Bettermode vs. Higher Logic: Which is Better for Your Community?
If you are serious about scaling an online community, you will have to decide on a great community platform. That decision begins with a thorough research: Bettermode vs Higher Logic.
Both platforms offer an array of solid features, user experience, and capabilities, making it hard to determine which is the right fit for your specific needs.
Bettermode is popular for its powerful customization tools, ease of use, and setup, while Higher Logic is well-regarded for its features built for non-profits and associations building online communities. But before making a decision, it’s crucial to weigh up the pros and cons of each platform.
In this article, we will delve into the features, pricing, and reviews of Bettermode and Higher Logic to help you make an informed decision on which community platform is best suited for your organization.
Let’s get started with an overview of each platform.👇
Product Overview
Bettermode
Bettermode is a pioneer of customer community platforms. It really puts customization and collaboration as top priorities, and aims to be the all-in-one tool for all your customer community needs.
👉 You can check out a quick overview here.
In short, Bettermode is an all-in-one customer community platform designed to make it easy for businesses to engage their customers and foster collaboration. The platform is known for being user-friendly, with beautiful templates that make it super simple to set up. Plus, customers love the powerful customization options and rich App store for integrations and embed options.
Its aim: to provide a positive user experience, which is essential for keeping community members engaged.
Importantly, it enables you to build highly scalable customer community and can support from thousands to millions of members for any community.
In fact, customers regularly see results like these:
- 3 x better user engagement
- 50% fewer support tickets
- +20 increase in NPS and CSAT scores
- 30% increase in organic traffic
You really will find everything in one place to run your community. Including forum discussions, ideation, help center, events, and product roadmap support.
Key Features
- Customizable user interface
- Powerful Design Studio to build unique communities
- Social media integration
- Professionally crafted pre-made templates
- Analytics and reporting tools
- Easy embed options
- App Store and direct integration with popular business tools such as HubSpot, Salesforce, Zendesk
- Multiple language support
- Single sign-on (SSO) functionality
- Gamification and moderation tools
- Developer Platform to build custom solutions on top of Bettermode
Primary use cases
- Customer self service
- Scaling customer support and success
- Product ideation and feedback
- Customer marketing and growth
Key industry segments
- Software and SaaS
- Consumer products and services
- Online training and cohort based courses
If we’ve piqued your interest, you can put us to the test with a demo now.
With this in mind, let’s now see how Higher Logic compares. 👇
Higher Logic overview
Higher Logic is a community platform that aims to help businesses (specifically associations) build and maintain strong connections with their customers. The platform offers two primary products – Higher Logic Thrive and Higher Logic Vanilla.
Higher Logic Thrive is built for membership organizations that want to deepen relationships with their members. Higher Logic Vanilla is a forum-based product which empowers growth-minded organizations to build a more engaged and meaningful relationship with their customers.
Key Features of Higher Logic:
- Simple, built-in payments for managing member subscriptions
- Easy analytics that give you the whole picture
- Expansion packs and external integrations
- Automated engagement
- Discussions and Q&A to collaborate and build connections
- Libraries for sharing resources and documentation
- Built-in event management to host engaging community events
- Automation rules and a mobile app
Key use cases:
- Self-service customer support
- Knowledge base
- Product feedback
Key industry segment:
- Technology
- Security
- Electronics
The drawbacks:
- The platform is very basic in look and feel
- The solution offers basic forum tools
- There is minimal customization
- Lack of localization options
- Users report issues can take too long to resolve
- The moderation options are fairly basic too
- Some users report that set-up and implementation can be challenging
- Customers say that some of the functionality isn’t intuitive, and it's hard to learn how to use it
Now that we’ve covered an overview of each platform, let’s take a deeper dive into the key features of each platform.
Bettermode vs Higher Logic: Key features
If you’ve researched some platforms already, you’ll already have seen there are significant differences between each one.
But what are the biggest differentiators? Let's take a look in the following sections below.
1. User experience
Bettermode
When it comes to user experience, Bettermode has huge positive feedback in this area. Bettermode's design aims to provide a positive experience for all types of users, including administrators, moderators, and community members. But don’t just take our word for it. According to Capterra, a well-designed platform contributes to an enjoyable user experience.
