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Atlassian Confluence vs. Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Confluence

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/AConfluence is a collaboration and content sharing platform used primarily by customers who are already using Atlassian's Jira project tracking product. The product appeals particularly to IT users.

    $6.40

    per month per user

    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board

    Score9.1 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Social Squared is a SharePoint Discussion Board App that can be deployed across SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. Social Squared improves productivity and efficiency by providing structured discussion forums for employee and student discussions. For Microsoft SharePoint Social Squared is a SharePoint discussion board application where users can post questions within relevant forums and receive answers to their questions from subject matter experts. The…

    $2,200

    per year per installation

    Pricing
    ConfluenceLightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Editions & Modules
    Free
    $0
    Free for 10 Users
    Standard
    $6.40
    per month per user
    Premium
    $12.30
    per month per user
    Data Center
    220,000.00
    40,001+ Users - Annually
    Enterprise
    Contact Sales
    Social Squared Discussion Board
    From $2200
    per year per installation
    Social Squared Discussion Board Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year per installation
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    ConfluenceLightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPrices shown here reflect prices for deployments with 100 users or less. The prices decrease wien the user base surpasses 100.Prices stated are minimum per installation for "stock" products. $2.20 per user/year on top of base price. Enterprise editions can be amended to suit business needs if deemed necessary, additional costs incurred and TBD. All packages include free technical support. Free upgrades available to latest versions of tool as they are released.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    ConfluenceLightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Considered Both Products
    Atlassian
    No answer on this topic
    Lightning Tools
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    89%
    Would buy again
    97 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    87 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    100 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    45 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    54 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    ConfluenceLightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Atlassian Confluence and Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Feature
    Atlassian Confluence
    7.1
    158 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Task Management7.2127 Ratings00 Ratings
    Gantt Charts7.912 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scheduling7.221 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow Automation6.591 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Access7.0118 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Search7.0157 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Visual planning tools7.2127 Ratings00 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Atlassian Confluence and Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Feature
    Atlassian Confluence
    7.9
    158 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Chat6.415 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Notifications8.2156 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Discussions7.9149 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Surveys7.015 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase9.0150 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting6.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts9.37 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook9.610 Ratings00 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Atlassian Confluence and Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Feature
    Atlassian Confluence
    7.7
    157 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Versioning8.3137 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Video files6.9105 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Audio files6.997 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Document collaboration8.4153 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Access control8.7148 Ratings9.11 Ratings
    Advanced security features8.4115 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive5.947 Ratings00 Ratings
    Device sync8.486 Ratings00 Ratings
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    ConfluenceLightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
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    User Ratings
    ConfluenceLightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (174 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.5
    (22 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.1
    (63 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.4
    (25 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.8
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    ConfluenceLightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Atlassian
    It is well suited due to the below reasons 1. Easy collaboration between teams 2. Strong integration with other applications 3. Centralized documentation among teams and within the organisation 4. Project planning and report sharing 5. Employee onboarding is easier and maintain HR policies very well. Less appropriate in below scenarios When this is being used as a main tool for communication rather than its purpose of collaboration.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    Their customer service it top notch and always responsive. I struggled in the beginning a little bit because I'm not tech savvy and we had to add it to our SharePoint site but they helped me along the way and even had share screen meetings with me to assist!!
    Read full review
    Pros
    Atlassian
    • Cross product linking - If you use other Atlassian products then Atlassian Confluence is a no-brainer for your source of documentation, knowledge management etc. You can show previews of the linked asset natively E.g. showing a preview of a JIRA ticket in a Atlassian Confluence page.
    • Simple editing - Though the features available may not be super complex right now, this does come with the benefit of making it easy to edit and create documents. Some documentation editors can be overwhelming, Atlassian Confluence is simple and intuitive.
    • Native marketplace - If you want to install add-ons to your Atlassian Confluence space it's really easy. Admins can explore the Atlassian marketplace natively and install them to your instance in a few clicks. You can customise your Atlassian Confluence instance in many different ways using add-ons.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    • Organizing Data
    • Opens up discussion, whether publicly or anonymously
    • Easy to setup
    Read full review
    Cons
    Atlassian
    • UI Design is very simplistic and basic could make use of more visually interesting colour choices, layout choices, etc.
    • Under the 'Content' menu, it defaults to having a landing page for all L1 and L2 category pages. Meaning as long as the broader content category has a sub-category, it still creates a separate landing page. In my team's case, this often creates blank pages, as we only fill out the page at the lowest sub-category (L3).
    • Hyperlinks are traditionally shown as blue, however, this results into very monotonously blue pages in cases where a lot of information is being linked.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    • I would love to be able to assign various people as administrators of different topics (this may be an option now but a couple years ago it wasn't)
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Atlassian
    I am confident that Atlassian can come with additional and innovative macros and functions to add value to Confluence. In 6 months, Atlassian transformed a good collaborative tools into a more comprehensive system that can help manage projects and processes, as well as "talk" with other Atlassian products like Jira. We are in fact learning more about Jira to evaluate a possible fit to complement our tool box.
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Atlassian
    Atlassian Confluence is a great tool for project management, especially for internal documentation. It has a minimum governance requirement to use its full power. Also, it is a little pricy to unlock its full power as well, so it is not recommended for companies with a low budget in my opinion.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    Our employees really like the fact that they can find things easily with the search feature and add questions and comments as they see fit.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Atlassian
    I do not recall having outages or applications error so far, very reliable and available.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Atlassian
    We never worked against the tide while using Confluence. Everything loads considerably fast, even media components like videos (hosted on the platform or embed external videos from Youtube, for example). We are not using heavy media components a lot, but in the rare occasion we happen to use one we have no problems whatsoever.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Atlassian
    This rating is specifically for Atlassian's self-help documentation on their website. Often times, it is not robust enough to cover a complex usage of one of their features. Frequently, you can find an answer on the web, but not from Atlassian. Instead, it is usually at a power user group elsewhere on the net.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Atlassian
    Overall, I am very satisfied with the initial implementation (and the subsequent upgrades and implementations made over the years).
    This product has never rose to the level of being an major issue at an executive level. It has quietly and valiantly done it's job for our company!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Atlassian
    We chose Atlassian Confluence over SharePoint because it's much more user-friendly and intuitive. Atlassian Confluence makes collaboration and knowledge sharing easier with its simpler interface and better search. While SharePoint can be powerful, it often feels clunky and complex, making it harder for our team to actually use it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Atlassian
    This tool is very adaptable. So much so we use it for three completely separate projects, in three very different ways.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Atlassian
    • We totally rely on this tool since a decade now and despite being so much transition in our company it has served us well in those transitions
    • Many times, during security audits we are asked to showcase our readiness for various compliance points and confluence helps us a lot in maintaining that
    • Talking about Confluence in front of clients and customers gives us an upper hand that we are up to date with latest trend and technologies and tools for our RnD planning and management
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Lightning Tools
    • We signed up for a 3 year contract and hope to do another 3yr contract when this one is up. :)
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board Screenshots

