
The Higher Logic platform is super configurable. You can take a barebones forum and upgrade it to what looks like a completely custom solution. I really appreciate the ability to add components as the community matures. It's a good idea to have a strategy from the beginning, of course, but it's convenient that the platform can grow with your community. It also has a nice suite of reports built in. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The back end isn't the most intuitive, and it's really easy to forget where particular features live. All in all it's a minor complaint, and over the four years I've been using Higher Logic, it has been updated and improved some. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The program evolves as our needs increase. Higher Logic is constantly looking for ways to improve their product and increase customer satisfaction. We are one of their smaller clients and yet they always treat us like we are their most important client. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
There really isn't any part of Higher Logic that I dislike. The system runs smoothly, they have the best customer support department I have ever worked with and they check in with us periodically just to make sure we are running smoothly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
If Higher Logic hasn't told you about automation rules, then you need to ask. This is what sets them apart from the competition. You can do a thousand things with automation rules. Some of the things I am using it for is to personalize the customer experience. For example, we have a product support community, and have many products. I can setup automation rules to say, "if a customers has this product, show this blog to them when they log in". Another example is that you can send emails directly to customers that haven't logged in for X number of days. Or ask customers to fill out certain parts of their profile. It really is endless and fairly simple to do. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I guess in any platform for community you can find things that are not great. We are a global company and it would be great to have language resources. I think in the Tech space it is super important. Being able to have a Japanese or German community in that language would help set us apart from the competition. I keep asking them about it, but for now, it's still on on their roadmap. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I love how easily Higher Logic integrates with our association management system (NetFORUM Enterprise) and streamlines our member and prospective-member experiences. As a marketer and communicator, the conversion and engagement tracking provide actionable insight and clear-cut ROI that helps us justify our budgeting and projection time allocation. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
We've had some of the issues you'd expect whenever you try to integrate new Sass into your operation, but Higher Logic's project managers and engagement teams have helped us easily remedy those issues. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
HigherLogic is great accross the board. They build produts to last with the client in mind. In my expereince once you're onboarded you'll never want to leave or need anything else. Have an idea that would make their product better? Tell them and they'll actually work on it. Seriously. This brings me to their client support and customer service. 110% This is where HigherLogic really shines. Once you sign your contract you are cared for. Once you complete onboarding you are still cared for. Been a client for awhile? They are still there to care for you. They want you to love the product, use the product and improve your business with the product.
I'm fairly techsavvy and went through onboarding smoothly so my HigherLogic rep would comes to our meetings with creative ideas to help our strategic goals. Not only are they helping us get the most bang for our buck and find success with their products, but they're also making me look good in brainstorming sessions!
Down to the details: Are you the first person to have some weird ask? They will find the right person to get you the right answer. No question is left unanswered and they offer multiple training methods for those that don't want their handheld. You have the option for in-person training (in non-COVD times), online training, group sessions, one-on-one training, videos and written trainings. Everything is customized to your business and your needs.
My company is pretty unique in our membership style and goals. The HigherLogci team went above and beyond to make sure the Community fulfilled out needs. We have greatly increased our member engagement and we can track in great detail where we've had success and who we still need to engage. Higher Logic's products are easy to use, helpful to the user and very VERY detailed. You can track EVERYTHING. We have loved having so much data to influence our decisionmaking and prove the ROI behind using HigherLogic. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Onboarding is a little too timeconsuming. If you have someone at your company who will be fully dedicated to learning how to use HigherLogic and managing everything, then you should sign-up without hesitation. If you don't have an employee to dedicate to this software, then the HigherLogic team will help you make the time and support you where needed, but it will take time. You'll need to make time for the trainings to get the most out of these products. The ROI will come without doubt, but you can't just wingit. You actually need to spend an hour a week or more on learning the product for a few months. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Our members can communicate with one another in a forum based platform designed specifically for them. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our number of members using the platform exploded and became viewed as an essential member benefit. We are so fortunate to have had our community in place prior to the pandemic. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The is some redundancy with the build, but it's working just fine. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Higher Logic combines simple CMS tools with oodles of data-driven content personalization capabilities. The possibilities are limitless for crafting a smart-relevant online community experience. Smart, savvy people, too! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Higher Logic is maturing! Their reporting is very limited with no in-product report writer. Existing reports are confusing and inconsistent for what appears to be the same metric across reports. The And/Or Boolean logic in the Automation Rules also has its challenges -- requiring sometimes 2-3 separate rules to pare down to one segmentation. However, the team is always eager to help and you can truly accomplish most any segmentation with the occasional extra rule. They'll grow to overcome these growing pains. I still highly recommend the team and the solution. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Higher Logic manages to offer the features that you want in an online community platform, but without gumming it up with extra modules that add little. Plus, they back up the platform with fantastic educational tools and support functions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Reporting functionality continues to move in the direction I like, but it could still be easier to grab data in a hurry. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I like the community aspect of the platform and that you can communicate with anyone else inside of the community. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
On the back end, when trying to host an all day event or conference the platform is not built to support these types of events. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The discussion functionality is mature. The blogging platform is also mature. It provides a flexible secure way to communicate with both customers and the public. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The gamification and advocacy modules could both be matured. Ideation is not gamified. Ideation does not notify. There is room for the platform to mature and grow. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Higher Logic's platform is very easy to use. We utilize a few of their services and they integrate with ease. I am not a coding expert by any means and this system is user friendly for people like me. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Sometimes there are functions I wish were there but overall I do not dislike anything in particular. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
We've been on board with Higher Logic for 3 years now. I feel like it has just continued to improve and grow every year. I'm excited to continue expanding our use of all the Higher Logic software. The staff/support is extremely responsive, and wants to make this a great experience for all their customers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
There are still some kinks or bumps in the road, but things continue to evolve. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Higher Logic are great partners who really helped us hone our strategy for building engagement and facilitating connections. The platform is simple to use and has many features that make community management easy to do. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Higher Logic is a growing company and at times had to work through growing pains with shifting staff and the knowledge transfer. This continues to improve and they are dedicate to customer success. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The opportunity to build individual communities private and open for individuals to connect virtually. We use the portal to engage individuals in between in-person events, allow them to share content and resources, ask questions and promote blended learning. One of the best ways we use the site is to engage in conversation in connection with learning experiences (in-person or online) to create discussions and follow up actions to support application of the learning. As a user I appreciate the ability to manage my notifications and when I receive emails. I also like the ability to customize the page for an organization and use the banner to promote upcoming resources or events. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The design is simple which can be good for users to navigate but is not necessarily the "prettiest" platform I've used. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
We've used the Higher Logic community site for abut 7 years now. You can build multiple, all-in-one sites using the Bootstrap framework. From an association perspective, the ability to offer a place on your website where members can interact is quite valuable, so long as it functions well. We can build numerous staging sites with community functions that link to our AMS while Higher Logic handles file hosting, security and technical support. As a small operation that does a lot of our IT in-house, this is a huge advantage.
