I really like UserVoice – unfortunately, the pricing is totally off. I don’t even think I’m asking for that much. All I would like to do is use it as part of a mobile Android app. Which means, there would either need to be a mobile version (there isn’t), or an API that would allow me to build a mobile client (Commercial API access starts at $289/month).

Of course, there are a few other essential features which you need to pay for, like the ability to export your data, starting at $19. Which I would happily do, except if I wanted to use it for five different projects, I have to pay that amount for five different accounts.

The obvious alternative is GetSatisfaction. While they also don’t seem to have a mobile version, and they also claim that “Commercial API Access” is available in the $289 plan only, you do have the ability to register apps for an API Key in their account management, and projects like Satisfaction Remote Component make me hopeful that there is some kind of API available for less.

Unfortunately, I can’t really stand the service in general. There’s too many features I don’t care for complicating the UI, and it requires registration from users before they can vote. Even the registration is confusing: Instead of simply letting me create a channel, I’m being told something about employee verification, needing to wait four business days and stuff I need to do with my website.

Two decent alternatives seem to be crowdsound and UserEcho, but again, no mobile site or API, though crowdsound seems to be working on one.

On the open source side, I’ve found OpenEcho, which seems dead though, and of course there’s the option of using an StackOverflow-clone – which would still require to build a mobile version myself.

For now, I think I’m going to sit out another round and see if things look better in a couple months.

Update 2011-05-08: More options are:

• Zoho Discussions
• Idea Informer
• OpenMind
• BBYIDX