In fact, we’d go as far as to say that Bettermode has a competitive edge in addressing the needs of its users. For instance, G2 reviewers say that Bettermode meets the needs of their business better than Higher Logic. The platform is appreciated for its ongoing product support and feature updates, which offer users more confidence in the direction of Bettermode.
Higher Logic
Higher Logic's community platform comes in two variations: Thrive and Vanilla. Both platforms are recognized for their features, support, and overall performance. However, when compared to Bettermode, the TrustRadius reviews show that some users preferred Bettermode for product support, updates, and roadmaps.
In short, the user experience for Higher Logic Thrive and Vanilla may not be as satisfying as Bettermode for some businesses. G2 reviewers also found that Bettermode is better suited for their needs than Higher Logic Vanilla. Despite this, Higher Logic's platforms are still popular choices in the community software space and offer various features and tools that enable users to build and manage engaging communities.
2. Customization
Bettermode
Bettermode is known for offering an exceptionally robust customization tools, allowing users to create unique and personalized online communities. The platform provides a wide range of customizable options, from appearance to functionality. Some key features include:
- Complete customization capability, enabling users to tailor their site to their specific needs and preferences.
- Integration with social touch points across the user journey, improving overall user experience and engagement.
- Data ownership, which ensures that users maintain control over their information and analytics.
Bettermode's extensive customization features make it an attractive choice for businesses looking to create a unique and engaging online community that caters to their target audience's needs and preferences.
Higher Logic
Higher Logic also offers customization options for their community platforms. You can customize the platform's appearance, allowing users to adapt the platform's look and feel to match their brand's identity. Although users report customization options are limited. In fact, one user said the content management system is not as powerful or customizable (without serious HTML/coding experience) as other platforms out there.
So while Higher Logic provides customization options, it is worth noting that several users have found Bettermode to be easier to use, set up, and administer, as well as better suited for meeting their business needs overall.
3. Embed tools
Bettermode
Bettermode recognizes the importance of a seamless integration between the community platform and the users' existing websites or applications. Therefore, it offers a variety of embed tools to achieve this goal.
For example, you can easily integrate community elements into your website by making use of widgets and APIs. In addition, the platform supports various third-party integrations through its App Store, making it convenient for you to connect with your favorite tools and services.
Some notable features offered by Bettermode's embed tools include:
- Powerful widgets for embedding community content and features
- APIs for custom development and integration
- App Store with popular third-party services
Higher Logic
Higher Logic Thrive also prioritizes seamless integration with users' existing websites and applications. To facilitate this, Higher Logic provides a range of embedding tools designed to help users incorporate community elements into their digital properties. In addition to the available widgets and APIs, Higher Logic Thrive supports third-party integrations.
Some of the key features provided by Higher Logic's embed tools include:
- Pre-built widgets for easy integration of community features
- APIs allowing for custom development and enhanced integration
- Third-party integrations for improved functionality
Both Bettermode and Higher Logic Thrive offer comprehensive embed tools for seamless integration with users' digital properties. By utilizing these tools, users can create and maintain meaningful, engaging online communities that keep members coming back for support, resources, and networking opportunities.
4. Customer support
Bettermode
Bettermode has received positive feedback for its customer support. Reviews on TrustRadius and G2 indicate that users find Bettermode easier to set up, use, and administer. Additionally, reviewers prefer doing business with Bettermode and believe the platform meets their business needs more effectively than Higher Logic.
Furthermore, Bettermode has been praised for its ongoing product support, with reviewers indicating that it is their preferred option over Higher Logic, as seen on G2. Feature updates and roadmaps also appear to be better managed with Bettermode.
Higher Logic
A comparison between Bettermode and Higher Logic Vanilla on Capterra shows that both Bettermode and Higher Logic Vanilla have the same customer service score, however, overall, reviewers still believe that Bettermode is a better choice for their business needs.
In contrast, when compared to Higher Logic Thrive, users found Bettermode to be a more user-friendly platform, according to G2. While Higher Logic provides customer support, it seems that users prefer the overall experience and ongoing product support of Bettermode.
4. Apps & integrations
Bettermode
Bettermode offers a variety of native and third-party app integrations to enhance its community platform. These integrations enable users to create seamless connections between their community platform and popular tools.
