Why Blipstar? Something our customers tell us again and again is that they love its simplicity. Secondly they like the friendly, 'no problem too small' support. Thirdly they like the functionality (which is continually improving with updates every few months)
Hosted store locator solutions are a hassle-free option in that you don't need to install anything yourself - it's all done via the web (or as the marketing gurus would have us believe the mysterious "Cloud"). Cost isn't everything, but important, so for convenience there's a comparison of each product's price.
| Bullseye - www.bullseyelocations.com | Cost | Free trial? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bullseye is another established player that has offered a hosted solution since 2005. The site underwent a major overhaul to bring it right up to date and now offers three products - Facebook, Website and Agency. Impressively the first two products also boast free versions (although understandably with less features). | $468* | Blipstar saves you $273 | Yes - 14 days |
| Ultimate locator - www.ultimatelocator.com | Cost | Free trial? | |
| Although this started as a self-hosted product that you install yourself a hosted version is offered. A range of optional extras are offered including support for mobiles, opening hours, product search and no branding. It's a popular choice so is worth mentioning here, and the admin panel is intuitive and has plenty of scope for customizing using a system of templates. There's a definite focus on North American companies but international search is also supported. | $193 + $199 (for relevant plugins) | Blipstar saves you $197 | Yes - 14 days |
| Store Mapper - www.storemapper.co | Cost | Free trial? | |
| This describes itself as a dead simple no-nonsense store locator widget, and who can argue with that approach? The list of features is solid rather than exhaustive but all the main bases are covered nicely. | $228 | Blipstar saves you $33 | Yes - 7 days (credit card required) |
| Store Locator Software - www.storelocatorsoftware.com | Cost | Free trial? | |
| Allows customers to find your stores from any location with a Google maps interface. Their approach is slightly different to other offerings because the front end is customized by a developer specifically for your site (rather than altering settings yourself). This bespoke approach increases the price in the first year, but the renewal fee is significantly lower after that. No free trial is available (but it comes with a 100% satisfaction guarantee). | $1100 ($350 a year after first year) | Blipstar saves you $905 (then $155) | No |
| Xtreme Locator - www.xtremelocator.com | Cost | Free trial? | |
| Xtreme Locator is a well-regarded product, and has a handy feature list for you to compare it against other solutions (unsurprisingly it ticks all the boxes in its list). There's a nice option for having text-only results as well as a map-based results, and it's got a crisp, clear interface, although the site keeps referring to IVR as though it's an obvious acronym (apparently it's Interactive Voice Response). Comparative prices are $648 for 500 locations (Blipstar: $195) and $1284 for 1000 locations (Blipstar: $275) so it's a solid choice but expensive. | $648 | Blipstar saves you $453 | Yes - 30 days |
| Meta Locator - www.metalocator.com | Cost | Free trial? | |
| Meta Locator has a nice, modern looking website built using the ever-popular Wordpress software. It outlines the reasons why its different from other solutions but the actual store locator is fairly standard and covers most of the key bases in terms of functionality. It doesn't really let you get down to the nitty gritty (although you can use an external CSS file to alter the look and feel) and the range of demos is quite confusing. There's no option to set up an account without entering your payment details but you do get the first month free so you can cancel within 30 days. | $348 | Blipstar saves you $153 | Yes - 30 days (credit card required) |
| GeoSprawl - www.geosprawl.com | Cost | Free trial? | |
| GeoSprawl is a zip code locator system with simplicity as its key aim, claiming anyone can set it up within 30 minutes. As is standard the admin functions can be accessed by any device with a web browser. Interestingly it supports both Google and MapQuest mapping systems, and you can switch between the two. | $419 | Blipstar saves you $224 | Yes - 30 days trial (credit card required) |
| Shopify Store Locator - apps.shopify.com/store-locator | Cost | Free trial? | |
| The slick looking e-commerce solution Shopify has its own app store including a Store Locator app. Obviously this is only relevant to those using Shopify to power their website but the store locator plug-in is a nice product and worth checking out if you do. As an aside, Blipstar can also be easily integrated into a Shopify site. | $239 | Blipstar saves you $44 | No |
| Locator Savvy - www.onterrasystems.com/store-locator-locatorsavvy | Cost | Free trial? | |
| LocatorSavvy provides a set of templates based on the Bing Maps api that you can customize to produce your store locator. They don't publish prices online so a comparison is not possible and there's limited information beyond a list of features. | ??? | Unknown | No |
* Bullseye offer a free service but it doesn't include mobile or Facebook versions, or embedding within a site so wasn't included in this comparison. It's still impressive though if you don't require those features though!
Please let us know if you feel any of the information above is unreasonable or unfair.
