Blog Digital Marketing 16 Best Social Proof Tools to Build Trust & Drive Sales

16 Best Social Proof Tools to Build Trust & Drive Sales

16 Best Social Proof Tools to Build Trust & Drive Sales
Joe Tobin
Editor
16 Best Social Proof Tools to Build Trust & Drive Sales
Joe Tobin
Editor

After bouncing around tech start-ups and university literature programs, Joe has finally settled down as Billo’s Head of Content. Joe now spends his days writing ads about ads, teaching clients how to craft killer content, and combing through our web copy with a bold red Sharpie.

Tom Slipkus
Tom Slipkus
Writer
Tom Slipkus
Tom Slipkus
Writer

Tom Slipkus is an email strategist helping SaaS companies onboard users, reduce churn, and drive sales in the process. When he’s not digging through customer research or coming up with the perfect subject line, Tom also pens insightful articles about marketing and building lasting relationships with customers.

social proof tools

95% of consumers read reviews before buying online. Quantity matters too, with 85% of buyers more likely to buy from companies that have between 50 and 500 reviews.

For your business, that creates a need to get great reviews and get them consistently. And there’s a wide selection of social proof software solutions designed to do just that.

Whether you’re a small ecommerce store or a SaaS startup, you can find a social proof platform that matches your needs and budget, allowing you to make reviews a central part of your marketing.

To help you get started, let’s look at the best social proof tools available in 2024. We’ll explore their pros, cons, and everything else you need to make an informed decision.

What Are Social Proof Tools?

Today’s buyers expect to see testimonials from happy customers in various formats. If they’re not available, that will usually raise red flags that will make it much harder to get them to buy.

But since manually collecting reviews from customers is a hassle and takes a ton of time, businesses need solutions that can help streamline the process.

Enter: social proof tools.

These tools address two challenges at once, 1) making it easy to collect social proof elements and 2) offering multiple ways to showcase those social proof elements throughout your marketing.

While there’s a wide range of options you can choose from, they usually come with some or all of these features:

  • Automated Review Requests. Leading social proof apps make it easy to request reviews from customers at various stages of their journey. They use pop-ups, designated pages, social media, email, and other tools to ask for reviews in a way that’s easy for the customer.
  • Review Management. Keeping track of reviews can be a challenge, so leading solutions come with a centralized social proof platform where you can sort, manage, and respond to reviews in real-time.
  • Website Integration. Social proof tools seamlessly integrate into business websites and offer a variety of ways to display reviews. You can use dynamic widgets, carousels, videos, highlight sections, pop-ups, and a variety of other options that can make customer reviews a central part of your marketing.

Using these features together maximizes the impact of social proof on your business, ensuring your best customers take the time to leave a review and then utilizing those reviews across your marketing to:

  • Build trust with your audience and address concerns through the words of your customers.
  • Establish your brand as the authority in your niche by showcasing how you consistently solve your customer’s problems.
  • Make every marketing campaign more effective and boost conversions by injecting social proof elements that tell your story for you.

Best Social Proof Tools

With dozens of social proof solutions on the market, finding an option that matches your needs isn’t an easy task. That’s why we’ve put together a comprehensive list of options to help you make an informed decision.

Loox

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Loox might be the best social proof app for ecommerce stores, especially if you’re using Shopify. It seamlessly integrates visually appealing social proof elements on your website, allowing you to leverage customer reviews, photos, videos, referrals, and other social proof elements for growth.

Pros

  • Visual reviews featuring real people work great for ecommerce stores.
  • Loox makes it easy to send review requests to customers.
  • Ability to test different approaches, including offering rewards for reviews automatically.

Cons

  • The main focus is ecommerce, so it may not work as well for other industries.
  • On the more expensive side if you want premium features that come with more comprehensive plans.

Pricing: Plans from $9.99 per month.

Verdict: Great tool for ecommerce stores, but there are cheaper alternatives.

TrustPulse

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TrustPulse allows setting up live purchase notifications for when someone buys a product, which then pop up in the corner to other website visitors. These notifications create urgency around your products and entice people to buy.

