Vendasta Pricings per month are $99/mo, $499/mo, and $999/mo.
For yearly, it’s $79/mo, $399/mo, and $799/mo. That’s not it. You will also have to pay for their mandatory onboarding fee, ranging from $500 to $1500.
It’s just the tip of the iceberg. For additional snapshot reports, you have to pay $2/per report. Also, there will be additional cost per user if you want to add more users than 5 or 10, as per the plan.
The price seems okay for large digital marketing business models. But it’s definitely not worth it for most agencies.
We took a closer look at what Vendasta actually offers. This article breaks down everything to help you decide if it’s worth it or not.
Key Takeaways
- Vendasta’s true cost isn’t the $79-$799/mo subscription, but it charges $500-$2,500 as an onboarding fee. Plus, costs for seats and buying marketplace apps.
- The platform is optimized for large, high-volume reseller agencies, not for smaller teams.
- There are better alternatives, such as Agency Handy, that offer better value for core agency functions like project management.
What Does Vendasta Do?
As they claim, Vendasta is an all-in-one platform for digital marketing agencies to help SMB with their sales, customer support, competitor analysis, and creating digital footprints all across the internet.
It’s hard to say what Vendasta does within a single sentence.
For easy demonstration, let’s say you’re a digital marketer with or without a small team for scaling operations. Sara is your friend, who is extremely good at baking, and she has a pastry shop.
Sara reaches out to you to help her with creating a business webpage, do citations on listing websites, manage social media, run ads, do SEO stuff, and manage customer reviews. She knows doing these will help her business grow online.
Vendasta helps you provide all these services to your friend Sara with your own agency branding and logo.
So, basically you’re outsourcing services through Vendasta. Plus, you have responsibilities to help Sara with digital operations and marketing needed for her business to grow.
Got it? Probably 20%. This explanatory video will clear things further on how Vendasta works.
How is Vendasta Pricing Calculated?
Vendasta prices are influenced by the following 4 factors:
Add-on Snapshot Reports
Depending on what plan you pick, you can create 10, 25, and 50 snapshot reports. If you need to create more reports than the selected plan, the additional cost will be $2/report.
Per-Seat Cost
Respectively, you get 1, 5, and 10 members in the three plans. And for every additional team member, it would cost $30-$65/month, depending on the plan.
Mandatory Onboarding Fees
As it’s a complex software, they charge onboarding fees until you’re all set and ready to provide services. Onboarding plans cost from $500 to $2500, though these are one-time fees. This adds up to a massive amount with the total price of a plan.
And additional training sessions will cost you $250 more per session.
Marketplace Apps Prices
This is the most critical and variable factor. The monthly subscription is primarily an access fee for the platform.
To actually provide a service like Reputation Management, Local SEO, or AI-powered advertising, you must purchase that product from Vendasta’s Marketplace at a wholesale cost.
This cost is charged per client, per month, in addition to your subscription fee. Your bill will rise with every single product you activate for every client.
Your bill will rise with every single product you activate for every client. We’ve seen a similar pattern when looking at Recurly pricing, where the starter plan looks affordable upfront, but costs expand once you scale into advanced features.
Vendasta Pricing: A Complete Breakdown of Plans and Features
As a product selling and solution-focused ecosystem, Vendasta comes with 4 pricing plans customized for digital marketing agencies of different levels.
Vendasta reviews on each plan, including what comes with it, to give you a clear understanding of how it will help grow your agency business.
Vendasta Starter: $99/month ($79/mo Yearly)
Best for Solo Entrepreneurs and Small Agencies
This entry-level plan from Vendasta is ideal for small agency owners who don’t have an overwhelming number of clients to deal with.
From service creation and sending snapshot reports to prospects, to onboarding clients, CRM, launching marketing campaigns, and creating workflow automation, you can cover all of it with this plan.
However, you can send only 10 snapshot reports. But, for additional reports, Vendasta charges $2/report.
And this is only for 1 team member. This means you either have to control access yourself or hand it over to one of your team members.
Here are the top-most features this plan comes with:
- 10 Snapshot Reports
Vendasta helps you to create snapshot reports pointing out the prospect’s weakness, where the competitors have an advantage, etc. You can send only 10 snapshots with the Starter plan. If you want more, it’s $2 per additional snapshot.
