Canvas vs. EZ Texting

It is really well suited for school situations like knowing what [assignments] need to be done when, getting feedback, getting points, finding the slides that the teacher used for explaining an [assignment] or theory. I think It would be less suited in business situations because it's [primarily] made to be a [one-way] communication tool for schools. Businesses need more control on individual levels I think[.]

Incentivized

EZ Texting would be well suited for a small business that doesn't have the man power to be able to contact all of the leads they have coming in or who struggles to maintain communication with current clients at times. It would not be appropriate for a business who is looking to send phishing texts out to a large group of people.

Incentivized

• Creativity options for teachers to create a virtual space that still has fun graphics and accessibility options.
• Canvas has versatility in viewing options for assignment due dates such as the calendar built in feature as well as the dashboard options to display upcoming and due assignments.
• Allowing teachers to create community with each other and collaborate in each-other's space.
• Discussion platforms within classrooms for students to communicate with each-other and with their teachers.
• Easy messaging portal within each virtual classroom.

Incentivized

• I appreciate the detailed delivery reports.
• The support team’s quick responses are appreciated.
• The automation feature is incredibly handy for instantly messaging leads right after they sign up.
• The onboarding process is straightforward.
• Genuine customer inquiries show up in the inbox, organizing important messages in one place.
• You can avoid the email spam folder by using ez texting!
• Opt-outs resolve themselves.

Incentivized

• Their integration with Big Blue Button was a bust for distance learning. Would be great to see them collaborate with Zoom or Google Meets.
• Their "feature request" process is slow and cumbersome at times because it relies on user "up votes" to get ideas addressed by the developers.
• They seem to have a lot of turn-over with their staff. We get a new Customer Success Manager far more frequently than with other vendors.

Incentivized

• Drafts don't save well, seemed like I kept having to redo the same text because a draft wouldn't save.
• I want to be able to click and update users quickly, but there were too many steps to add/remove people from lists.
• The app didn't work if I used google SSO - i couldn't ever get signed in.

Incentivized

The other LMS tools have fallen behind. One reason is they are not able to update their systems, features, toolsets in a timely manner. While other LMS providers release bug fixes and new features several times a year, schools struggle to install and implement them in a timely manner. It is not uncommon for a school to take 6 months to a year to fully install and implement new releases on other LMS platforms. With Canvas, those features are released every 3 weeks, and there is nothing for a school to do other than choose to turn them on once released. This has allowed Instructure to innovate faster, and get new features and tools to customers quicker. Other factors include great pricing, customer support, and the innovative way in which LTI is implemented in the tool.

Incentivized

We're excited about EZ Texting and what it does for us. We want to get more into automation with campaigns dealing directly with web sales so a more robust solution will likely leave EZ Texting as our event activation partner and only be used during select times of the year.

Incentivized

The functions in Canvas are well integrated and consistent across the application, and mostly intuitive. Overall navigation and setup is streamlined through integrated features and navigation. The feedback we've gotten from our program participants is that it is easy to learn to use. It also integrates well with third party software like Google Docs and Blackboard Collaborate web conferencing software

Incentivized

EZ Text was very easy to set up and very intuitive. It does not take long at all to add your contact lists or to set up templates. It takes a second to get used to when it comes to sending mass group texts, but all in all, it does what we need to do and was easy to implement. We were able to do it ourselves.

Incentivized

We have never needed to use the system and it be unavailable. They seem to schedule their server maintenance perfectly (at least for us!).

Incentivized

It works pretty well but sometimes things don't work the way you would assume, IE marking messages as read is not as intuitive

Incentivized

I do not personally use Canvas support since we have a central office that helps us. However, our central office always has the answers we need and are always able to solve our issues - so I would assume that get great support from the Canvas team on their end. They also offer great training, which uses materials directly from Canvas

Incentivized

EZ Texting "gets it"! When I have had something I needed customer service to help me with, they returned my emails and calls promptly. I have a smaller business and they came through as if I was a huge corporate entity. They really care about all sizes of customers!

Incentivized

The training sessions were broken down into several days as well as different levels depending upon the knowledge of the user

Incentivized

The online tutorials and videos are very clear and addressed the issues/questions that I had about using the system.

Incentivized

Once you purchase and sign the contract there is nothing to install or hardware to buy. You can almost immediately start using it and have courses up and going within weeks. We signed in December and had pilot courses online ready to go for the start of school in January

Incentivized

The most important aspect of implementation was selecting a valuable keyword. When we first started using EZ Texting, we were able to grab a simple, easy word to use to connect people to our texts. That proved invaluable in our marketing and selling people on using the service. If we didn't have a good word, I would imagine it wouldn't have been as successful.

Incentivized

Canvas is more secure, has a cleaner design, and has more features. For the features, they have in common canvas still stacks up against [Smart school] by going for the extra mile. Besidfor e that, [the] canvas looks a lot more [professional] than [Smart school]. I didn't make the decision myself to get canvas instead of [Smart school] but I'm happy they did.

We chose EZ Texting over enterprise solutions because of it's ease of set up, ease of use, and low barrier to entry. We had discussions with other companies, and it seemed very complicated and would require a lot of set up on our end. We don't have a dedicated IT or marketing team. We are a small business. So those barriers were just too complicated and we decided to go with an easier solution.

Incentivized

We have been grandfathered into our old package, but I wish there were better package options offered now.

Incentivized

We haven't really utilized it for this purpose but it does seem like there are a lot of great options you can utilize.

Incentivized

easy access

Incentivized

• Canvas has helped us provide a more robust online component to our courses.
• Canvas has helped us better adapt to a rapidly changing educational landscape.
• Canvas has reduced the time that we have to spend training faculty on how to use our learning management system.

Incentivized

• Customers, as well as potential customers, do not seem to have any issue, providing their phone numbers for text messages as opposed to receiving countless emails.
• Upselling items has improved considerably due to our ability to notify customers of new products and specials that we are offering in the store.

Incentivized