Bettermode vs. Hivebrite pricing: Which is Better for Your Customer Community?

According to HubSpot, great customer service experiences increase the chances of repurchases and renewals by 82%. This highlights the importance of cultivating an engaged online community where potential customers feel supported and valued.

As you explore community engagement platforms, Hivebrite stands out as a notable option. However, with Hivebrite pricing starting at around $800 per month, it’s crucial to determine if this investment aligns with your organization’s budget and community goals—or if other options might deliver what you need at lower prices.

In this article, we’ll compare Bettermode and Hivebrite. This analysis will help you identify the best fit for your community needs rather than just picking a winner.

We’ll begin by comparing the key features of both options.

Bettermode vs Hivebrite: Comparing key features

Bettermode key features

Bettermode is an all-in-one platform that prioritizes customization, offering a stunning template gallery and a rich App Store for seamless integrations and embed options. 

With its community website builder, you can create full websites—from static pages to dynamic portals—tailored to various use cases, including client portals, HR tools, job boards, media center, employee onboarding and online communities.

With everything in one place, Bettermode increases user engagement and leverages user-generated content to drive organic traffic. In terms of customer support, Bettermode offers responsive and helpful customer teams and has a comprehensive Knowledge Base, email support and a Contact Us page, to address any issues or questions that may arise. 

And the best part? It's highly scalable. Whether you're managing a group of just a few hundred community members or overseeing a large network of millions, Bettermode is designed to accommodate your growth and needs seamlessly.

What sets Bettermode apart from competitors are its no-code website builders with superior design and proprietary CMS. You don't have to rely on third-party sheets or imports to build and customize your community platform. Bettermode also offers a free plan, allowing anyone to start using the platform at no cost.

With Bettermode, you also get flexibility, which means that you can create different types of content, such as landing pages, articles, forums, events, product and profile updates and discussion boards.

Other Bettermode features include:

• All-in-one customer community platform 
• Customizable user interface
• Powerful Design Studio for community building
• Social media integration
• Professionally crafted pre-made community templates
• Analytics and reporting tools 
• Easy embed options
• Rich App Store and direct integration with popular business tools such as HubSpot, Salesforce, Zendesk
• Multiple language support e.g. English, Spanish, French, German and more
• Single sign-on (SSO) functionality 
• Gamification and moderation tools
• Web app builder to build custom solutions on top of Bettermode 
• Access controls/permissions
• Activity dashboard and tracking
• Alerts/Escalation and notifications
• Collaboration functionalities and event management
• Knowledge base management
• Live chat
• Member directory
• Powerful moderation tools
• Easy reporting and analytics

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 can check out the platform features and put us to the test now.

Hivebrite key features

Hivebrite caters to professional communities, alumni networks, public organizations and incubators of all sizes. It includes full moderation features, an integrated CMS, options for private and public pages, RSS feeds, messaging capabilities, and member access to documents and files. 

Hivebrite also offers:

• The ability to manage community data
• Management of events, tickets and payments in one place
• Centralized communications with members and automated updates
• Share and find opportunities
• Management of memberships and donations 
• Management of groups
• Support center and email support
• Networking
• Access full control
• Permission management
• Single sign-on
• Content management
• Knowledge Base management
• Multi-language

The bottom line: Both Bettermode and Hivebrite offer powerful features for building and growing a successful customer community. However, if you want to strengthen connections, boost engagement and improve collaboration, Bettermode is the way to go.

Bettermode vs Hivebrite: user experience

In this section, we will compare the user experience of Bettermode and Hivebrite, focusing on aspects like ease of navigation, interface design and overall usability.

Bettermode user experience

Bettermode's customer community platform is built to help businesses simplify customer experience, improve customer engagement and build meaningful relationships. Users appreciate that Bettermode's teams welcome feature suggestions and are constantly adding new features to the community.

Bettermode's design studio allows you to create any layout using simple, no-code tools, along with robust templates for various common use cases. Users find it “very intuitive and customizable compared to competitors.”

The platform meets all your community needs with embeddable widgets, a modern design, a comprehensive API, gamification features, direct messaging, detailed analytics and strong moderation tools. Additionally, product teams can easily collect ideas and feedback from members.

Hivebrite user experience

Hivebrite's user interface is also user-friendly and intuitive, and it offers a range of features that make it easy to manage customer communities. The platform is designed to be easy to use, with a clean interface. 

While Hivebrite's customization options for content creation are more limited than those of Bettermode, it still provides basic options to create customized content and pages.

One of the standout features of Hivebrite is its event management tool, which allows organizations to easily create and manage events within their communities. This makes it easy to engage with their members and build a sense of community around their brand or cause. 

However, users have noted that the page builder needs improvements, along with enhancements to the reporting and analytics for payments, email and web activities.

Hivebrite also offers a range of tools to help organizations manage their communities effectively. The platform has a built-in CRM system that allows organizations to track user behavior and engagement, and its moderation tools make it easy to manage user-generated content and ensure that the community remains a safe and welcoming space for all members. 

In summary: Both Bettermode and Hivebrite provide user-friendly for managing customer communities, but Bettermode stands out with its extensive customization options. Users describe Bettermode as “intuitive and easy to use,” considering it one of the top alternatives to Facebook groups One user even recommended it for organizations struggling to maintain employee engagement.

Bettermode vs Hivebrite: comparing costs

Next, it’s essential to consider your budget when selecting the right community platform. Let’s take a closer look at how each option compares.

Bettermode cost

Bettermode's Business plan offers excellent value at just $99 per month when billed annually, making it a great option for brands looking to grow. 

