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Higher Logic Vanilla Reviews & Product Details

Higher Logic Vanilla Overview

What is Higher Logic Vanilla?

Higher Logic Vanilla is the top-rated enterprise online community solution today. With us, you can build loyalty, grow sales, and improve customer service with our easy to use and quick to get started online community software. Featuring a sleek user experience, deep integration to your existing tools, flexible customization to fit your branding, scalable knowledge bases, out of the box gamification, ideation, Q&A and more. Request a demo today to see how we can make engaging your community a reality. - Match your brand's look and feel for a seamless experience. -Gamification and reputation system: More than just badges, the reputation engine can be used to promote good content, grant member abilities, and help automate moderation. -Made for mobile: Detects the browser agent and applies the most appropriate theme to ensure a great user experience. -Single Sign-on: Higher Logic Vanilla's jsConnect SSO, SAML support and social logins make it easy for users to register. SSO can be configured to be seamless with your existing system. -API: Higher Logic Vanilla has an easy to use RESTful API that you can use to deeply integrate Vanilla with your website. -Permissions: Control fine-grained, role-based permissions that can be assigned on a per-discussion-category basis. Assign multiple roles to individual users. Roles can be set manually, based on registration workflow, via SSO and via the API. -Spam prevention: Powerful tools to keep your community forum free of spam. -Integrations: Zapier, Salesforce, Oracle CX, Hootsuite, Zendesk, Github, WordPress, Mailchimp, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and much more. -Enterprise security and scalability: From the smallest online communities to large deployments of hundreds of product line and language specific communities, we can scale to your business and use cases. Fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA, PIPEDA and other regional privacy laws. International data centres across the globe.

Higher Logic Vanilla Details
Product Website
Languages Supported
Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Welsh, Danish, German, Greek, English, Persian, Finnish, French, Scottish Gaelic, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Serbian, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Chinese (Simplified)
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Product Description

Vanilla Forums allows you to create a customized community that rewards positive participation, automatically curates content and lets members drive moderation.


Seller Details
Company Website
Year Founded
2007
HQ Location
Arlington, VA
Twitter
@HigherLogic
3,652 Twitter followers
LinkedIn® Page
www.linkedin.com
308 employees on LinkedIn®
Description

Higher Logic is a leading provider of community engagement and marketing automation solutions that help organizations build and nurture relationships with their members and customers. Their platform enables businesses to create online communities, manage member interactions, and leverage data-driven insights to enhance engagement and loyalty. Higher Logic's tools facilitate communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing, making it easier for organizations to connect with their audiences and achieve their goals. For more information, visit their website at [higherlogic.com](https://www.higherlogic.com/).


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Recent Higher Logic Vanilla Reviews

Oliver l.
OL
Oliver l.Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
3.5 out of 5
"Great tool as the community platform to connect clients"
The feature of discussions, and Q&As, be so much helpful.
Maureen R.
MR
Maureen R.Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
4.5 out of 5
"An easy-to-use community platform with just enough bells and whistles that can grow"
The platform was easy to navigate, with good out of the box reporting that integrated with ChurnZero (our customer success platform) out of the box...
Vidya Raman S.
VS
Vidya Raman S.Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
3.5 out of 5
"Comprehensive Community Hosting Solution with a Solid Backend"
Vanilla offers a wide range of out-of-the-box configuration options that can be easily set up by non-technical users. It also integrates seamlessly...
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Higher Logic Vanilla Media

Higher Logic Vanilla Demo - MURAL Community
Match your community to your brand's look and feel without any custom coding required
Higher Logic Vanilla Demo - Qualtrics Community
Match your community to your brand's look and feel without any custom coding required
Higher Logic Vanilla Demo - Theming
Customize your community theme with a simple point and click interface -- no coding required! For more advanced theme customizations, you still have the option to add your own code
Higher Logic Vanilla Demo - Community Analytics
Vanilla's analytics allows you to build custom dashboards and visualize your data the way that makes sense to you
Higher Logic Vanilla Demo - 100% Mobile Friendly
Vanilla is built with mobile in mind
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Play Higher Logic Vanilla Video
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95 Higher Logic Vanilla Reviews

4.3 out of 5
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95 Higher Logic Vanilla Reviews
4.3 out of 5
95 Higher Logic Vanilla Reviews
4.3 out of 5

Higher Logic Vanilla Pros and Cons

How are these determined?Information
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Pros
Cons

Overall Review Sentiment for Higher Logic VanillaQuestion

Time to Implement
<1 day
>12 months
Return on Investment
<6 months
48+ months
Ease of Setup
0 (Difficult)
10 (Easy)
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G2 reviews are authentic and verified.
Vidya Raman S.
VS
Technical Writing Specialist
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: Seller invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Higher Logic Vanilla?

