Should you choose a free online community platform?

The main benefit to choosing a free online community platform is that you’ll save on your expenses, and while that sounds appealing at first glance, there are some other things you should take into consideration before you opt for the cost-free option.

Here, we’ve explained more about Verint Community, what you should look out for in terms of free editions of online communities, and everything else to think about before you decide which platform is right for your business.

What are online community platforms?

Online community platforms allow you to engage with everyone from customers to partners, prospects, and employees, across a variety of innovative digital mediums. If we use the Verint Community platform as an example, you’d be able to use applications such as:

• Q&A Forums with Verified answers.
• Content curation, workflow, and feedback loop.
• Private and direct messaging and messaging services.
• Support communities, including online chat and email.
• Gamification functions and user profiles.
• Extra widgets, apps, and plug-ins.
• High-quality security and authorization controls.

Unlike a lot of other platforms, Verint Community can also allow you to edit the design and style you want to match your business’s brand. In other words, it allows you to make a white label community platform. You can learn more about Verint Community here.

What do our free forum and community software offer?

So, if you were able to find and use a free online community platform, you wouldn’t just make significant savings, you’d also get to make the most of features like those mentioned above. In turn, this would ultimately help improve your business’s operations in many ways including:

• Faster processes and the ability to offer better customer services.
• Increased customer and employee satisfaction through their engagement with the platform.
• Subsequent increased customer and employee retention.
• Improved security for all your data.
• Access to more innovative content and the ability to utilize your data more effectively.

Do free versions offer the same functionality?

This is arguably the biggest factor you need to consider – as it’s often the case that free online community platforms don’t offer the same level of functionality as the full, paid versions. For instance, it might be that you can only access certain applications, or you’re limited to how and when users can access the platform.

However, you can still find some platforms that offer full functionality with only minor limitations. For instance, comes with all commercial license features, functions, and APIs, and it is only limited by a few restrictions. To see a breakdown of this, take a look at our Licensing and Pricing information.

Other considerations

Before you choose a free version of our online community platform, you should also think about your long-term usage,  not just what suits your immediate needs. Your company may grow and develop, and the demands on the platform will likely also increase – potentially beyond what’s offered on the free version.

As such, if you max out what you’re able to provide from your platform, you risk affecting the quality of the services that your users have embraced. This means that it’s key to look at the costs of the full versions, as it might be something you one day will look to purchase.

With this, one option you also have is to download a demo of our online community platform. By doing so, you’ll get to see firsthand how the software works and then can determine which version might be the best fit for you now and in the future.

So which platform is the right one for you?

So, to answer the question posed in the title of this piece, you should certainly opt for free editions of online community platforms, provided that it’s a quality piece of software that can provide you with the functionality you actually need to boost your operations.

However, be sure to heed our above advice around the further considerations to make first, and if you’re in any doubt, simply get in touch with the provider to find out more.

If you’re ready, request a demo here.