    Screenshot of MODERN, RESPONSIVE SHAREPOINT DISCUSSION BOARD
Discussion Forums can be created for a variety of different reasons. This example is a Forum Group for the Microsoft 365 technologies such as Teams, Planner, and SharePoint. Forums are then created within the Forum Groups for more specific discussions. Under the SharePoint Forum Group, there is a Forum for SharePoint On-Premises and SharePoint Online. Anyone looking to ask a question regarding SharePoint 2019 for example would be able to post their question under SharePoint On-Premises rather than SharePoint Online. This also allows subject matter experts to focus more on the questions that they can respond to and provide value.Screenshot of SHAREPOINT DISCUSS BOARD – TOPICS VIEW
When navigating into a forum, the topics and discussions that are taking place are shown. Any new topics that not yet read will be highlighted. It also displays whether topics have been answered, their average ratings, how many views and posts are within the topic, and also provides the ability to subscribe to the forum to be notified of new posts within it.Screenshot of READING DISCUSSIONS AND PROVIDING FEEDBACK
Social Squared offers a threaded discussion view with the ability to provide feedback to other users.

Posts can be rated, voted upon, or liked by users in order to give feedback to the user creating or responding to a post. Additionally, replies can be marked as answered or marked as featured, which gives readers of forums assurance that the response they are reading is validated to be the correct answer.

Users also receive feedback through the earning of badges. The more users post or mark posts as answered, the more points are rewarded. This makes it easy to spot subject matter experts.Screenshot of SUGGESTED TAGS
Social Squared provides a rich text editor for creating and replying to topics. The Rich Text toolbar provides functionality such as inserting images, YouTube videos, Stream Videos, Formatted Code Inserts, as well as font formatting.

While typing, suggestions on how to tag a post appear. Selecting an existing tag will provide consistency in the tags used making it easier for other users to discover the post.Screenshot of SOCIAL SQUARED TAG CLOUD VIEW
The Social Squared Tag Cloud view makes it easy to navigate to posts within a specific category even if they span multiple forums. The more a tag appears in different posts, the more prominent it will be in the tag cloud. Users can navigate to posts with the tag in one click.Screenshot of DISCUSSION BOARD WITHIN MICROSOFT TEAMS TAB
Social Squared is a Discussion Board App for Microsoft Teams Tab’s and Microsoft Teams Personal Apps. Social Squared provides information workers the ability to post questions within relevant forums, and receive answers from their team. The Discussion Board layout for posts makes it easier to find answers to questions that may have already been asked before. Through features such as “Mark as Answered”, “Forum Moderation”, “Post Rating”, “Post Likes”, “Post Voting”, users will be assured that the answers they are reading are validated.