If you're on the lookout for an integrated business solution that allows your business to thrive - whether you're a freelancer, a small or mid-size business, or a large company - Vendasta is a great tool you want to try.
Vendasta is a digital marketing platform that offers a wide range of marketing solutions to small and medium businesses. The Vendasta platform empowers local businesses, agencies, and other small businesses with the tools and resources they need to become top competitors in their respective niches.
Even though it is primarily targeted at media companies and marketing agencies, the platform is designed for all types of organizations.
In the Vendasta Review, we will consider the features of Vendasta, the positive and negative reviews of past and existing users, pricing, and overall rating of the platform.
Vendasta Review Summary
What does Vendasta do?
The very short answer is that Vendasta is software built to help local businesses and agency owners succeed with digital marketing.
But that's not all that Vendasta does. In fact, that's only a general way of describing the broad spectrum of Vendasta services. Vendasta’s main goal is to help organizations succeed by providing the opportunity to sell top software and digital solutions to clients (local business owners).
So, here is the gist: assume your company is a digital marketing agency specializing in helping other business owners reach their clients and generate more leads. You can become a partner with Vendasta to offer cutting-edge marketing automation tools, as well as client management, and lead generation solutions to your customers.
Your target customers would, of course, be local business clients that need these solutions to improve their businesses.
While the Vendasta team, at the backend, is responsible for providing you with customized solutions in your business name and branded with your own logo, your target would be to use this software to deliver results to your client companies.
Vendasta uses data and artificial intelligence to provide the perfect platform that allows B2-B sellers to offer new marketing tactics and resources to local businesses.
Common features included on the platform are project management, white label local SEO, reputation management, detailed task reports, snapshot reports, marketing automation, and a collaborative customer relationship management (CRM) system. Vendasta is way more expansive than this, but we will focus on the core parts.
Who is Vendasta for?
Vendasta is built for any agency that helps local businesses with online marketing. This includes:
Marketing agency owners
Broadcast media company
Newspapers
Publishers
Marketing tech/Adtech companies
ICT firms
Telcos, MSPs, VARs
Local businesses
Technology Platforms (ISVs)
Unfortunately, Vendasta isn't for you if you suck at online marketing. Most local businesses find themselves in this situation - and that's probably why Vendasta focuses more on professional agencies.
These agencies then deliver the Vendasts as customized solutions to local businesses. Vendasta calls these companies Cloud Brokers, Channel Partners, or Trusted Local Experts.
Vendasta Pricing
Choosing the right Vendasta pricing can be overwhelming, as there are several subscription plans. However, the Individual plan starts with a monthly plan of $99/month and goes all the way up to $999/month for Advance subscribers. The available plans are:
Free plan
With the Free Plan, you can access two key environments: the Partner Center and the Business App. You don't have to pay anything for using this plan, and it is great for attracting and retaining more customers.
Why should you choose this plan?
No commitment or credit card is required.
Works well for small businesses and startups.
Good if you need to acquire and retain more customers
Access basic features
Why you should not choose this plan?
Most functionalities are restricted
You cannot opt for personal branding or customization.
Individual plan
The startup plan is the most basic Vendasta paid plan. It starts at $99 and doesn't come with anything advanced. You can use this package if you are looking to attract new customers as well as onboard and retain them. Most startup companies will be comfortable using this option.
Why should you choose this plan?
You don't have to pay annually on monthly plans
Great for new businesses or small businesses
Comes with five free local business online toolkits
Helps you acquire and retain new customers
Also includes all basic features in the free package
Why you should Not choose this plan?
Emails are capped at 2,500 emails/month.
Comes with only one team member seat
Team plan
This plan is ideal for organizations that already have a customer base and are looking to establish themselves as experts in their field. Before switching to the Team plan, you might want to begin with the Individual plan. This way, you can identify which services you need the most and how you can maximize your subscription to achieve your business goals.
Why should you choose this plan?
Includes all the basic features.
Allows you to create personalized branding for business promotion
Includes additional toolkits and snapshot reports.
Good for companies that want to be known as experts in the field.
Includes five seats
Why you should Not choose this plan?
Can be pricey.
You need to sign up for an annual subscription to the monthly plan.
Custom plan
As the name implies, the Custom Plan is great for organizations that need the system configured for enterprise operations. If a company is looking to grow and expand its footprint on the market. The Custom Plan offers business management features that allow a company to grow its customer base consistently with their brand.
Why should you choose this plan?
Includes features for personalized branding.
Enjoy gray-labeled advertising and marketing
Reputation management
You get to enjoy a 45% wholesale discount rate and access to volume discounts
Ideal for overall company growth
Contains 10 seats for collaboration.
Why you should Not choose this plan?
Requires a $750 onboarding fee for the monthly plan.
