Higher Logic Vanilla Pros and Cons

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.