This plan includes advanced apps, single sign-on for easy access, full white-label customization, API and webhooks for smooth integration, a staging environment for testing and a dedicated customer success manager to guide you.

For larger businesses and those in regulated industries, Bettermode provides a custom pricing option with their enterprise plan. 

This plan is designed to meet your organization's specific needs, offering enterprise-grade security, data residency compliance, an audit and activity log for transparency, uptime guarantees for reliable service and a comprehensive service agreement. Additionally, the enterprise plan includes SAML authentication and extra features tailored to your business.

🔎 You can take a look at Bettermode's pricing plans here.

Hivebrite cost

On the other hand, with Hivebrite you have to request a demo to get a personalized quote and the lack of transparency doesn't help in making a choice. Hivebrite has solutions for education, professional networks, corporate alumni and non-profits. That's why plans include features such as event management, payment processing and fundraising.

For example, event management features can be useful for organizations that frequently host events, while payment processing and fundraising features can be useful for non profit organizations that rely on donations and sponsorships. 

The key takeaway: While pricing is an important factor when choosing a customer community platform, it's not the only factor to consider. Both Bettermode and Hivebrite offer varying levels of features and support to cater to different organizational needs. 

Organizations should evaluate their needs and choose a platform that offers the features and support they require to build a successful community.

The key differences between Bettermode vs Hivebrite

Discovering the right customer community platform that empowers your brand can be a daunting task, especially when there is a vast array of options available in the market. 

Two of the most popular platforms are Bettermode and Hivebrite, but before making a decision, it is crucial to understand the key differences of each platform.  

• Flexibility to meet business needs: Many users find that Bettermode better meets their needs compared to Hivebrite. Users have noted that Bettermode is easy to use and offers all the necessary features to keep their community members engaged. In contrast, some Hivebrite users have mentioned challenges with its user-friendliness, stating that they’ve had to adjust their business processes to fit the platform's functionality.
  
  
• Product support: Reviewers on G2 consistently highlight Bettermode's superior support, indicating a more responsive and dedicated team behind the product. Users report that Bettermode's customer support is exceptional and readily available to address any questions. In contrast, Hivebrite users have expressed dissatisfaction, citing issues with the quality of technical support compared to other Hivebrite alternatives.
  
  
• Ease of use: Bettermode allows for the easy creation of highly customizable communities using the Design Studio and pre-made community website tempalte. You can effectively manage content and group member networks, improving overall interaction. Users have found that Bettermode has significantly contributed to their thriving communities, describing the platform as intuitive and user-friendly, with positive feedback from their members.
  
  
• All-in-one solution: Lastly, while both Bettermode and Hivebrite offer strong community platforms, Bettermode stands out as a more comprehensive all-in-one solution. It allows customer support, success, marketing and product teams to collaborate effectively within the platform. This helps build meaningful customer experiences and engagement.

Hivebrite vs Bettermode: use cases

Now that we've looked at the main differences between Bettermode and Hivebrite let's delve into the use cases. After all, you need to find the right customer community platform that meets your organization's unique needs.

Bettermode use cases

• Customer self-service
• Scaling customer support and success
• Product ideation and feedback
• Customer marketing and growth

Bettermode 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 free trial now.

Hivebrite use cases

Image source: Software advice

• Event management and ticketing
• Secure payments and donations
• Fundraising and membership management
• Advanced communication and messaging features
• Advanced member segmentation and targeting

Hivebrite key industry segments

• Education 
• Non-profits
• Corporate Alumni 

To sum up: If your organization wants to monetize its community by selling tickets, merchandise or digital membership cards, Hivebrite is an ideal platform that provides advanced features for event management, ticketing, secure payments and fundraising. 

However, if you want more functionality, and a wider range of options with transparency and openness then Bettermode is a better option. 

Choosing the right platform

In the battle between Bettermode and Hivebrite, Bettermode emerges as the clear winner. With its exceptional user experience, advanced engagement tools, customizability, data-driven insights and unmatched support, Bettermode enables you to get results. 🥇

Our advice? When it comes to choosing a customer community platform, don't settle for less. Experience the difference with Bettermode, where affordability meets unrivaled functionality tailored to your organization's growth. 

As a final key takeaway, if you are considering a community platform, we recommend you:

• Evaluate current requirements and objectives to determine which features are crucial to success.
• Try both Bettermode and Hivebrite 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 ratings, reviews and success stories from organizations that have implemented these platforms to gain insights into their experiences and potential pitfalls.

Ultimately, selecting the right community platform depends on your organization's unique needs. Both Bettermode and Hivebrite have their merits, so taking the time to consider the above points will ensure a successful collaborative community is established.

If Bettermode sounds like the right fit for your organization, why not sign up for Bettermode’s free trial and experience it firsthand? Get started today and see how Bettermode can elevate your community!

This article was originally published on June 20th, 2023, and was updated on October 25th, 2024.

FAQ

Which platform is cheaper?

Bettermode is more affordable, starting at $0 for the free plan and $19 per month for the Lite plan. 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

Hivebrite's lack of transparency about pricing, means you have to book a demo first.

Which platform is better for tracking and measuring community performance?

Bettermode provides robust analytics and reporting tools, making it a better platform for tracking and measuring community performance.

Which platform is better for smaller organizations?

Bettermode offers pricing options that are more affordable for small to medium-sized organizations, while Hivebrite targets larger enterprises that can afford its pricing.

Which platform offers better customization options?

Bettermode offers more customization options compared to Hivebrite, making it a good option for organizations that want a more tailored community experience.

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