Top 20 Online Community Management Software
Online Community members are made up of customers and fans who share a passion for the product or topic and they do the interaction in internet via social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Google + etc.
Online Community members discuss products, receive feedback and provide venue for marketing. Online Community Management Software products are dedicated and fully integrated solutions with varying levels of cost, complexity and functionality to create and manage online communities.
These are comprehensive and scalable enough for even the largest enterprises. Online Community Management Software can be implemented either as on premise software or as cloud software.
What are the Top Online Community Management Software: Ning, PlushForums, Wild Apricot, Hoopla, Community Cloud, Khoros Community, vBulletin Cloud, Exo Platform, Telligent, Online Communities Higher Logic, ZetaBoards, CMNTY Platform, Vanilla, Question Pro, Muut, Brilliant Directories, Ranktab, Copiny, Get Satisfaction are some of the top Online Community Management Software.
You may like to read: How to Select the Best Online Community Management Software
What are Online Community Management Software?
Online Community Management Software provides capabilities for brand management using forums, user groups, learning resources, and other social features. It provides tools to connect with customers to create focused user groups and communities.
- Branded Communities : Features for creating and managing branded and focused user communities.
- User Groups Enablement : Features to enable customers for interaction using ratings, rankings, blogs etc
- Learning and Knowledge sharing : Features to encourage product knowledge transfer, learning etc.
- Analytics, KPI and measurement : Tools to measure KPI, and analytics.
What are Online Community Management Software
You may like to read: How to Select the Best Online Community Management Software
Top Online Community Management Software
Ning
Ning is a social networking platform for building and managing an active community. Ning builder is aimed at promoting company brand, members, and control. On this platform, rules can be set up based on a user’s laid out specification, and rules that do not conform to a company’s vision are truncated.Ning’s scalable hosted social networking platform offers tools and expertise needed to successfully publish and connect with social network– all in one place, Ning is powerful, affordable and easy to manage.With Ning new beautiful and captivating websites can be designed from scratch. Ning takes away the frustration of constantly working…
•Use of custom domain
•Custom CSS and JavaScript
•Email Broadcast capability
PlushForums
Plush is an award winning commercial forum software with versatile and fantastic premium forum hosting features at alarmingly affordable pricing. Plush is synonymous with good value for money, the features are worth every single dime. Plush features an integrated blog, private messaging, member directory, custom profiles, paid subscriptions and a polished set of forum features. All with absolutely no technical knowledge required and no external plugins required to run it. Plush has an amazing user interface that allows users Real-time engaging discussions. With the light notification feature users are granted the opportunity of never missing community updates. Plush allows users…
•Mobile Friendly
•SSL Support
•Hourly Backup
•Live Notifications
•Integrated Blog
•Powerful Search
•Enhanced Content Discovery
•MailChimp Integration
•Spam Protection
Contact for pricing information.
•Mobile Friendly
•SSL Support
•Hourly Backup
Wild Apricot
Wild Apricot is a comprehensive platform used by professional associations to manage activities required by their functions, build a unique website, grow events with easy online promotion and registration, accept and track online and offline payments; a platform that has served over 8000 satisfied organizations and associations. Wild Apricot boast of robust security this is as a result of the special algorithm of the software. Wild Apricot is targeted at providing an easy to use, all-in-one platform starting with zero charges for nonprofit organizations, clubs, associations (be it law, alumni or even political associations) and more. Wild Apricot site builder…
•Online Payment
•Email & Contact Database
•Event Registration
•Website Builder
•Mobile Apps For IOS/Android
Contact for pricing information.
