Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor vs. Zoho Cliq

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
The Lightning Conductor is a content aggregation tool for Microsoft SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. Users can build rich, modern content reports based upon SharePoint lists, SharePoint Search, Microsoft Graph or Microsoft 365 Groups. Content can be aggregated from lists and libraries, and other applications such as Planner, To Do, OneDrive, and Teams.
$1,950
per year One WFE
Zoho Cliq
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Zoho Chat is a live chat tool, from Zoho Corporation.
$18
per month up to 25 users
Pricing
Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorZoho Cliq
Editions & Modules
Lightning Conductor WSP
From 1950
per year One WFE
Lightning Conductor Enterprise Edition
POA
per year Four or more WFE
Lightning Conductor Online
From 2200
per year per installation
Lightning Conductor Plus (Includes Data Viewer)
From 2500
per year per installation
Lightning Conductor Online Enterprise Edition (>10,000 users)
POA
per year per installation
Standard
$18
per month up to 25 users
Professional
$20
per month $2 for each additional user over 10
Enterprise
$40
per month $4 for each additional user over 10
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorZoho Cliq
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPrices 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. (online version)10% discount for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorZoho Cliq
Considered Both Products
Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
Chose Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
I haven't found another product to compare this one to. Only in SharePoint Online which has a similar App 'Highlight Webpart' ... it's far too complicated to set up and requires learning yet another language and exporting and importing via PowerShell to get any real results …
Chose Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
When I was looking, I didn't find anything like the Lightning Conductor. Finding it changed my life!
Chose Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
Before Lightning Conductor, all we had available to us was default SharePoint views and custom coded JSON views, which were difficult to built and maintain and had plenty of limitations. Lightning Conductor perfectly filled that gap and allowed us to easily create simple …
Zoho Cliq
Chose Zoho Cliq
Didn't check for the other products. Zoho Cliq worked well
Chose Zoho Cliq
helps us communicate quickly and stay organized without needing separate tools. Compared to other chat apps, it fits better with our business needs and saves us time
Chose Zoho Cliq
Slack is equally good but as we went for ZohoOHO CRM it made sense to go in for Zoho Cliq to benefit from the integrations. Zoho Cliq is intuitive and user-friendly with no extra learning required. Google Chat had very limited capabilities and was not very user-friendly. …
Chose Zoho Cliq
Essentially the same style of platform. Aside from any "bots" (which I don't use anyways), they appear to do the same thing. But Zoho Cliq comes packed into the Zoho One platform. It's a useful component in a suite of communication tools that allows our office to work and speak …
Chose Zoho Cliq
My all-time favorite tool in this space is Slack but Cliq is a close second. Cliq is essentially built to mimic Slack but is not quite as cutting-edge with some of their features. We opted to use Cliq over Slack because of the interconnectedness it offered with all the other …
Chose Zoho Cliq
We selected Zoho because it was already a part of the Zoho toolset we were using. They offered a free trial which was a big help in our purchasing decision. Our team looked at one other alternative but we weren't satisfied with the pricing quote we got from them and the fact …
Chose Zoho Cliq
Functionality wise Zoho Chat fairs pretty well against the other options. I still use all the other options as I need to be flexible in how I communicate with clients. It is the integration into the ZohoCRM & Cliq that puts Zoho Chat above the others and is why I try to …
Features
Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorZoho Cliq
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
8.6
Ratings
10% above category average
Zoho Cliq
8.4
Ratings
8% above category average
Task Management8.80 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Search8.40 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Scheduling00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Workflow Automation00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Mobile Access00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
-
Ratings
Zoho Cliq
8.9
Ratings
11% above category average
Chat00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Notifications00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Discussions00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Surveys00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor
-
Ratings
Zoho Cliq
9.1
Ratings
12% above category average
Video files00 Ratings9.60 Ratings
Audio files00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Access control00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Advanced security features00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Device sync00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
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Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorZoho Cliq
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User Ratings
Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorZoho Cliq
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Lightning Tools Lightning ConductorZoho Cliq
Likelihood to Recommend
I use the Lightning Conductor primarily for document control--document location, number, ownership & review date tracking. I have also used it to track corrective action responses. The tool is great for aggregating information, so users can see the documents or tasks they are responsible for in one place.
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If you have a website through which your clients engage (either sales or support) your offerings, then you absolutely need a live chat tool. Having used Zoho for a while now, I can absolutely recommend it. If you have not used a chat tool before but you have an online store then you should definitely explore this option. They offer a free trial so you can test it to see what response you get but for sales related websites, this will pay for itself.
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Pros
  • Enables Grouped Views
  • Conditional Formatting
  • Very intuitive Interface
  • Robust Product proven over many years
Read full review
  • instant messaging so team members can quickly talk to each other
  • creating different channels for specific teams or projects, which keeps conversations organized
  • notifications that alert you about important messages, helping you stay updated
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Cons
  • When I'm selecting & organizing columns, sometimes I get them mostly organized and then decide I want to add one more & somehow where I click unselects all the columns I already had selected to display. If they could stay selected unless/until unselected, that would be awesome!
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  • Zoho people notifications can be added in Cliq like birthday reminders, leave trackers
  • Cliq PC app is bit heavy, can be light weighted
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
Cliq is essential software for our communication. Because we are an office of both in-house and remote employees we must have a unified communication platform to speak to another in real-time. Cliq offers us that platform in an easy-to-use format that allows for both 1:1 and team communication occurring all at once.
Read full review
Usability
No answers on this topic
Based on my experience with Cliq it is very cool and easy, I will give 10/10, because of their quality.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
It's available 24X7. We have never faced any serious issues with the connectivity. Whenever we faced issues, it has been traced to a browser issue or Windows app issue or a mobile issue.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
No issues
Read full review
Support Rating
The Lightning Tools support team responds quickly, and team members are very friendly and helpful.
Read full review
Any time that I have had an issue, and there haven't been many user support jumps right on and helps me right away.
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
Excellent support. Online training and supporting videos, and resources are more than sufficient to get started. Moreover, their support channel, especially the chat window, is very helpful and provides an instant solution to all our queries. For any complicated issue, they always get back by email with the solution and on occasions even call back.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
Implementation is very simple and easy. Create a Zoho account (free or paid), send/ receive an invite, log in, verify your credentials and get started. Admin would have created the channels for you, and you start contributing. The entire process is smooth, and you can get started within minutes. The Admin has to work at the backend, initially, and decide on the permissions for the individual and the team and set up permissions for access to other applications too. This needs to be planned out, tested and implemented.
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Alternatives Considered
I haven't found another product to compare this one to. Only in SharePoint Online which has a similar App 'Highlight Webpart' ... it's far too complicated to set up and requires learning yet another language and exporting and importing via PowerShell to get any real results that would be useful.
Read full review
Essentially the same style of platform. Aside from any "bots" (which I don't use anyways), they appear to do the same thing. But Zoho Cliq comes packed into the Zoho One platform. It's a useful component in a suite of communication tools that allows our office to work and speak to one another in an abundance of ways.
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
The system works perfectly well. At times, we have faced issues with the desktop application - it doesn't start, or takes time to start, or even logs off on its own. However, the browser as well as the mobile application work perfectly well, and we have never faced issues with them
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Return on Investment
  • Policies easier to portray
Read full review
  • Positive - Easier Comms with specific Clients. Encouraging more to use it to engage with me
  • Negative - Yet another comms channel to manage would like to have less. But see previous positive
  • Positive - Came as part of my Zoho One subscription so low cost
  • Has a wealth of options still to investigate as part of Cliq
Read full review
ScreenShots

