AIStackForSMB

Delighted vs Grade.us

A side-by-side comparison of two customer success tools for small businesses.

Bottom line

Delighted and Grade.us score within a point of each other on SMB fit (8/10 vs 8/10), so the better choice comes down to your specific workflow, budget, and the feature details below.

At a glance

AttributeDelightedGrade.us
SMB score8/108/10
CategoryCustomer SuccessCustomer Success
Free tierYesNo
Starting price
Best forDelighted is a strong fit for small retail and e-commerce brands that want post-purchase NPS or CSAT feedback without hiring a CX analyst. Service businesses—HVAC companies, salons, cleaning services—benefit from automated follow-up surveys that fire after each appointment. Early-stage SaaS startups use the web widget to catch friction during free trials or onboarding flows. Any SMB owner who currently guesses at customer sentiment, or relies entirely on public reviews to measure satisfaction, will find Delighted a faster, more structured alternative. It also suits HR managers at companies under 200 people who want a single tool for both customer and employee feedback rather than maintaining two separate subscriptions.Grade.us is best suited for local service businesses—plumbers, dentists, law firms, real estate agents, HVAC contractors, and similar operators—where online reviews on Google or industry-specific directories directly influence whether a prospect picks up the phone. It's also a strong fit for multi-location franchises or regional chains that need location-level visibility without logging into each profile separately. Marketing agencies that offer reputation management as a service to SMB clients will find the white-label features especially practical. The sweet spot is a business with a steady flow of completed jobs or appointments and a customer list that can receive follow-up outreach, where automating even a modest percentage of review requests translates into measurable improvements in star ratings and review volume over time.

Delighted

Run NPS, CSAT, and five-star surveys in minutes and turn customer feedback into decisions your whole team can act on.

Picture a boutique e-commerce shop that just fulfilled its 500th order. The owner wants to know if buyers are happy before reviews start rolling in on their own—but she has no budget for a research firm and no time to build a survey from scratch. She logs into Delighted, picks th…

Key features

  • Eight ready-made survey formats including NPS, CSAT, CES, and smiley face
  • Six distribution channels: email, web, link, embed, kiosk, and mobile SDK
  • Real-time response dashboard with trend charts and sentiment filtering
  • Automated recurring surveys triggered by time intervals or customer actions
  • Conditional follow-up logic with up to 10 additional custom properties
  • Native integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, Shopify, and Zapier
  • Logo and brand-color customization included on every plan
  • Employee pulse survey capability alongside customer feedback campaigns

Limitations

Delighted deliberately keeps survey design simple, which means teams that need multi-page questionnaires, complex skip logic trees, or rich media embedding will hit walls quickly. The free plan is limited to a modest number of monthly responses; growing businesses may find themselves needing a paid tier sooner than expected—verify current plan thresholds on the vendor site, as they change. Reporting, while clean, lacks the cross-tabulation depth of dedicated research platforms. Role-based access controls are basic compared to enterprise survey tools, which can frustrate larger teams. There is no built-in ticket or case management system, so closing the loop with unhappy customers requires exporting data or relying on an integration.

Grade.us

Grade.us centralizes review collection, monitoring, and sharing for local businesses across dozens of platforms from one dashboard.

Picture a plumbing company owner who just wrapped up a successful job but knows that without a Google review, that happy customer will scroll past the business next time they search. Following up manually—texts, emails, phone calls—eats time the owner doesn't have. Grade.us exist…

Key features

  • Automated SMS and email review request campaigns triggered after customer interactions
  • Centralized dashboard monitoring reviews from Google, Yelp, Facebook, and niche industry sites
  • Multi-location management with per-location performance reporting and consolidated views
  • White-label reporting and branding options for agencies managing SMB clients
  • Review display widgets to embed recent testimonials directly onto business websites
  • Negative feedback filtering flow to catch dissatisfied customers before public posting
  • Real-time review alerts so teams respond promptly to new incoming feedback

Limitations

Grade.us pricing scales with the number of locations or the volume of review requests sent, which can make costs less predictable as a business grows—verify current plan tiers and limits on the vendor site. The platform is built around local and map-based reputation, so businesses without a meaningful Google Maps or Yelp presence may see limited return. Some users report that the review funnel, while effective, requires periodic template refreshes to avoid customer fatigue. Deep CRM integrations or workflow automation beyond review requests would need a separate tool. There is also no native social media publishing or broad digital marketing suite, so Grade.us functions best as a focused reputation tool rather than an all-in-one marketing platform.

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Frequently asked questions

Is Delighted or Grade.us better for small businesses?
Delighted and Grade.us score within a point of each other on SMB fit (8/10 vs 8/10), so the better choice comes down to your specific workflow, budget, and the feature details below.
How does pricing compare between Delighted and Grade.us?
Delighted offers a free tier or trial. Grade.us offers pricing that varies — check the vendor site. Always confirm current plans on each vendor's website before you commit.
When should I choose Delighted over Grade.us?
Delighted is a strong fit for Delighted is a strong fit for small retail and e-commerce brands that want post-purchase NPS or CSAT feedback without hiring a CX analyst.…. Lean toward Grade.us if you need Grade.us is best suited for local service businesses—plumbers, dentists, law firms, real estate agents, HVAC contractors, and similar….

Read the full profiles: Delighted · Grade.us · All Customer Success tools