- AI Workforce
AI handles the chat and answers queries, and collects emails. It also helps you with generating ideas, copy, and writing social media posts. The AI reputation specialist automatically replies to reviews given by users.
- CRM
Vendasta CRM helps you collect leads with detailed contact information, send follow-up emails, schedule appointments, create sales quotes, and assign tasks through the CRM.
- Workflow Automation
Without coding, you can automate workflows. You can set it to send a pre-written email to prospects if they request a snapshot report from your website. Send a “Happy Anniversary” email each year. Create tasks to follow up after a new lead signs the initial contract, and more.
Pros
- Access to marketplace of 250+ products and services
- Snapshot reports can onboard more clients
- Automates workflows reducing repetitions
- Comes with subscription management
Cons
- Expensive compared to other CRMs
- Requires $2/additional snapshots
Better Alternative: Agency Handy $19 Freelancer Plan
Agency Handy $19 freelancer plan stands to be a better alternative if white-label branding, a custom domain, a client portal, project management, time-tracking, and file feedback with annotations.
Even if you don’t need automation and AI assistance for client management, you still have to pay Vendasta $99/month.
Here’s what you will get from Agency Handy Freelancer plan –
- Lead management
- Client self-checkout
- Complete white label branding
- Custom domain
- Project management with Kanban board
- Time tracking
- File feedback and annotations
Vendasta Professional: $499/month ($399/mo for Yearly)
Ideal for Mid-sized Agencies
For those who want to do some serious agency stuff, this professional plan would meet their expectations. This plan allows up to 5 internal users to collaborate.
Your proposals and reports aren’t limited to 5 snapshots this time. You can do up to 25. If you want more snapshot reports, the additional cost remains the same, $2/snapshots.
Apart from lead nurturing and management, Vedensta scores your leads based on their data and activity level. This ensures you always approach the right leads, reducing time wastage.
While Vendasta mentions branding in the Starter plan, you can’t add a custom domain unless you upgrade to Professional. That gap often made us rethink the overall client portal pricing and whether easier, lower-cost options would serve them better.
From agency work, you would need a project management tool to organize projects and tasks, which this plan offers.
The most highlighted features of the Professional plan are as follows –
- Up to 5 Internal Users
Your agency’s operation would be more efficient with this plan. You can onboard up to 5 internal users and assign roles for different clients and projects.
- Lead Scoring
You’re not limited to just collecting leads. Vendasta allows you to score those leads based on their data and activities. You know which one is worth working on for the time being.
- Project Management
Your team members can create projects and tasks for clients, and even automate certain workflows. Clients will get automatic updates on projects without needing to send them manual emails.
- Advanced Financial Reports
Vendasta creates reports based on essential metrics like sales performance, revenue, billing, invoices, client engagement, etc., to get you a precise idea of what’s on track, and what needs improvement.
Pros
- Fully white label with custom domain
- Wholesale discount on marketplace products
- Lead scoring with advanced management
- Advanced reports on performance and engagement
- Project management tools give clients an auto update
Cons
- The mandatory onboarding fee adds $500 more
- $35/seat for more than 5 users
Better Alternative: Agency Handy $99 Team Starter Plan
For better agency management, if you need more than 5 internal users without any additional costs, Agency Handy’s Team Starter plan allows up to 10 users for $99/month. Plus, Vendasta white-label pricing is $399, compared to $99/mo with Agency Handy.
This is particularly recommended if your agency operations highly rely on human efforts rather than surface-level AI assistance. In other words, your clients require human engagement for both client and project management.
As a Vendasta alternative, here’s what Agency Handy Team Starter plan offers for agencies –
- Up to 10 internal users
- Custom email
- Complete project management with client auto update
- And everything from the Freelancer plan
Vendasta Premium: $999/month ($799/mo Yearly)
Ideal for Mid-sized Companies and Multiple Location Businesses
This premium plan packs advanced business and sales management features and tools for companies and businesses with multiple locations. Costs $799/month for yearly, and $999/month for monthly billed, you can do some serious business work with this plan.
To make sure no opportunity is missed, you can send up to 50 snapshot reports to potential clients. For large companies, the plan allows adding up to 10 internal users.
The key selling point of this plan is its ability to manage clients’ multi-location businesses through multiple client portals and detailed business reports for each location.
- 10 Internal Users
With the Premium plan, you can add up to 10 team members to maintain operational efficiency. As this plan is for multi-location business, adding 10 people would make sure everything is well maintained.
