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Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board vs. Quickbase

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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

    Quickbase

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AQuickbase helps users tackle any project, no matter how complex. Quickbase helps customers see, connect and control complex projects. Whether it’s raising a skyscraper or coordinating vaccine rollouts, the no-code software platform allows business users to custom fit solutions to the way they work – using information from across the systems they already have.

    $700

    per month

    Pricing
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardQuickbase
    Editions & Modules
    Social Squared Discussion Board
    From $2200
    per year per installation
    Social Squared Discussion Board Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year per installation
    Enterprise
    Full Customizable
    per month/billed annually
    Business
    Starting at $2,200
    per month
    Team
    Started at $700
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardQuickbase
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    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.Quickbase offers three key plans, with feature distinction, simple and consistent entitlements, and a flexible licensing model, giving users the option of either user based or usage based licensing across all 3 plans.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardQuickbase
    Considered Both Products
    Lightning Tools
    No answer on this topic
    Quickbase
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Would buy again
    141 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    122 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    142 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    106 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    107 Answers
    Features
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardQuickbase
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and Quickbase
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Quickbase
    -
    Ratings
    Mobile Access9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Search9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and Quickbase
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Quickbase
    -
    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 Quickbase
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Quickbase
    -
    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
    Best Alternatives
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardQuickbase
    Small Businesses
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Microsoft Project Server
    Score5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    Planview PPM Pro
    Score8.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardQuickbase
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    7.4
    (521 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.9
    (54 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    8.4
    (40 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (16 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (15 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.4
    (44 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.9
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.8
    (22 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (10 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.4
    (10 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (15 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (10 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (10 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardQuickbase
    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
    Quickbase
    I no longer think that Quickbase is the way of the future. They do not fix major bugs in a timely manner, and are releasing basic functionality behind a paywall. I believe that Enterprise Level Tier should be given certain things, like SLAs on Support and up-time. However, as a low-code no-code platform the majority of the accounts, "builders", and users are not going to be able to justify the cost of an Enterprise Tier Plan, and won't be able to use the features that Quickbase continues to advertise.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lightning Tools
    • Organizing Data
    • Opens up discussion, whether publicly or anonymously
    • Easy to setup
    Read full review
    Quickbase
    • Rapidly bring new ideas to life
    • Great authentication and authorization system out of the box
    • Connects with many major third-party services (via Pipelines)
    • Reporting and Dashboards are awesome
    • Excellent emails notification system to keep us in the loop when data changes
    • Intuitive UI for building forms and reports
    • Nice playground to test new ideas
    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
    Quickbase
    • I'd like to see a link on email notices that take you directly into said notice. On an app that only has 1 or 2 email notices firing, there's no issue. However, we have some tools that are so complex that they have about 20 email notices firing at any given time based on the action users take. In this case, if we have to go in to modify a notice, we have to guess or scroll down the long list of notices to see which one we need to customize. It would be great if Quickbase had the URL of said notice somewhere at the footer of that notice so when Administrators click on it, it takes them into the exact notice they need to update.
    • When filling out or reviewing a lengthy form, I'd like to see the Save & close button, as well as a Save & next option at the bottom of the form rather than having to scroll back up to the top of those forms just to click on those choices.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Quickbase
    For our use-case of QuickBase, there really aren't any other products out there that can offer us the same out-of-the-box solutions they provide to us. We're also so integrated with it in our daily processes that to move away from it abruptly would cause mass chaos, so it's going to be renewed for at least the next several years.
    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
    Quickbase
    Quick Base has done everything we have asked it to do and then some. Our original goal was to have one system for CRM that encompassed both the sales process and the customer management. We have gone w-a-y beyond that with analytics, project management, system bug logging, and historical effort reporting.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Quickbase
    Once we did get Quick Base configured and customized it was reliably available when we needed it. We may have had one or two occasions when the product was inaccessible but those were few. The greatest challenge with its availability was its difficulty with integrating with our systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Quickbase
    Some of our tables that hold over a million records are starting to perform poorly, with some summaries taking over 20 seconds to load. This may be an indication that it is best to archive old data when reaching large volumes like this.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Quickbase
    If you utilize the community, the support is amazing. Unfortunately, I find their actual support system a bit underwhelming. They don't seem to have a great process for interacting directly with an issue and often sweep significant issues under the rug by categorizing them as "Enhancement" ideas or legacy items.
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Quickbase
    It is very easy to get training from their University portal and still if we don't know their, then we can ask their support too.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Quickbase
    Quick Base already is having a separate portal of providing training to customers and it is very easy to use and updates as per the new features added in to the application
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Quickbase
    I was not directly involved with the initial account implementation, only a bystander. For the app I directly implemented for my department only, I wish I had know to create an app diagram first. I don't remember if that was suggested. I think that would be a great help tip tool when a new app is created, to have a page with a check list of what is needed or how to get started. If you are a regular app builder, then you can bypass it or have the ability to turn it off in the app settings.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Quickbase
    Well, there's a plethora of low-code tools out on the marketplace and, you know, there's a reason that we've decided to partner with QuickBase because it has all the right balance of the ability to integrate with the ability for a citizen developer to create apps successfully. So if you look at something like Zo Ho's low-code offering, for example, yes, there are some similarities there, but they're really dependent on all of their other licensed products to get you where you want to be, where with QuickBase you have the ability to truly create something custom.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Quickbase
    It has evolved really well with our company, but there is a hard limit to the table size that has begun to affect us and not let us grow. The table size limit is set at 500 MB and we have had to jump through quite a few hoops to be able to get by.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Professional Services
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Quickbase
    For clients we use Qucik base to develop application
    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
    Quickbase
    • ROI is HUGE. Our company saved over 3.5 million in one year alone based on developments that year in Quickbase that saved time for many teams
    • Less user error - implementing automations and standardized workflows has led to less user error as was previously seen by maintaining spreadsheets or Smartsheets
    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.