# Ning Reviews **Vendor:** Ning **Category:** [Online Community Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/online-community-management) **Average Rating:** 3.1/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 16 ## About Ning Ning is a solution that gives you tools and expertise to engage your own community in a scalable integrated social platform that allows you to build and launch your own social network. ## Ning Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users love the **appealing variety of themes** offered by Ning, blending catchy and classic designs seamlessly. (1 reviews) - Users love the **appealing themes** of Ning, appreciating the variety of catchy and classic designs available. (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users feel Ning is **expensive** , with traffic results similar to free social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. (1 reviews) ## Ning Reviews ### 1. Attractive Themes, But Disappointing Value for Traffic Results **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Pritika M. | Software engineer, Sports, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 04, 2026 **What do you like best about Ning?** The available themes are appealing, with a variety of catchy and classic designs. **What do you dislike about Ning?** I was dissatisfied with the product’s value because the traffic results were comparable to those from free social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used Ning for a housing and office complex that required both community interaction and access to ongoing informational resources such as contact details and procedures. The platform is effective for membership management and discussions but less ideal for static content, as its primary strength lies in posting and discussion features. For a limited budget, it provides a fast, effective setup with easy user participation. ### 2. Social Network with easy customisation **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aditi A. | Product Manager, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2023 **What do you like best about Ning?** It help[s create a social network for your brand with easily cusotmisable feautures. You can connect across a wide audience with social feautures and it is easy to use **What do you dislike about Ning?** There are a few issues with the platform in terms of bugs. It is also super expensive for a new niche product offered that hasnt a significant competiive advantage than other social media sites. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is sort of like a social network for a specfic audience however that is not a problem as such as I can find something similar on other platforms as well with the right filters and network. ### 3. I eval'd this company as a possible service to use for my companies. **Rating:** 0.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Gerritt B. | Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 07, 2022 **What do you like best about Ning?** There were no upsides to using this service, as I did not have adequate time to review it. Many of Ning's competitors have free plans to allow a more thorough service review. **What do you dislike about Ning?** I was going to evaluate this company for use with several associated organizations. After the 14 day trial period, they hit my credit card for $300. When I inquired with them about this charge, they fell back on their terms of service, saying that after 14 days, your card would be charged. Most companies in this space will notify you to check on the evaluation process and remind you of an upcoming charge on your account. I suspect I am not the only one who has encountered this as subscription companies like Ning will lean on their terms of service to get unsuspecting clients to fork over the annual subscription charge with no refund due. We discussed this lack of integrity, and they agreed to refund $270 of the original $300. I begrudgingly agreed, and 14 days later, I have seen no refund to my Paypal account. I have since submitted a chargeback through Paypal to force Ning to complete the refund process. I would recommend that anyone looking into this company pass on and look elsewhere. If this is how they handle customer service with potential new clients, I can only imagine how bad it is for existing clientele. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** Only creating new ones with having to have Paypal force Ning to return the agreed subscription fee to me. ### 4. Ning Solution **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** LaQuay L. | Founder, CEO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2021 **What do you like best about Ning?** the ability to white label and brand your own network **What do you dislike about Ning?** The support was poor. The software was a bit clunky **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** It provides the ability to create a complete online community with our brand. ### 5. Useful tool for simple community sites **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civic & Social Organization | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about Ning?** The content management system is extremely simple to use. It's possible to get a simple site up very quickly without knowledge of CSS or html, with a lot of useful features, particularly around discussion forum functionality. **What do you dislike about Ning?** The number of templates is pretty limited, which means it's hard to make a site look really attractive. The core functionality is based on discussion/posting features, which means that even static informational pages have to be rendered as posts. **Recommendations to others considering Ning:** Worth considering for anyone looking at creating a low-cost community site. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** I've used Ning for a housing/office complex that requires the ability to interact as a community, while also accessing evergreen information such as contact details and processes. It is effective in facilitating membership and discussions, less so in hosting static informational pages (due to the fact that the discussion/posting functionality is core). With only a small budget, it's quick to set up something which is effective, and easy for users to join and interact. ### 6. My experience as a long time Ning user **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jorge G. | Full-Stack Developer, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 15, 2019 **What do you like best about Ning?** Ning has provided a safe-haven for communities since its inception. At first they had a free tier, which was nice and sprouted many communities. After they retired the free tier, many communities chose to stay on Ning opposed to moving to other platforms. I have been part of two communities for a long time. As an user, Ning provides me with a forum-like space with a vast but focused suite of social features. The granularity which it offers is great, it allows you to limit the audience of posts, which exist in formats such as videos, photos, audio, polls, articles, etc. It also has integration with social media, so content from a community can be shared to Facebook. This can be a nice way to organize the content curation of a Facebook page, for instance. **What do you dislike about Ning?** Ning has a lack of variety in themes, while other platforms have themes in abundance, and that might lead some people to choose other platforms over Ning. I believe the absence of a free tier is off-putting, although the paid tiers have friendly prices at the time of this review. **Recommendations to others considering Ning:** If you don`t mind the lack of themes, Ning can be a superior option compared to similar platforms because it merges a CMS platform with a social platform. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** Ning has evolved to be a sort of CMS with social features, and that`s a great thing in times when social content is centralized. A strong solid brand already established in the industry surely gives credibility to the website. The manager of one of the communities in which i participate is not very computer-savvy. They never had any trouble setting up the community and at a later time the website, so it`s safe to assume that the administrative side of ### 7. Still Learning but Happy so far! **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Entertainment | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 26, 2019 **What do you like best about Ning?