By Alex Host, founder of Hosted Reviews and operator of Top Care Cleaning — Updated 2026-05-04
I run Top Care Cleaning and built Hosted Reviews. Read this knowing I'm biased toward my own product. I will tell you exactly when a competitor is the better fit.
Footnote on NiceJob's ownership: NiceJob was acquired by Thryv. This may affect long-term pricing and product direction — verify current ownership and roadmap before purchasing. Footnote re-checked May 2026.
NiceJob is the tool I looked at most carefully before building Hosted Reviews. It is the closest competitor in spirit — SMB-focused, local-service-oriented, no enterprise pricing bloat. I spent real time in their platform. I looked at their integrations, their SMS flow, and their pricing tiers before deciding to build something instead.
This article exists because there is no honest comparison of these two tools written by someone who has skin in the game. I have skin in the game. That means you should read critically — but it also means I have real opinions, not placeholder language.
Here's where NiceJob wins and where it doesn't.
Who NiceJob Is Built For
NiceJob targets local service businesses: cleaning, HVAC, plumbing, landscaping, pest control. Their website is populated with home-service case studies and testimonials from trades operators. The entry plan sits at $75/month.
Their headline numbers are real: G2 4.8/5 across 416 reviews and Capterra 4.9/5 across 202 reviews as of May 2026. Those are the highest ratings in this competitive set. When a cleaning company operator asks what the most-reviewed, highest-rated SMB review tool looks like, the honest answer is NiceJob.
The platform is built around CRM-triggered review requests. You connect NiceJob to Jobber, Housecall Pro, QuickBooks, or ServiceTitan, and post-job review invitations fire automatically. Zero manual action after setup. For a Jobber user running 10+ jobs per day, that automation genuinely removes friction.
Who Hosted Reviews Is Built For
Sub-50-employee local service businesses. $29/$49/month. Built by Top Care Cleaning — a 45-year cleaning company based in Grandville, Michigan, that currently sits at 4.9 stars across 373 Google reviews.
The product came out of a field problem, not a market research report. Top Care sent 70 SMS review requests in a test cohort and got a 21% conversion rate — 15 reviews collected. That experiment revealed two things that mattered: the send-day distribution was wildly uneven (Tuesday generated 35% of conversions; Wednesday generated 7%), and per-technician performance varied more than any other variable (Jayden converted 31% of his 13 sends; Parker converted 10% of 21).
Hosted Reviews is built to surface those numbers so an operator can act on them.
Pricing Comparison
| Plan | NiceJob | Hosted Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | $75/month | $29/month |
| Growth tier | $125/month (Pro) | $49/month |
| Website bundle | $174/month + $199 setup | — |
| Enterprise | Custom | — |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card | 14 days, no card |
| Contracts | None | None |
Price alone is not the story, though. Integration depth changes the math — covered in the next section.
Source: NiceJob Pricing Page.
SMS: Where the Approaches Diverge
NiceJob's SMS flow works like this: a text message goes out with the review invitation. If the customer doesn't click through, email follow-ups fire — up to three emails over 14 days. The platform is better described as email-primary with an SMS entry point than truly SMS-first. The subsequent conversation — reminders, follow-ups, nudges — all happen via email after that first text.
Hosted Reviews conducts the full exchange via SMS. Twilio toll-free number, two-way conversation through the review funnel. The reminder is a text, not an email. The funnel screen is a text response, not a form submission.
Why does this matter? Top Care's reminder CTR via SMS sits at 35%. Email reminder rates in the service industry typically run 5–15%. The channel matters to the conversion. If you're betting on follow-through from a customer who is in their work van at 4pm, SMS is a different proposition than email.
Funnel Screening: The Gap
NiceJob has no pre-publication negative feedback intercept. After the initial review invite, customers go directly to Google or Facebook. There is no NPS-style gate that routes unhappy customers to private feedback before they reach a public review site.
NiceJob does monitor reviews and alert owners to new reviews for rapid response — reactive, not preventive.
Hosted Reviews has real-time funnel screening. Low scorers are routed to a private feedback channel before they ever see the public review prompt. They never get the link to Google.
Here is why this matters in practice: in Top Care's SMS cohort, 46% of respondents started the review form but did not finish. Without funnel screening, that dropout population has nowhere to go. With screening, the low-scorers among those dropouts are captured privately rather than hitting Google with a 1-star review the next day out of frustration.
CRM Integrations: NiceJob's Genuine Strength
This section is where NiceJob wins, and I'm not going to bury it.
NiceJob has native integrations with Jobber, Housecall Pro, QuickBooks, and ServiceTitan. When a job is marked complete in any of those platforms, the review request fires automatically. No CSV uploads, no manual triggers, no remembering to send. It just runs.