Pros

  • Easy to set up and works on any website platform.
  • Help impact buyer decisions at high-intent points on your website.
  • Visually appealing notifications that are easy to customize to match your brand and design.

Cons

  • Lower-tier plans have significant restrictions that may be limiting.
  • TrustPulse doesn’t offer other types of social proof elements integration.

Pricing: Plans starting from $5/Month.

Verdict: Simple but powerful purchase notification tool that’s easy to implement and can directly impact sales.

Fomo

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Fomo is another intuitive social proof platform that helps show website visitors notifications about purchases, customizing them to match your brand, goals, and audience. You can use automations, set page rules, and utilize templates to use purchase data in a variety of ways.

Pros

  • Very intuitive and easy to set up, even for beginners.
  • Beautiful designs that blend with your website and capture attention.
  • Will continually optimize placement and triggers to improve performance and drive conversions.

Cons

  • Plans are pricier than many competitors.
  • Its over-reliance on urgency elements may not be ideally suited for B2B audiences.

Pricing: Plans starting from $25 per month.

Verdict: FOMO is a great social proof tool for those who want to add more urgency to their website.

Proof

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Proof is another conversion-focused social proof solution that uses purchase notifications to increase urgency and drive sales. Once set up, the tool will track and display various purchase metrics, including hot streaks, product page visitor counts, and other notifications meant to compel people to complete their purchases.

Pros

  • Beginner-friendly and easy to set up on any website platform.
  • Can seamlessly integrate with your CRM or other solutions.
  • Great for measuring tangible results and finding what works.

Cons

  • Doesn’t offer a free plan, and the paid plans can be costly.
  • While you can get started quickly, it can take time to find what works.

Pricing: Plans start at $29 per month.

Verdict: If you want a data-driven social proof solution, Proof can help you turn more of your leads into sales.

Smash Balloon

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Having a strong social media presence is one of the best signals that your brand can be trusted. And Smash Balloon is the perfect tool for showcasing your social media profiles on your WordPress website by embedding live feeds that showcase content, follower responses, and more.

Pros

  • Having platform-specific plugins gives you excellent flexibility.
  • Showcasing user-generated content is a great way to increase trust.
  • Very easy to implement and customize based on your needs.

Cons

  • You will need to work with each plugin separately, which may not be ideal if you want a more unified solution.
  • Smash Balloon only works on WordPress.

Pricing: Basic plans for a single social media platform starting at $49 per year.

Verdict: If you’re using WordPress, it’s the best social media plugin you can get.

Boast

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Adding testimonial videos can boost your conversion rate by as much as 80%. But since collecting them yourself is a big hassle, you need a social proof app like Boast, which offers a complete solution for collecting and displaying video testimonials on your website.

Pros

  • Makes it easy to get high-impact video testimonials to use in your marketing.
  • Can run virtually on autopilot once set up, requiring minimal oversight.
  • Allows you to stay on top of performance through extensive performance tracking.

Cons

  • A limited number of responses in paid plans.
  • Doesn’t yet have a mobile-friendly app.

Pricing: From $50 per month.

Verdict: A user-friendly social proof tool that can help you get a ton of video testimonial content.

Yotpo

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When it comes to using social proof, timing is everything. With Yotpo, you get a comprehensive marketing solution that also offers review management features centered around displaying reviews at the highest-intent moment to drive conversions.

Pros

  • Offers a comprehensive package of social proof features.
  • Works great for ecommerce stores that need to boost conversions at key points.
  • Discover insights into your products and performance through review analytics.

Cons

  • The amount of features can make it overwhelming in the beginning.
  • One of the more expensive options on the market.

Pricing: Plans starting at $79 per month for up to 500 orders.

Verdict: Can work well if you’re looking for an all-in-one retention marketing platform that goes beyond reviews.

Thrive Ovation

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Collecting and adding testimonials on your site can be a hassle. But with Thrive Ovation, you can streamline the entire process, gathering testimonials on autopilot and inserting them at various points on your website. The social proof widget also makes it easy to quickly sort through your testimonials, finding the ones that are the most relevant and can have the biggest impact.

Pros

  • Seamlessly integrates with WordPress themes using a variety of built-in templates.
  • Grows your social proof library by transforming WordPress and social media comments into testimonials.
  • Makes it easy to collect more testimonials using landing pages, blog posts, and more.

