# Mainstay Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra

> With the help of Capterra, learn about Mainstay Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other Higher Education products and more.

Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/198624/AdmitHub/pricing

---

# 

 Mainstay Software Review 2026: Features, Integrations, Pros & Cons

Last updated on March 13, 2026

Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team.

[Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Integrations](#integrations)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews)

Mainstay

## What is Mainstay?

Mainstay is the student engagement platform that's powered by behaviorally intelligent chatbots. It is purpose-built to positively influence students and guide them throughout their academic journeys. Hundreds of higher education institutions and college access networks have partnered with Mainstay to support millions of students. With a research-backed approach to student engagement, Mainstay is proven to close equity gaps, boost enrollment, and improve retention.

## What is Mainstay used for?

[Student Engagement Platform](https://www.capterra.com/student-engagement-platform-software/)[Higher Education](https://www.capterra.com/higher-education-software/)

Top alternative

Featured

Overall rating

Based on 10 user reviews

Reviews sentiment

Positive

\-

Neutral

\-

Negative

\-

Contact vendor  
for pricing

Free trial  
not available

Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products...

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Do you work for Mainstay?[Manage this product listing](https://digitalmarkets.gartner.com/get-listed/claim-bx?url=http://www.mainstay.com&name=Mainstay)

## Compare with a popular alternative

Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status.

### Mainstay

5.0 (10)

VS.

[4.7 (701)](https://www.capterra.com/p/152997/BirdEye/reviews/)

Starting Price

Contact vendor

Starting Price

Contact vendor

Free Trial

Free Version

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

Ease Of Use

4.9 (10)

Ease Of Use

4.7 (2,888)

Value For Money

4.9 (7)

Value For Money

4.5 (1,624)

Customer Service

4.9 (10)

Customer Service

4.6 (1,427)

## Mainstay alternatives

[Kahoot!](https://www.capterra.com/p/156399/Kahoot/)

[4.7 (2,888)](https://www.capterra.com/p/156399/Kahoot/reviews/)

Starting price

$17.00

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

98%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/156399/Kahoot/)

[Vevox](https://www.capterra.com/p/185114/Vevox/)

[4.8 (402)](https://www.capterra.com/p/185114/Vevox/reviews/)

Starting price

Contact vendor for pricing

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

99%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/185114/Vevox/)

[ClassPoint](https://www.capterra.com/p/209840/ClassPoint/)

[4.8 (266)](https://www.capterra.com/p/209840/ClassPoint/reviews/)

Starting price

$96.00

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

98%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/209840/ClassPoint/)

Highest Rated

[Wayground](https://www.capterra.com/p/207437/Quizizz/)

[4.8 (544)](https://www.capterra.com/p/207437/Quizizz/reviews/)

Starting price

$99.00

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

98%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/207437/Quizizz/)

[View all alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/198624/AdmitHub/alternatives/)

## Features

Features with the highest number of reviews are displayed first. Those that have no reviews appear next, sorted alphabetically.

Communication Management

5.0 (1)

100.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Manage and track all internal and external communication conducted via calls, email, text, or chat

Event Calendar

5.0 (1)

100.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

A list of events with their respective dates

Third-Party Integrations

5.0 (1)

0.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Set up connections to third-party platforms to improve business processes

Activity Dashboard

Dashboard to view the status of ongoing processes, identify current incidents and track past activities

Activity Tracking

Track and document all activities across devices, networks, and other systems

Alerts/Notifications

Alerts or notifications of various types such as pop-up messages, sounds, banners, or badges

Mainstay 27 features

Dashboard to view the status of ongoing processes, identify current incidents and track past activities

Track and document all activities across devices, networks, and other systems

Alerts or notifications of various types such as pop-up messages, sounds, banners, or badges

Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases

Communicate using direct chat or messages within the system

Manage and track all internal and external communication conducted via calls, email, text, or chat

Add customized logos and colors to align with company branding

Alter the layout and content of reports

A list of events with their respective dates

Manage information and/or provide updates regarding student financial aid

Software designed for higher education organizations

Store, manage and track all forms in a centralized location

Software designed for kindergarten through 12th grade schools

Observe and track the demand, usage, progress or quality of a system, product, or user

A set of indicators that tracks the performance of networks, applications, systems, teams, etc.

