Board portals, also known as board meeting software and document repositories, are becoming increasingly popular each year. The market is worth $2,812.2 million in 2023 and is expected to reach $9,4 billion by 2025.
A recent survey found that 70% of board members want more tech tools to help them do their jobs, making the choice of the right board portal software more crucial than ever. But with so many options, how do you pick the best one for your company?
In this article, we compare Boardvantage and Diligent vendors of board portals. We break down what each vendor offers, focusing on the vital features in 2024.
Additionally, we explore the difference between Boardvantage and Diligent in terms of security features, user experience, collaboration features, and integration with other software.
Overview of Diligent and Nasdaq Boardvantage
Let’s review the differences between Diligent and Boardvantage, including their features, pros and cons, pricing models, and use cases.
Diligent Board
Founded in 2001, Diligent Board has become a leading Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) SaaS provider, offering comprehensive board management software. This solution helps organize board packages, discussions, communications, agendas, approvals, scheduling, voting, attendance, recording minutes, and other related functions.
Trusted by over 700,000 directors and 25,000 organizations worldwide, Diligent Board offers a wide range of corporate governance tools designed to simplify board communication, and collaboration throughout the entire board cycle.
Key features include:
- Secure document sharing and access control
- Real-time meeting tools for annotations, discussions, and committee evaluation templates
- AI-powered capabilities and easy-to-use workflow automation
- Integration with video conferencing platforms
- Advanced analytics and reporting
- Risk management tools
Nasdaq Boardvantage
Nasdaq entered the board portal market in 2007, which eventually led to the launch of Boardvantage in 2017. This board management platform is designed to improve the effectiveness of corporate board meetings.
Nasdaq Boardvantage has become popular, with over 4,400 organizations worldwide relying on the platform to protect board member communication and modernize governance and document handling.
Nasdaq Boardvantage offers:
- User-friendly interface
- Access controls
- Secure mobile app for on-the-go access to board materials
- Voting and polling tools
- Tools for meeting preparation
- Integration with popular calendar and file-sharing apps
→Useful resource: what is a board portal?
Feature-by-feature comparison of Diligent and Nasdaq Boardvantage
After reviewing the differences between Diligent and Boardvantage, let’s now explore their functionalities in detail.
1. User interface and usability
Diligent Boards offers various tools such as document annotation tools, secure messaging, and task management. However, board members may need additional training to utilize these features effectively.
In contrast, Nasdaq Boardvantage is said to have a user-friendly interface with intuitive navigation and drag-and-drop functionality. An easy interface allows directors with different technical skills to adopt the platform quickly, enhancing overall user satisfaction.
2. Document management and security
Both platforms offer secure document sharing solutions with industry-leading encryption standards, 2FA, ISO 27001 compliance, TLS, 256-bit AES-GCM encryption, and more.
However, Diligent Boards exceeds expectations with advanced document control tools such as version control, automatic expiration dates, and secure shredding.
On the contrary, Nasdaq Boardvantage offers its clients its unique optical character recognition (OCR) for scanned documents, and document watermarking to prevent unauthorized distribution.
3. Meeting management
Based on our observations, both vendors offer robust meeting management capabilities, including an agenda builder, easy meeting minutes creation, and quick setup of online meetings. Additionally, both provide secure electronic voting capabilities, polling tools, and action item tracking.
4. Integration and сompatibility
Diligent Boards is compatible with a variety of popular tools, including video conferencing platforms like MS Teams and Webex, calendars, file-sharing services, and business single sign-on (SSO) solutions.
While Nasdaq Boardvantage may support slightly fewer platforms as compared to Diligent Boards, it still caters to the core needs of most organizations by integrating with popular calendar and video conferencing tools.
5. Support and training for user satisfaction
Diligent Boards is known for its personalized 24/7 customer service, ensuring clients have access to prompt assistance at any time. This vendor also offers comprehensive training resources, including live webinars, online tutorials, and dedicated customer success managers.
Nasdaq Boardvantage also offers customer support. While specific details about availability may vary depending on subscription plans, clients can be confident that help is available.
Diligent vs Boardvantage: pros and cons
Organizations should analyze the strong and weak sides of each vendor before choosing the right board management software. Without thorough research, companies risk wasting valuable time and resources on a solution that even doesn’t meet their needs.
So let’s compare Diligent Boards vs. Nasdaq Boardvantage now:
Diligent Boards
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy file sharing and communication Responsive support team Large storing space Online voting for action items High security D&O Questionnaire module Easy retrieving of archived materials | High price Issues with password recovery Slow loading and scrolling speed Hard to set up access control Limited customization capabilities Difficulties with Excel spreadsheets Users cannot edit documents in the Board book |
Nasdaq Boardvantage
| Pros | Cons |
| Intuitive and user-friendly Responsive support team Sending emails directly Drag and drop functionality Multi-format support Reports function Presenter Mode Remote Purge | Browser compatibility issues Slow performing synchronization Poor UI Security questions glitches Audio issues during meetings Direct email attachments not supported Limited control over historical document |
Pricing models and plans comparison: Boardvantage vs Diligent
Neither Diligent nor Boardvantage publicly disclose their specific pricing tiers for their board management solutions. Yet, both offer free trials or demos.
