Higher Logic Thrive

Pros

Ease of use for Open Forum communications is great
We have used extensively in our governance and it really organized and standardized our committee work.
Ability to integrate with Abila product
Abiilty to aid our chapters

Cons

I wish the libraries were easier to use - like Windows Explorer (does that show I'm old and not yet used to Sharepoint?)
Wish you could duplicate "events" in the calendar like committee meetings.
Wish the libraries were like google docs/share point and could be worked on collaboratively.

Pros

It shows that they use their longevity and experience to improve their products based on user and client feedback.

Cons

As a single product user, it sometimes feels as if our needs are not as urgent (bug fixes, improvements).

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Higher Logic Thrive

Pros

I am submitting this review to deal primarily with the design aspects of the platform. I haven't gotten to the point where I can comment on the application itself.

Cons

In short, at this time the design interface is pretty bad. It's cumbersome at best, you have to jump to different areas of the interface to edit a single page. Despite it being based on the Bootstrap system, it is a terrible bastardization that does not allow even a full-width image to be displayed in a hero, you can't go wider than 1200px, so it looks awful on most desktops. This, I am told, is a known issue going back MONTHS.

Pros

I love how easily configurable this platform is and how extensively I am able to customize our brand through customization. We chose to integrate directly using activity sync and I am excited to see how these two products are able to work in tandem to drive behaviors and engagement.

Cons

Lack of localization. As a global organization of 1.2 million members in over 180 countries, we support multiple languages (including English, Italian, Spanish, Korean, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Swedish). No being able to provide the platform in multiple languages gates off members that we would otherwise like to engage.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Higher Logic Thrive

Pros

Higher Logic is great for communities and directories. There's lots of automation that makes contacting members and keeping everyone up to date on things very easy. The communities make it easy for members across the globe to communicate daily, sharing the latest information, tips and tricks.

Cons

The content management system/website portion is not as powerful or customizable (without serious HTML/coding experience) as other web platforms out there.

Pros

We've been live about a year and our staff and customers love the Qualifacts Community powered by Higher Logic. The system is head and shoulders above our previous system. We have created communities by user persona and state. It's our central documentation and resource site. Customers are engaged, and have started doing a lot of self-support.

Cons

The CMS is capable, but quirky. I still get confused trying to arrange content blocks and creating content. The email/automation rule process isn't well designed for sending one-off messages, or even recurring, but unscheduled messages like system status updats.

Pros

The ability to have a history of the topics members have discussed that is easily searchable and organizable with tags.

Cons

We had a few hic ups when we switched integrations to a new AMS system but we contacted our customer service manager and she worked it out and got things running again.

Pros

It is adult social media for professionals! Great place for members to share their expertise and ask questions privately, exclusive to an audience of colleagues who understand their issues and concerns.

Cons

The upgrades and how to take advantage of them isn't always obvious.

Pros

I like the fact that HL takes care of all the set up/details/ tech and we have a product that we can customize to match our look and feel

Cons

some limitations in the implementation/set up that we worked around.

Pros

Ease of use, many features, ability to create personas and enhance engagement with members through analyitics

Cons

Prefer more creation options for email marketing.

Pros

On the plus side of things, the software is fairly intuitive and only takes a little time to figure out the basics of. It really isn't too difficult to get started with it or show someone how to use it. We mainly use Informz from Higher Logic, and use to send our retail oriented emails. It's easy to set up test groups, and do some basic targeted emails.

Cons

The software is extremely unreliable, half of the time you get server errors or the whole platform is down. There is also very little customization built into the platform. There is no way to modify your CSS or integrate other features into creating emails such as branded fonts and visually interactive elements. As someone who builds the emails I want to be able to have my emails be on brand with other marketing and promotional materials, this is hard to achieve without sacrificing legibility and flexibility on this platform.

Pros

There are a lot of great features available with the online community depending on what package you have. You are able to use it for forum style discussions as well as share and save documents. Communities can be private or public to all members of an association.

Cons

The library is not totally intuitive and can be a little tricky to rearrange and organize, however this is minor compared to the benefits HL offers.

