Clowder vs. Hivebrite: Comparing Member Engagement Platforms

Like most digital community platforms, Hivebrite is a web-based platform that treats its mobile engagement channel as secondary to its desktop portal. Clowder flips this common paradigm by equipping organizations with the tools they need to build their own iOS and Android-compatible, native mobile app and offering a desktop version of that app as an add-on. This way, you can more effectively meet members where they probably are—on their smartphones—and facilitate year-round involvement from anywhere.

Going along with its desktop-first structure, Hivebrite prioritizes email as a member communication channel. However, approximately half of today’s association members say they get too many emails from the organizations they’re involved in, and it’s easy for emails to get lost in recipients’ inboxes. Clowder solves these problems by providing user-friendly mobile messaging tools and leveraging push notifications to ensure members never miss important updates from your organization.

Hivebrite offers enterprise-grade, highly granular administrative capabilities, which can be useful for large organizations but are often challenging for beginners to navigate. Meanwhile, Clowder’s backend aspect (aka the Command Center) still features analytics and customization capabilities, but it’s much more streamlined. Any authorized team member can add and manage content or download reports from Clowder, no matter their level of technical expertise.

Hivebrite serves a broad audience across both nonprofit and for-profit sectors, and many of its mission-driven clients are sprawling university alumni networks. Clowder was instead designed to meet the needs of professional and trade associations and is easy to adapt for unions and other closer-knit communities. Since joining the Advanced Solutions International (ASI) family in 2023, Clowder is even more committed to serving associations like yours and can connect directly to the platforms you use most.