•Online Payment
•Email & Contact Database
•Event Registration
Hoopla
Hoopla is a platform which engages users employees by pulling performance data from used applications and broadcasting live updates on TV, web and mobile devices. It livens workspace in a way of broadcasting team’s success across TVs in users office and providing newsflashes. These newsflashes are helping employees to celebrate success. For example, each time an employee close a deal, information about this deal need to be entered into Salesforce, then employee can personalize newsflash by uploading a photo and writing a thank you note. After that a personal newsflash will be broadcasted on company’s TV and all managers and…
•Engages users employees by pulling performance data from used applications
•Helps teammates to stay personally engaged using sales gamification
•Relies on tracking the right metrics for reaching goals and providing recognition for when reps succeed
•Uses leaderboards for tracking key sales activities creating friendly competition and broadcasting standings
•Business edition – 12 USD per user/month paid annually
•Corporate edition - 18 USD per user/month paid annually
•Engages users employees by pulling performance data from used applications and broadcasting live updates on TV, web and mobile devices
•Helps teammates to stay personally engaged using sales gamification
•Relies on tracking the right metrics for reaching goals and providing recognition for when reps succeed
Community Cloud
Community cloud is a platform that connects customers, partners and employees. With this platform members can build communities according needs, provide stellar customer service, connect to customers, accelerate sales channels etc. Users can build their communities through business integration which infuse communities with data from any system, anywhere. Customers can create and escalate support cases, partners can update opportunities and qualify leads, employees can access and share files. Community Cloud automatically suggests connections to experts, groups, and content and these recommendations are based on individual interests, needs, and behavior, inviting deeper community participation. With Community Cloud users can reflect brands…
•Automatically suggests connections to experts, groups, and content
•Reflects brands and extend online community experience
•Connects using case escalation,
•E-commerce
•Empowers employees
•SalesforceIQ CRM starter – 25 usd/per month
•Lightning professional – 75 usd / per month
•Lightning enterprise – 150 usd / per month
•Lightning unlimited 300 usd / per month
•Automatically suggests connections to experts, groups, and content
•Reflects brands and extend online community experience
•Connects using case escalation,
Khoros Community
Lithium Platform offers vital programs a business will ever need to positively transform a website into a social destination, harness customer passion, and knowledge to attract new visitors, crowdsource support and grow revenue. The Lithium communities program helps to create a better more valuable digital customer experience that is quite unique in every aspect compared to other platforms. Lithium platform creates a simple interface where a customer’s optimum experience is the last frontier for differentiation. An approach that is bound to set a business from the pack. Lithium Communities delivers real business value with a vibrant community experience. A feat…
•Lithium Social Intelligence
•Premium Gamification
•Value Analytics and Benchmarking
•Social Contests
•Bulk Data API
Contact for pricing information.
•Lithium Social Intelligence
•Premium Gamification
•Value Analytics and Benchmarking
vBulletin Cloud
VBulletin Cloud is a platform for hosting forums easily, secure and fast. Using this platform hosted forums have unrestricted access to a functioning and customizable vBulletin site with all the key admin controls. vBulletin Cloud will run the back-end infrastructure for every single forum hosted using this service, making the entire process stress-free, fast and very easy to manage. Vbulletin Cloud requires no hardware to buy or manage before installation. vBulletin Cloud features all of vbulletin’s essential functionality, great for a stand-alone forum, or can be integrated into existing larger forums. vBulletin Cloud as a feature for automatic backup, a…
•Site Builder
•Responsive Design
•Mobile site Compatible
•Automatic Backup and Upgrade
•Built in Ad Locations
•User Group based permission
•Supports Multiple Language
Contact for pricing information.
•Site Builder
•Responsive Design
•Mobile site Compatible
Exo Platform
eXo offers a platform technology and an open-source collaboration platform which is open-standards based, responsive, mobile and enterprise ready for an extensible foundation to solutions. eXo offers features such as document storage, knowledge management, idea management, active directory integration, Rss feeds, activity dashboard, CRM Integration, calendar management, collaborative workspace, activity tracking, task management and scheduling, enterprise portal and API. eXo platform boasts an easy to use intuitive interface that is very “social” in design where users can comment on posts, upload and share docs and create groups. eXo Platform favors open standards for integration to existing IT systems such as…
• Activity Streams
• Spaces
• Calendars
• Professional - Starting from: $6 / user / month
• Enterprise - Starting from: $27500 / year
• Enterprise plus - Starting from: $48500 / year
• Wikis
• Documents
• Tasks
Telligent
Telligent is a collaborative and customer oriented platform which is designed to define and establish a social community in a short amount of time to support, help and collaborate with the customers. Telligent Community offers a full network of experiences experts who have a lot of expertise in helping plan and growing community’s .Telligent Community serves for those who have a clear picture about the purpose, audience and success about their business. It enables communities and business professionals to collaborate with the customers and provide quick customer support. It also enables collaboration among customers with ideas and feedback on products…
•Activity Streams
•Discussion Forums
•Question & Answer Forums
•Ideation
•Wikis
•Calendars
•File & Media Gallery
•Chat, Presence and Private Messages
•User Profiles
•free edition with some restricted features
•Email Digests
•Mail Gateway
•Document Preview
•People Browser
•Leaderboards
•Gamification
Online Communities Higher Logic
Higher Logic is geared towards improving interactions among organization members; customers and potential clients. Higher Logic’s software services, partnership, etc. is the sole driving force of implementing commendable landmarks for businesses.Engagement’s concept is basic: Individuals put their heads together to learn, acquire skills, and work together with others in tandem to achieve a common goal. This approach has proven times without number to be a solid approach to getting feedbacks, improve brand advocacy and increase retention rate.Higher Logic sets up a platform for members to intuitively engage customers and prominent members. With Higher Logic, it is a lot easier to…
•Automation Rules
•Event Calendar
•Widget Builder
•Content Manager
•Expert Directory
•Discussions
•Mobile Friendly
•Wiki Glossary
Contact for pricing information.