Pros

Our group has been using the Higher Logic Community Platform for almost two years. We continue to get new members and look for new ways to engage them. Higher Logic makes it easy to offer a solution regardless of the size of your organization. It has been a wonderful success and a great solution for our need.

Cons

The learning curve with some of the automated features. It is robust so at times the process seemed overwhelming.

Pros

I have worked with three organization that used the Online Community platform and the major benefit in recent years is how HL supports the organization from start to finish and continues support ongoingly. My first organization did not have that level of support during launch, but HL recognized organizations needed that support and they responded to that need. Now I feel between the HL staff and HUG, you can really conquer any problem you encounter as an admin.

Cons

More recently we're experienced some problems with regard to the volunteer opportunities module and sending opportunities. I know changes are coming down the pike that may improve this activity.

Pros

The support from Higher Logic is great. Right from the beginning they were there to help you navigate your way through setting up an online community. Its the prefect platform for our members to engage with each other and our association. It helps us to know what issues are important and relevant to our membership.

Cons

You can get announcements and events in the daily digest.

Pros

I love the various options and add-ons available with the platform which enhance the product and overall feel. The site is very user friendly to the end user (not admin support staff).

Cons

I love the various options and add-ons available with the platform. However, I found implementation to be a little frustrating and the support team did not fully explain the ins and outs of Higher Logic. I would have appreciated a more comprehensive training and overview of the system. I felt blind for the majority of our implementation/launching process.

Pros

I like the ease of use and the increased member engagement.

Cons

I wish there was an additional level of access below superadmin level.

Pros

There are so many more tools for communities than I've seen in previous software, and the company is still growing so there is a lot of chances to give ideas and influence the new additions to features.

Cons

The back end design is very clunky, though they are going to be updating it and I can't wait to give it a try. There is also a limited number of security customizations in some influential parts of communities, such as moderating a big group of individuals at once, or restricting people to not be able to post, but be able to respond to posts. I hope these will come in the future.

Pros

This software allows our members to network 24/7 at times that are convenient for them.

Cons

The design is still a bit clunky; need to know HTML.

Pros

They are constantly finding ways to make things easier for me as a community manager!

Cons

Waiting long periods of time for bugs to get resolved.

Pros

There is a lot of functionality, but you can easily dial in to the level you need. Our community took off immediately and we are seamlessly layering in different functionalities. The support provided and information available to help us become empowered administrators is excellent.

Pros

Ease of use, team members, sales process and implementation timeframe

Cons

There is a lot of information and I'd love to see more interaction with my HL team.

Pros

Creates member value by facilitating networking among members

Cons

admin experience

Pros

being able to engage our members in the open forum

Cons

Would like to be able to use HTML code and have more opportunity for designing email blasts

Pros

The online community enables us to share information with our 3200 members, bring important information to the forefront, and make important decisions in real time.

Cons

We continue the struggle with email posts going to clutter or junk. It's an ongoing education process.
From a management standpoint and for the platform to work for you, there is much to learn and ongoing learning support is needed.

Pros

The only thing I liked is how ease it was to use pre-built templates.

Cons

There has been an on-going issue where you're unable to save your work since February 2022 and there were IQA issues in November 2021 - February 2022. It just seems that there's been constant problems on the backend (admitted by the CTO himself). Additionally, the lack of updates and support from their customer support team has ruined the experience. I would suggest paying more for a more reliable service. My department has been under fire by our executive team due to issues from Higher Logic that they don't seem to care about.

If you're using this platform for email automation, I give this software a zero. Emails have failed to go out to our contact list, doesn't save, etc. which causes a lot of frustration on the customer/users end. We've missed several deadlines because of their 504 errors and don't hear back from customer service reps for days on end.

Pros

The fact that it is a tool that can help me run an advocacy program.

