Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board vs. Microsoft Teams

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
Score 10.0 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…
$1,950
per year per installation
Microsoft Teams
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Teams combines video conferencing software with team collaboration tools. The communications platform allows MS Office users to conduct conference calls and share files via SharePoint, and join or initiate a group chat.
$5
per month
Pricing
Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardMicrosoft Teams
Editions & Modules
Social Squared Discussion Board
From $1950
per year per installation
Social Squared Discussion Board Plus (includes Charts / Data Viewer)
From $2500
per year per installation
Social Squared Discussion Board Enterprise Edition
POA
per year per installation
Free
$0.00
per user/per month
Microsoft 365 Business Basic
$5.00
per user/per month
Microsoft 365 Business Standard
$12.50
per user/per month
Office 365 E3
$20.00
per user/per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardMicrosoft Teams
Free Trial
YesNo
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. 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.Discounts are available for non profit organizations.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardMicrosoft Teams
Top Pros

No answers on this topic

Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Features
Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardMicrosoft Teams
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
-
Ratings
Microsoft Teams
7.1
182 Ratings
10% below category average
Task Management00 Ratings7.4137 Ratings
Gantt Charts00 Ratings6.270 Ratings
Scheduling00 Ratings7.8153 Ratings
Workflow Automation00 Ratings6.695 Ratings
Mobile Access00 Ratings7.9174 Ratings
Search00 Ratings7.3160 Ratings
Visual planning tools00 Ratings6.5111 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
-
Ratings
Microsoft Teams
7.7
191 Ratings
4% below category average
Chat00 Ratings8.8190 Ratings
Notifications00 Ratings8.0189 Ratings
Discussions00 Ratings8.4177 Ratings
Surveys00 Ratings7.2104 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings7.0117 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting00 Ratings6.947 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings6.143 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings8.8156 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
-
Ratings
Microsoft Teams
7.3
177 Ratings
11% below category average
Versioning00 Ratings7.0122 Ratings
Video files00 Ratings7.4150 Ratings
Audio files00 Ratings7.5152 Ratings
Document collaboration00 Ratings8.1164 Ratings
Access control00 Ratings7.5148 Ratings
Advanced security features00 Ratings6.9110 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings6.153 Ratings
Device sync00 Ratings8.0124 Ratings
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Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardMicrosoft Teams
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User Ratings
Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardMicrosoft Teams
Likelihood to Recommend
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(269 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
5.5
(9 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(52 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(113 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
6.2
(7 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
6.9
(7 ratings)
User Testimonials
Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardMicrosoft Teams
Likelihood to Recommend
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Positive: The virtual workspace created for a work team within the same company, for the resemblance of information and communications in one place.Negative: The access for members of a non-profit organization who have external emails from the host but need the same access as an internal person since their volunteer work is part of the very core of the federation.
Read full review
Pros
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
  • Virtual meetings - ease of set up and execution
  • File sharing! We build channels for projects, and being able to invite only project members is huge!
  • Peer-to-peer communications - being able to "ping" one of my colleagues, either text, video or call-only, on-demand, is what runs our business.
Read full review
Cons
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
  • The feature of notifications in the mobile application could be improved. Sometimes notifications of different teams are not visible and are only visible when the application is opened.
  • It uses lots of computational resources while running and thus, slows down the system sometimes.
  • It allows a few channels per team. The number of channels could be increased for better productivity.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Microsoft Teams is included with our Office 365 subscription and we have no intention of migrating off of Office 365 and Microsoft products. Since Microsoft Teams is included for free with our Office 365 subscription, and since we enjoy all the features, benefits, and functionality, there is no question that our team will continue to use the product
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Usability
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
User experience has been much better than the previous Skype for Business app. It has an easy-to-use interface with persistent chats. The search feature is very fast and useful. MS Teams has mostly focused on Collaboration and team building features which are very useful for organizational communications. Since Teams is accessible from multiple platforms like Laptop, Desktop, Mobile phones, etc it has been very convenient from a Mobility perspective.
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Reliability and Availability
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Rare, but outages do happen
Read full review
Performance
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Sometimes about once a week I get a message that says "Sorry, there seems to be something wrong". But it goes away in a few minutes.
Read full review
Support Rating
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Using Microsoft Teams has resulted in much faster business communications with both co-workers and consultants. There has been little need for support with this software as the interface is very intuitive and the product is overall very well designed. We did encounter an issue with the built-in phone service, however, this was quickly resolved by the support team.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
I find everything I need for my day-to-day work.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Our company and IT department previously used Skype for our communication needs. Skype was not dependable in my opinion, because it seems each time I used it during a call and/or a meeting, I and several other team members would get disconnected more than once. This caused a great interruption of our meeting, caused team members to have to ask others to repeat themselves and caused a general lack of interest in employee attendance during meetings.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Honestly, this tool is worth every penny. Yes, it's not free and you pay for the quality of services and the license. But the ROI and the benefits are all there. Also, the renewal, negotiation, and contract terms are all very well explained by our Microsoft account manager, and she's a charm.
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Scalability
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
It does not appear to have a limit to how many teams and employees we can have using it
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Professional Services
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
I used Skype for Business to take calls, hold conferences, and provide remote assistance to users. Microsoft Teams, on the other hand, is superior to Skype for Business in my opinion. My job entails a lot of screen sharing.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Lightning Tools
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
  • I'm not sure I can point to a specific ROI, but it has improved our ability to communicate and work more effectively together.
  • It's also nice to have records of every interaction, photo, and document that has been shared. Less chance of something completely disappearing.
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.