- 50 Snapshot Reports
The number of snapshot reports was very limited with the previous two plans.
But with this one, you don’t need to skip any opportunity to hunt potential clients. You prepare different reports, and if prospects like them, your client onboarding rate increases.
- Multi-location Business Management
If your client has multiple business branches or stores in different locations, this Premium plan allows you to manage all those from a single spot.
You will have control over businesses in different locations, and prepare customized sales plans, launch campaigns, and reports.
- Sales Goals Forecasting
As you can manage large businesses with this plan, it allows you to set different sales goals for different salespeople. Also, you can see how each salesperson is performing and who is the top performer.
Pros
- Manages multi-location businesses
- Best wholesale discounts on marketplace products
- Comes with a dedicated success manager
- Helps with managing sales pipeline and monitoring revenue targets
- Priority support from Vendasta
Cons
- Has a huge learning curve
- Most agencies might not even use some premium features
What Redditors Say About Vendasta Pricing
I’ve spent a lot of time digging through what agency owners are saying on subreddits. Their consensus is clear, the price you see on their website is just the starting line.
As one user candidly put it, “The one thing that really gets me is the way they have everything monetized… I really got the sense that Vendasta was going to nickel and dime me to death.” (r/DigitalMarketing)
Increasing Monthly Bills
This is probably the most critical thing you need to keep in mind. The real costs kick in when you start doing client work. You have to pay a separate wholesale fee for every service you activate, for every single one of your clients.
One agency owner shared just how real this gets: “Basically, I’ve sunk about $7,000 into this so far… Vendasta is not a ‘business in a box’ and requires a lot more know-how, and money, than they let on.” (r/DigitalMarketing)
Additional Snapshot Report Fees
Vendasta gives you a great tool for finding leads, the Snapshot Report. But then they put a limit on how much you can use it. Once you hit your monthly cap, you’re paying out of pocket for each report, $2 for each additional report.
You can hear the sigh in this comment: “You get 25 of them per month. Then, TWO DOLLARS each after that. I would be churning these things out like candy but they’ve throttled us down.” (r/DigitalMarketing)
Reseller Focus Platform
Vendasta’s model is an incredible engine for huge companies focused on reselling at scale. The math works for large businesses. For smaller agencies, it’s a different story.
Here’s the general takeaway from the SEO pros: “The general consensus is that it’s just not worth it unless you’re a massive agency with a huge book of business.” (r/SEO)
Caution for New Agencies
Finally, what does this all mean if you’re a new agency or a solopreneur? The clear message from other agency owners is that you must calculate each and everything if you’re considering Vendasta. Also, give a second thought to alternatives platforms and compare plans and features.
As one user in an agency forum wisely put it, “There are a lot of other options that aren’t nearly as expensive and offer more flexibility.” (r/agency)
The Best Alternative to Vendasta: Agency Handy
Feature-wise, Vendasta is an advanced software for agencies and businesses. But when it comes to real usage fields, it all boils down to whether you pay almost a thousand dollars for features you might not use.
On the other side, paying a few hundred for features you’ll use for agency and client management.
That being said, let’s see how Agency Handy stands as a practical Vendasta alternative for agencies in terms of price, team members, and useful features.
| Features | Vendasta | Agency Handy |
| Pricing Starts at | $99/mo | $19/mo |
| Onboarding Fee | $500-$2500 | No onboarding fee |
| Hidden Costs | Extra user costExtra snapshot | No hidden costs |
| Project Management | No Kanban board | Kanban board included |
| Team Size | 1 | 1 |
| Time Tracking | Requires paid add-on | Built-in feature |
| File Annotation Feedback | Not available | Advanced annotation tools |
| User Experience | Huge learning curve | Simple and organized |
| Ideal User | Large agencies | Small to large agencies |
No Hidden Onboarding Charge
Agency Handy doesn’t charge you a penny for onboarding your team or your clients. Whereas, Vendasta, being a complicated software, charges $500 – $2500 for you to onboard onto their platform.
So, whatever pricing plan you choose, this minimum onboarding charge adds up to the total cost.
Multipackage Service Listing
Regardless of how many services you provide, Agency Handy allows you to list and organize them in a catalog view. Also, under each service, you can add multiple packages with pricing.