** With Ning I am able to build my niche social network and see my username grow exponentially each day. Our users are very important to us and Ning has made keeping them up to date and able to connect with each other easier than we could have imagined. **What do you dislike about Ning?** The pricing is a tad bit too high, but we are able to squeeze by at the moment. Thankfully support has helped us through our journey. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability for our niche market of users to connect has been the biggest benefit so far. I will update this review with more information as we realize it. ### 8. Best social networking platform and great tools for social media sites **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about Ning?** It helps for building a social network that was self-sustaining over time and I was impressed with their new updates now. It has improved a lot and it's moving ahead with many good new features to use. From my point-of-view as designer, I was able to re-design, re-brand, update color selection and add more new components with relative ease. **What do you dislike about Ning?** I do believe the price went up over time but I dont have anything else to report on the downside of Ning. It could be a better price for bigger businesses or corporations, but it's still limited for start-ups or smaller group. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** We built a site for a campaign and it saved us from all of hard technical work. It was very simple and allowed us to administrate it easily. ### 9. Ning Platform Review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospitality | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about Ning?** I first used Ning when they had their Free platform because my company wanted to test out the different platforms for building content management and social media networking. Ning was very easy adjustment. It didn't take much time to learn the platform. I had a few questions along the way but their customer service reps were knowledgeable. **What do you dislike about Ning?** I overall like Ning but there were not many themes to choose from when building a website. Once our site was built, we also had a few times where certain pages wouldn't pull it. It was very random. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** We were attempting to test out multiple platforms to see what solutions were out there to build our company. ### 10. Ning Review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sayali K. | Data Analyst, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 26, 2019 **What do you like best about Ning?** Its a great platform to get connected to the social platform **What do you dislike about Ning?** I felt nothing that I disliked about the software. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** A good platform for SaaS ### 11. Social Network Tool **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about Ning?** The ability to have a connected interface for all teams/departments when driving toward metric oriented solutions **What do you dislike about Ning?** The onboarding/integration time was an issue we experienced although that may not have been a common occurrence **Recommendations to others considering Ning:** Ning is a great online platform for people and organizations to create custom social networks. One of the things that we really appreciated is how much it helped grow the efficiency of our business. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helped our team get on the same page throughout the company ### 12. Great idea, poor execution **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Arts and Crafts | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2019 **What do you like best about Ning?** I like the themes that are offered. There are several catchy and classic designs. **What do you dislike about Ning?** I dislike the value of the product offered. I didn't find a difference between my Ning traffic and my free social media (like Facebook and Instagram) traffic. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** None. ### 13. Great tool for creating brand specific social networks **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tara Nicole B. | Media & Communications Specialist, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Ning?** Ning is easy to use. It has great support too. **What do you dislike about Ning?** There wasn't much I disliked about using it when I was using it. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** In a former job we used it to create a students-only social forum for sharing ideas, conducting academic discussions, and for socializing. ### 14. Great app for social media sites **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Ning?** Great app for creating your own social networks and stay connected with the world. Ning has come a long way to offer clients a comprehensive SaaS platform with a wide range of useful features and customization tools. **What do you dislike about Ning?** not cheap at all with 45 $ a month just to play a bit for something **Recommendations to others considering Ning:** great if you want to make a quick and great tool for social media **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** none at the moment ### 15. Like a poor man's Facebook **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Chemicals | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 25, 2018 **What do you like best about Ning?** You can customize it based on the needs and interests of a specific group **What do you dislike about Ning?** It doesn't offer much that Facebook doesn't already. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** Social network for employees ### 16. Decent Platform **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Ning?** I really enjoy the simplicity of the platform. You don’t need a coding background to build a feature-filled social networking citebthat looks polished. **What do you dislike about Ning?** I wish there was an easier way to integrate other tools we use, such as WebEx, Google Classrooms, etc. Also, customer service has historically been hit or miss. **What problems is Ning solving and how is that benefiting you?** We run an online enrichment program for students across the country, so it’s a great tool for building community in a virtual environment. - [View Ning pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/ning/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-14+12%3A27%3A59+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=4452b92a-7f12-4ebe-9f16-5b885acbd813&secure%5Btoken%5D=dc4676d82f6e0fdf9db555cf36917cf7f3b6fe62bc3d754dfb80a7b337f9f7e2&format=llm_user) ## Ning Features **Agentic AI - Social Networks** - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance **Community Building** - Member Profiles - Email & Notifications - Member Discovery - Member Referrals - Community Spaces - Paid Memberships - Multimedia Sharing - Courses **Community Improvement** - Gamification - Polls & Questions - Automation Rules **Customer Analytics** - Community Insights - Community Engagement Analytics - Downloadable Reports - ROI Tracking **Community Management** - Community Feeds & Discussions - Live Streaming - Chat & Messaging - Events Management - Admin Roles & Permissions **Agentic AI - Online Community Management** - Autonomous Task Execution - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance - Decision Making ## Top Ning Alternatives - [Mighty Networks](https://www.g2.com/products/mighty-networks/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (672 reviews) - [Bettermode](https://www.g2.com/products/bettermode/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (115 reviews) - [Facebook](https://www.g2.com/products/facebook/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (741 reviews)