# Page 2 | Higher Logic Vanilla Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Page 2 - Is Higher Logic Vanilla the right Community solution for you? Explore 63 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/141384/Vanilla/reviews --- Higher Logic Vanilla 4.4 (63) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Page 2 - Reviews of Higher Logic Vanilla ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 26-50 of 63 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use SJ Sreekumar J. Co-Founder Information Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "A cute online community solution with amazing flexibility and scale" July 9, 2018 5.0 Pros For our startup in online solution space, I was looking at a stable and easy to manage community solution and I found vanilla as the perfect solution to meet our requirements. It is pretty simple for Administration. We took a few hours to create and organize our online community. Building it up is easy. I found the solution, extremely flexible - a handful of options,and business rules. The design is cool and UX is perfect. The large pool of add-ons and themes are definitely advantages for customers. Coming to forum specific features, there are plenty of cool features like social login, polls, media management, ranking system, gamification, and the newly added business app integration. I recommend Vanilla forums to anybody who wish to launch an online community. Vanilla is simple, stable, and having excellent add-ons compatibility and this is going to exceed your expectations. Cons So far, our experience with Vanilla is perfect and hence no dislike. If get more deep in to functionalities, probably analytics portion is something which require further improvement. Review Source SC Sue C. Community Manager/Marketing Copywriter Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Vanilla has been great from initial setup/launch to daily use & support. We're very happy." April 20, 2018 5.0 Pros Vanilla is easy to use and navigate, and the tools/options/add-ons are explained thoroughly in the dashboard. This was very helpful to me, especially in the beginning when I was fairly new to forum software. When we were just getting started, having several design options/layouts to choose from helped us get the look we wanted. The webinars I've watched were very helpful, and I've downloaded and read just about every eBook Vanilla has published (from their resources) to get advice and roadmaps for different aspects of managing a forum. Technical support has been outstanding throughout. Whenever we have an issue large or small, I can always count on a quick response and a solution or at least an explanation. Cons The only cons are that there are just a couple of specific features that we would like to have but they're not available for us: When starting a New Poll, options are limited. For example, a "select all that apply" option would be beneficial to the types of polls we take. In the theme we are using, we're unable to sort discussions based on number of views. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Vanilla is a robust software, with plenty of add-on options." February 12, 2019 4.0 Pros While searching for ways to create a private intranet for my author friends and I to utilize, one option I looked at was VanillaForums. It has some great options out of the box, with the ability to create groups of interconnected forums, subforums, and discussion boards based on topics. The ability to add reactions and to include files and photos in our posts was also a big draw. I loved that as it has an open source option, I could host it myself and save a lot of money, as we are starting with only a few users. Cons Unfortunately, a lot of extras are add-ons for Vanilla. To fully customize your site, a knowledge of CSS and HTML is almost mandatory, as there aren't really any options for simple customization like adding color codes to a pre-built theme or uploading a background to the same theme. When bugs are posted about in the Vanilla forums, they aren't handled very quickly. I understand that a lot of times most bugs are user error or add-on related so every circumstance is different, but when it is a bug in the system itself, then it's not the user's responsibility to 'you break it, you fix it' as stated on the open source documentation. For users who are used to the forum-style architecture, Vanilla is a robust software that provides some great add-on options and is pretty user friendly on the front-end. For me, I'm used to PHP based software that was a full social network, so I found the forum/discussion board options limiting and it didn't suit my needs. However, I we need a forum option in the future, Vanilla will likely be my first pick. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer CEO/Founder Computer Games Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great balance of features and ease of use." May 30, 2018 4.0 Pros The ease of using it both as an administrator and a user. The control panel is very clear, and while some other forum software has far more features, most of those features are bloat that most forums never need. I currently have five active sets of forums with Vanilla, after having used everything from Invision to Drupal, and Vanilla remains my favorite. Cons Nothing in particular stands out. Review Source KA Kara A. Community Manager Information Technology and Services Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Vanilla is a great choice for your new community!" August 14, 2020 4.0 Amongst several other reasons, we chose Vanilla because of their company values, focus on customer success, sustainable growth and commitment to providing ongoing value. Vanilla offers a Success Community for community managers to connect and share best practices, presents great webinars and holds regular networking events. You can tell they really want to engage with their clients. I am a Community Manager of One and have no problem managing my daily admin checklist and community "maintenance" with Vanilla's platform. And anytime I need support, ideas or inspiration...I know Vanilla is there to help! Pros My favorite thing about the Vanilla platform is its simplicity and intuitiveness. It was