- How B2B communities platforms drive business value
- Features you need in a community platform for your business
- The top B2B community platforms for businesses
- Why should you choose Zoho CommunitySpaces for your communities?
- B2B CommunitySpaces for different industries
- FAQ s
How B2B communities platforms drive business value
Centralize customer advocacy programs
Turn your enterprise clients into champions of your brand with exclusive feedback flows.
Accelerate partner onboarding
Streamline the partner onboarding process and teamwork with dedicated partner portals so partners can contribute effectively.
Streamline external engagement
Bring teams from different stakeholder organizations together in one place to discuss projects, share knowledge, and drive results faster.
Monetize expert networks
Leverage the value of your expert communities by offering premium access or exclusive insights that can generate revenue streams.
Features you need in a community platform for your business
Customer engagement
A centralized space that encourages connection across departments, customers, and partners for shared projects and knowledge exchange.
Dedicated partner portals and co-branded spaces
Create secure, distinct environments for channel partners, resellers, or specific client accounts, allowing for shared resources and exclusive discussions.
Event management
Plan and execute webinars, virtual meetups, and in-person events directly within the community platform.
Gamification and recognition
Implement badges, leaderboards, and other incentives to encourage participation and reward active members.
Customizable branding and white-labeling
Maintain a consistent brand experience and use white-labeled apps to make the community feel like an extension of your business.
Access control and permissions
Define specific roles and permissions for different groups (e.g., customers, partners, employees, public) to control content visibility and interaction capabilities.
Analytics and reporting
Track engagement metrics and gain insights into user behavior to refine your community's strategy.
The top B2B community platforms for businesses
We've researched, assessed, and listed the top four platforms that can empower your B2B community strategy. Compare each of them to decide which tool can help you build impactful connections.
| Platform | Best for | Relevant features |
|---|---|---|
| Zoho CommunitySpaces | Customer success managers, account managers, community managers, marketing directors, and sales leaders. It’s also ideal for professional networks, interest-based groups, creators, and any organization looking for a unified and customizable solution to engage their external stakeholders. | Customizable spaces, white-labeled mobile apps, paid memberships, a landing page builder, event management, live broadcasting, video conferencing, a comprehensive knowledge base, community analytics, gamification, custom roles, and multilingual support. |
| Higher Logic | Large associations and enterprises. | Event management, engagement automations, web builders, customizable layouts, groups/sub-communities, Q&A forums, gamification, sentiment analysis, AI-powered search and moderation, and a branded mobile app. Includes self-service tools, product feedback and ideation, customer enablement, and partner/vendor programs. |
| Khoros | Large enterprises with omni-channel digital engagement needs. | Discussion forums, centralized knowledge base, moderation tools, gamification, member management, AI moderation, analytics, integrations for complex digital ecosystems. |
| Gainsight | Enterprises focused on customer success and product experience. | Community forums, launch templates, in-app embeddables, knowledge bases, product feedback and communication channels, groups and events. Deeply integrated with a broader customer success platform. |
Zoho CommunitySpaces
Zoho CommunitySpaces is a powerful and highly customizable community platform. It’s designed to serve a wide range of organizations, from small and medium businesses to large enterprises. It empowers professionals like customer success managers, account managers, community managers, marketing directors, and sales leaders, as well as professional networks, interest-based groups, and creators.
As a unified solution, it offers a suite of features including customizable spaces, paid memberships, and a landing page builder. Key functionalities like event management, live broadcasting, engagement tools (such as polls, Q&As, and town halls), and a comprehensive knowledge base are built-in to facilitate interactions. It also provides community analytics, as well as gamification, custom roles, and white-labeled mobile apps as add-ons.
Zoho CommunitySpaces offers a free basic plan. Paid plans start at $x/month for 1,000 users and scales up to $x/month for larger organizations, making it a flexible and cost-effective choice.
Higher Logic
Higher Logic offers a suite of community platforms, including Higher Logic Vanilla for scalable support and product education, and Higher Logic Thrive for engagement-focused and event-driven communities. These platforms have been designed for large associations and established enterprises, specifically those with existing needs for customer engagement, advocacy, and reducing support costs. While useful for driving participation, peer connections, and fostering brand growth through advocates, it has also been positioned as an enterprise-grade investment. Its pricing has been structured to meet extensive needs, generally requiring direct consultation for a custom quote.
