# Brightgrove Reviews **Vendor:** Brightgrove **Category:** [iOS Developers ](https://www.g2.com/categories/ios-developers) **Total Reviews:** 1 ## About Brightgrove Brightgrove is focused on software development, consulting and outsourcing. ## Brightgrove Reviews ### 1. Bait-and-Switch Tactics **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Apparel & Fashion | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 29, 2021 **Describe the project or task Brightgrove helped with:** I turned to BG for the design and development of a website. **What do you like best about Brightgrove?** They are quick to respond to emails and give off the image that they are trustworthy. Unfortunately, I fell for it. **What do you dislike about Brightgrove?** Absolutely HORRIBLE experience with Brightgrove. If I can rate negative-stars, I would. They did not honor any agreements we had. I made it clear I can't go over the price they quoted me from the start. They explained it's not a problem as long as I don't make "too many" changes in the design stage. I made no changes and stuck with the horrible design a 12 year old can make. After the severely overpriced design, I was told the development stage would take thousands above the agreed price (not including the price of the design and not including very important web features that they forgot to include). They failed to answer any tech questions I had, since the point of contact was the designer. They also wouldn't go back and honor the initial quote we agreed upon. Mind you, we did agree that they would notify me of anything that would take me beyond the initial price we agreed upon - and they had not - leading me to believe we were financially in agreement. They did not agree to a refund of any sort, as I tried to be reasonable and asked for partial refund at first. This is called a "bait-and-switch" tactic and, unfortunately, I fell victim to it. I do not recommend this company if you're looking for safety, agreements, and good customer service - especially if you're a US-based company, as we assume all these things are granted. Sure, they have 4.8 stars but I found no customer reviews. The reviews are all their own employees. I spoke with everyone up the ladder and no one would rectify the breach of agreement. This is a Ukrainian company looking to expand into the United States while not meeting US-business standards. Be wary. **Recommendations to others considering Brightgrove:** Do not prepay them. Have them sign a contract stating that if they breach agreements (detail agreements on paper) they will not receive payment. Include expected refund policy, as well. They don't to a good job, if you choose to work with them, be sure all your bases are covered. However, I'd recommend going with another company. The market is saturated with web developers: freelance, outsourced, and local. You're not missing out on anything here. **What problems is Brightgrove solving and how is that benefiting you?** I've terminated my business with Brightgrove. Benefits I've realized: Never pay offshore companies upfront. **Official Response from Oleksii H:** > Thanks for getting in touch with us here. Feedback is the breakfast of champions, and we appreciate you shared your thoughts. We hope this response would be helpful both for you and our potential clients who might stumble upon this account. Especially for the folks from the U.S, where we've already been working with more than 40 clients including a company that is a part of Viacom CBS and other big brands. First of all, we must admit that during our cooperation there were a couple of not so right moves and we apologize for them. We are sorry: For not sending the estimate in advance, but showing it to you during the call. We believed this approach was the right decision because, usually, it helps our clients to clarify all the details before making a final decision. This approach received warm feedback from our clients. That's why we decided to go this way during our cooperation. For not giving you the font family when you asked for it. We wanted to wait for our designer to return from vacation to create short design guidelines for you with propers sizes and spaces. For swapping your manager for five days because of his vacation. But according to our mail history, you didn't have any issues with this swap. For going over the range of our first estimate, which was made based on your sketches, not the final design. It was about 15% higher than your budget. Usually, it's not a big deal, because after the design phase we see a whole picture. Not shards of requirements. Don't get us wrong, but we didn't force you to approve the estimate, we just wanted to discuss how we could make it work. But the story needs a bigger picture, and we want to breakdown your review to make things clear as day: Your review: I made it clear I can't go over the price they quoted me from the start. They explained it's not a problem as long as I don't make "too many" changes in the design stage. Our answer: When things were just getting started, you showed us some wireframes of a couple of pages as well as a high-level description of your ideas. Due to this, we've provided you with a rough estimation and proposed that the project should start with the design phase. Design is a very subjective matter, but we always try to keep in mind the target audience, which, by the way, was not described, the business goals and available content both copy and visuals. Which you also didn't provide. The actual site's programming starts after the completion of the design phase. Your review: I made no changes and stuck with the horrible design a 12-year-old can make. Our answer: The deliverables for the design phase are graphical design files per your requirements and for your site. It means that this is a unique design crafted individually for you and of course, that takes time - after all, there were 20 pages (that is more than we've originally expected). We provided you with full transparency during the design creation process. We started with the home page and moved to other pages after you approved of color scheme, logos, etc - and you selected from 3 variants we created. And we got lots of positive feedback and there we no signal you were not satisfied with the design itself or the process of it's creation. Here are some proofs: https://capture.dropbox.com/xiRBgrJN3G2h7ndZ https://capture.dropbox.com/GQ8n92PPCbgo4Dee And here are more of your quotes: On April 19/2021 you wrote: Yes, the prototype on Figma looks good and I don't have any questions at the moment. On April 28/2021 you wrote: I like the logo and web design of the last option, "home 3". On April 29/2021 you wrote: Yes, a design based on "home 3" would be good. Logos - I really appreciate that! I understand you'll be on national holidays so I'll expect to receive it later :) Have a great time off! No design questions yet, you presented three really good designs! I was stuck between 2 and 3! Your review: They failed to answer any tech questions I had, since the point of contact was the designer. Our answer: You haven't had any direct contact with a designer apart from discussing design tweaks in Figma. And you were satisfied. Your quote: I apologize for the delay. Thank you for your great work! You've addressed all my comments. Your feedback: They did not agree to a refund of any sort, as I tried to be reasonable and asked for partial refund at first. Our answer: Yes, we didn't agree to refund the amount you paid for the design phase. There are three reasons why: 1. During this phase, you didn't have any negative comments on the design 2. We've delivered what we've promised and the design files were transferred to you. You approved the design by paying the last 50% of the price. Nonetheless, you wrote to PayPal support team and asked them to block our account, but when we showed PayPal team that you approved the design the account was unblocked. That's just proof that we didn't do anything wrong. All in all, we are still sorry that you wrote such a harsh review :( We hope you and your business are staying safe. ## Brightgrove Discussions - [What is Brightgrove used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-brightgrove-used-for) - [View Brightgrove pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/brightgrove/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-13+15%3A42%3A11+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=f8e5bb66-96e8-4801-8a46-fa53c97fe241&secure%5Btoken%5D=32afe613cfe56c7793542b4091c99f2e9343b34f95fb09b03268d83ea474e9da&format=llm_user) ## Brightgrove Features **Planning** - Needs Assessment - Resource Allocation - Stayed within Budget - Statement of Work - Best Practices **Delivery** - Technical Expertise - Met Deadlines - Meeting Management - Project Updates - Scope Management - Roll-out **Support** - Go Live Support - Documentation - Training - Metrics - Admin Services **Team Quality** - Change Management Skills - Executive Presence - Vertical Expertise - Technology Partnerships ## Top Brightgrove Alternatives - [SmartSites](https://www.g2.com/products/smartsites/reviews) - 4.8/5.0 (252 reviews) - [Coastal](https://www.g2.com/products/coastal/reviews) - 5.0/5.0 (183 reviews) - [Growth Molecules, Customer Success](https://www.g2.com/products/growth-molecules-customer-success/reviews) - 4.9/5.0 (134 reviews)