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Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board vs. Trello

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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

    Trello

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/ATrello from Atlassian is a project management tool based on a Kanban framework. Trello is ideal for task-management in a to-do list format. It supports sharing boards and cards across users or teams. The product offers a free version, and paid versions add greater automation, collaboration, and administrative control.

    $6

    per month per user

    Pricing
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardTrello
    Editions & Modules
    Social Squared Discussion Board
    From $2200
    per year per installation
    Social Squared Discussion Board Enterprise Edition
    POA
    per year per installation
    Standard
    $6
    per month per user
    Premium
    $12.50
    per month per user
    Enterprise
    $17.50
    per month per user
    Free
    Forever Free
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardTrello
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    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.A discount is offered for annual billing and for larger numbers of users.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardTrello
    Considered Both Products
    Lightning Tools
    No answer on this topic
    Atlassian
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Would buy again
    104 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    94 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    106 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    63 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    83 Answers
    Features
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardTrello
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and Trello
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Trello
    8.4
    223 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Mobile Access9.11 Ratings9.2193 Ratings
    Search9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
    Task Management00 Ratings9.5223 Ratings
    Resource Management00 Ratings9.2186 Ratings
    Gantt Charts00 Ratings7.374 Ratings
    Scheduling00 Ratings8.8169 Ratings
    Workflow Automation00 Ratings8.1143 Ratings
    Team Collaboration00 Ratings8.8219 Ratings
    Support for Agile Methodology00 Ratings8.9148 Ratings
    Support for Waterfall Methodology00 Ratings7.8116 Ratings
    Document Management00 Ratings8.2160 Ratings
    Email integration00 Ratings7.4147 Ratings
    Timesheet Tracking00 Ratings8.889 Ratings
    Change request and Case Management00 Ratings8.6103 Ratings
    Budget and Expense Management00 Ratings7.374 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board and Trello
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Trello
    -
    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 Trello
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Trello
    -
    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 Trello
    Feature
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion Board
    -
    Ratings
    Trello
    6.6
    73 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Quotes/estimates00 Ratings7.250 Ratings
    Invoicing00 Ratings6.643 Ratings
    Project & financial reporting00 Ratings6.859 Ratings
    Integration with accounting software00 Ratings5.845 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardTrello
    Small Businesses
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Any.do
    Score8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    KanbanFlow
    Score7.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    Microsoft To Do
    Score7.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardTrello
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.3
    (223 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.9
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.3
    (61 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.9
    (81 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Lightning Tools Social Squared Discussion BoardTrello
    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
    Atlassian
    For teams or individuals with lots of individual tasks/details to track, Trello is perfect! It basically removes the need for a paper checklist. For those that need an overall project management tool that requires less tasks and more overarching goals, collaboration amongst various teams, and gantt charts I would suggest monday.com
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lightning Tools
    • Organizing Data
    • Opens up discussion, whether publicly or anonymously
    • Easy to setup
    Read full review
    Atlassian
    • Helps track employees "to do before hire", "to do after hired," and "to do when employee leaves"
    • Provides important information on each employee like personal information along with data collected during the time of hire and during employment time
    • Allows more than one person to be assigned to a task per employee and will remain open until everyone involved has completed their task
    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
    Atlassian
    • I use colour coding a lot so I would like a wider range of colour options.
    • Also as a visual thinker I would like to be able to easily add images to cards.
    • I would like to be able to attach a wider range of file formats to cards.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Atlassian
    I am very likely to renew Trello, because it doesn't cost anything to do so. I am also very likely to use Trello's upgraded features in the future because a lot of my team's data is stored on there and they have already gotten used to the platform. Trello is very easy for new team members to pick up, making the onboarding and usability very streamlined.
    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
    Atlassian
    Trello is incredibly intuitive, both on desktop and mobile right away. It is also full of helpful features that make it even easier to use, and is flexible enough to suit almost any organizational need. Onboarding for the software is thorough, but concise, and the service is frequently updated with even more QOL improvements.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Atlassian
    yes always support available when I need it!
    Read full review
    Performance
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Atlassian
    Never experienced issues with the above!
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Atlassian
    I haven't reached out to their support very often and their support is very limited anyway for the free users. They do have tons of great articles and videos in their Help Center and constantly send emails with updates and add-ons to the product. The fact that I've barely ever had to contact their support team means that they've developed a great product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Atlassian
    It was helpful and informative! It was back before the pandemic in 2019 so I'm not sure if they still do it but I really enjoyed the experience
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Atlassian
    For our small business, getting a few of us started well on Trello was the key, I think. As long as a couple of us were really comfortable with the interface, we could lead others and help them with any questions. From now on, anyone who works with us just naturally uses Trello for information sharing - it's just part of what we do.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Atlassian
    Trello is more simple and not as "robust" as the other tools, but it's easier to use and manage and understand and ACTUALLY get stuff done with. It's simplicity is part of the beauty of using it. You don't need a million options that nobody uses, you just need to get stuff done.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Atlassian
    Feels like anyone across the org (no matter their location) can use the tool easily!
    Read full review
    Professional Services
    Lightning Tools
    No answers on this topic
    Atlassian
    Not sure if we use those
    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
    Atlassian
    • Trello keeps me organized, focused, and on track. I could filter the Trello board to only see my issues and understand what I needed to work on and when.
    • Trello helped our team implement an agile structure. It's a very simple kanban method of viewing all of your team's tasks and statuses. You can completely customize the columns to your team's specific workflow and create tags relevant to your work.
    • Trello helps reduce unnecessary communications between teams. When I want to request translations, I simply create a card on the localization Trello board -- no need to directly message anyone on the team, and I can watch the status of the card change from "in progress" to "in review" to "translated," all without having to directly ask for updates.
    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.