Brushfire vs Zoho Backstage: Which is a better fit?

Daniel O.: Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm an alumni director and I give Brushfire a four out of five review. If you want to know more, check it out in the link below. We used to use Razor's Edge, which has been a great tool for us in managing our communication with our constituents and our alumni. The problem was the event module was just kind of an add-on later in its history, and so it's just never been quite as intuitive or as easy to use as our end would've liked, or honestly, as our users would've liked as well. And so we were looking for something that was more modern, more sleek, more mobile friendly, but also on the back administrative end, we were trying to figure out something that we could use that would be more efficient for our team, that would allow us to drill down easier and quicker and also work within a world of QR codes and online streaming and all of that. And Razor's Edge just wasn't there. Razor's Edge was made for events 10 years ago, but we found it wasn't letting us do the events we wanted to and the way we wanted to here in 2021. So when we were looking at different places we could go, different software and options, scanned about five, six of them. And by far, Brushfire gave us the most options, the most tools and resources and the fullest feature set of any of them at the best price. The other competitors that we were looking at that had similar features, we were looking at five times the cost of Brushfire. So at the end of the day, part of it came down to cost. Brushfire was the most affordable solution that gave us the features we were looking for, things like easy online access and setup, both for our team, but also online registration for others, gave us flexibility within what we were doing so we weren't stuck with the restrictions that we found in Razor's Edge. So things like look, things like setup, things like if then statements for showing new questions. If someone answered it in this way, we wanted to show them the next question. Razor's Edge was a whole lot more difficult than that. Brushfire made that so simple. And I got to be honest, one of the selling points was for me was Brushfire includes customer support. It's not an add-on. And their customer support has been incredible, amazingly responsive, even during our busiest days. And what I love about them is they're willing to think outside the box. So there's been several times over the last few years since we started using them that I've kicked them an idea that isn't quite within the norms of what they do. And they said, "Well, we're not sure, but let's try it." They've literally spent hours with me trying to figure out and finesse the system to get it to work. Now there've been a couple of times where they said, "Hey, we're sorry. The system just doesn't work that way." But that's been the rare occasion and that's typically been a dream, not a must-have for our needs. The other thing that what I loved is it's not version based. So when we purchased our Brushfire Access, it wasn't, okay, here's the features you get and hey, in a year we're going to kind of upgrade, bring some new features, and if you want those, you got to pay more. Because Brushfire has been on an annual basis, we get all the feature updates as they roll out, which has been awesome because in the two or three years we've used it, we've seen the features we wish they had two years ago actually come into play. And their iterations are fast. They respond and customer service, put in improvements really quickly. And so we're really excited. They feel like the company that really desires to serve their customers in a really efficient and effective way. And so for all those reasons, we've been really pleased with Brushfire and we chose them for that. Yeah, getting started was actually pretty easy. There were a couple of different things that made that transition from Razor's Edge into a new tool easier for me and my team. Part of it was the customer service I mentioned earlier. Brushfire has been incredible. And so as we work through it, they literally said, "Hey, send us what you know about your event, and our team will build it." And that continues to be the way that they function. If we don't want to build any of our events, if we just want to let them build them, they'll do it from the ground up. There's no added cost. It's just part of their support package. And so that's actually where we started the first time. And what was really amazing is they were gracious because I threw everything at them in that first event. It was my dream list and they just worked at it meticulously until we got it right. Since then, I've learned some ways that are more efficient to use Brushfire. So I actually now build our own events, and that's actually incredibly simple as well. They have an amazing collection of support documents to walk us through that. But they also, again, are incredibly responsive to our emails for help, and they walk us through that as well. Since we started, they've also built a setup wizard, and that setup wizard is sleek. It walks you through the six major components you need to set up an event. And within that does give you the ability and the nuance that you need to say, "Well, it's kind of unique event, so I need this piece." So those three things have made it helpful. Their willingness to set up an event for us if we don't want to, their resource and documentation. And then third, their new setup wizard has made it a super sleek quick process to where people can onboard much more quickly. And it's just quicker, even for me after years of using it to set up an event. So a couple of things I'd encourage people to consider is they look at the possibility of moving to Brushfire. There are a couple of things. One, it is based in their system, not on your platform. So just know that you're going to have to do some work to get the branding right. Now, that being said, one of the newest features they've just launched is the ability to embed your registration form on your site. And so the branding is much more tight now between their resources, their thing and yours. But at the same time, you are using a third party tool on your site. So just expect that it's not going to look exactly like your site, but what I found is it looks similar enough and they've given me enough control over what the registration form and branding looks like and the response that I can make it fit our branding and our look without too much work. So just be aware of that. You are using a third port party kind of embedded app in yours if you choose to go that route or you're using their website. So just something to keep in mind. The other thing to keep in mind that really I didn't expect that surprised me was the inclusion of the online platform as well. And so there's this beautiful thing when you set up a physical event in Brushfire, like an in-person event, it actually connects automatically to an online event if you want to go that way. So for every event we do, we set up both the physical registration and we pair it with an online registration so we can do live streams. And I got to tell you, out of all the live stream packages I've used, theirs is the easiest and I love it. It's simple, it's sleek. People love it. It's really easy to kick back and put on-demand features in there after an event's over. So that will be something I keep in mind, those two things. And then lastly, I'd encourage you, if you think you're going to use it for more than one event, talk to their team about an annual subscription. Because here's another thing that Brushfire really amazed me. They were willing to take risks with us and they said, "Okay, so tell us what you think your attendance will be in the next year, and we're going to price it out based on that." "Now we recognize that that may work in your favor this year. Maybe you have blowout events and you have a thousand more people than you told us. That's okay. We're not going to charge you more. We're not going to ding you for that. You've agreed to something. As long as you also acknowledge that if your events don't go as well, we're not going to refund you for that. And I love that because it lets me go into a year knowing what my budget is, what my commitment to them is, and it allows me to go for the biggest, best events I can, knowing that I'm not going to get dinged for it from Brushfire. So if you're going to do more than one event, talk to Brushfire about that annual subscription. It has worked out really, really well for us. Even in the years where we fell short of our projections, the following year they were great to say, "Okay, well, let's bump you back down because your numbers weren't as high last year as you expected them to be." So those are three things that I would say. Keep those in mind as you consider Brushfire.