SmileBack, Customer Thermometer, Crewhu or Simplesat: which CSAT tool should an MSP use?

Every few months someone in an MSP peer group asks which CSAT tool to buy, and the thread fills up with the same four names and no way to compare them, because each vendor prices on a different unit. So I've laid the four out side by side on the questions an MSP actually asks: what it measures, where the survey appears, whether it talks to your PSA, and what it costs.

A word on where the facts come from, because I don't use any of these tools and I'm not selling one. Everything below comes from the vendor's own website or its G2 or Capterra page, last checked 15 September 2026, and every figure is linked so you can check it. Where a site says two different things I've shown both, and where a review page has fewer than twenty reviews I've said so. One oddity: G2 no longer has a SmileBack page at all (it says the product "is no longer valid"), so for SmileBack I've used Capterra.

SmileBack, now ConnectWise Customer Feedback

What it is: the original MSP-only CSAT tool, since acquired by ConnectWise. Type smileback.com today and you land on connectwise.com/platform/smileback, where it's now "Customer Feedback (formerly SmileBack)".

• Measures: CSAT and NPS, plus project surveys "during and after completion".
• Survey lives in: "one-click surveys" triggered "at the close of every service ticket".
• Integrations: the ConnectWise page names ConnectWise PSA only among ticketing systems, plus Teams, BrightGauge and Zapier. Its Capterra profile adds Autotask PSA, Kaseya BMS, Freshdesk and Zendesk. HaloPSA isn't named on either page.
• Google reviews: listed as a feature on every tier.
• Price: by agent band, on the pricing page. Billed annually it's $88 a month for 1 to 5 agents, $123 for 6 to 10, $158 for 11 to 15, $193 for 16 to 20 and "from" $228 for 21 or more; billed monthly the bands run $105 to $275. Every feature is on every tier.
• Reviewers: Capterra has it at 4.9 from 35 reviews. A March 2026 reviewer calls it an "Easy to setup CSAT Tool that integrates easily to ConnectWise PSA"; the recurring complaint in the 2018 and 2019 reviews is reporting, put mildly by one service desk manager as "reporting could be a bit better".

Fits if you run ConnectWise PSA and want the survey tool from the same vendor, with one price and no tiers to think about.

Customer Thermometer

What it is: a UK company (Customer Thermometer Technology Ltd) selling one-question, one-click surveys to every kind of business, with MSPs and service desks among its biggest markets.

• Measures: one question with four possible answers, so CSAT by design. NPS reporting comes on plans of 200 responses a month and up. The site doesn't mention CES.
• Survey lives in: the ticket-close email, an Outlook or Gmail footer (on the 200+ plans), or embedded in a third-party app.
• Integrations: the support site has setup guides for ConnectWise, Autotask, HaloPSA, Kaseya BMS, Atera, Syncro, N-able, Zendesk, Freshdesk, the Exclaimer and CodeTwo signature tools, Slack, Teams and BrightGauge, plus a "universal Thermometer" for anything else.
• Google reviews: no direct posting; the support article says to use the thank-you page's advert space to "link through to your Google Reviews page".
• Price: per response with unlimited users, on the pricing page: $49 a month for 200 responses, $99 for 500, $159 for 1,000, $259 for 5,000, up to $700 for 20,000. Invoiced in US dollars; UK customers pay VAT.
• Reviewers: G2 has it at 3.9 from 16 reviews, Capterra at 4.9 from 18. G2's summary praises "ease of use" and says "the analytics interface could be more visually appealing". Three of the sixteen G2 reviews are one star, including a 2023 reviewer whose NPS signature setup kept crashing.

Fits if your PSA isn't one of the big two, your ticket volume is modest, or you want unlimited users on a small monthly fee.

Crewhu

What it is: G2 describes it as "the only platform built for MSPs combining CSAT, NPS, Employee Recognition, and Gamification". The survey is half the product; the other half is what your technicians get for scoring well.

• Measures: CSAT on "a helpdesk ticket reply, ticket close or on a project ticket" (its feedback page), and NPS campaigns on the top plan.
• Survey lives in: ticket-close and reply emails through your PSA, or "sent from your Outlook or other email client". Responses write back into the PSA ticket notes.
• Integrations: the integrations page shows logos for ConnectWise, Autotask, Kaseya, Syncro, Zendesk, Freshdesk, IT Glue, BrightGauge, Slack and Teams. HaloPSA isn't named. A May 2025 G2 reviewer found it "a bit complicated getting it integrated with Syncro".
• Gamification: badges, contests, points, a rewards store and leaderboards, which is the reason to buy Crewhu rather than the others.
• Google reviews: on the Recognize plan and above, to "send happy clients to your social media properties to leave online reviews".
• Price: per company, on the pricing page, each tier "5 Users, Billed Annually": Listen $119 a month, Recognize $239, Grow $399, plus an implementation fee of $300, $600 or $1,000. G2's pricing block, marked as provided by Crewhu, still shows Standard from $99, PRO from $199 and BADASS from $299, so ask which is current.
• Reviewers: G2 4.7 from 94 reviews, Capterra 4.9 from 98. G2's summary praises "employee recognition" and says "the interface could be improved". Written complaints are price ("could have a lower price per user", 2023) and a March 2024 reviewer unhappy that on the three-option survey "An 'OK' counts as a negative".