my top choice after the first demo I did, after seeing the admin view. It is uncluttered and logical. The member-facing community is customizable by choosing a theme or doing some custom CSS work. We did both, and based our design off another Vanilla customer's community we admired. We also have subcommunities built into our agreement, allowing incredible flexibility for future growth with new audiences. Cons Vanilla has been very responsive to feedback and feature requests. The three things I'm most looking forward to are the development of a Member Directory (to more easily see who else is in the community), the refinement of search results, and additional notification preference options. Alternatives considered [Khoros Marketing](https://www.capterra.com/p/131341/Spredfast-Platform/)[Breezio](https://www.capterra.com/p/146602/Breezio/)[Higher Logic Thrive](https://www.capterra.com/p/86198/Higher-Logic-Online-Community/)[Salesforce Marketing Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/248536/Salesforce-Marketing-Cloud/)[Hivebrite](https://www.capterra.com/p/147279/Hivebrite/) Reason for choosing Higher Logic Vanilla Company Values, Cost, Ease of Use Review Source JC Jacob C. Senior Account Executive Financial Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Good forum software with great customer service" December 11, 2015 5.0 I'm a moderator on a community that switched to Vanilla three years ago from a heavily hacked-together vBulletin. I was initially ambivalent about the switch - even though our old software had become hopelessly inadequate to our needs, it was super-tailored to the needs of our community - but Vanilla won me over, primarily on the strength of their support staff, who are not only pleasant and helpful, but are engaged in the community in a real way. As participants in our forum, they've come to know our needs as well as we do, and not only have all our old favorite features come back in newer, spiffier implementations, in a couple instances they have added entirely new features that addressed needs I didn't even know I had but now couldn't live without. Pros It's a slick, modern forum implementation that is heavily customizable (as a cursory flick through the diverse kinds of communities running the software can illustrate) with some features I really welcome in 2015, particularly the Minion, which automates a lot of tasks that used to require babysitting by moderators or community managers. This was something Vanilla provided us because they saw the kinds of things we were dealing with and they anticipated the need - that's service I appreciate. Cons The customer service is excellent and the team is eager to help find software solutions to community problems, but it can take a while for requested fixes to make their way through the pipeline. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Medical Practice Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Excellent Staff and Software" December 12, 2015 5.0 After many years of using vbBulletin, our site switch to Vanilla Software in 2011. The problem with vbBulletin was one of stability: we were having frequent outages in one incident we had to close the forum for about a month to deal with issues. The software was also not very flexbility, with each custom feature we added increasing vbBulletin's instability. With so many users, however, we need software that would cater to our needs and provide the features our users had become accustomed to over the years. Vanilla solved these problems wonderfully. While Vanilla's primary service is simple, straight-forward forum software, they were incredibly accommodating to needs. Many features were tailor-made for us, and forum stability has been excellent. Their staff has always been patient and friendly, taking our requests for new features without any problems. Pros The staff is excellent. They are in constant contact, and are very easy to contact in a moment's notice should something go wrong. In many cases they go above and beyond what we request, adding useful new features for us to test before deciding to fully implemented on our own forums. Cons Vanilla's strength is very strong and basic forums, and as a result it can take time for them roll out requested feature. This is typically not a problem, as the extra time is generally spent ensuring that the feature will satisfy our needs. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Community Administrator Consumer Electronics Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Good platform with a great customer experience" June 7, 2018 4.0 Pros Backend is very flexible and easy to customize. Support is the best in the business and cannot be beat. Anytime we need something Vanilla is there to help us out and take on any task we ask of them. Cons There are some like to have features that are on most other platforms that have not been implemented yet with Vanilla, but their team has said most of our suggestions are already in the works. Review Source EH Erin H. President Internet Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Outstanding community software and service" February 25, 2020 5.0 We've been working with Vanilla Forums since 2014 and have had a wonderful experience. Their team is responsive and the software has helped us grow our community considerably. We also appreciate Vanilla Forums' knowledge base and resources for community managers. Pros We love Vanilla Forums' user-friendly features and our community does too. Cons We don't have any cons and have been very happy with this software. