Agency Comparison
B13 AI vs Catalyst Marketing Agency
Two top-rated AI agencies in Birmingham.
Comparison updated
Side by side
Published data on both agencies. Where one side measurably differs, the dot marks it: the higher score, the lower published rate, the larger team, the more recent review. Which of those is an advantage depends on your brief.
| Attribute | B13 AI | Catalyst Marketing Agency |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial score | Higher score: 42/100 | 39.8/100 |
| Hourly rate | €20-40/hr | Contact for rates |
| Team size | 10-49 | 10-49 |
| Location | Birmingham, United Kingdom | Birmingham, United Kingdom |
| Founded | 2010 | 2012 |
| Last reviewed | More recent review: Sep 4, 2026 | Aug 6, 2026 |
What we said about each
Our take on B13 AI
One of four published case studies involves AI: a speech-recognition tool built for Box Clever Digital's Thrive project that transcribes volunteer phone calls with isolated people and tracks sentiment through IBM Watson and AWS, which is live and helped the client win £500,000 in further funding. The other three—an e-consent platform in Ruby and Angular, an Angular upgrade for an audio-production platform, and an Electron and Flutter video-consultation tool for Substrakt Health—are software…
Reviewed Sep 4, 2026
Read the full assessment →Our take on Catalyst Marketing Agency
The FreshGround engagement is the reason this listing exists: search work rebuilt around AI answers rather than blue links, published with commercial outcomes rather than ranking screenshots. Organic enquiries close to three times higher year on year, marketing-qualified leads up 56% in June, and total enquiries across all channels up by roughly a third over six months—about nine more enquiries per working day than a year earlier. Enquiries and qualified leads are harder numbers than visibility…
Reviewed Aug 6, 2026
Read the full assessment →Best for
Where each agency measurably leads on the published data — team capacity, declared specializations, editorial scoring, and rates where both publish them. Use these to match an agency to your project priorities.
Choose B13 AI if you need
- disclosed specialization in Healthcare
- broader service offering — also covers AI Development and AI Consulting
- a higher overall editorial score
Choose Catalyst Marketing Agency if you need
- disclosed specialization in Public Sector
- broader service offering — also covers AI SEO and AI Marketing
Strengths and watch-outs
Both upsides and risks, straight from our editorial assessments.
B13 AI
Strengths
- Sixteen years as a Birmingham entity working out of STEAMhouse, with Birmingham City University, Cezanne HR and the Royal Wolverhampton Hospital on the client wall
- €20–40/h against the €100–200/h EU band, for buyers whose brief is a build with an AI component rather than a model programme
- The Thrive study is explicit that human transcription sits behind the API as a fallback, so the reliability design is stated rather than implied
Watch-outs
- The AI case study was last updated in 2024—ask for a post-2024 LLM-era engagement with a reference before treating current positioning as delivery history
- No headcount, team page or named engineers are published—confirm who staffs your project and which part sits offshore
- Healthcare and industrial research are listed as verticals, but the published health work is app delivery rather than clinical AI—clarify the regulatory experience if your brief is a medical device
Catalyst Marketing Agency
Strengths
- Reports enquiries and qualified leads rather than visibility scores—commercial outcomes a finance director would recognize
- Trading since 2012 with published offices in Birmingham, London and Dubai, each with a street address and phone number
- Sector depth in UK mid-market services, public sector and charity, where the buying process is slow and procurement-shaped
Watch-outs
- The AEO method is named but not described—ask which questions, which assistants, and how AI-driven gains were isolated from ordinary SEO
- One documented AI engagement inside a very large portfolio of conventional marketing work
- City landing pages are templated—the London page still links to "Email marketing for Birmingham businesses"—so read them as marketing, not as evidence of where the team sits
Service coverage
Where the two overlap, and where each covers ground the other does not.
Industry coverage
Where the two overlap, and where each covers ground the other does not.
Pricing math
What a 12-week engagement at one full-time equivalent (~480 hours) costs at each agency’s published rate. An arithmetic projection, not a quote — real scopes move with seniority mix and team shape.
B13 AI
Rate: €20-40/hr
€9,600–€19,200
Catalyst Marketing Agency
Contact for rates
Only B13 AI publishes a rate, so there is no gap to measure. Catalyst Marketing Agency quotes per engagement — ask for a rate card early, since a comparison that starts on scope and ends on price tends to end late.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has more SaaS & B2B experience, B13 AI or Catalyst Marketing Agency?
- Both agencies show documented SaaS & B2B work and have similar industry breadth. Compare directly on the agency profiles: B13 AI and Catalyst Marketing Agency.
- Which scores higher overall, B13 AI or Catalyst Marketing Agency?
- B13 AI scores 42/100, 2.2 points higher than Catalyst Marketing Agency at 39.8/100. Both portfolio quality and business credibility feed into the score — see our methodology for the full breakdown.
- When should I consider both B13 AI and Catalyst Marketing Agency?
- Consider running parallel discovery briefs with B13 AI and Catalyst Marketing Agency if your project spans multiple workstreams, you want competitive proposals to compare scope and approach, or you're undecided between the specialization angles each brings (see the Best for cards above). Most engagements ultimately go with one — but the parallel-brief phase is a low-cost way to validate fit.
Read the full reviews
A side-by-side is a starting point. The full assessments carry the portfolio analysis, documented engagements, and the evidence behind every strength and watch-out above.