AlleyPulse FAQ: the weekly neighborhood email for local shops

Yes. AlleyPulse is a weekly neighborhood intelligence email for small business owners: every Monday it lists what changed within 1 km of your shop's address, why each change matters and what to do about it this week.

AlleyPulse is best for single location shops that want a weekly check on what's changing nearby, such as cafés, restaurants, bars, bakeries, salons and independent retailers.

It covers competitor activity (public posts, promos, rating and review count changes), businesses newly listed on Google Maps or marked closed near you, local events and news, local search interest trends, the week's weather and relevant industry trends. Each item shows what changed, where (distance), why it matters, what to do this week and a source link.

A means act this week, B means worth knowing and C means skim. Every item also shows what changed, where it is (distance), why it matters, what to do this week and a source link with its date.

It arrives once a week, on Monday morning in your time zone, and takes about five minutes to read. It is not real time: it compares weekly snapshots, so information can be hours to days old.

No. The first issue is a baseline that records what is around you today. Changes such as new listings and closures appear from issue 2 and are reliable from about week 3 or 4.

It tells you when a business appears on Google Maps near you for the first time, which is not the same as a confirmed opening. We label these items as new on Google Maps near you and never state an opening date.

No. AlleyPulse does not reply to reviews, manage your listing or track map rankings. It is a weekly briefing about what is changing around you, and it works alongside whatever listing tools you already use.

No. AlleyPulse does not measure foot traffic and does not report permits, licenses or business registrations. If an issue shows busy times, they are Google's relative popularity index, not visitor counts.

Yes. AlleyPulse has a read only REST API, version 1, that returns your shop's weekly issues and items as JSON. You create keys in the app, and each key is limited to 60 requests per minute (an example limit). It is included with every shop subscription. The developer documentation lists the endpoints.

Yes. AlleyPulse runs a remote MCP server, so assistants and agents that support MCP, such as Claude, Cursor and other agent tools, can read your latest issue, search items and check coverage with an API key. Setup steps for four clients are in the developer documentation.

Yes. The API and the MCP server return the same issues and items as the weekly email, with the same tiers, sources and dates. They are read only, return no review text and name other businesses only the way the email does. The sample report as JSON shows one issue.

It works for addresses wherever Google Maps has business listings, except Russia and Belarus. How much it finds depends on how many businesses are listed near your address, so check your address on the coverage page first.

You still get an issue, but some weeks may contain mostly weather, events and trends. Choosing a 2 km radius usually adds more nearby businesses.

Yes. You can choose 0.5, 1 or 2 km around your address and change it in settings at any time; the first issue after a change treats the newly added area as a baseline.

AlleyPulse uses public Google Maps business data (listings, ratings, review counts, hours and posts), public web sources for local events and news, weather forecasts and regional search interest similar to Google Trends. AlleyPulse is not affiliated with Google.

It is as accurate as the public data at the time of the weekly scan. Listings can be missing, wrong or out of date, information can be hours to days old, and closed means marked closed on Google at scan time.

No. We report review counts, rating changes and summarized themes, such as 5 of 9 new reviews mention long waits, and link to the source instead of copying review text.

We use your address only to find businesses, events and weather within your radius. It is sent in the request body, never placed in a URL, and deleted after 30 days unless you subscribe.

No. We don't sell or share your address or email for advertising. Subscribers' addresses are kept only to produce their weekly issue and are deleted when the account is deleted.

The sample report is free and needs no credit card. The planned price is $39 per month per shop, but we are not charging yet during early access, and the price may change before billing starts.

No. The free sample report and early access need only an address and an email address.

Yes. You can unsubscribe from any email or delete your account in settings at any time, with no contract.

Yes, and you do not need a new account. One account can hold many shops: you add another shop from the shop menu with its own address and radius, with no new registration. Each shop is billed $39 per month once billing starts, and nothing is charged yet. You keep one login and switch between shops. Each shop has its own recipients and settings, and an API key can cover one shop or all of your shops.