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Associate Producer Computer Games Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Solid features, very useable with good support." February 4, 2018 5.0 Pros Easy to get up and running, customize and make into your own community, with strong moderation tools. Cons A few long-standing bugs, but overall still solid. Support is decent, but could be more responsive I guess. Review Source ST Sheena T. Success Coach Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "We have had a really good experience working with Vanilla. Our account manager has been invaluable." June 14, 2018 4.0 Pros It's pretty straightforward to use, but once you're comfortable with the basics there is a lot of room to customize the tool to fit your needs. We needed a solution with a robust API and Vanilla has done a really great job on that front. Our account manager has been easy to work with and very responsive. She's knowledgeable in many aspects and not afraid to connect me with her team members if they have a deeper understanding to share. I'd recommend Vanilla for managing a support community. Cons Some functionalities are a little unwieldy and certain workflows are cumbersome to maintain when we're seeing a lot of volume. When moderating our Community as a team, we sometimes stumble over each other and do the same work twice because it's difficult to tell where your team members are working in the community when. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Product Marketing Executive Computer Software Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Excellent onboarding & support, a great service" April 20, 2018 5.0 Easily customisable, has everything we needed to create and oversee our growing community. Pros The onboarding process with Vanilla has been exemplary. Customer support has been supportive, helpful and friendly. No question is too small. Vanilla has given us everything we needed to get our forums looking exactly how we wanted, with easy-to-understand tools that give us great control over the content in our community. We've been very specific about what we needed from Vanilla, and there's always been a way to deliver this. Overall, a good experience and we're very hopeful for the future of our community. Cons Occasionally, some of the more 'in-depth' tools have been tricky to use (for example the bulk user import function). However, Customer support has always been on hand to answer my questions and set things right. Review Source JP Julian P. Sr. Manager Customer Support Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "The support has been great, the implementation process was easy and simple." April 23, 2018 3.0 Pros \- The product is easy to use from a user perspective. - Requests are taken seriously and if it's something they can't currently do but recognize it's a good idea, they will add them to their Road Map. - Great comms from the person assiting the project, very responsive and on top of things Cons \- It's hard to make changes sometimes. The HTML isn't accessible to forum owners so you'd have to write an entire section to make changes to anything other than the landing page. CSS is great to customize theming, but things have odd names so it's not as straightforward as it could be to make changes using it. - It could be clearer what VF will and won't help with from the very first moment - There are features missing, such as Tagging being in analytics - No self-service option for simple things such as pulling the user list, this will make admin experience way better - Services offered should better structured in the package sell, I.e: For some features requests, there were additional charges. This services should be somehow included in the terms of the service to enhance the admin experience - It was unclear what changes would happen with a recent update, it's been left down to the forum owner to find the weird behaviors (such as filters not working correctly) Review Source Alicia T. Customer Marketing & Advocacy Manager Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Very robust and customizable for different needs. " May 31, 2018 4.0 I used it to manage three different Forums; our customer community, feedback/product ideas forum, and private ambassador forum (for customer advocates). Pros They are always open to hearing customer feedback and making necessary updates to their product with it. Our Customer Success Manager was always available to help us with both our strategy and any tech issues or questions. Cons Some of the themes are a bit outdated and could use some more modern UX/UI. It also lacks integrations with CRM tools like Salesforce, but at least integrates with things like Zendesk, Hootsuite, etc. Review Source PH Paul H. Technical Writer Publishing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Great transition team, awesome support, easy to use product" May 8, 2018 4.0 Simple support forum solution, cloud hosting, and easy posting for our users. Pros After completing our transition to Vanilla and getting the community in place, the thing that makes Vanilla really stand out is how easy it is to use day to day. Tracking new threads, seeing new comments quickly, and being able to respond to our customers promptly make the product a great fit for our support forums. We also use Vanilla to host some locked knowledge content, a function beyond the scope of the product, but one Vanilla adapted to very nicely. Cons Some of the limitations in the text box can be frustrating. Our users often post written content and edit each other - previously we used a product with the option to change text color, something Vanilla lacks (outside of BBcode). A few other small functionalities of this sort are lacking, but on the whole nothing that has reduced the number of posts we get daily. Review Source LO Lee O. Accounting Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Easily one of the best forum platforms" March 11, 2018 5.0 Pros \-Lost of modern functions including the ability to like posts and @mentions. -Open source -You can self-host it for free of charge or go for a paid version that provides support -Very flexible: Can even be customised to display web pages -Gamification: reward users for participating by earn badges and new abilities Cons The ability to add images is a little cumbersome. I wish it could be done with 1 click! But other than that, there is little to complain about. Review Source GG Garrett G. Moderator Entertainment Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Simple, but effective." February 2, 2018 5.0 Allows our users to engage and communicate in a fashion that was similar to previously used software, while simultaneously being a significantly more stable and less stressful product. Pros Vanilla provides simple forum software, but they still possessed the know-how to incorporate features needed by our community. Staff is