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Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board vs. Pure Chat by Ruby

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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

    Pure Chat by Ruby

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/APure Chat is a live chat tool with a free version for limited usage or paid versions with unlimited chat, developed by the company of the same name in Scottsdale, Arizona, and acquired late in 2020 by Ruby. Pure Chat is now a Ruby brand.

    $10

    per month

    Pricing
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardPure Chat by Ruby
    Editions & Modules
    Social Squared Discussion Board
    From $2200
    per year per installation
    Social Squared Discussion Board Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year per installation
    Additional Users - Pro
    $10
    per month
    Additional Users - Growth
    $15
    per month
    Growth
    $49
    per month
    Pro
    $99
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardPure Chat by Ruby
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    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.—
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardPure Chat by Ruby
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and Pure Chat by Ruby
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Pure Chat by Ruby
    -
    Ratings
    Mobile Access9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Search9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and Pure Chat by Ruby
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Pure Chat by Ruby
    -
    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 Pure Chat by Ruby
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Pure Chat by Ruby
    -
    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
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    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardPure Chat by Ruby
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    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardPure Chat by Ruby
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    8.6
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardPure Chat by Ruby
    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
    Ruby Receptionists, Inc
    Chat is nothing new but the ease of use and functionality is key, that being said Pure Chat nails it across the board. We use the chat across our website and ad pages. Don't see a situation where this effective tool would be less appropriate, consumers want instant information and instant connection, chat provides both without being tied up on the phone
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lightning Tools
    • Organizing Data
    • Opens up discussion, whether publicly or anonymously
    • Easy to setup
    Read full review
    Ruby Receptionists, Inc
    • Online chat
    • Multiple websites, multiple users
    • Supervisor feature
    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
    Ruby Receptionists, Inc
    • Transcripts that could generate in a PDF or Word doc rather than .txt file, option would be nice
    • Chat is straight forward so not much room for improvement, we're happy with the service, functionality, and ease of use.
    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
    Ruby Receptionists, Inc
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Ruby Receptionists, Inc
    Didn't see much pros and cons comparing Pure Chat and Olark. They all do the job. However, Pure Chat is free to use on basic functions.
    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
    Ruby Receptionists, Inc
    • Instant connection with our clients and prospects
    • Expanded our ability to increase client contact efficiency
    • Allows us to stay up to date with the ever changing demand of consumers
    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.