Cons

There have been lots of bugs that I have caught and have had to escalate to the Higher Logic support team. I just keep finding them and I can't launch my program because of it. Bugs have also negatively impacted my customers' experience in the 2nd program I launched. Also, the support team is not one person who knows my platform, goals, and agenda when I need assistance/have a problem, but it's multiple people who get back to me within long periods of time, often not resolving the root cause, but just the symptom, meaning the problem will probably happen again... I have communicated my dissatisfaction, and more Higher Logic people are thrown at my concerns, which only adds more chefs over the pot, and no one takes direct responsibility to resolve it=takes longer to resolve the issues. I am sure Higher Logic's intentions are good, but when it comes down to it, I can't depend on them to be there, to do things quickly, or even really fix the bugs I am finding; it has taken LOTS of time to get things resolved if we even do. My colleague had the same experience. To add: as a new user, the platform is not very straightforward to use, and I have to look for their materials, which are all over the place, or watch long videos to find the one thing I am looking for. The advocacy platform is very basic in look and feel, unless I hire someone for lots of $$ to help design it up.

Pros

I prefer this software because members need something that is convenient and enables them to talk to each other without the hassle. This gives them a place to talk, share documents, have private conversations, etc. As a community manager, I can maintain the back-end without interruption to their natural dialogue.

Cons

I customized the design because I needed it to be "pretty." I think if it were easier to make it a bit more natural to websites within the tool, that would be the only change I would make at the moment.

Pros

Our organization uses higher logic for many things. The fact that you can manage an online forum and see so many members engage with each other is amazing. We also use higher logic to manage our volunteer application process. It keeps it very organized with all the deadlines and applications and sending out emails approving/declining members. There are so many different functions you can utilize with Higher Logic and there is still so much more for us to learn. Their customer service is great and the ticket process is very simple and you typically hear back within an hour or so from customer service.

Cons

You really have to learn the back end of higher logic to make changes which can be very confusing. That is really my only complaint which I can't even complain about- you just have to adjust and learn how the system works because their are so many options.

Pros

Set up and ease of use are amazing. Higher Logic Support stays with you from integration through your entire life cycle of the software. You never feel like you have been left on your own.

Cons

Need a few more levels on the admin side. there are community admins but they should have the ability to impersonate members in order to assist them.

Pros

I like the ease of being able to use the community as both an admin and user. It is very user-friendly and integrates well with our customer management software.

Cons

Although it integrates well with our CMS, I'll give this product 5 stars once the document features integrate.

Pros

I like how easy it is to learn how to use the product. I love how information is easy to find.

Cons

I think training for community managers should be longer. After 2.5 years of being on the platform, I am just learning things I need to know. However, since being CM, there is so much I need to know and I wish i would have gotten all of this information prior to be becoming the CM.

Pros

The software is fairly easy to use if you only want to create basic pages

Cons

There is no way to hard code the search function. We are using it as an intranet - a place for sales to find product information and sales tools with a dedicated page for each solution area. However, the search function is awful - there is no way to ensure the top results are the pages we want them to find. Search for "Cloud" products - and you get a bunch of random search results with cloud on the page - instead of the Cloud Community Page coming up first.

Second issue is that the editor is hard to use. It is not easy to set up an attractive and interesting page. There are lots of good html editors - but this one is buggy and challenging.

Pros

The ability to integrate the CMS, email automation and online community.

Cons

Resource library tool has an outdated look and feel and has limited functionality.

Pros

I love the ability the system gives us to connect members, provide them with resources and actually reach all of the members using the system all at once.

Cons

It is difficult to make changes and its not very intuitive. I am excited for the changes being made to the admin section, I hope these updates make it easier to changes and access different features.

Pros

Love the ease for the end user (or members) If the pages/platform are designed correctly by admin/staff they love this connection to their peers.

Cons

admin interface...its clunky and somewhat confusing. The reports are hard to come out with a final combined report

Pros

Higher Logic provided the perfect platform for our research team to stay connected. Working on a project of ancient manuscripts that involves scholars from around the world who rarely are in the same place at the same time, Higher Logic connected our membership base to one another in a way that kept our research moving forward and our relationships with one another strong throughout our project. This was especially true with the peer-to-peer support tools that allowed us to make our research deadlines as we utilized technology to keep our team productive and accountable.

Cons

Utilizing any platform that ties together a research community requires a slight learning curve and Higher Logic was no different. However, the software was very user-friendly and intuitive to our research community.