Enable custom polls/voting to facilitate decision-making or increase engagement

Analyze and gain insights into data in real-time

Receive data and information in real time

Notifications that are delivered to users as soon as an event occurs

Timed notification for any upcoming task, deadline, appointment, or activity

Collection, analysis, and representation of numerical data and generation of reports to understand various patterns

View and track pertinent metrics to find patterns and gain insights from data

Search and filter data across systems to locate required information by entering keywords or certain criteria

Online portal through which end users can access the system, manage tasks, or obtain information

Database of students to track personal information of individuals and families

Gauge satisfaction and receive information for improvement and success

Set up connections to third-party platforms to improve business processes

Features

4.9 (10)

4.9

Based on 10 reviews

## Pricing

Value for money

4.9 (7)

### Starting price

Contact vendor  
for pricing

Free trial  
available

Value for money

4.9 (7)

4.9

Based on 7 reviews

## Integrations

[

HubSpot CRM](https://www.capterra.com/p/152373/HubSpot-CRM/)[

Canvas](https://www.capterra.com/p/127214/CANVAS/)[

Blackboard](https://www.capterra.com/p/14500/Blackboard-LMS-for-Business/)[

Oracle PeopleSoft](https://www.capterra.com/p/155958/Oracle-PeopleSoft/)[

Ellucian](https://www.capterra.com/p/135932/Ellucian/)[

Slate](https://www.capterra.com/p/140281/Slate/)[

Salesforce.org Nonprofit Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/265078/Salesforceorg-Nonprofit-Cloud/)[

Jenzabar One](https://www.capterra.com/p/132292/Jenzabar-ERP/)

## Support, customer service and training options

Customer Service

4.9 (10)

Support

-   Email/Help Desk
-   FAQs/Forum
-   Knowledge Base
-   Phone Support
-   24/7 (Live rep)
-   Chat

Training

-   In Person
-   Live Online
-   Webinars
-   Documentation
-   Videos

Deployment

-   Web
-   Android
-   iPhone/iPad

Typical users

-   Freelancers
-   Small businesses
-   Mid size businesses
-   Enterprises

Customer Service

4.9 (10)

4.9

Based on 10 reviews

## User reviews

Overall rating

5.0

Based on 10 reviews

Filter by rating

5(10)

4(0)

3(0)

2(0)

1(0)

Mentioned topic

Sorted by most recent

SH

Sheenah H.

Executive Director of Enrollment Services

Higher Education

### "Chatbot for Enrollment and Retention"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

4.0

4.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

August 23, 2022

Pros

The customer service is stellar and the actual AI conversations are highly atuned to higher education. Our students enjoy interacting with the chatbot - both for enrollment and retention purposes. We are able to get valuable student insight in real time with Mainstay.

Cons

During the implemention, it took a few weeks for us to really see automation start to work. The bot would often say "i'm not sure," which was annoying. It did get better, though - much better!

Alternatives considered

[Ivy](https://www.capterra.com/p/249588/Ivy/)

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

DR

dr raveenia h.

Executive Director

Higher Education

### "Highly Recommend Mainstay "

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

December 19, 2021

Thus far we have had an overall wonderful experience. Mainstay has helped Admissions with attracting students and with retaining them too while enrolled. The mms features have kept our students updated and not missing critical deadlines. Further, the reporting tools have helped us quantify and analyze such impacts.

Pros

It was easy to use, great onboarding and training sessions, and the price was unbeatable for what you get, the flexibility of the product is awesome and covers beyond our scope of use, the backend is easy to use and update information as necessary. Our students love it!

Cons

Not really. We are still maximizing the full potential of the system for our purposes

Reasons for choosing Mainstay

price, flexibility, features

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

Cara D.

Assistant Director for the Academic Advisement Center

Higher Education

### "AdmitHub (Mainstay) has changed the way we communicate with students!"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

July 13, 2021

AdmitHub helped us increase retention by 3% for our first to second year students DURING a Pandemic. Not only that, but it was a great resource for us to have when the Pandemic struck so we could keep in contact with our students. It was a very difficult time, but I feel that Coop (our Chatbot) was able to be there for our students.

Pros

I like that we can personalize the chatbot to fit our mascot's personality. This really helps the students be able to connect and identify with our school and mascot.

Cons

AdmitHub is fast changing! As a startup, the software is always developing and changing which is great! However, as someone who has been with them since their older software, it is difficult to get caught up with the new features. Thankfully, AdmitHub has done a great job keeping me up to date with these changes and helping me get caught up.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

ES

Emily S.

Admissions Counselor

Higher Education

### "AdmitHub Review "

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

9/10

June 7, 2021

Pros

The best part about AdmitHub is the ability to connect with students without the loss of valuable employee time. Our office sends out mass messages to thousands of students and the chatbot can respond to questions quickly and efficiently.

Cons

The only improvement for my office would be easier integration with our CRM (Recruit - but we are transitioning to Target X). It would streamline the process so we could contact the list of students quicker and more effectively.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

KH

Kylie H.

Assistant Director, Admissions Communications

Higher Education

### "The Best Addition to Our Enrollment Communication Strategy"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

4.0

4.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

9/10

April 20, 2021

Pros

Not only does AdmitHub offer SMS texting, but it also has sophisticated surveying technology, web chat, and Facebook Messenger options. Although we originally purchased the product specifically for texting and AI capabilities, we continue to find new ways to utilize the product - including managing Facebook Messenger and adding the Web Chat to our website. The AdmitHub team is constantly looking for ways to improve the product, and they actively solicit user feedback to ensure updates and features are what the user community needs. Before AdmitHub, we knew that email wasn't always the best way to reach students, but it was our only option. Adding AdmitHub to our multi-modal communication strategy helped us communicate with students more effectively and see more engagement than before. Other departments at the University send us updates and deadline reminders to share via AdmitHub because they know students will take action after receiving a text. Many students come back to the bot with questions (even when they have not received a nudge) because they know they will receive a quick response.