Diligent’s free trial is easily accessible and gives a chance to fully explore the platform, while Boardvantage puts more effort into personalized demos.
Based on our experience and analysis, we can see some key differences:
- Diligent. Diligent doesn’t disclose its pricing publicly. It varies based on the number of users, features required, and setup complexity. They offer a free trial, but exact pricing needs to be obtained from their sales team.
- Boardvantage. This provider emphasizes transparent, all-inclusive pricing with no hidden fees. They also claim their pricing varies based on the specific solution you choose, suggesting there might be different tiers available. However, they don’t reveal the specific details of these tiers.
Given the lack of public pricing details for both, it’s tough to say definitively which is cheaper.
Useful resources: board portal pricing comparison.
Use cases and ideal scenarios
There’s no universal solution for board portal platforms; the choice depends on the specific needs of your board.
Consider these factors to see which platform aligns best with your requirements:
- How does the size of your board determine your software needs? Smaller boards may focus on a user-friendly interface, but larger ones may require additional capabilities to support complicated governance systems.
- Does your board require advanced risk analysis tools, or will a simpler way make sense?
- Are highly tailored features necessary for your board, or is clear pricing more important?
With that in mind, let’s see who can benefit from Diligent:
- Highly regulated industries. Diligent’s customized features and risk management capabilities are useful for boards in healthcare, banking, and energy. These industries deal with complex regulations and require thorough risk mitigation measures.
- Non-standard governance structures. Boards with unique committee structures or unconventional workflows might prefer Diligent’s flexibility. Nonprofits and educational institutions, for example, may tailor the platform to their governance models.
- Collaboration-heavy boards. Diligent’s strong document management, secure messaging, and task management tools facilitate communication for boards that rely significantly on real-time information sharing and collective decision-making. Highly dynamic sectors such as technology or media may prefer this vendor.
On the other hand, who could find Boardvantage to be a perfect fit?
- Large corporations with complex governance. Boardvantage is a great choice for handling complex board structures with multiple committees and subsidiaries, especially for international firms and conglomerates.
- Security-conscious industries. Boards in banking and government need strong data protection. Therefore, Boardvantage’s emphasis on transparent pricing and data security is preferred for security-conscious boards.
- Boards with diverse technical expertise. Boardvantage’s easy-to-use interface could be a big advantage for boards with varying technical skills. For instance, businesses like manufacturing or construction, where directors have different backgrounds.
Explore alternative solution: iDeals Board
While Diligent Boards and Nasdaq Boardvantage are strong competitors in the board portal market, iDeals Board offers an alternative solution. According to user reviews, this platform has a wide feature set, strong security focus, and an exceptional user-centric experience.
iDeals Board emphasizes security, including multi-factor authentication and granular access controls. Additionally, iDeals Board simplifies board operations with a centralized dashboard, superior document management tools, and integrated meeting management capabilities.
Let’s now compare iDeals Board to Diligent and Nasdaq Boardvantage.
| Feature | iDeals Board | Diligent | Nasdaq Boardvantage |
| Security | Multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, access control | Multi-factor authentication, encryption, user activity monitoring | Multi-factor authentication, encryption, user activity monitoring |
| Dashboard | Yes, it includes upcoming meetings, tasks, document links, progress tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Document search | Global search across documents, meetings, and agendas, with a search history | Search across documents | Search across documents |
| Meetings management | Quick setup, pre-filled details, group invitations, time zone detection | Scheduling, integrations | Scheduling, integrations |
| Agenda and board book | Table of contents, private and public commenting and highlighting, document signing, search | Templates, attachments, voting | Templates, attachments, voting |
| Voting | Unanimous and individual, multiple motions, results display | Unanimous and individual, multiple motions | Unanimous and individual, multiple motions |
| Minutes management | Note-taking, export (PDF/DOCX), external upload, approval timestamps | Note-taking, export, approval | Note-taking, export, approval |
| Documents management | Drag & drop upload, bulk upload, progress bar, 50+ formats, access control, annotations | Search, upload, annotations | Search, upload, annotations |
| Support | 24/7 phone and email support | 24/7 support | 24/7 support |
| Ease of use | Intuitive interface, seamless experience | May require training | User-friendly |
Conclusions
In summary, consider these key factors when choosing the board portal software:
- Align features with the needs, size, and specifics of your company.
- Prioritize security and compliance with legal regulations.
- Consider options with transparent pricing without hidden costs.
- Focus on user experience and whether the solution is user-friendly for boards with different technical skills.
- Ensure the platform accommodates future growth in your board’s structure or complexity.
Additionally, capturing detailed end user information on software satisfaction is crucial for evaluating and comparing board portal solutions.
Our website provides a complete comparison of the top board portal providers. This guide’s insights will help you effortlessly find the right fit. Explore each platform in further depth: visit their websites, take advantage of free trials or demos, and don’t hesitate to contact them with specific concerns.