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Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board vs. monday.com

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    monday.com

    Score8.2 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    monday.com Work OS is an open platform designed so that anyone can create the tools they need to run all aspects of their work. It includes ready-made templates or the ability to customize any work solution ranging from sales pipelines to marketing campaigns, CRMs, and project tracking.

    $36

    per month (3 seats)

    Pricing
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Boardmonday.com
    Editions & Modules
    Social Squared Discussion Board
    From $2200
    per year per installation
    Social Squared Discussion Board Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year per installation
    Basic
    $12
    per month per user
    Standard
    $14
    per month per user
    Pro
    $24
    per month per user
    Enterprise
    Contact Sales
    Contact us
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Boardmonday.com
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    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.An 18% discount is available for annual billing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Boardmonday.com
    Considered Both Products
    Lightning Tools
    No answer on this topic
    monday.com
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Would buy again
    2239 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    1899 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    2243 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    1572 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    1745 Answers
    Features
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Boardmonday.com
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and monday.com
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    16% above category average
    monday.com
    7.6
    2321 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Mobile Access9.11 Ratings7.01848 Ratings
    Search9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Task Management00 Ratings8.92314 Ratings
    Resource Management00 Ratings7.71984 Ratings
    Gantt Charts00 Ratings7.91370 Ratings
    Scheduling00 Ratings7.71931 Ratings
    Workflow Automation00 Ratings7.82014 Ratings
    Team Collaboration00 Ratings8.62269 Ratings
    Support for Agile Methodology00 Ratings7.21218 Ratings
    Support for Waterfall Methodology00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Document Management00 Ratings6.91877 Ratings
    Email integration00 Ratings7.21667 Ratings
    Timesheet Tracking00 Ratings7.61091 Ratings
    Change request and Case Management00 Ratings7.91210 Ratings
    Budget and Expense Management00 Ratings7.21086 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and monday.com
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    13% above category average
    monday.com
    -
    Ratings
    Chat9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Notifications9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Discussions9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and monday.com
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    12% above category average
    monday.com
    -
    Ratings
    Versioning9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Video files9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audio files9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Document collaboration9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access control9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Professional Services Automation
    Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and monday.com
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    -
    Ratings
    monday.com
    6.9
    1058 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Quotes/estimates00 Ratings6.5713 Ratings
    Project & financial reporting00 Ratings7.5943 Ratings
    Integration with accounting software00 Ratings6.7534 Ratings
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    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Boardmonday.com
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    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
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    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Boardmonday.com
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    8.4
    (2335 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (34 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    8.1
    (2263 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (11 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.4
    (11 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1963 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (5 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.9
    (10 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.6
    (9 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (9 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (11 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.9
    (9 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (9 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Boardmonday.com
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    monday.com
    Another feature I love in the free plan is the “Sort” feature, which enables me to sort all my clients by name alphabetically. Or sort by date,
    status, progress notes, etc. I make extensive use of the text column, where I can keep ongoing, detailed notes on the progress of a particular client's work and the information I am still waiting on. I have it open automatically every day, and my tasks are listed there for me to follow through on.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lightning Tools
    • Organizing Data
    • Opens up discussion, whether publicly or anonymously
    • Easy to setup
    Read full review
    monday.com
    • Intuitive board functionality with a variety of column types and customizations to address different use-cases, such as templates for user lifecycle management, checklists for onboarding.
    • Extensive automation capabilities to reduce tedium in more complex boards, such as our company's computer asset inventory board, to ensure devices are kept organized within the board for quicker reference.
    • The ability to connect boards and mirror info across them allowed us to build out a cross-functional, quasi-ticketing system enabling more efficient processing of requests that involved action items from different departments and/or teams.
    • We could use both the many board functions in tandem with the WorkForm feature to create an IT ticketing system that could be replicated and tailored for other teams needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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
    monday.com
    • The management of holdable items, continuously drops in incorrect places or doesn't show the 'correct way' to handle in the wished place, it happens with the dragable items on dashboards
    • The 'favorites' menu on desktop is now with 'Use my IA feature' everywhere and has removed the Fav section of for the boards in the sidebar. It was so useful when there were hundreds of Tables and only work on or update 3 - 4 of them (it is still visible on the mobile version, by the way)
    • The errors after using for a while, like 90 minutes, I am writing something and unexpectedly the app says something is wrong and I need to reload the page, and the thing I was doing doesn't still local storage as in other use cases
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    monday.com
    Teams involved in content creation, such as marketing or editorial teams, could use monday.com to manage the entire content lifecycle. Boards might track content ideas, assignments, drafts, reviews, approvals, and publication schedules, helping teams collaborate and keep content production on track.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    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
    monday.com
    monday.com was pretty easy to use from the get-go. Their automation templates are really easy to get things set up. A few of my monday.com boards are essentially upgraded spreadsheets that are much easier to digest and automatically send out reminder email to myself and my team.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    monday.com
    There have only been 2 instances in the past year where monday.com was down.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    monday.com
    Everything performs fairly well. Every now and then there are user errors where an employee will not click "ok" on a note they've created and simply exit out (I do wish that something was in place to prevent this, such as a pop "are you finished?")
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    monday.com
    I personally haven't found their customer success managers to be proactive or useful as the primary user of our monday.com account. This is different from a few years ago, when I had a contact that I reached out to as-needed (we are an enterprise account). I don't get a lot of touchpoints with anyone from monday.com and rarely submit tickets.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    monday.com
    To have someone walk you thru the features and capabilities of Monday.com is priceless. Someone also coming along later in the contract to see if you are maximizing the program to suit your company needs is beyond helpful. The staff that have provided this training are fun, creative and very patient.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    monday.com
    We signed up for the accounts. Created the accounts. Ran the trial version and tested it live while we were running multiple projects and found that it was fitting our needs perfectly. When the trial ended and we were asked to purchase the full version, we did. We have found other ways to use it and it's a breeze.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    monday.com
    monday.com gives us the most flexibility when it comes to its features -- to create templates and quickly modify or customize. While limited in its overall functionality, it is secure and does what it is supposed to do well. An ability to interpret documents given to it -- not just its own assets -- would take monday.com to the next level.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    monday.com
    For it to work across multiple departments and sites, I would like to see improvements made with integrations and automation. For this question, I am acknowledging not only the addition of internal triggers/automation, but also an expansion on external ones.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    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
    monday.com
    • The platform has saved us time by allowing us to have all of our program information in one place.
    • The fact that it is easy to set up has saved us countless hours of trying to learn the platform.
    • The platform has helped us greatly with collaboration with our program partners who need to use our data.
    Incentivized
    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.

    monday.com Screenshots

    Screenshot of Work OSScreenshot of Ready-Made TemplatesScreenshot of MobileScreenshot of Visual BoardsScreenshot of Real-time NotificationsScreenshot of Automations