You need to sign up for an annual subscription to the monthly plan.
Does not allow for complete branding or personalization.
Pricey for small businesses and startups
Scale plan
We recommend Vendasta Scale plan for established companies who are looking to step up their game in the market or improve the service offering their customers. This package offers great features to achieve that, and it includes collaborative tools that allow you and your team to work effectively and efficiently.
Why should you choose this plan?
Includes features for collaboration opportunities.
Best plan for large organizations
Business management options
Offers you white-labeled advertising and marketing
Complete branding and personalization opportunities.
65% wholesale discount rate and access to volume discounts.
Why you should Not choose this plan?
Requires a $1,500 onboarding fee for a monthly subscription
You need to sign up for an annual subscription to the monthly plan.
Pricey for small and mid-sized businesses and startups
Enterprise plan
For a company to use the Enterprise Plan, they would need to contact the Vendasta team to discuss their business needs. With the Enterprise Plan, large-scale enterprises with a wider range of customer bases can go out of their way to provide great services to their customers. Vendasta provides customized services to such companies to enable provide the most customized plans to achieve their specific needs.
How does Vendasta's billing work?
Vendasta enables you to effectively bill your clients. But aside from billing your clients, you need to also understand how Vendasta bills you.
How you bill your customers?
Since Vendasta is a client-focused service, it is expected that they integrate a billing system that makes it easy for their partners or enterprises using Vendasta products and services to send invoices to their clients and accept payments via the platform.
The Vendasta team has included payment features that allow organizations to accept credit card payments through Stripe. You can also generate invoices based on the subscription of your clients and their product renewal dates. Also, keep in mind that credit card payments are only currently available in the US and Canada.
How Vendasta bills you
You'll get an invoice from Vendasta at the beginning of every month. This includes all the products and services you have subscribed to in the previous month and your subscription for the current month. If you haven't switched plans or purchased additional services, you can expect the same amount to be in your invoice as the previous month.
Note that all Vendasta partners are required to have a credit card on file. This will be debited automatically from your registered card. Cards accepted on the Vendasta platform include Visa, Mastercard, and Amex cards.
Is Vendasta Support Reliable?
According to reviews, Vendasta customer support has been fantastic. All partners get accurate support cutting across business management, technical issues, pricing plans, and customization & branding solutions. But note that phone support seems to be limited to higher-paying clients.
If you are using a free subscription or basic startup plan, you might be stuck with chats and emails. But really, it shouldn't be a concern as long as you're getting the support you need as a partner. Also, the higher up you are on the ladder as a partner, you’ll be assigned a team of dedicated account managers to oversee your overall business needs.
More Details About Vendasta Pricing plans
Here's a simplified breakdown of components that make up each Vendasta service subscription.
Vendasta subscriptions: Subscriptions range from about $42/month to $1,150/month. There’s a "free forever" plan, but it doesn't hold much weight and won’t meet your business needs in the long run. But you can save up to 25% on subscriptions if you go for the annual plans.
Product costs: Vendasta sells to B2B businesses at wholesale prices and they can resell to their clients. If lowering costs and increasing your wholesale markup becomes necessary, you can go for a higher subscription plan to get better discounts.
Onboarding fees: All subscriptions besides the free plan and Startup plan have onboarding fees ranging from $750 to $1,500. You can pay annually to have the onboarding fee wave.
Seats: You pay for Seats if you have staff members, such as salespeople, marketers, fulfillment professionals, and administrators who will use Vendasta. Each subscription comes with a certain number of seats. Extras are, however, available at additional cost.
Prospecting and email usage: Vendasta includes two different client prospecting tools in every subscription to help you effectively market new clients. These are the Snapshot Report and Local Business Online Toolkits. You can also send a certain number of emails from the Vendasta marketing automation system, for $2,500 to 250,000 emails per month.
Add-ons and other services: Vendasta partners can add more services to their plans, including strategy sessions and new websites for their own company. They also offer assistance for organizations that need technical assistance with APIs and SSO.
According to an ex-head of marketing at Vendasta, subscribers should go for the products and services on the Vendasta marketplace that solves their core business needs, and then choose a plan that fits their growth trajectory later.
Vendasta Review: Features
Vendasta does offer local businesses a wide range of business support services and products to choose from.
Efficient Sales CRM
With Vendasta’s intuitive (CRM) system that uses artificial intelligence, you sell smarter and can maintain a constant stream of new clients. You can also contact Vendasta support for customized services. Vendasta CRM system helps you save time, and provides you with effective sales pipeline management and prospect analyses so you know when your customers are ready to buy.
Other functionalities that you enjoy with the CRM system include client dashboard optimization for conversion, collaboration opportunities management, closed-loop reporting, task management, meeting scheduling, and email marketing automation.
