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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Chatter (discontinued)

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/AChatter was a collaboration platform with integration into the business process and the ability to conduct actions like approving expense reports and creating support cases from the activity feed itself. It was acquired by Salesforce and is currently discontinued.N/A

    Higher Logic Vanilla

    Score5.5 out of 10
    N/AHigher Logic Vanilla is a customizable and themable forum software. It can be used for support communities, Q&A Communities and more. There are numerous integrations, including SSO, and connectors to popular software such as Mailchimp, WordPress, Zendesk and Salesforce.N/A
    Pricing
    Chatter (discontinued)Higher Logic Vanilla
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Essential
    Contact sales team
    Corporate
    Contact sales team
    Enterprise
    Contact sales team
    Enterprise Plus
    Contact sales team
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Chatter (discontinued)Higher Logic Vanilla
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Chatter (discontinued)Higher Logic Vanilla
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Higher Logic
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    90%
    Would buy again
    19 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    15 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    81%
    Happy with the feature set
    17 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    12 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Chatter (discontinued)Higher Logic Vanilla
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Chatter (discontinued) and Higher Logic Vanilla
    Feature
    Chatter (discontinued)
    8.3
    52 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Higher Logic Vanilla
    -
    Ratings
    Task Management8.836 Ratings00 Ratings
    Gantt Charts8.019 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scheduling7.930 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow Automation8.932 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Access8.049 Ratings00 Ratings
    Search7.944 Ratings00 Ratings
    Visual planning tools8.833 Ratings00 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Chatter (discontinued) and Higher Logic Vanilla
    Feature
    Chatter (discontinued)
    8.4
    54 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Higher Logic Vanilla
    -
    Ratings
    Chat9.050 Ratings00 Ratings
    Notifications7.153 Ratings00 Ratings
    Discussions8.151 Ratings00 Ratings
    Surveys8.034 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase8.036 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting9.013 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts8.920 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook9.023 Ratings00 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Chatter (discontinued) and Higher Logic Vanilla
    Feature
    Chatter (discontinued)
    8.5
    48 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Higher Logic Vanilla
    -
    Ratings
    Versioning8.828 Ratings00 Ratings
    Video files8.833 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audio files7.930 Ratings00 Ratings
    Document collaboration8.941 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access control8.034 Ratings00 Ratings
    Advanced security features8.929 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive9.018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Device sync8.027 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Chatter (discontinued)Higher Logic Vanilla
    Small Businesses
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Higher Logic Thrive
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Khoros Communities
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    Verint Community
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Chatter (discontinued)Higher Logic Vanilla
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (56 ratings)
    9.0
    (10 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.1
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (7 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.6
    (27 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Chatter (discontinued)Higher Logic Vanilla
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    [Chatter] is the tool that makes our relations
    stronger. It provides advanced ways of communication. I have trained my many
    team members because of the easy features and functions of this tool, It is very user-friendly. Give it a try if you want to improve your relations with your
    customers. It will surely enhance the productivity of your organization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    For companies that want to customize almost anything and make the forum look like your site, Vanilla Forums is the one for you. Customization and automation of the data via the API with other systems is more than possible and they serve to be great as a hosting provider, dealing with all the upgrades, deployments and maintenance and threat management well. I would say they might be less turn key for a small application but the fact they have an open source community, the ability to find help and information can lower the barrier of entry for most.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • Chatter provides us with a live internal conversation for all to see without the noise that other mediums have i.e. e-mail.
    • One of the main features that really works well is the 'Groups' that you can join. We have multiple groups set up to not only distribute procedural changes and communicate news etc, but also have conversations around upcoming tasks in the months ahead.
    • Chatter works really well in instances where we need to look over historical conversations that have been had and the sentiment of those conversations with our shareholders, often using hashtags.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    • Gamification: The ability to incentivise community members to get involved with ranks and badges is one of the main reasons that we purchased the tool.
    • Support: The Vanilla support team are incredible, often responding to issues very late at night and proactively fixing issues as soon as they occur.
    • Customisation: Vanilla can be completely styled with css allowing us to match it to the branding of the rest of our website.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • Groups does not have the private messaging functionality. Since most collaboration takes place in Groups, private messaging would allow for relevant conversations to be contained and not reside separately.
    • On a Group index page, there are two boxes for Information and Description. These content types seem redundant. You could replace both with a content type called About the Group. There could also be another box listing the Owners for quick reference.
    • On the main index page, the newsfeed has the same look and feel of most social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Jive, IBM Connections, SharePoint. There could be an alternate display of tiles that shows People you interact with most frequently, Files you access most often, most recent Topics, etc. The display could be something like Delve in Microsoft Office 365.
    • On the main index page in the right rail, it would be useful to have the ability to incorporate RSS feeds to gather outside content. Many departments heavily leverage RSS feeds to compile competitive intelligence and cultivate general awareness.
    • For user profiles, can we combine Feed and Overview into one consolidated view? It would save users a click to find relevant information about the person. Also, the Contact module should also have the person's phone number for convenience.
    • The Files feature does not allow for real-time, concurrent document editing. You have to download the document, make your edits, save, and then upload a new version, which only allows for one editor at a time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    • There are some features I wish Vanilla would implement that could improve ease of use in our specific community, but some of the ideas we have are not necessarily something that would benefit all of the forums that Vanilla works with.
    • In the past, we've had issues with releases breaking some of our specific site features they built for us, but this has improved drastically recently.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    Chatter can fulfill at least 85-90% of our business requirements in an easy-to-use platform. Usability is a key requirement and we have had our share of bad usability experiences. In our experience, even the most novice users were able to pick up Chatter in a relatively short amount of time with little/no assistance.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    It is easy to use but the impact of it feels like it is a bit antiquated. It does not feel collaborative and real time. Chatter is more akin to email versus Slack or Hangouts where it feels like problems are being solved as you are communicating.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    It is very intuitive and simple to operate. Our customers immediately came up with the curve and began contributing content.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    If I ever came to a situation where i needed help they do a very good job of getting back to us quickly to explain our error or why we are not seeing something. The support is quick to help provide groups or teams if you seek. Fortunately it is user friendly so I rarely need support
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    They did an amazing job transferring our content from GetSatisfaction. We had almost 100% success in the transfer of 8 years worth of content.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    Skype is used more for audio calls. Chatter is used to track updates on items of interest in Salesforce. Chatter is deeply integrated with other Salesforce products. No other competing products come close. Slack is a traditional project management tool. So it does not compete with Chatter. Because of its close integration with Salesforce, it is a unique tool for Salesforce users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    From a footprint standpoint, Vanilla has less technical bloat than vbulletin or InVision, and it outdoes Lithium as far as features and service go. The bloat of other services and ability to use new ways of engaging communities such as through Reactions are part of the reason Vanilla was selected. However, the features are better on a couple more seasoned platforms and more equipped to deal with issues and technical problems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • Chatter has closed deals faster, and brought us in revenue at a quicker rate in turn.
    • Chatter has left some things undone simply because people didn't see it and it has cost us a few deals.
    • Overall, Chatter has brought us a cleaner, more efficient Salesforce process and brought in revenue because of organization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Higher Logic
    • Increased uptime and overall speed in the forum (compared to our previous phpbb solution)
    • Increased usage by users which resulted in a higher pages/session in a short amount of time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Higher Logic Vanilla Screenshots

    Screenshot of Looks great on any device, including desktop, tablet or mobile device.Screenshot of We offer over 60 plugins that can add functionality to your community.Screenshot of Many different themes to choose from, which you can further customize as you like.Screenshot of You have full access to edit HTML and CSS of your theme, to make any changes you need.