"I like the control and the communication BrightLocal offers over Yext. I have more access to my listings and more ability to correct them."
Noelle Geiger
Ameravant
✔️ With BrightLocal, you own your listings. Once they’re created, we hand them over and they are yours to keep. They won’t revert back if you leave.
❌ Yext requires costly annual fees and holds your listings to ransom. If you decide you want to leave, they’ll change back and you lose control. Escape the cycle.
✔️ Build the listings that really matter for your business, paying a low cost for each one.
❌ Yext offers a cookie-cutter approach to local listings, with the same set, no matter who you are. An approach that doesn’t cut it anymore.
✔️ BrightLocal uncovers niche sites specific to your industry and/or location.
❌ With its limited network, Yext often overlooks valuable listing opportunities perfect for your business.
✔️ Direct submissions allow us to ensure every listing is updated and managed accurately. Our customers love the personal approach.
❌ Yext is fully automated but offers zero flexibility and no human touch.
✔️ BrightLocal offers a suite of tools specifically created for local businesses, to help improve your local marketing.
❌ Yext has no local rank tracking or other local-specific analytics tools.
✔️ Our agency-friendly white-label options allow you to customize client reports with your logo and brand colors.
❌ Yext offers no white-label solutions for agencies.
When we launched Active Sync, we made managing your listings simple and cost-effective. We offer direct connections to the key listing platforms and let you manage them in one place, for a fraction of the cost of providers like Yext.
The table below compares Yext pricing for the ‘Complete’ plan against BrightLocal’s Citation Builder service.
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cost | ||
| Pay Once, No Recurring Fee |  |  |
| No. of Sites in Network | ||
| Manual Submissions | | |
| Data Aggregator Submissions | | |
| Price Aggregator Submissions | ||
| Ability to order Aggregators individually | | |
| Build New Listings | | |
| Update Existing Listings | | |
| Claim Listings | | |
| Data is Permanent | | |
| Remove Duplicate Listings | | |
| Detailed Reports | | |
| Countries Available in |  |
Our cost-effective, one-time fee means that you’ll be saving from year one, and as much as $2,495 over 5 years!
Where Yext charges you $499 per year, per location, you can create an equivalent campaign with BrightLocal for just a $208 one-off payment, per location.
Yext would cost as much as $50k a year to a brand with 100 locations. With BrightLocal you’d pay $20.8k, just once.
See how we helped one agency reduce their annual spend on listings by as much as 79%.
Unlike Yext, we don't:
Unlike Yext we offer full flexibility in the choice of sites that you can build listings on. This allows you to build on 100s of sites, or just a select few.
For an equivalent campaign to Yext, the breakdown would look like:
Total = $208 (one-off payment)
For details on switching from Yext to BrightLocal, see our Yext Replacement Service.
Yext is location management software that can automatically update business information across major online directories and search engines. The company itself is situated in New York City, NY in the US. The software the company provides can update existing citations on the web or create new listings for your business. The types of information which can be inputted include:
As well as listing management services, Yext software also provides additional features. Depending on your Yext package, these may or may not be available upon signing up. These include tools such as Yext Reviews (Review monitoring), Yext Pages (Web page creation), and Yext Analytics (data dashboard).
Compare Yext against BrightLocal and 5 alternative citation building services.
Yext works by submitting your business information to its listing network (known as the PowerListings network). Depending on the data you provide, it will fill out the forms needed to get your business found across multiple sites.
These sites include search providers such as Apple, Bing, Facebook and Google and local directories like Yelp, CitySearch and MapQuest, giving you better exposure for potential customers to find you, and assisting your website’s search engine rankings.
The Yext PowerListing network currently contains 84 total sites, but submissions may vary depending on which country your business is in, as not all listings will be relevant.
Quick submission: You can get your business information up and running on listings within 72 hours of submitting to Yext.
Automatic distribution: One of the reasons Yext can submit quickly is due its automatic platform. Input your business info and nothing further is required.
Review monitoring: If you’re on the Yext Premium plan, you gain the ability to monitor reviews across the web, which can be useful for your company’s reputation management
Listing analytics: Yext analytics provides the ability to easily monitor how your listings are appearing in search, how many clicks they gain, and terms which bring up your business.
You are locked into paying an annual subscription to keep your listings live: Even if you don’t need to make any changes to your business listings, each year you still have to pay an annual fee to keep your listings live on the Yext network.
Listings will revert back to their pre-Yext state upon cancellation: One of the biggest Yext disadvantages is that if you decide to no longer subscribe, your listings will go back to how they appeared pre-Yext. This means you’re continually tied in to the Yext system instead of more flexible and more affordable alternatives.
Complicated dashboard: The user interface for Yext is largely focused around single businesses, so if you have a business with multiple locations you may find navigation on the platform quite challenging.
Limited network of websites for listings: When using Yext, you’re tied into the submission network which they operate. There is a huge amount of citation sites that Yext don’t cover in its network and your only option to submit to these would be manual input – which obviously takes up precious time!
Inconsistent review monitoring: Although Yext does offer review monitoring as an option – it is very limited. The review network does not contain many sites so reviews are often missed or not shown.
No local ranking tracking: Many SEO experts say that by listing your local business on citation sites your overall search rankings will increase. Having a ranking tracker is therefore particularly useful in order to see rankings increase and optimize where necessary.
No white-label support: If you are running an SEO or marketing agency then the chances are you require an open book when it comes to white-label support. Unfortunately, Yext reports contain icons unique to them, meaning your clients can easily discover Yext and go direct to them instead.
Limited API: If your business is looking to integrate with the API from Yext then you will notice some fairly inconsistent data missing which is still present within the Yext dashboard itself.
Yext will overwrite profiles: If you’ve set up existing business listings which Yext submits to, then they will be overwritten when you request submissions through Yext. So that great Yelp description you spent ages writing? It will be completely gone.
Yext offers four plans, starting at $199 a year.
Emerging Plan - $199/yr
The 'Emerging' Yext plan includes listings on MerchantCircle, ELocal and 30 other non-premium websites.
Essential Plan - $499/yr
The 'Essential' Yext plan includes listings on key sites, including Facebook, Google, Yelp, and more.
Complete Plan - $499/yr
The 'Complete' plan includes the full 'Emerging' and 'Essential' packages alongside PowerListings+ and Analytics.
Premium Plan - $999/yr
The 'Premium' Yext plan contains everything from the other three packages, plus Review Monitoring and Yext Pages.