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Higher Logic Vanilla vs. Workplace from Meta (discontinued)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Higher Logic Vanilla

    Score5.5 out of 10
    N/AHigher Logic Vanilla is a customizable and themable forum software. It can be used for support communities, Q&A Communities and more. There are numerous integrations, including SSO, and connectors to popular software such as Mailchimp, WordPress, Zendesk and Salesforce.N/A

    Workplace from Meta (discontinued)

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AWorkplace was a business communication tool from Meta with features like Live Video and Groups, that connected employees. Its discontinuation began in August of 2025, and by June 2026 a full shutdown is anticipated.N/A
    Pricing
    Higher Logic VanillaWorkplace from Meta (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    Essential
    Contact sales team
    Corporate
    Contact sales team
    Enterprise
    Contact sales team
    Enterprise Plus
    Contact sales team
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Higher Logic VanillaWorkplace from Meta (discontinued)
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Higher Logic VanillaWorkplace from Meta (discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    Higher Logic
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Would buy again
    28 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    24 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    28 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    19 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Implementation went as expected
    23 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Higher Logic VanillaWorkplace from Meta (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    Higher Logic Thrive
    Score8.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Khoros Communities
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Workvivo
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Verint Community
    Score10 out of 10
    Workvivo
    Score9.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Higher Logic VanillaWorkplace from Meta (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (10 ratings)
    7.8
    (54 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    5.6
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.4
    (21 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Higher Logic VanillaWorkplace from Meta (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Higher Logic
    For companies that want to customize almost anything and make the forum look like your site, Vanilla Forums is the one for you. Customization and automation of the data via the API with other systems is more than possible and they serve to be great as a hosting provider, dealing with all the upgrades, deployments and maintenance and threat management well. I would say they might be less turn key for a small application but the fact they have an open source community, the ability to find help and information can lower the barrier of entry for most.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Well suited: - leadership communication. When our CEO posts a video to all company - it always gets the highest engagement - recognition/achievements posts - live streams for education, knowledge sharing - we are a company of 12000 associates and there is no other corporate channel for us to gather more than 500 people in one place. Less appropriate: - sharing some very targetted messages - it's impossible to do at Workplace without creating a group. So we use email channel for such targetted communications - instant communication like in a chat (probably it's less appropriate in our specific case because we use MS Teams for such quick communication instead of WP chats)
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Higher Logic
    • Gamification: The ability to incentivise community members to get involved with ranks and badges is one of the main reasons that we purchased the tool.
    • Support: The Vanilla support team are incredible, often responding to issues very late at night and proactively fixing issues as soon as they occur.
    • Customisation: Vanilla can be completely styled with css allowing us to match it to the branding of the rest of our website.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Bring groups of people together to share info, stories, updates, etc.
    • The chat app is pretty decent.
    • Workplace Live is a good large-group meeting broadcast platform.
    • It's pretty intuitive to use for anyone who's used Facebook.
    • It provides different levels of "security" for groups, allowing you to have open, closed, and "secret" groups.
    • It's easy to paste images into your posts and comments, without having to necessarily go through the process of saving an image as a file, etc.
    • It has search capabilities for finding old information.
    • It's available for both desktop/laptop and mobile devices.
    • It's secured to allow only those within the company to see company-related info (but it also has a few inter-company groups, which can be useful, too).
    • Workplace Chat has the ability to set it to Do Not Disturb.
    • You can set notifications, including email notifications, if you want to be alerted to new activity in your groups, etc.
    • You can use Markdown to format your text
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Higher Logic
    • There are some features I wish Vanilla would implement that could improve ease of use in our specific community, but some of the ideas we have are not necessarily something that would benefit all of the forums that Vanilla works with.
    • In the past, we've had issues with releases breaking some of our specific site features they built for us, but this has improved drastically recently.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • It would be helpful if a review confirmation checkbox was able to be placed by files that needed to be read or reviewed. Along the same line, approve, review again, etc. would be helpful checkboxes to add by files, proposals.
    • The layout is clean but suffers a bit from the center column width with two sidebars and a lot of empty space. It almost looks like a going out of business sale retail store where you notice the empty shelves. Workplace feels a bit bare at times. I think some good design modifications can help. Now on mobile, it is a great layout. I am addressing specifically the desktop browser login.
    • An admin control dashboard would be really effective and even more so with more users on the platform.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Higher Logic
    It is very intuitive and simple to operate. Our customers immediately came up with the curve and began contributing content.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Having to download multiple apps just to use the tool is very cumbersome. Facebook would have make this better by wrapping it in as a main feature within their app, but having to use multiple apps to see discussions and walls is so frustrating.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Higher Logic
    They did an amazing job transferring our content from GetSatisfaction. We had almost 100% success in the transfer of 8 years worth of content.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Workplace by Facebook is an excellent fit in respect of support and documentation. It has excellent tutorials and documentation, as well. The UI and UX are already great as it is developed and maintained by Facebook, so most of the times, there is no need for any support or documentation.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Higher Logic
    From a footprint standpoint, Vanilla has less technical bloat than vbulletin or InVision, and it outdoes Lithium as far as features and service go. The bloat of other services and ability to use new ways of engaging communities such as through Reactions are part of the reason Vanilla was selected. However, the features are better on a couple more seasoned platforms and more equipped to deal with issues and technical problems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Workplace by Facebook is so much more than just a project management tool like Basecamp or Slack. The ability to disseminate information to employees is easier and better with Workplace by Facebook. It can also be used for informal messaging and sharing of information. It combines the best features of both with the same look and feel as Facebook.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Higher Logic
    • Increased uptime and overall speed in the forum (compared to our previous phpbb solution)
    • Increased usage by users which resulted in a higher pages/session in a short amount of time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • We can meet the project times, that with the communication in real time.
    • We provide solutions to our suppliers in a reliable and efficient manner.
    • When a business can save time and at the same time respond to the demands of customers, this translates into greater market capture of action for the company.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Higher Logic Vanilla Screenshots

    Screenshot of Looks great on any device, including desktop, tablet or mobile device.Screenshot of We offer over 60 plugins that can add functionality to your community.Screenshot of Many different themes to choose from, which you can further customize as you like.Screenshot of You have full access to edit HTML and CSS of your theme, to make any changes you need.