Hosted Reviews uses CSV imports and webhooks. There is no native Jobber or Housecall Pro integration at V1.
If you run Jobber and your primary pain is that you forget to send review requests after jobs, NiceJob solves that problem directly. That is a genuine advantage — not a marketing claim.
Multiple G2 reviewers note "seamless integration with Jobber and Housecall Pro" as the primary reason they stay on NiceJob. That pattern is worth taking seriously.
Features NiceJob Has That Hosted Reviews Doesn't (and Vice Versa)
NiceJob advantages:
- Referral automation — built-in referral campaign system, no equivalent in Hosted Reviews V1
- Booking reminders — re-engagement automation for repeat customers (Pro plan)
- AI review reply generation — automated response drafts for incoming reviews (Pro plan)
- Website builder — Grow + Sites plan adds a NiceJob-managed website at $174/month + $199 setup
- Broader social sharing tools — auto-post top reviews to social profiles
- Highest G2/Capterra ratings in the SMB category
Hosted Reviews advantages:
- Price — 37–61% less expensive at equivalent tiers
- Funnel screening — real-time SMS-based pre-publication intercept
- True SMS-first — full conversation conducted via text, not SMS entry + email follow-ups
- 10-minute setup — no CRM integration required to start
- Operator-validated — every feature decision comes from a real cleaning business in the field
- No credit caps or per-message fees on the Twilio integration
The Honest Recommendation
Choose NiceJob if:
- You're on Jobber or Housecall Pro and want zero-touch automation after job close
- Referral campaigns are part of your growth strategy
- You want the highest-rated tool in the SMB review category and G2/Capterra social proof matters in your buying process
- You want AI review response drafts on incoming reviews
Choose Hosted Reviews if:
- The $29 vs $75 price difference is meaningful for your monthly budget
- You want real funnel screening — the pre-publication intercept for unhappy customers
- Your CRM is not on NiceJob's native integration list (or you don't use a field-service CRM)
- You want a true SMS-first flow, not SMS entry + email follow-up
- You prefer a product built and tested by an operator in the same industry
Frequently Asked Questions
Is NiceJob worth it for a small cleaning company?
If you run Jobber or Housecall Pro and want automated review requests that fire without any manual work, NiceJob's $75/month entry plan is a reasonable investment. The G2/Capterra ratings (4.8/4.9) reflect genuinely positive user experience. The caveat: you are paying for integrations that require a compatible CRM, and the platform is email-primary after the initial text. If you want SMS-first and funnel screening, the feature set differs at the same price point.
Does NiceJob work without Jobber or Housecall Pro?
Yes — NiceJob works via Zapier for other CRMs and supports manual contact imports. The value proposition is strongest with native integrations, though. Without them, you are using a $75/month tool the same way you'd use a $29/month tool.
Does Hosted Reviews integrate with field service CRMs?
Not natively at V1. Hosted Reviews uses CSV uploads and webhook-based triggers. Native Jobber and Housecall Pro integration is on the roadmap. If you need zero-touch CRM automation now, NiceJob is the honest answer.
What happened to NiceJob's ownership?
NiceJob was acquired by Thryv. Thryv is a publicly traded business software company that also owns Thryv CRM, THRYVPay, and other SMB tools. The acquisition means NiceJob's long-term pricing and product roadmap may shift in line with Thryv's platform strategy. It does not mean the product is being discontinued — but it is worth verifying the current status before committing to an annual plan. Source: competitor research, May 2026.
Which tool sends more SMS messages — NiceJob or Hosted Reviews?
NiceJob sends one SMS (the initial review invite) and then shifts to email follow-ups. Hosted Reviews conducts the full conversation via SMS — initial invite, funnel screen, and reminder all via text. If SMS volume and channel consistency matter to your conversion strategy, the approach differs materially.
Closing Block
The gap between NiceJob and Hosted Reviews comes down to three questions: Do you need deep CRM integration? Is price a constraint? Do you want funnel screening?
If the first answer is yes and you're on Jobber or Housecall Pro — NiceJob. If the second or third answer matters more — Hosted Reviews.
For a full breakdown of what NiceJob costs across their tiers, see the NiceJob pricing article. For how these tools stack up against the full competitive set, the best review management software roundup covers all six vendors.
Back to the Operator's Honest Buyer's Guide for the full pillar context.
Try Hosted Reviews free for 14 days — no card required. Start your free trial at app.hostedreviews.com
I built this product. My numbers are above. Make your own call.
About the Author
Alex Host is the founder of Hosted Reviews and an operator of Top Care Cleaning (Grandville, MI) — a 45-year-old cleaning business with 4.9 stars across 373 Google reviews. He built Hosted Reviews after evaluating every major review tool in the market and deciding none of them were built for an operator running a sub-50-employee local service business. More at hostedbrands.com/about.