Dental Marketing Comparison · 2026
Hibu, Thryv & Yellow Pages Alternatives for Dental Practices
Before your next renewal, ask one thing: do you actually own the website you are paying for? With a lot of these all-in-one providers, the answer is no.
Run a dental practice in BC and pay Hibu, Thryv, or Yellow Pages every month? Ask one thing before your next renewal: do you actually own the website you are paying for? With a lot of these all-in-one providers, the answer is no. And that one detail changes everything, because it decides whether your money builds an asset or just rents one.
This page compares the three names dentists get pitched most, then shows where an independent BC agency fits. We are not here to trash anyone. Hibu, Thryv, and Yellow Pages are real companies, and they serve thousands of small businesses just fine. But a dental practice has specific needs, and the fit is usually poor. Here is the honest version.
The short answer
Hibu and Thryv commonly lock dental practices into long contracts and keep ownership of the website, so a practice that leaves often loses its site and its search rankings on the way out. That is the number one reason dentists in the Fraser Valley and the Okanagan start shopping for an alternative. The second reason? Template sites and shared SEO effort rarely push a practice up the map pack in a competitive town.
Want the opposite setup? Month-to-month, you own everything, and the SEO is built for your practice and nobody else's. That is the model an independent shop like Zio Advertising runs.
What dentists actually get pitched
Hibu
Hibu sells bundled digital marketing to small businesses: a website, Google and Facebook ads, listings management, sometimes SEO. One-stop shop, and that is the appeal. The complaints from small-business owners usually land on two things: contract length and website ownership. With Hibu, you typically don't own the website outright, so cancel and the site commonly goes away with you. Ad management often gets folded into a package too, where it is tough to see what you are paying for the ads versus the person managing them.
Thryv
Thryv is a software platform first. A CRM, really, with appointment booking, messaging, invoicing, and reviews, plus marketing services bolted on the side. Here is the catch for a dentist: a lot of that overlaps with the practice management software you already pay for. Thryv is commonly reported to use annual contracts, and its marketing and SEO tend to be a lighter, templated layer rather than deep, practice-specific work. Fine for a solo business starting from zero. For a practice that already has a PMS and wants to actually show up in search, it is often a mismatch.
Yellow Pages (YP)
Yellow Pages left the phone book behind years ago and now sells websites, SEO, and directory listings. The most consistent complaint about YP is thin, template-driven websites and SEO that leans on their own directory instead of building your practice's independent authority. For a dental office fighting for "dentist near me" in a specific BC town, a directory-anchored strategy rarely wins the local pack.
The comparison table
Here is how the four options line up on the stuff that actually matters to a dental practice. Competitor entries describe commonly reported patterns, not guarantees, so confirm the specifics in any contract you are handed.
| Feature | Hibu | Thryv | Yellow Pages | Zio Advertising |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website ownership | Typically provider-owned; site often lost on cancel | Platform-tied; leaving usually means rebuilding | Template site, commonly provider-controlled | You own the site, domain, and content. Full stop |
| Contract length | Commonly long-term / auto-renew | Commonly annual contracts | Term contracts common | Month-to-month, no long contracts |
| SEO quality | Bundled, often light/shared effort | Templated add-on layer | Directory-anchored, thin | Custom, practice-specific. +155% impressions / 4x clicks for a BC client in 90 days |
| Google Business Profile | Listings tool, often automated | Included in listings package | Directory-focused | Hands-on GBP optimization for local pack ranking |
| Review generation | Available in package | Core platform feature | Add-on | Built into the system, plus we hold a 4.9 star GBP ourselves |
| Pricing transparency | Bundled, hard to itemize | Tiered software + add-ons | Package pricing | Scoped on a quick call, no hidden bundling |
| Who it is built for | Any small business, broad | Solo/small biz needing a CRM | Legacy directory advertisers | BC service businesses that want to own and rank |
Why ownership is the whole game
A dental website you don't own is a rental, and when the lease ends you walk away with nothing. That stings more in dentistry than in most industries, because a practice site piles up value over years. Patient reviews baked into pages. Local rankings. Backlinks. Blog content that answers the exact questions patients type into Google. Rebuild all of that from scratch on a new provider and you often reset the clock on every bit of it.