Pros

We've been using Higher Logic's online community software for a few years now and have been very happy with our results so far. Our members took to the forum pretty quickly and we now have a fairly active community. We've also created additional forums for our monthly journal and have allowed members to create specialty groups as well. This increased engagement with our members has definitely helped out with our member retention.

Cons

There's a bit of a learning curve when you first start using the software, especially when setting up the automation. Their support is pretty good though so don't be afraid to reach out when you get confused.

Pros

This software is so easy to use. It is feature rich and offers multiple modules that suit our association needs. So far, the customer service has been extremely good. Our website partner vetted other online communities for us and felt Higher Logic is the best solution for our membership. As I said, they are feature rich and the reporting is excellent.

Cons

The implantation time is longer than I expected. However, I understand the need to take time to get it implemented to suit our needs and so we don't have to redo the install again.

Pros

It is relatively user friendly for staff and customers. The interface for some features is pleasant and easy to understand. It embodies everything needed to run a modern business with online presence.

Cons

It's still growing so rapidly that there are still growing pains and issues that are less than ideal. However, I'm glad we're here and looking forward to continuing to grow with a company like HL.

Pros

Automation rules and reporting are my favorite features of HL

Cons

Customer support has been decreasing over the last 1.5 years, response times longer and longer, hope of resolution of issues or product malfunctions is decreasing

Pros

This software is a one stop shop for bringing our customers together to collaborate and learn.

Cons

There is a learning curve, but it is learnable.

Pros

The ability to easily allow your members to engage with eachother, securely!

Cons

Admin portal is hard to navigate, lots of options, but not easy to find where you need to go to find what you need.

Pros

The Higher Logic platform allows for members to communicate with each other in a safe place, removing the middle man. My company, prior, had been tasked with being the middle man. Our members would contact us with queries, we would have to make the appropriate questions. HL helps to remove us as an extra step in THAT process, allowing us to focus on other matters.

Cons

There are times when I wish HL had some more plug/play style technology. The ability to drag and drop entries, personalize a homepage, etc. I have been in my current position for only 6 months so a lack of familiarity with the product is part of the issue; but is seems that some of these features arein the works as we speak (per the opening sessions).

Pros

I enjoy the ability for non-developers to be able to easily use the site and set up pages without having to be able to code.

Cons

Implementation is difficult if you do not have the standard customer scenario. There are not many commercial customers, but hopefully this is an area that will grow.

Pros

The education and discussions through the HUG is very helpful in managing new and on-going aspects of the platform. It is helpful to know what other clients are going through and to have HL be receptive to new product enhancements, potential bugs, or new features.

Cons

Since HL has brought on more companies into the mix, support has not been what it used to be. Slowly, service s coming back around and the new support center is helping out. I am looking forward to things improving.

Pros

I like how user-friendly the HL Community is, and all of the features that can be used.

Cons

The implementation process was very rocky, but I believe our project manager was new. I found that we had to do our internal project management and really had to ask the right questions to the HL representative to understand the process. We are a non-profit that is not very good with technology, but our PM operated with us as if we were. She was responsive when we told her we need further explanation or things didn't make sense. Also, does not work so well in any browser except for Google Chrome

Pros

This is a great concept for communities to gather and have discussions.
There is plenty of space for ideas, growth and resources.

Cons

The look is very old especially the font. I feel very limited when building a microsite. the over content management portion is not user friendly and I have background in content management. I would probably recommend something widget based and suggest looking into Crowdster webpages.

Pros

I love how my members have been able to easily use their new online community! It was fairly simple to set up, and our interactions with the staff have been helpful when we can't figure out how to use something.

Cons

The reporting isn't always great, but if there is something you really need to report on, tech support can usually help out.

Pros

I think this is a great forum for our committee members to keep in touch and stay focused on their goals. Additionally, the integration with email helps for our members to reply to postings without cutting into their work. The document sharing feature is amazing for keeping everything in the same spot.

Cons

Our format looks a bit dated. I'm not sure if this was a choice on our end. Also, navigation can be a bit tricky from time to time.