Commitment-Free Selling
You can find several selling options on Vendasta’s marketplace. You can sell your inventory or new white label products. Companies don't have to pay any upfront costs for this feature and it also includes optimizing your website or binding an online store, stocking up your inventory, etc.
Automated Sales Intelligence Tool
Vendasta snapshot report is one of the features to help companies deliver needs assessments to determine all the products and services they need. It has automated insights that enable you to deliver well-informed presentations.
With Vendasta, you can gather feedback and access the performance of your clients across various channels, including social media, Google ads, website, etc.
Marketing Automation
The marketing automation software is one of the products that Vendasta subscribers can use to improve the performance of their clients. You can use this feature to automate repetitive everyday tasks and generate new leads using personalized content and email campaigns. the software platform is equipped with customizable email campaigns, insightful analysis reports, etc.
Online Marketing Fulfillment
With the task manager functionality, you can keep a clear track of your projects, workflows, and progress. The online marketing fulfillment dashboard tool helps you to manage internet marketing needs, such as reputation management, driving engagement and awareness, onboarding, social posts and mentions, and managing reviews - all in one dashboard.
Business App Platform and Dashboard
Vendasta's Business App (this is your “Shop” where your customers buy services from you), is an online client-facing dashboard. This feature allows you to give your clients the power to manage their online strategy using products, recommendations, learning tools, etc. it is also ideal for driving sales, increasing client retention, selling products, performance reporting, SEO, and many more.
Brand Management
Vendasta also allows you to manage the branding of your customers using a multi-location feature that lets you easily monitor their online activity. It also affords you insights on many issues, including user access management, customer complaints, performance among locations, and improvement areas. This way, you take control of customers' online reputation management.
Sell Products and Services
With the Vendasta app, you form a valuable partnership with the team, which provides you the opportunity to market your business to prospects in the most professional style. You can sell to your local business customers using the public store and collect payment easily. You can securely request and collect payments.
Sales and Success Center
The Vendasta Success Center is a lightweight CRM that comes included with your Vendasta subscription. They developed it when the CEO got sick of paying for Salesforce and thought they could build something better. In many ways, they did. The downsides? Little functionality for sales managers and few integrations.
Additional Functionalities
If you need additional services to grow and promote your clients' businesses, the Vendasta platform also gives you access to several other features in the form of add-ons. However, these are only available at additional costs. Here is a brief rundown of additional solutions that Vendasta offers, along with several other plans.
Create an Agency Website
This particular add-on allows members to create an agency website that is specifically built and customized for their business. It is a good addition to your clients' business management arsenal. Additionally, the site will be integrated into the snapshot reports to ensure accurate tracking.
Build Partnerships for Guidance and Strategy
The Partner Strategy Consultation add-on is another business management service provided on the Vendasta platform to enable agencies and other users to build profitable partnerships with the companies or clients they work with. The feature allows you to have monthly sessions with a Partner Development Manager. This will help to provide additional business guidance and suggestions on the best market strategies.
Work With a Technical Consultant
This ad-on/service gives your team access to monthly sessions with a consultant specialized in your niche. By working with a consultant, you will be able to get answers to bugging technical issues, if any, and ask questions on other technical topics. For example, you can get professional support on topics like API and SSO/SAML integrations.
Integrate Additional Markets
With the addition of this service, you can access better management tools. For example, you can use separate branding, added salesperson, and industry-level account organization.
Vendasta Pros
The free plan does not require any card but you need one for the free trials on any paid plan.
Responsive customer support center
A wide array of services and products
Efficient digital solutions
Ability to feel using Vendasta brand
Wide range of resources.
Snapshot reports and detailed activity reports
A variety of services are available for reselling.
Increased online presence and visibility.
Vendasta Cons
Steep learning curve
Few integrations
You can't edit already submitted proposals and invoices.
Pricing is expensive for small and mid-sized businesses or startups.
Single Sign-On attracts extra fees
Vendasta is a complex platform
You can only use full branding and white-labeled services on two plans.
Recommendation
Vendasta is a robust, solution-driven business solution platform that offers true partnership and value to its clients. Although the complexity of the platform and high pricing plans may earn it a negative review from users, especially new partners, it is one of the best of its kind on the market.
Also, based on several Vendasta reviews by agency owners and the platform’s current service offering, it is obviously not a top-tier service. It's had a fair amount of positive reviews and negative reviews from users. But Vendasta is a great choice if you're looking to give your agency a productivity boost.
We recommend Vendasta's free trials for a start. You can choose a monthly plan that works best for you after that. Based on the reviews of past and current Vendasta employees, Vendasta is a tool that is worth the spend. You might also want to compare with other Vendasta alternatives to be sure you're getting the best offer.