With Vendasta, you can add multiple pricing packages, but it’s not as convenient as the catalog view. Also, you can’t group them with Vendasta.
Order Forms
Once clients choose a service, Agency Handy onboards them through an order form. Clients can then self checkout and complete payment without bothering your team.
Immediately after that, clients are welcomed through an intake form. You can customize it with different inputs needed for you to get all the information from clients to kick off projects.
Of course. Based on the direct, feature-focused writing style you provided, here is a rewritten version of that same content, maintaining a similar tone and pattern.
Superior Lead Management
Once people fill up your form, you get them as leads. Agency Handy lets you nurture those leads through an organized management tool. In a Kanban board, you can group them as “new”, “contacted”, “qualified”, “working”, “waiting”, “send proposals to”, etc. categories.
Vendasta also nurtures your leads through its AI workforce. This lacks manual approaches needed to turn those leads into clients.
Task Management
As per the order form, Agency Handy automatically creates tasks for each invoice paid by clients. With the Kanban board view, you can simply drag and drop tasks to pending, in-progress, reviewing, and complete sections.
Clients also see this board and get real-time project updates. No need to send multiple emails.
But with Vendasta, there’s no Kanban board. But clients do get automatic project updates when the assignee changes the task status.
Team Collaboration
For efficient agency management, Agency Handy allows adding 10 or 30 internal users in $99/month and $199/month plans.
Whereas Vendasta charges $999/month for you to add 10 internal users. And depending on which plan you choose, you will have to pay $35-$60/user/month.
So, Agency Handy is way more affordable than Vendasta from an agency perspective.
Time Tracking
For your agency, Agency Handy tracks the time of your individual employee to pay accurately and know who is working responsibly and who isn’t.
However, being an expensive business management software, Vendasta doesn’t come with the time tracking feature. You might get a time tracker tool from their tool marketplace paying separately.
File Feedback
As an agency-focused platform, Agency Handy allows your clients to give precise feedback using annotation tools. Depending on the type of projects, they can annotate, add remarks, highlight, and pinpoint on PDFs, images, videos, webpages, and more.
With Vendasta, you don’t get this advanced file feedback tool.
Add Multiple Workspaces
For large agencies and businesses, Agency Handy allows adding up to 5 workspaces or brands. Your brands will be controlled separately with different teams, client base, and permissions.
Also, you get a complete white-label branding throughout the client portal and other areas like invoices, forms, and contracts.
Vendasta is designed for working with multiple businesses and workspaces. But you’ll have to pay $499/month or $999/month to get the most out of it and have white-label branding all across the platform.
User Experience
Even people who use Vendasta for genuine purposes find it extremely complicated to use and figure out how things work. It’s one of those business tools with a huge learning curve. So unless you’re prepared for this, you won’t get the most out of your thousand-dollar investment.
- Overwhelming Choices of Tools
You can purchase business or service-related tools inside Vendasta. But the marketplace is filled with tools that aren’t that necessary. For every single tool that you might purchase to leverage your operations, it will add to the total cost.
- Pay a Premium for Unused Features
Vendasta is a complicated software, filled with features that come in useful for large businesses. Let’s say you go with the $499 plan. But the tools and features you will use would cost less than $200 with Vendasta alternatives. In such a case, you will have to pay $300 more for tools you will never use.
Conclusion
To conclude, if you’re about to purchase Vendasta, carefully research if you will be using their expensive marketing tools regularly or not.
If your agency operations will do just fine without those tools, Agency Handy would be the best bang for the buck, keeping things straightforward for agency work at an affordable cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Vendasta have any hidden costs?
Vendasta plans come with some additional costs that might be overlooked. They charge a minimum of $500 for onboarding, $30-$65 for each additional team member, $2 for an additional snapshot report.
Does Vendasta have any free trial?
Vendasta comes with a 14-day free trial. You can try the Starter plan for free. But for Professional, Premium, and custom Enterprise plans, you would have to request a demo.
Is Vendasta a CRM?
Vendasta comes with CRM functionalities integrated with other marketing tools. Their CRM helps your sales team find great leads by analyzing a local business’s online data to predict their needs.
Is Vendasta good for agencies?
Vendasta is good for cross-country large digital marketing agencies and businesses that deal with complex operations. Otherwise, Vendasta is too expensive for most digital marketing agencies and mid-businesses.
