BoardEffect is Diligent's product for mission-driven organizations: nonprofits, foundations, healthcare systems, higher education, and credit unions. It is built for boards with governance staff and a procurement process, which is a different organization than the one Board Manager is built for.
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A tilde (~) means the capability exists but with real caveats. The note explains what they are.
| Capability | Board Manager | BoardEffect |
|---|---|---|
| Roster and terms | ||
| Member roster with contact details | Yes | Yes |
| Term trackingBoardEffect surfaces term tracking inside Customizable Reporting (Pro and Plus tiers). It reports on terms rather than managing renewals. | Yes | Partial |
| Alerts before a term expiresNo expiry alerting or proactive term notification is documented. | Yes | No |
| Meetings and committees | ||
| Board books | Partial | Yes |
| MinutesDiligent Minutes and AI Smart Minutes require the Plus tier. | No | Yes |
| Digital voting and approval workflows | No | Yes |
| Committees and working groupsBoardEffect uses secure Workrooms for ad hoc committees. | Yes | Yes |
| Meeting RSVPs and attendance per member | Yes | Yes |
| Native mobile app | No | Yes |
| Compliance and onboarding | ||
| Conflict of interest signingBoardEffect handles COI through its surveys module. We could not verify a purpose-built annual COI signing workflow with completion tracking. | Yes | Partial |
| Electronic signature | Yes | Yes |
| Per-member onboarding checklistsBoardEffect's orientation tools are document libraries, tasks, and training videos rather than a tracked checklist. | Yes | No |
| Recruitment | ||
| Board candidate pipeline with stages | Yes | No |
| Public recommendation form | Yes | No |
| Skills and diversity matrix in the productBoardEffect captures skills and demographics on profiles and uses surveys to identify composition gaps, but no dedicated matrix module is documented. | Yes | Partial |
| Access and cost | ||
| Board members access without creating an accountBoardEffect uses email and password, with SSO and MFA options. No passwordless mode is documented. | Yes | No |
| Pricing published publicly | Yes | No |
| Start without talking to sales | Yes | No |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
These are different tools for different situations. Here is when each one is the right answer.
Where a vendor does not publish pricing, we say so rather than guessing at a number.
Published pricing. No demo required, no card to start.
Two tiers (Pro and Plus) with no published prices. Both route to a request-pricing form.
Most boards do this in an afternoon. Nothing is deleted on the other side, so you can keep it open while you check the data.
They don't publish it, and we won't estimate. There are specific BoardEffect figures circulating online, but they trace back to competing board portal vendors marketing against them, so we don't repeat them. Both BoardEffect tiers route to a request-pricing form.
This is genuinely unclear. Their own marketing copy references starting a 30-day free trial, but both trial links route to contact and demo forms, and Capterra lists free trial as not available. The safe reading is that there's no self-serve trial and any evaluation is arranged through a sales conversation.
Partly. Term tracking appears inside their Customizable Reporting feature, available on the Pro and Plus tiers, alongside login activity and attendance. It reports on terms rather than alerting you before one expires, and no expiry notification workflow is documented.
No, and it would be unfair to say so. Their Pro tier is described as ideal for smaller mission-driven organizations. The practical barrier for a very small nonprofit is usually the sales-led buying process and unpublished pricing rather than the product itself.
The most distinctive theme in BoardEffect's reviews concerns the transition after Diligent's acquisition, with reviewers describing the newer version as harder for directors to use. The most frequent theme overall is that the interface isn't intuitive for board members. They hold 4.4 on Capterra across 127 reviews.
No. BoardEffect uses email and password, with SSO and multi-factor options layered on top. Several reviewers mention login friction as a barrier to board member adoption. Board Manager board members never create an account.
The free plan covers boards up to 25 people and is not a trial. Set up your roster, see whether it fits, and switch back if it doesn't.
Start free, no card neededOnBoard is the most capable board portal we compare against. It has real term tracking, a skills matrix, and diversity reporting. Here's an honest look at where it wins and where it doesn't fit a small nonprofit.
Boardable is nonprofit-focused board software priced per user, from $20.99/user/month. A side-by-side comparison with Board Manager on cost, terms, recruitment, and board member access.
BoardPro is a mature meeting and board-pack tool with published nonprofit pricing from $990/year. Here's how it compares to Board Manager on terms, recruitment, and cost.
Claims about BoardEffect on this page were verified against the following, last checked September 2, 2026. Pricing and features change, so if you spot something out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.