•Automation Rules
•Event Calendar
•Widget Builder
Online Communities Higher Logic
ZetaBoards
ZetaBoards is a free software designed for hosting and building online communities with no hidden charges or forum limitations. The software was built from scratch to offer a simple platform for building a free forum.ZetaBoards comes loaded with powerful features, to get things started as soon as installation is complete. Features that will allow unlimited modifications and changes, to truly fit a user’s preferences and specifications.ZetaBoards software requires no intensive training before it can be utilized to produce an outstanding result, no need to worry about the software’s documentation or manual first, as it is very easy to work with.…
•Forum Builder
•Advanced security
•Extensive BBcode
•Support for custom domains
•Forum customization
Contact for pricing information.
•Forum Builder
•Advanced security
•Extensive BBcode
CMNTY Platform
Cmnty is a platform that inspires interaction in a first place. Users of this platform can make connections easy by creating welcoming space to bring people together so they can share stories, experiences and the wildest of ideas, they can also inspire interaction among members with the platform's elegant design and intuitive interactive modules, discuss and extract quantifiable results so they can truly understand what excites, motivates, and concerns members. First of all it’s important to choose a logo color scheme, and supporting images to brand users community. Cmnty allows reaching members anytime and anywhere through user-friendly platform on phones…
•Inspires interaction
•Allows reaching members anytime and anywhere
•Send push notifications to members
•Interaction through forum, challenge, blog
•Create dynamic users group based on customizable triggers
•Data analysis
•System notifications and email alerts
•Available in 19 different languages
•30 days free trial
•Starter – 99 US dollars/month
•Regular- 399 US Dollars /month
•Plus – 799 US Dollars /month
•Premium-Request a quote
•Inspires interaction
•Allows reaching members anytime and anywhere
•Send push notifications to members
Vanilla
Vanilla is a cloud-based community forum software for building customer loyalty, grow sales and improving customer service.Vanilla is a powerful platform that has served quite a handful of prominent customers over the years, developing highly functioning communities. A community that will serve as a portal where customers help each other and deflect tickets. Customers ask answers and accept each other’s questions. Building a functioning community is an effort every business hoping to get to the apex must never overlook. Vanilla is a platform streamlined to help a company render effective assistance to clients.Vanilla Cloud-based community forum will help a company…
•Native Gamification
•Fully Branded
•Integration via API
•Control theme via HTML and CSS
•Intuitive UX
•Mobile Friendly
•CRM Integration
Contact for pricing information.
•Native Gamification
•Fully Branded
•Integration via API
Question Pro
QuestionPro is a web-based survey application which enables companies to easily create online polls and surveys then share them with respondents in both online and offline modes and distribute surveys via QR codes, mobile, email and Facebook. QuestionPro has features such as advanced branching support, collect response using mobile apps, customizable themes, brand and URL, dashboard account, drag-and-drop survey editor, electronic signature capture, export data to Excel, SPSS or CSV, Facebook and Twitter integration, global password protection, multi user account, offline survey access, powerful filtering and reporting, salesforce integration, send reminders to fill survey, survey templates and question library, trend…
• Format your survey for improved delivery on mobile devices
• Social Network Integration (facebook, twitter, linked-in)
• Branching / Skip Logic
• Personalized email Invitation (mail merge)
• Reminder emails Functionality
• Free – $0
• Professional – $15 / month
• Corporate - $75 / month
• Standard Question Types
• Survey Templates and Question Library
• Professionally Designed Survey Themes
• Export to CSV, Excel
• Upload Contacts
• Downloadable Reports
Muut
Muut is a quick and light platform for creating online communities with multiple channels with engaged users; messaging and commenting, offering an unlimited traffic.Muut’s design is centered on user experience, which is why it is highly user-friendly and easy to use. All that is required to get started, is, just the signing up with Muut to get an up and running in minutes. With most users can see who is online and who isn’t.Muut works with every platform such as WIX, Blogger, Squarespace, WordPress, Shopify, Weebly and more. A user can also set up a website with Muut as their…
•Unlimited Traffic
•Responsive
•Mobile friendly
•Messaging
•Forum and Comment builder
Contact for pricing information.