Own the site, the domain, and the content, and you are free. Fire your agency, hire a new one, bring it in-house, whatever. It all comes with you. That is the line between spending money and building equity.
What an independent BC agency does differently
We are Kelowna-based and we work across BC, Fraser Valley included. Straight up: we don't have a dental client on the roster today, so we won't pretend otherwise. What we do have is a track record helping BC service businesses win local search, and dentistry runs on the same levers. A fast site. A strong Google Business Profile. Real reviews. Content that answers what patients are actually Googling.
Real numbers from our work. Not dental, but the mechanics carry straight over:
- +155% impressions and 4x clicks for a BC client in 90 days through local SEO and content.
- PageSpeed 78 to 93, LCP 5.7s down to 2.1s on a site rebuild. Speed counts, because a slow dental site loses patients before the page even loads.
- Month-to-month, no long contracts, and the client owns everything we build.
- We run a 4.9 star Google Business Profile ourselves, so review generation isn’t theory around here.
Want to know what this looks like for your practice? Book a call and you'll get a straight read on where you'd stand. For the full picture of how we work with dental practices, see our dental marketing hub, and if it is the site itself you need, that is our dental website design service.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions dentists ask most before switching providers
1Is Thryv good for dentists?
Thryv can work for a solo practice with no website and no CRM, since it bundles booking, messaging, and reviews into one platform. But most dental offices already pay for practice management software that handles scheduling and patient comms, so you would be paying twice. Thryv’s marketing and SEO are usually a lighter, templated layer, and it commonly uses annual contracts. For a practice that wants to actually rank in local search, it is often underpowered.
2What's a good Hibu alternative for a dental practice?
The best Hibu alternative is any setup where you own your website and you are not chained to a long contract. An independent agency that builds a custom site, hands you the keys, and does practice-specific local SEO gives you an asset instead of a rental. In BC, that is the model we run at Zio: month-to-month, you own everything, and the SEO is built for your town and your patients, not smeared across a shared template.
3Do you own your website with Hibu?
Typically, no. With Hibu and several bundled providers, the website is commonly provider-owned, which means cancel and the site often disappears, leaving you to rebuild from scratch. Read the ownership clause before you sign. If the contract does not clearly say you own the domain, the design, and the content, assume you are renting. Owning your site is the single most important thing to protect in any dental marketing deal.
4Is Yellow Pages worth it for dentists in 2026?
For most dental practices, Yellow Pages is a weak fit in 2026. The common criticism is thin, template-driven websites and SEO that leans on YP’s own directory instead of building your practice’s independent authority. Patients search Google and Google Maps now, not a directory. Your money goes a lot further on a fast, owned website plus hands-on Google Business Profile work that actually moves you up the local pack.
5How much should a dental practice spend on marketing?
It varies by market and goals, so treat any number as a starting range. Many BC practices land somewhere in the low-to-mid four figures per month across website, SEO, and Google Business Profile work, less if you are only doing local SEO maintenance. But the dollar amount is not the real question. What you get for it is. Paying for a site you do not own is a worse deal at any price than owning a good one.
6Can I switch away from Hibu or Thryv without losing my rankings?
Sometimes, and it hinges on ownership. Own your domain and your rankings live with the domain, so a well-planned migration keeps most of your search equity. If the provider owns the site and domain, switching often means starting over, which is exactly why ownership matters so much. A good agency will audit what you can keep, set up proper redirects, and protect your Google Business Profile through the move.
7Do I really need a new website, or just better marketing?
Sometimes the site is fine and you just need SEO and Google Business Profile work. Often, though, a slow or template-locked site is the bottleneck, because a page that takes five-plus seconds to load drops patients before they ever see it. We took one BC client from PageSpeed 78 to 93 and cut load time from 5.7s to 2.1s. We will tell you honestly which camp you are in on a quick call. No pressure either way.
8Why choose an independent BC agency over a big platform?
Because you get an owned asset, a real person who knows your market, and no long contract holding you hostage. Big platforms optimize for scale and retention, which is exactly why the contracts run long and the sites come templated. An independent agency in BC can build for your specific town and pick up the phone when you call. We are month-to-month on purpose: if we are not earning it, you leave, and you take everything with you.
Ready to own what you pay for?
Get a straight read on where your practice stands, and what a switch to an owned, month-to-month setup would look like. No pressure, no obligation.
Book a Call