Vanilla offers a wide range of out-of-the-box configuration options that can be easily set up by non-technical users. It also integrates seamlessly with various popular CRM applications. The Customer Support team is excellent and responds quickly to inquiries. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Higher Logic Vanilla?

The main drawback is the limited theming and CSS options, particularly for the Knowledge component. Significant customization and development effort are required to enhance the site's visual appeal. Additionally, the editor is missing basic formatting features, such as inserting tables and resizing images. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Higher Logic Vanilla solving and how is that benefiting you?

Higher Logic Vanilla addresses the need for customer self-service and engagement by providing a centralized platform where users can access information, seek support, and connect with others. This platform empowers customers to find answers on their own through forums, FAQs, and knowledge bases, which reduces the workload on customer support teams. Additionally, it promotes customer engagement by facilitating discussions and community interactions Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Maureen R.
MR
Customer Marketing Manager
Computer Software
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Review source: Organic
What do you like best about Higher Logic Vanilla?

The platform was easy to navigate, with good out of the box reporting that integrated with ChurnZero (our customer success platform) out of the box. I was able to build a beautiful community without taking too much training. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Higher Logic Vanilla?

It's definitely not the most robust community platform on the market, but it has just what we need for a team who is managing community in addition to other jobs. I wish there was more out of the box customization options when it comes to design and more of a 'news feed' approach to discussions where people can like and comment on posts without having to go TO the post beforehand. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Higher Logic Vanilla solving and how is that benefiting you?

It's giving our customers a space to build their own networks, share best practices, answer questions, etc. We also use is at a marketing tool to share announcements, events, and other department initiatives. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Open Discussions in Higher Logic Vanilla
Oliver l.
OL
Aspiring Software Engineer
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
What do you like best about Higher Logic Vanilla?

The feature of discussions, and Q&As, be so much helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Higher Logic Vanilla?

get the quicker speed on feature rolling out. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Higher Logic Vanilla solving and how is that benefiting you?

to manage and build the proactive comunity with clients Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Tommy M.
TM
CEO
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Review source: Organic
What do you like best about Higher Logic Vanilla?

Vanilla Forums billed itself as an all-in-one community and content marketing platform. That is what I wanted, but unfortunately, their promises were false. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Higher Logic Vanilla?

Vanilla Forums has zero functionality out of the box. You need hours upon hours of developer time to set up an instance and can't get ahold of anyone on the customer success or service team. Not to mention, they have no communication to customers, no billing system, and just automated invoices that all go to spam. They will put you into collections as a business if you miss a payment without warning. To repeat - they will put you into collections without warning. Definitely stay away from this service for any SaaS products. Once more for the folks in the back, they will put you into collections without warning. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Higher Logic Vanilla solving and how is that benefiting you?

It solved nothing, and we received no benefit. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Financial Services
AF
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: Organic
What do you like best about Higher Logic Vanilla?

Higher Logic is a great way to share ideas and to have engagement. We have used the Higher Logic Online Community which provides discussion boards for members to engage. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Higher Logic Vanilla?

I wish Higher Logic has a Google drive concept where members can update in real time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Higher Logic Vanilla solving and how is that benefiting you?

Engagement. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Consumer Electronics
AC
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: Seller invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Higher Logic Vanilla?

Vanilla's support is incredibly helpful - they know the product well, are honest about the status of bugs/issues/feature requests, and their response rate is very impressive! They also have a good integration with Zapier and are continuing to add more (as well as other features requested by users) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Higher Logic Vanilla?

Each community platform has its strengths and weaknesses. Vanilla could benefit from having some more email tools to encourage community engagement/adoption (ex. regular newsletter, ability to add we miss you emails, more welcome emails, etc.). It would also be helpful if they had more of a WYSYWIG editor and ability to change pages without CSS/JS required. I would also love to see a more robust events system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Higher Logic Vanilla solving and how is that benefiting you?

Vanilla offers a strong community platform. We have used this to connect with customers and potential customers about our product as well as topical content related to the product. It's been great to have our community as the home base for connecting with our company. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Computer Software
AC
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: Seller invite
Incentivized Review
Business partner of the seller or seller's competitor, not included in G2 scores.
What do you like best about Higher Logic Vanilla?