Some of the notable integrations include:
- Email and marketing automation tools, such as Mailchimp and HubSpot
- CRM platforms such as Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics
- Webinar and event tools such as Zoom and Eventbrite
Additionally, Bettermode provides API documentation for developers, which allows for custom integrations and connections to other business tools not listed above. This flexibility ensures that the platform can cater to unique organizational requirements.
Higher Logic
Higher Logic also comes with a suite of native and third-party integrations aimed at fostering a connected and empowered user experience. These integrations help further streamline workflows and connect various systems used within an organization.
Notable integrations for Higher Logic include:
- CRM software such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and SugarCRM
- Marketing automation tools like HubSpot and Eloqua
- Webinar and event management platforms such as Zoom and GoToWebinar
Higher Logic also provides API support for organizations seeking custom integrations. This means that both Bettermode and Higher Logic offer a range of integration options to meet specific needs and facilitate seamless connections between different tools used by an organization.
4. Developer Platform
Bettermode
Bettermode is known for its ease of use, setup, and administration according to G2. The platform offers users the ability to create custom community spaces using pre-made templates that can be further customized using the Design Studio. The Design Studio allows users to visually build their communities through the use of blocks such as call-to-action, announcement bar, posts, members, and leaderboard, as mentioned in TrustRadius.
This community platform has a strong focus on customization and user experience, making it an attractive choice for developers who seek a flexible solution to meet various business needs.
Higher Logic
Higher Logic Thrive also offers a developer platform with a variety of features to build and manage communities, but reviewers on G2 and TrustRadius have found Bettermode to be a more ideal choice based on ease of use and ongoing product support. However, Higher Logic Thrive should not be overlooked, as it is a viable competitor with its own set of features and tools.
While this platform may not be as user-friendly as Bettermode, it still offers a comprehensive solution for community building and management to meet various business requirements.
5. Pricing comparison
Bettermode
Bettermode offers a flat-rate pricing model, with plans starting from $599 per month. This comes with a wide array of features out-of-the-box including:
- Advanced apps
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Fully white-label
- API and webhooks
- Staging environment
- Customer success manager
Alternatively, there is an Enterprise package, with pricing available on request, for large businesses or those in regulated industries. This comes with:
- Enterprise-grade security
- Data residency
- Audit and activity log
- Uptime SLA
- Master service agreement
- SAML authentication
Put us to the test with a demo, and get started with a free-trial.
Higher Logic
Unfortunately, Higher Logic does not have publicly available pricing information. However, some users report that the largest pill to swallow is the cost, and that Higher Logic is one of the more expensive platforms available.
6. Customer reviews and testimonials
Bettermode
Reviewers on G2 have found that Bettermode meets their business needs better than Higher Logic, and they also have preferred doing business with Bettermode. A key reason for this? Bettermode’s all in one approach helps businesses consolidate multiple tools into one centralized online platform.
Higher Logic
Higher Logic scores 4.3 /5 on G2. Overall, the main feedback for Higher Logic seems to be that it takes a lot of front end work to really get started and understand the platform, which can be hard when you are on a small team. Plus, there is a LOT to know and not a lot of training available. And the platform has a lack of functionality out of the box, which means you need hours of developer time to get set-up. Yet it’s tricky to get hold of the customer success or customer service team.
Bettermode vs Higher Logic: The final verdict
Bettermode is better choice when you are building customer communities. Its exceptional user experience, advanced engagement tools, customizability, data-driven insights, and unmatched support enable you to get results. 🥇
If you’re not quite convinced, carefully reviewing your requirements and objectives will help in making an informed decision.
For businesses considering a community platform, we recommended you:
- Evaluate current requirements and objectives to determine which features are crucial to success.
- Demo both Bettermode and Higher Logic to identify the platform with a more intuitive and user-friendly interface.
- Assess the quality of support offered by each platform and consider the importance of this factor.
- Review user reviews and feedback from other organizations that have implemented these platforms to gain insights into their experiences and potential pitfalls.
Ultimately, selecting the right community platform depends on the unique needs of the organization.
Both Bettermode and Higher Logic have their merits, and taking the time to consider the above points will ensure a successful collaborative community is established.
If we have convinced you to put Bettermode on your shortlist, why not get started with a demo now?
Looking for more?
📖 Check out our resources and expand your community engagement skills:
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