HL also has an active client base that regularly make use of the HUG forums to ask questions and get ideas from each other - this has helped us solve some problems in the past, as well as draw our attention to new features we otherwise wouldn't have known about. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
As Higher Logic has rushed to acquire, the platform has gone downhill tremendously. We constantly find bugs that customer service has repeatedly dragged its feet to respond. When we first launched, it was nightmare trying to make sense of where we needed to direct the DNS, and the President of the company responded personally to apologize. Nowadays, I'm often sending up follow-up emails to support asking for a response to my initial question. Tech support often seems confused about solutions, or provides temporary fixes. And considering the cost of the product, which has both increased and now must be paid annually rather than monthly, we are preparing to move to other platforms. Until HL makes some serious improvements to the initial platforms and its customer service, I wouldn't recommend this product to anyone. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
A great space to connect with people who share common interests, professional goals/aspirations, or identities. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Site-speed can occasionally be a challenge, and some user features -- such as digest features, etc. can be difficult to navigate or understand for first-time users. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Ease of use. Aesthetically pleasing. I have used it with ASAE before we acquired HL and recommended it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Nothing to report yet. I'm concerned about implementation, and that I am not very technically savvy. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Client service was always quick to respond to help resolve issues, lots of available features Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Some of our users struggled with receiving their community emails... could be user error though Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The basic concept is very much needed by the association world--an online discussion group system that integrates with AMS (association management software) and that allows you to create distinct discussion groups (say, a group for all of your members, groups for your sections/interest groups and chapters, groups for retirees or students, etc.) that automatically update their membership to reflect membership in you AMS. This makes it possible to maintain discussion groups without having to constantly manually update their membership, which could take hours and hours every day, if you're an association of any size.
The discussion group system also lets you bring in members who are still wedded to listservs, as it incorporates the ability to send and receive posts to the discussion groups via email. In fact, if a member of mine contacts me about 'the listservs,' I just use the word 'listserv' with them, too, as I talk about whatever they need to know about the discussion groups. It really seems to avoid confusion and make them more comfortable. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I've been working with Higher Logic and this tool for several years (and our use of Higher Logic dates from before my joining my association). When I started, though many aspects of the service were clunky, customer service seemed responsive and personable and was able to give me faith that the clunky bits would be addressed in the near future.
As time has passed and I've talked to more Higher Logic clients, it seems many of us have been requesting basic features or improvements for years with little or no response from Higher Logic. This includes the ability for discussion group members to receive notifications when discussions they start receive replies, a feature that I've never seen missing from any social media, forum, or other discussion tool. (That's right, members have to remember to go back to check discussions to see if they've received any replies!) If you do some digging in their customer support forums, you'll find that people have been requesting this feature for at least six years.
Customer service and maintenance of what I see as their core product (the discussion group system) has dropped off even further in the last two years. The company has acquired four other companies in that time (RealMagnet, Informz, Socious, and Kavi) and it seems deadset on creating a monopoly on communication services for associations. The results, so far, have been as chaotic as you'd think. Customer service has become slow, uneven, and about as transparent as mud (often you'll be told by customer service to post your issue in the client discussion group and if you post in the client discussion group, you'll be told to contact customer service). No one seems to know what features are being prioritized for development or what the timelines might be. Often you're told to use clunky workarounds that you then have to somehow educate your poor members about and do a song-and-dance for them to convince them that the workarounds are convenient and/or will be fixed soon. New bells-and-whistle features are introduced while broken or, at least, in very unfinished stages of development and dropped as quickly as they're introduced.
It really feels like the core product is just being left to decay while the company pursues, I assume, new sales. What they're selling to these new customers, I don't know. Email services with features and customer service that's worse than when they were individual companies? The dying discussion group core product? Website content management systems that are much less intuitive to use than most other content management systems I've worked with?
I hate writing this review, because, one, as an association, there aren't really any competitors for you to work with. (Though there seem to be a few forming.) Two, I do think many of the employees at Higher Logic are doing their best and are likely as trapped working with a company that grew too fast as their clients are. (Take a look at some of the recent employee reviews in Glassdoor for an idea of some of the tension they may be facing.)
We want you to do better, Higher Logic! In fact, we need you to do better. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.