•Unlimited Traffic
•Responsive
•Mobile friendly
Brilliant Directories
Brilliant Directories is a full featured packed platform that will effectively manage multiple websites without stress.Brilliant directories is a platform that requires no plugin to function. Build professional directory websites with Brilliant Directories. In customizing the look and feel of the website, or in uploading brand’s logo or images to showcase a brand’s identity. Either as a professional or as an entry level/beginner developer, adjusting the design settings, skills and experience play little roles in this regard. The extremely easy onUI will just be like another easy task.Unlike most Cyber businesses, Brilliant Directories never put their logo on any part(footer…
•Customizable content
•Automated Recurring Payment
•Email marketing tools
•Simple Backend Management
•Content Management
•Custom Form Fields
•Lead Generation Tool
Contact for pricing information.
•Customizable content
•Automated Recurring Payment
•Email marketing tools
Ranktab
Ranktab is a visual insight, which means that one can observe every type of comparison of various options by others and get a chance to understand the collective consensus plus tradeoffs. One can even develop numerous group decision boards and can share them across devices instantaneously with ease. In other words, Ranktab is basically a very user friendly mobile and web decision platform which gathers live judgements of individuals in order to calculate and reveal visually the smartest consensus of the groups.Ranktab is built with one unified mission and that is to revolutionize the making of group decisions. Every day,…
•Faster smarter decisions,
•Easy to use,
•Collaborative,
•Instant, analytical
Contact for Pricing
•Faster smarter decisions,
•Easy to use,
•Collaborative,
Copiny
Copiny is a community that connects product experts and brand enthusiasts through vibrant peer-to-peer discussions on any chosen topic. Some of the features are: online community which helps in unleashing a peer-driven community and feedback platform around the product or service. Users can give customers the tools to help each other while keeping support close by and on alert. Feedback widget helps in engaging with site visitors directly on a website using a handy feedback widget. Customers can send support requests or browse users community without ever leaving a webpage. Third feature is a knowledge base which offer customers answers…
•Connects product experts and brand enthusiasts through vibrant peer-to-peer discussions on any chosen topic
•Online community
•Feedback widget
•Knowledge base
•Mobile community
•Detects the browser agent and applies the most appropriate view to ensure a great user experience
Contact for pricing information.
•Connects product experts and brand enthusiasts through vibrant peer-to-peer discussions on any chosen topic
•Online community
•Feedback widget
Get Satisfaction
Get satisfaction is an online customer community and it’s a most powerful way for companies to connect with today's customers. This community helps their users to build lasting value over time with community platform tools that help in turning a new stream of customer insights into action and profits. With thousands of online communities and millions of users, Get Satisfaction is uniquely qualified to build innovative customer service community software. Using this platform users can deliver an engaging customer experience which includes comprehensive customer community software – allowing customer to connect with companies and other customers; using conversation types to…
•Deliver an engaging customer experience
•Embed community anywhere
•Configure and deploy with ease
•Take action with powerful management tools
•Build on customer knowledge and expertise
•Make customer feedback and insights actionable
Contact for pricing information.
•Deliver an engaging customer experience
•Embed community anywhere
•Configure and deploy with ease
You may like to read: How to Select the Best Online Community Management Software
What are Online Community Management Software?
Online Community Management Software provides capabilities for brand management using forums, user groups, learning resources, and other social features. It provides tools to connect with customers to create focused user groups and communities.
What are the Top Online Community Management Software?
Ning, PlushForums, Wild Apricot, Hoopla, Community Cloud, Khoros Community, vBulletin Cloud, Exo Platform, Telligent, Online Communities Higher Logic, ZetaBoards, CMNTY Platform, Vanilla, Question Pro, Muut, Brilliant Directories, Ranktab, Copiny, Get Satisfaction are some of the top Online Community Management Software.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
You have written a very informative article. It was very helpful for me as it helps to select right software.