews arrive every week, the one result every customer understands, and more reviews mean more calls, because reviews are how customers choose who to call.

For agencies and freelancers, it's a retention tool. Rankings move slowly and reports can feel abstract, but a client who sees fresh five-star reviews landing under your agency's name every week knows the retainer is working. Clients who watch their reviews and rankings climb stay longer, which helps reduce churn and raise client lifetime value.

That's the swing. Grade.us helps you send review requests. Growth Bull helps you send them, prove what they did, and keep the client.

Why do Google reviews matter for map rankings?

Google reviews matter because Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and reviews feed prominence.

Prominence is about how well known your business is, and Google's guidance lists reviews and ratings as part of it. A steady stream of genuine reviews is one of the clearest signals a local business can build.

For an agency, automation is the difference between a client who "means to" collect reviews and one who actually does. For a local business owner, it's the difference between asking now and then and asking every single customer.

The question is how each tool gets the request out of the door.

How do Grade.us and Growth Bull send review requests?

Grade.us runs flexible email, SMS and MMS campaigns and sequences, while Growth Bull's Review Builder sends one text and one email per paid invoice, with one reminder only if nobody clicks.

Grade.us gives you fine control. You can build campaigns and sequences across email, text and picture messages for each client. Sending limits are set per profile, but the SMS allowance isn't published, so ask before you commit if text volume matters.

Review Builder runs itself. Two hours after the job, inside sending hours, the customer gets a text and an email under the business's name. If they don't click, one reminder goes out three days later, then it stops. Customers who've already left a review are never asked again. Single businesses get 300 texts a month; Agency 5 shares 750 texts a month across clients and Agency 10 shares 1,500.

There's more around it. A win-back campaign asks past customers for reviews, a few a day, which is a quick way to wake up a new client's listing in the first month. And every Friday, the business owner gets a text with the reviews gained that week.

Set it up once, and every paid invoice does the asking.

Does either tool use review gating?

Review gating is when a tool asks customers to rate you first and only sends the happy ones to Google, and Google's rules prohibit it.

Google's review policy says businesses must not selectively solicit positive reviews. For agencies this is a real risk, because getting it wrong could harm a client's listing.

Review Builder gives every customer the same Google link, with no star filter. Unhappy customers also get a private feedback link to tell the business first, but it is never a gate and never blocks the route to Google.

Grade.us uses a review funnel landing page. Its plans page doesn't describe whether ratings filter anything, so we won't make a claim. If you use one, check that every customer can reach the Google review option, whatever they think of the job.

Which tool connects to your clients' software?

Growth Bull's Review Builder starts requests from paid invoices in Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent, HubSpot and Pipedrive, while Grade.us relies on its API, Zapier and a WordPress plugin.

Why does this matter? Because automation only works if the tool knows a job is done. An electrician whose invoices live in Sage, or a clinic billing through QuickBooks, can switch on Review Builder and forget about it. With Grade.us, you'd likely build a Zapier link or rely on the client uploading contacts.

A technical agency can, of course, use Grade.us's API to wire it into almost anything.

Can Grade.us or Growth Bull prove reviews are lifting rankings?

Growth Bull can, because the rest of the suite tracks map, search and AI results for every client; Grade.us doesn't offer rank tracking or AI visibility.

A few plain definitions. The map pack is the box of three businesses with a map at the top of Google for local searches. A rank grid checks map position from lots of points around a business, because results change depending on where the searcher is. Keyword tracking follows where a website appears in Google's normal results. AI visibility shows whether AI assistants name the business when asked for a recommendation.

Here's what every Growth Bull client gets:

• Rank Map checks 49 points every week, around six miles across, and names who holds number one wherever the business doesn't.
• Keyword Tracker checks Google rankings every morning from the client's own town or nationwide, on desktop or mobile, with every result kept forever.
• AI Visibility, Growth Bull's commercial AI visibility tracking, asks ChatGPT, Claude and Google's AI the buying questions customers actually ask ("Who's the best roofer near me?"), from the business's own town, and shows whether you're recommended, whether your website is cited, and who is recommended instead.

For an agency, that's the story clients want: more reviews this month, more places on the map where they're in the top three, and AI assistants now naming them. With Grade.us you'd add separate trackers, perhaps from our best local rank tracking tools list. If you need very large grids or Apple Maps, see Growth Bull vs Local Falcon.

How much do Grade.us and Growth Bull cost?

Grade.us costs around $124 a month for one location billed monthly (checked October 2026), while Growth Bull's Review Builder costs $89 a month and Complete Growth, the all-in-one plan, costs $169.