Fits if you want the survey to change technician behaviour, with public badges and monthly contests, and you'll pay an implementation fee for a proper setup.

Simplesat

What it is: a survey tool that grew up MSP-first; its homepage now leads with Zendesk, Gladly and Gorgias, but the MSP integrations are all still there.

• Measures: CSAT, NPS, CES and five-star, with follow-up questions that branch on the score.
• Survey lives in: the surveys page lists helpdesk trigger emails, links in invoices and SMS, and email signatures through Outlook, Gmail, Exclaimer and CodeTwo, and it will "Auto-resend unopened surveys in 2/5/10 days".
• Integrations: "100+" on the integrations page, including ConnectWise, Autotask, HaloPSA, Kaseya BMS, Atera, NinjaOne, SyncroMSP, CloudRadial and ScalePad on the PSA side.
• Google reviews: thank-you pages "can invite customers to share their experience on Google, Trustpilot, or another review site you choose".
• Price: by response volume, on the pricing page. Standard is $119 a month, or $109 billed annually, for 5 users and 1,000 responses a month; Pro $249 ($229) for 15 users and 3,000; Elite $499 ($459) for 30 users and 7,000. The FAQ promises "no per-agent fees".
• Reviewers: G2 4.8 from 168 reviews, the most of the four, with support the most-praised thing. The complaint, again, is reporting: an April 2026 reviewer scoring it 3.5 says "Dashboards and reporting could be improved".

Fits if you want NPS and CES alongside CSAT, a follow-up question that changes with the answer, or a PSA the other three don't list.

So which one for which MSP?

What separates them is what you want the number to do. If you want to know within the hour that a client is unhappy and reopen the ticket, all four do that and the cheapest one that fits your PSA wins.

When none of these is the answer

There are four situations where I'd tell an MSP to keep the money.

• You're under about a hundred tickets a month. The survey built into your PSA gives you a smiley for free. Simplesat's own FAQ concedes "Built-in CSAT gives you a score"; what you pay for is follow-up questions and routing, which you won't need until the volume justifies it.
• What you actually want is Google reviews. All four can point a happy client at Google from the thank-you page, but it's a side feature, and a review tool that asks directly will do it better.
• What you actually want is a quarterly relationship check. An NPS email to your main contacts doesn't need a per-ticket survey engine; a short survey and a spreadsheet does it, and the [Story Survey Kit](/resources/story-survey) is exactly that.
• You're buying a CSAT tool because you have no proof. None of these makes proof. A row of green smileys on your website is a claim about you, made by you, and nobody has ever chosen an MSP because of a CSAT widget.

That last point is the one that matters here. Whichever tool you pick, what it really gives you is a list of who is happy this week, by name, with the ticket that made them happy attached, and the next step is asking that person to say it on the record. For what it's worth, that part is done by hand at our end: I write the questions and run the interview myself, I pick the moments and write the edit notes, a human editor cuts the film, and people check it before the client sees it. None of that is automated. I've written about which client to ask and how the helpdesk can do the asking. A CSAT tool is the cheapest way to fill the top of that funnel. It's just not the funnel.

Questions people ask

Is SmileBack still available?

Yes, as ConnectWise Customer Feedback. smileback.com now redirects to connectwise.com/platform/smileback, and the product is still sold per agent from $88 a month billed annually (last checked 15 September 2026).

Which CSAT tools integrate with HaloPSA?

Customer Thermometer and Simplesat both publish HaloPSA setup guides. SmileBack's ConnectWise page and Capterra profile, and Crewhu's integrations page, don't name HaloPSA, so ask them directly before buying.

What is the cheapest CSAT tool for an MSP?

On published prices, Customer Thermometer starts lowest at $49 a month for 200 responses. SmileBack starts at $88 a month billed annually, Simplesat at $109 billed annually, and Crewhu at $119 billed annually plus a $300 implementation fee.

Related reading

• CSAT vs NPS for MSPs and tech vendors
• Turn your helpdesk into a testimonial engine
• Five ways to get testimonials from your clients
• Which client should you ask for a testimonial?