Cons

As the AdmitHub team frequently adds more features, it has become much easier to integrate with our other communication software - previously it required a ticket, but now you can do it yourself.

Reasons for choosing Mainstay

The AdmitHub team is easy to work with - they keep us updated on important analytics, new features, and best practices. They offer "Office Hours" webinars to demonstrate their new features and share success stories from partners. These webinars have given us some great ideas to implement in our communications (even things as simple as last-minute reminder invitations to virtual events, which have gotten us big gains in attendee numbers).

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

SM

Sue M.

Assistant Provost for Retention Initiatives

Education Management

### "The Best Bot for Student Success and Retention!"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

April 18, 2021

Pros

AdmitHub (soon to be Mainstay) is, by far, the best student success and retention tool I have used in my 30+ years in higher education! The quality, ease of use, features and functionality of the bot make it all highly effective. The bot answers our students’ seemingly countless questions in a matter of seconds, 24-7; allows us to send nudges about important matters; engages students in creative ways that enable us to understand their needs; and enables our staff to spend more time having meaningful interactions with students. As if that weren’t enough, Admithub's (soon to be Mainstay's) customer support is highly personalized and beyond exceptional!

Cons

I honestly can't think of any downsides or features I like the least!

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

JA

Jason A.

Associate Director Marketing & Communication

Higher Education

### "Allegheny loves our AdmitHub chatbot."

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

April 16, 2021

AdmitHub offers us a way to connect with students that is both high tech yet also very personalized and highly personal. Our students develop a rapport with the bot and become quite attached. We get responses via AdmitHub campaigns quicker and with response rate compared to email or print. It's a vital part of our communication stream to students.

Pros

The ease of developing message campaigns, some with complex decision trees, is one of the best features of AdmitHub, but it's hard to overlook the artificial intelligence knowledge base as the key feature. It handles the bulk of student questions and allows for a lot of customization. AdmitHub is easy to use, didn't require laborious set-up and constantly offers improvements and new features. Customer service is beyond compare.

Cons

It's hard, nearly impossible, to say what I like least. Viewing replies used to be slightly more time consuming but improvements have been made in that area already. It's really as close to perfect for software as you can get.

Reasons for choosing Mainstay

AdmitHub's customer service and innovative artificial intelligence were huge factors in our choice. We knew we could find ways to send SMS messages but it didn't solve the problem of staff time needed to answer replies from this new communication stream. Our bots AI's handles the overwhelming majority of questions so it's like having an additional staff member or two on the team.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

JH

Jandro H.

Associate Director of Admissions

Higher Education

### "Game Changer"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

April 15, 2021

The team at Admithub from the top to our consultant have been great, real people who understand the every hustle and grind of Higher Education, they hear are our issues and work with us on developing new campaigns that we may not have considered.

Pros

The best part about the software is how easy it was to implement and start using, every week we get more comfortable with the software and are able to deploy more elaborate campaigns. The response rate from a text campaign compared to an email campaign is unbelievable.

Cons

All of the features are great and easy to use, we have no found any issues that we do not enjoy.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

SH

Sheenah H.

Executive Director of Enrollment Services

Higher Education

### "Reggie to the Rescue!"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

April 13, 2021

Working with Admithub has been much more like building a friendship than a client/vendor relationship. They truly believe in helping us engage with our students in a meaningful way and are passionate about bettering their products to assist us. Admithub is extremely sensitive to our needs and responsive in any support issues that may come up. They listen to our feedback, which creates an organic two-way street which has strengthened the relationship.

Pros

Working with the system has been really easy, from implementation to maintenance. Using conversational AI to engage students and retain relationships has been instrumental for our institution. The ability to send surveys has been extremely helpful in making data-driven decisions, especially throughout the global pandemic. The system itself is easy to train end-users on. The company is always working towards continuous improvement and really values client relationships.

Cons

Sometimes getting the information off of a survey requires a little bit of finagling; it isn't initially intuitive.

Reasons for choosing Mainstay

Cost-effective, friendly and not pushy sales reps, higher-education focused only, demonstration was very effective and strong.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

JC

Jared C.

Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing

Higher Education

### "Game Changer "

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

9/10

April 13, 2021

Strong experience, the founders I respect immensely: \[SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN\]

Pros

Being able to engineer digestible student-focused communication journeys via live responsive texts has changed they way we can implement the right conversations at the right time.

Cons

I wish they would treat all size universities the same with pricing.

Reasons for choosing Mainstay

Excellence and focus on higher education AI specialization.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

[View all Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/p/198624/AdmitHub/reviews/)

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