Cons

  • Not as comprehensive as some of the alternatives.
  • Doesn’t work with other website platforms besides WordPress.

Pricing: $49 per year for one website.

Verdict: Simple and quick way to collect and display testimonials on WordPress, but could offer more features and be available as a standalone purchase.

Repuso

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If you want a better way to keep track of your social media mentions while also leveraging them into social proof, Repuso offers a comprehensive solution designed just for that. It can let you know when someone mentions your brand, collecting those reviews and allowing you to organize them to display on your website.

Pros

  • Instead of having to manually collect reviews, use Repuso as an aggregator from various online sources.
  • Quick setup that allows you to display your reviews across your website.
  • Complete control over which reviews you want to be displayed using a variety of widgets.

Cons

  • The amount of customization to how your reviews are displayed can be limiting.
  • Although it does offer review request features, Repuso is more of an aggregator than a complete social proof solution.

Pricing: Plans starting from $9 per month for a Basic plan.

Verdict: If you want a better way of keeping track of your reviews across different platforms, Repuso can help streamline the process.

Endorsal

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Collecting testimonials involves multiple steps. You need to ask your customers, provide them with a way to share their reviews, thank them for their efforts, and figure out how to use the reviews for your business. Endorsal is designed to streamline each of these steps, allowing you to collect more reviews with much less effort.

Pros

  • Create comprehensive forms that outline exactly what you want your customers to share.
  • Set up automated review requests after purchases with proven templates.
  • Easily display reviews anywhere on your site, with virtually no code.

Cons

  • Some users complain that it still doesn’t have video review features.
  • Getting the reviews to display correctly may need some tinkering depending on your site’s design.

Pricing: Plans start at $39 per month.

Verdict: An intuitive and feature-rich solution that covers a lot of essentials when it comes to collecting and displaying reviews.

Socialproof.so

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Socialproof.so is a free social proof tool that comes with a comprehensive list of features for collecting and adding social proof elements to your website. It’s easy to set up, integrates with a variety of platforms, and can help boost conversions using timely social proof notification on your site.

Pros

  • A great option for those who want premium features without having to order a plan initially.
  • Integrates with most platforms and is quick to set up.
  • Customize every detail of your social proof elements using display rules.

Cons

  • Not as comprehensive as most of the paid alternatives.
  • The free version only works up to 10,000 pageviews.

Pricing: Free up to 10,000 pageviews.

Verdict: If you don’t want to pay for your social proof tool, this is a good option to start with.

Proven

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Proven is a simple but powerful WordPress plugin that allows you to display a variety of social proof elements on your site. You can include notifications about sales and signups in a way that matches your brand and gets people to take action at key high-intent moments.

Pros

  • Beginner-friendly setup on WordPress that will get you started quickly.
  • Customize when you want to trigger notifications for maximum impact.

Cons

  • Doesn’t offer other types of social proof elements.
  • Can’t help with collecting reviews from customers.

Pricing: $39 for a single site license with a year’s support and updates.

Verdict: An affordable option if you only want to display purchase notifications to boost sales.

Trustmary

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If you want a tool with a wide social proof widget selection, Trustmary can be a great option to consider. It’s an all-in-one social proof platform that will allow you to import reviews from Facebook, Google, and other prominent sites, displaying them on your website to bolster sales.

Pros

  • Quickly import reviews from Yelp, Tripadvisor, Capterra, Facebook, and a variety of other websites.
  • Utilize social proof popup, form, and chatbot options to collect more reviews from visitors.
  • Test your reviews and maximize the performance of each page.

Cons

  • Some users report that figuring out how to use some of the features isn’t very intuitive.
  • Lower-tier plans allow a limited number of monthly pageviews.

Pricing: A limited free plan, with a Starter plan priced at $16 per month.

Verdict: Trustmary is one of the more comprehensive social proof tools on the market, but that also means it’s more complex than some of the simpler alternatives.

LetConvert

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You want your social proof tool to seamlessly work with your current systems, and LetConvert is one of the best options when it comes to ease of use and integration with popular CRM and ecommerce platforms. If your website is the driving force for your sales, LetConvert can help provide a boost to performance by showcasing purchases and recent social media engagement.