friendly and quick to handle major problems and crises that occur. Cons Over the years, staff has been slower to fix bugs, with some minor ones persisting for years at this point. Communication could be better. Review Source MS Mark S. Community Manager Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Finally Amazing Service with a Great Product to go with it!" April 19, 2018 4.0 Gives us a support community within our budget. Pros Ability to Multi-Quote to respond with one post Reply by email makes it easy Badges: are fun Signatures: Help give context Cons Looks somewhat outdated Out of Box metrics are basic Wall posts and status updates don't count in metrics No Merge option Review Source KR Katie R. Community Manager Computer Games Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Vanilla and the community" January 24, 2020 3.0 I've always found Account Managers and the support team to be friendly and helpful - I think they make up for a number of pitfalls that the product has. The vanilla product we have is basic - there are many other platforms we could use that can deliver the same, if not more at a lower cost. Other options may not have the same levels of support/account management though. Pros I like: - It's customisable - It's designed for desktop and mobile Cons \- Features that would be very useful are locked behind additional monthly costs that don't justify the benefit. (Ideation as an example) - Default themes haven't been thoroughly tested on different browsers and devices, resulting in complaints from our users. - There's not enough customisable options for automatic moderation. - Some functions aren't in intuitive places - e.g. editing the main home page banner is in the add-on and this is a completely different location to all other banners. - Inability to schedule posts to go up out-of-hours. Reason for choosing Higher Logic Vanilla We have gone with all three. Review Source JM Jeffrey M. Director of Education and Community Accounting Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Learning More About What We Can Do" January 21, 2020 4.0 Pros The system is designed to be ready to go out of the box. This allowed us to stand up V.1 while working towards a more robust interface and functional site for our users. Cons It would have been nice if I could figure out what the site is capable of without having to talk with my account manager. I enjoy our conversations but Vanilla should provide more "what you can do" on their site. Review Source David B. Multimedia & Web Manager Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Overall the forum software has been easy to use to efficient for our business needs." June 13, 2018 5.0 Pros The forum is powerful and has lots of features that are very useful to my organization's members. The UX is fully customization and we were able to add our existing website skin to the forum so it matches the look and feel of our existing website exactly. Integration with our existing CRM (Salesforce) as well as Salesforce SSO login is also critical to the success of our forum and that all integrates very well. Also customer service has been outstanding. Our customer success manager is super friendly, accessible and always willing to answer silly questions. Cons I would love to see additional analytics features - I believe additional analytics is available at a higher price tier but I feel like existing analytics are bare bones at best. Would like some additional downloadable/more granular reporting for the price we pay. Review Source DC David C. Systems Manager Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Overall positive experience after migrating from a different forum platform." April 25, 2018 5.0 Pros The software is very easy to manage and it gives our community managers and moderators the tools they need to work easily and efficiently. The plug-ins give a good level of customization and the software has been relatively easy to configure to meet our business needs. Cons Coming from a different platform (Lithium) Vanilla is somewhat limited. There is no concept of custom HTML pages or custom navigation paths. As long as you can work within those constraints, this still delivers a very fluid and efficient forum experience for all of our users. Review Source David A. Training Manager Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "My experience with Vanilla has been very positive in large part because of Valerie Robitaille" May 31, 2018 4.0 Pros Very comprehensive with very few bugs from my perspective. The theme choices look clean and professional. Edits and changes to the content published work the first time. Cons Poor documentation on "how to's" The settings choices are vast and it isn't always intuitive on how changes made to settings will impact my site. Some desired look and feel or site behavior modifications becomes a hunt and peck exercise within the settings menu. Review Source JS Justin S. Customer Service Manager Consumer Goods Used the software for: 2+ years ### "You won't be disappointed" May 7, 2018 5.0 Pros Easy moderation tools, FANTASTIC customer support/success team, and lots of great tools for the community such as badges and reactions. Cons Would like to see more reporting capabilities, an in-depth knowledge base for self-service so that we can learn about best practices. Would also like more advanced AI and Q&A functionalities. Review Source HC Hayley C. Community and Commerce Specialist Internet Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Vanilla Review" August 25, 2020 4.0 We started out a little rough with Vanilla, and it taking a very long time to implement the software, but now that we have it up and running it has been a great experience and a great partnership. Pros Love the features it has to offer to our sellers using the Community. Cons The time it took to implement this was a really long, drawn out process and the communication wasn't always the best. Alternatives considered [Higher Logic Thrive](https://www.capterra.com/p/86198/Higher-Logic-Online-Community/) Reason for choosing Higher Logic Vanilla Pricing and products Switched from [Khoros Marketing](https://www.capterra.com/p/131341/Spredfast-Platform/) Contract ended Review Source Similar Products Featured