The ability to create categories and groups - the structure of how you can create them is very versatile which will meet many different use cases. It is also easy for the end user to understand how the structure is set up and find what they are looking for and how to participate. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Higher Logic Vanilla?

There is not a built in digest functionality - where you can send a recap of the posts from the prior day. This would be helpful in getting users to come back to community and engage them in discussions - I hope this is something they add in the future as it impacts community engagement greatly! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Higher Logic Vanilla solving and how is that benefiting you?

Manage support forums with ease. Decent data reporting in terms of average response time and number of questions - this allows me to report on the success of the forum from a ticket deflection perspective. Additionally, allows us to collect feedback from our users. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Leanne M.
LM
Events and Community Manager
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Review source: Seller invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Higher Logic Vanilla?

I like that there is a lot of flexibility in design and setup so we can really make the platform work for us now and into the future. We reviewed a lot of competitors before settling on Vanilla/Higher Logic and we ultimately ended up going with this platform because it met all of our needs including excellent content distribution and moderation features, detailed reporting and much more. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Higher Logic Vanilla?

It can be a little tricky to completely personalise the product without technical knowledge/assistance and sometimes it can be a little slow to hear back from someone in the team if there is a challenge (particularly with billing) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Higher Logic Vanilla:

Don't just think about what you need now, but also into the future and you'll see that you can really grow into and with this platform. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Higher Logic Vanilla solving and how is that benefiting you?

It's helping us to better connect with our customers. We can now share and discuss exclusive content with them, hear their challenges, and even support onboarding for customers and employees all in one place. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nichole D.
ND
Director of Customer Operations
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: Seller invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Higher Logic Vanilla?

There are a lot of amazing things about Vanilla by Higher Logic. I used to work for a competitor for nearly seven years, so I have first-hand knowledge of not just what I expect in the mechanics of a platform and how it's deployed, but the kind of programmatic support needed as well. When I was looking for a community platform for my company, I looked at the above, plus the value for the price, as well as the kind of culture they have that would turn this into a partnership. Across the board, Vanilla has been the most outstanding community partnerI could have asked for. For an incredibly reasonable price, we obtained a platform that allowed us complete flexibility on look and feel, what gaming mechanics we wanted to offer to our users, as well as a ton of Moderation controls that takes some of the taxing work off of those that do the moderation. In addition, the number of plug-ins it's compatible with is astounding. As for programmatic, the amount of training materials, the initial support from my assigned CSM, as well as ongoing continuing education and networking opportunities have been numerous. If you're a first-time Community Manager, there's no better partner than Vanilla to hold your hand every step of the way. Finally, their culture is geared towards supporting humans. Since beginning my work with them in 2019, I've made numerous friendships within both Vanilla and Higher Logic, which is testament to the amazing people they employ. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Higher Logic Vanilla?

There's really not much to dislike. If you are looking for a vendor that offers a great platform, program guidance, and an in-depth education on communities, then they are the vendor for you. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Higher Logic Vanilla solving and how is that benefiting you?

Our use case is a self-service support community that allows our customers to access a whole range of materials from articles on troubleshooting, to important product updates, to industry news and events, customer stories, and best practices. Our goal was to reduce support tickets, as well as time to resolve. We have achieved that with Vanilla's Community platform. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

DP
Community Manager
Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: Seller invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Higher Logic Vanilla?

Vanilla makes managing our community online simple and easy. Everything we need is available in an instance and our passionate community of travel professionals can support each other more efficiently online. On the rare occasion I can't sort or resolve something myself, their support team is on-hand to help and it's always thorough and friendly. The platform connects our global community in a way they've never had before which is fantastic. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Higher Logic Vanilla?

There are some instances where I feel I should be able to do myself, like allowing additional file types for attachments in posts, I can't and have to reach out to the support team for help. I can understand to a certain degree why this is the case but it's long-winded and slows things down. There could also be better communication; my CSM left their role and told me the day they were leaving, I'm still waiting for a new CSM to be appointed to our account. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Higher Logic Vanilla:

Fully review analytics offering, this was our only challenge. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Higher Logic Vanilla solving and how is that benefiting you?

We're now better at connecting a global community in a way that works for them. We're seeing better peer-to-peer support which is allowing our in-house support teams to focus on more detailed problems that can't be solved by this kind of peer-led support which means our teams are more efficient. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.