Pros

  • Makes it easy to showcase recent activity, number of conversions, and even live visitor count to create urgency that drives sales.
  • LetConvert is mobile-optimized, so you can display timely notifications on all devices.
  • Set up advanced triggers that give you complete control over when notifications are shown.

Cons

  • Offers a range of advanced features like user journey mapping, but they can be more challenging to figure out.
  • The product is still in Beta, which means it’s still a work in progress.

Pricing: Plans starting at $5.99 per month.

Verdict: LetConvert offers a few intriguing features that could give it an edge over other tools, but it remains to be seen if it will actually stand up to more established alternatives.

Podium

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Podium positions itself as a lead conversion platform, but it offers a range of powerful social proof features that make it one of the strongest choices on this list. It streamlines the process of requesting and collecting reviews on Google, Facebook, and various industry review sites, utilizing AI technology to create a more personalized customer experience.

Pros

  • You can collect all your reviews in a single place, allowing you to sort through and utilize social proof more effectively.
  • Streamlines Google review collection to improve your brand’s reputation, get higher SEO rankings, and attract more leads in the process.
  • Save time by utilizing automated review request replies generated by AI.

Cons

  • Since it goes well beyond social proof, Podium is one of the most expensive options on this list.
  • Can be too complex for a business simply looking to get more reviews.

Pricing: Plans start at $399 per month.

Verdict: If you want a robust conversion optimization platform, Podium can offer much more than just review management.

Famewall

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If your priority is ease of use, you can’t go wrong with Famewall, one of the most intuitive and simple social proof tools on the market. While it may not have the bells and whistles of comprehensive conversion solutions, Famewall offers a way to add beautiful walls of testimonials to your site in just a couple of minutes.

Pros

  • Set up and display testimonials on your site in minutes, no code required.
  • Manage all your testimonials in a single place, importing them from all your platforms.
  • Create personalized custom pages for collecting reviews on autopilot.

Cons

  • The lack of more advanced social proof features can be a drawback to some.
  • Doesn’t have robust analytics features for optimizing performance.

Pricing: Has a free plan for up to 10 testimonials, with the paid plans starting at $9.99 per month.

Verdict: Famewall doesn’t try to do everything a social proof tool could, but it excels at the features it offers.

Other Ways of Providing Social Proof

Reviews and testimonials are a key part of increasing brand trust and driving sales. But they’re not the only way to provide social proof that impacts buying decisions and forms stronger connections with your audience.

Here are a few others you should consider:

  • User-Generated Content. Sharing user-generated content on your website and social media can help customers connect with your brand and see the value of your products. You can collect UGC on social media, run contests that entice people to create content around your brand, or order professional UGC creator videos done for you.
  • Certifications and Awards. If your business has received awards, it’s a good idea to make them a part of your marketing. People like to associate with brands that have a proven track record, and awards can work especially well when used together with other social proof elements.
  • Prominent Clients. If you have an impressive client list, it’s a good idea to showcase it on your website. There’s a reason why so many B2B companies display logos of their clients near the top of their landing page; it’s an effective way to establish that you know what you’re doing.
  • Case Studies. People love stories, and you can use that to your advantage by creating case studies where you outline the journey and transformation your clients had when working with you. Focus on where they were before finding you and how your product allowed them to achieve specific positive outcomes.
  • Build a Community. If you can build a community around your brand, it will serve as compelling social proof that your product consistently helps people solve problems. By having a large following on social media and engaging your followers, you can nurture a brand image that people will naturally want to be associated with.

Bottom Line

Today’s buyers make decisions about whether to trust a brand in seconds, and having social proof elements can be the deciding factor in whether they end up buying or not. That’s why social proof tools can make a huge difference, allowing you to take control of how you collect, compile, and display social proof elements for maximum impact.

In this guide, we explored a range of tools that specialize in helping businesses entice website visitors to buy using social proof.

While the social proof elements may differ, any of these tools can help you achieve the ultimate goal, which is connecting with your audience and getting them to trust that buying from you is the right choice.

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