Khoros
Khoros Communities is for digital-first businesses and large enterprises seeking to build their online communities. It’s designed to enhance customer engagement, reduce support costs, and fuel innovation. These include discussion forums, a centralized knowledge base for self-service, and moderation tools to manage member interactions. Khoros also incorporates gamification, member management capabilities, and analytics. While highly effective for organizations with complex digital engagement needs, its focus on experienced businesses suggests a significant initial investment. Pricing is enterprise-level and customized, and requires direct contact for a quote.
Gainsight
Gainsight's community offering is integrated within its broader suite, serving enterprises committed to customer success and optimizing the product experience. It has been designed to drive product adoption, collect user feedback, and reduce customer churn through features like community forums, a knowledge base, and dedicated tools for product feedback. With Gainsight's community functionalities embedded within (and often bundled as part of) its larger Customer Success platform, the pricing for the complete solution is layered and requires direct engagement for a custom quote. It’s been positioned as a specialized choice for those already heavily invested in or looking for a customer success solution.
Why should you choose Zoho CommunitySpaces for your communities?
CommunitySpaces combines powerful community features with the unparalleled advantage of the Zoho ecosystem.
B2B CommunitySpaces for different industries
B2B communities aren’t one-size-fits-all. Zoho CommunitySpaces offers adaptable solutions for the needs of various industries.
- Software and technology: CommunitySpaces helps you cultivate vibrant user communities. It facilitates idea-sharing and feedback-gathering, and allows you to build knowledge bases that support onboarding. This turns users into advocates and loyal champions. Through active engagement, you'll gather authentic testimonials, fuel product innovation, and cultivate a highly engaged user base.
- Manufacturing and industrial: Manufacturers can create dedicated spaces for distributors, dealers, and internal teams for sharing best practices, product updates, tech-support documents, and essential training material. This helps build product knowledge and streamlines partner operations.
- Financial services: Financial service providers can build secure communities for financial advisors, clients, and internal experts to share valuable insights. This helps improve trust, facilitate knowledge transfer, and ensure consistent communication.
- Healthcare: Zoho CommunitySpaces enables secure communication among medical professionals, researchers, and partners. They can safely share clinical insights, distribute research findings, and discuss educational content. This fosters professional development and helps ensure compliance.
- Consulting and professional services: Consulting and professional services firms can develop private client portals for communication and public forums for thought leadership. This enhances client engagement and positions the firm as an industry authority.
- Education: For the education and ed-tech sectors, Zoho CommunitySpaces facilitates the creation of vibrant learning communities for educators, students, institutional partners, and alumni. Here, they can share resources, discuss curriculum, and provide peer support. Zoho CommunitySpaces is designed to be highly adaptable and ready to support the unique community needs of many more industries.
Build your thriving B2B community today!
Foster loyalty, gather feedback, and empower your customers with Zoho CommunitySpaces.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a B2B customer platform and why do I need one?
A B2B customer platform is an online community space that helps businesses connect with their customers, partners, and other external stakeholders. It helps enable peer-to-peer support, onboarding, feedback collection, and engagement, and ultimately drives customer success and loyalty.
How can my business benefit from a B2B community platform?
A strong B2B community platform allows you to centralize feedback, speed up onboarding, improve customer loyalty, and build stronger relationships with both customers, partners, and other third-party vendors. It also helps reduce support costs because peer-to-peer help empowers users to find answers and assist each other.
Is Zoho CommunitySpaces suitable for enterprises as well as small businesses?
Yes, Zoho CommunitySpaces has been designed to scale with your organization. It supports small businesses looking for cost-effective, easy-to-use solutions and larger enterprises that need advanced customization and engagement features.
How does Zoho CommunitySpaces ensure data privacy and security?
Zoho CommunitySpaces is built on Zoho’s secure infrastructure. This ensures full compliance with industry standards. You can define custom roles and permissions to control access and protect sensitive information.
Can I monetize my B2B community or expert network with Zoho CommunitySpaces?
Yes, CommunitySpaces allows you to create paid spaces for exclusive content or expert forums. This helps you turn your expert community into a revenue stream.