Lightning Tools Lightning Conductor Screenshots

Screenshot of MODERN SHAREPOINT LIST ROLLUP
The Lightning Conductor is a SharePoint Content Aggregator that can be configured quickly by business users. The Lightning Conductor can be used to aggregate content from SharePoint Lists such as Tasks, Document Libraries, Contact Lists, and Custom Lists making it easy to view content in one place even if it is distributed across many sites and site collections. Key data can be highlighted using conditional formatting and data-bars as shown. Content from Search and Microsoft Graph can also be aggregated with the Lightning Conductor.Screenshot of CONTENT AGGREGATION WITHIN MICROSOFT TEAMS
The Lightning Conductor Web Part can be used within Microsoft SharePoint or Microsoft Teams. Even if content is stored within SharePoint sites, it is useful to have aggregated Documents, Tasks, Announcements, Calendars or Custom Lists from multiple sites displayed in a single handy view in Microsoft Teams. The Lightning Conductor can be added as a Teams Tab in any Microsoft Teams Channel.Screenshot of BUILDING REPORTS ON MICROSOFT GRAPH
The Lightning Conductor can be used (without code) to aggregate content from Microsoft Graph as well as Search and SharePoint Lists. This example displays Microsoft Planner Plans and Microsoft Planner Tasks where users can Add new Tasks, Assign Users to Planner Tasks, Delete Tasks, and Complete Tasks. The same can be performed on Microsoft To Do items and displayed within Modern SharePoint pages or Microsoft Teams Tabs. The Lighting Conductor can also contain multiple views of content, making it ideal to display all of your tasks from SharePoint Task lists, Microsoft To Do and Microsoft Planner in a single web part or Teams Tab.

*Microsoft Graph Reports are only available for SharePoint Online and not SharePoint 2019.Screenshot of BUILDING REPORTS ON MICROSOFT 365 GROUPS
Powered by Microsoft Graph, the Microsoft 365 Group Rollup Provider enables users to aggregate content by browsing and selecting Microsoft 365 Groups. Within Microsoft 365 Groups, you’ll be able to select entities such as Drive Items, Owners, Members, Planner Plans, Planner Tasks, Events, Posts,  Sites, Lists, and Calendars.

*Microsoft Graph Reports are only available for SharePoint Online and not SharePoint 2019.Screenshot of AGGREGATING USING SEARCH
When performance is critical, search can be used for rollups. The Lightning Conductor offers three data source configurations to get to content. Object Model (Real Time Aggregation from SharePoint Lists), Microsoft Graph (Aggregation from Graph Entities such as Planner, OneDrive, Outlook), and Search. The Search Data Source enables the aggregation of content from large SharePoint lists and libraries when performance is critical. Thousands of documents can be displayed in under a second using Search.Screenshot of HIGHLIGHTING KEY BUSINESS DATA WITHIN VIEWS
End users and Site Owners can highlight the data that is important to them, the data that they need to prioritize. Using conditional formatting, data bars, and icons, conditions can be configured to highlight the data that is most important. Icons and Data Bars can be any color or size desired. Examples include highlighting High Priority tasks, Showing data bars for the completion progress of Tasks, or indicating which tasks are assigned to any particular user.

Zoho Cliq Screenshots

Screenshot of Zoho Cliq UIScreenshot of Remote WorkScreenshot of Video CallsScreenshot of Integrations in Zoho CliqScreenshot of Zoho Cliq view across devices