Prices per month, checked October 2026.

For a single business, Review Builder costs less than Grade.us's monthly plan, and upgrading to Complete Growth is where Growth Bull outshines single-purpose tools. No competitor at this price combines automated review requests, a map rank grid, daily keyword tracking and commercial AI visibility tracking in one hub.

For a small agency, Agency 5 at $289 a month gets five clients going with every tool, while Grade.us's agency plan starts at $400 for ten seats.

Growth Bull has no contract and you can cancel any month. Every plan has a 7-day free trial, and agency trials save a card but take nothing until the trial ends.

How does white label compare for agencies?

Growth Bull is also a white label platform: agencies and freelancers run every tool for every client under their own brand, with white label reports in their logo and colors sent automatically. Grade.us white labels its review tool, including a custom domain, on every plan.

With Growth Bull, weekly or monthly PDF reports go to each client's own email in your logo and colors, replies come back to you, and the Growth Bull name doesn't appear on them. You can add notes on the work you've done, and you get up to 10 team logins and a client switcher. If you give a client their own hub login, the hub itself shows Growth Bull.

The bigger difference is what the reports contain. Grade.us reports on reviews. Growth Bull reports on reviews, map rankings, keyword positions and AI recommendations together, which makes your retainer far easier to justify.

And that's where Review Builder earns its keep for an agency. Every week the client sees new Google reviews arriving, then sees the map and AI results that follow, all under your name. Clients who can see the work paying off stay longer, so it helps reduce churn and raise the lifetime value of every client you sign.

Our Growth Bull vs AgencyAnalytics comparison goes deeper on agency reporting.

Where Grade.us is better

Grade.us is a specialist in agency review management, and in a few places it goes deeper.

• Custom domain on every plan. If you want your own web address on every screen clients see, Grade.us includes it even on the cheapest plan.
• Very large client books. If all you need is review management across dozens of locations, per-location prices falling to $31 suit that scale.
• Fine-tuned campaigns. Email, SMS and MMS sequences give agencies that like to tailor every message more levers to pull.
• Developer access. An API, Zapier and a WordPress plugin suit technical teams.

Where Growth Bull is better

Growth Bull is better for local businesses and for agencies who want to prove results, not just send requests.

• Review Builder leads the way. Growth Bull's flagship review automation tool sends one text and one email after every paid invoice, with one polite reminder and no repeats for people who've already reviewed. Clients see it working every week.
• Built to keep clients. Reviews and rankings climbing under your brand help reduce churn and raise client lifetime value.
• Win-back and private feedback. Past customers can be asked a few a day, and unhappy customers get a private feedback link that is never a gate.
• Requests start from paid invoices. Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent, HubSpot and Pipedrive connect directly, with no Zapier to build or maintain.
• Everything in one hub. Map grid, 50 tracked keywords and commercial AI visibility tracking are included for every agency client, so reports show cause and effect.
• Who holds #1, named. Rank Map shows exactly which competitor holds the top spot wherever your client doesn't.
• AI answers covered, Claude included. ChatGPT, Claude and Google's AI are checked every week, asked from the client's own town.
• Lower entry price for agencies. $289 a month for five clients with every tool, against Grade.us's $400 minimum for ten seats.
• Published text allowances, no contract. 300 texts a month, or 750 and 1,500 shared on agency plans, and you can cancel any month.

Which should you choose?

Here's how it plays out for different readers.

If you're a roofer or plumber who invoices in Xero or QuickBooks, Growth Bull is simpler and cheaper. Requests go out on their own, and Rank Map shows whether you're climbing in the map pack.

If you run a dental clinic or salon that wants to be recommended by AI assistants as well as on Google Maps, Complete Growth covers reviews, rankings and AI visibility in one price.

If you're a freelancer or agency with five to ten local clients, Growth Bull's Agency 5 or Agency 10 gives every client Review Builder, Rank Map, Keyword Tracker Plus and AI Visibility, plus branded reports sent automatically. It's the easiest way to show clients results they can see, week after week.

If you run a national or multi-location brand, Growth Bull turns every paid invoice into a Google review request at volume and tracks every location; book a call with Tom to set it up.

If you're a large agency reselling review management only, under your own custom domain, Grade.us is built for exactly that.

If you run on field-service software, compare Growth Bull vs NiceJob too. For feedback surveys and multi-site monitoring, see Growth Bull vs GatherUp.

Want to see it for yourself? Start a 7-day free trial at growthbull.io/signup, or book a call with me and I'll show you how Review Builder and the rest of the suite would work for you or your clients.