BoardEffect was built for nonprofits, healthcare foundations, and higher education — and many of those organizations still love it. It is also now owned by Diligent, priced in the four- to five-figure annual range, and gates its AI features behind a higher tier. Boardwise is the modern alternative: $200 per month, flat, with everything included.
Published price. No setup fee. No upsell wall on AI features. Migration handled.
BoardEffect has fifteen years of nonprofit board experience and over 5,000 mission-driven customer organizations. If those customers love the product, that is real — it shows up in their 4.7 average on Capterra. The questions worth asking now are: is the post-acquisition pricing still right for your nonprofit, are AI features worth the tier upgrade, and is the authentication model up to today's standard?
The differences that matter when you are evaluating a board portal for a nonprofit or mid-market board.
| Boardwise | BoardEffect | |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | $200 / month flat Entire organization |
Not published Two tiers; "request pricing" only |
| Annual cost (third-party reports) | $2,400/year | ~$9,000–$12,300/year Plus ~$1,500 setup fee in year 1 |
| Setup fee | None | ~$1,500 |
| Contract term | Monthly, cancel anytime | Annual |
| AI features (summarization, smart minutes) | Not offered | Plus tier only "GovernAI" suite gated to upper tier |
| Primary authentication | Passkey (WebAuthn) Biometrics or hardware key, default |
Password + MFA SAML SSO with Azure AD / Okta / Google |
| Written-consent signing | Passkey-verified SHA-256 integrity digest, downloadable audit package |
eSignature workflow |
| Communication isolation | Isolated from personal email | Secure Messaging in Plus tier |
| Retention policies | Org / folder / document / meeting level | Document retention controls |
| Multi-board single login | One passkey across every board | Yes |
| Compliance posture | AWS, Canada (Montreal) ISO 27001, SOC 2 |
Diligent platform ISO 27001/27017/27018, SOC 1/2, HIPAA/HITECH |
| Migration assistance | Included, no double-paying | Guided onboarding Separate setup fee |
BoardEffect does not publish prices publicly. Annual ranges from Aprio's March 2026 competitive analysis. Tier mapping per boardeffect.com/pricing. Last reviewed May 2026.
Four places we are a more sensible fit for a nonprofit or mid-market board than BoardEffect.
Boardwise is $200 per month, flat, for the entire organization. That is $2,400 a year, all-in.
BoardEffect's two tiers — Pro and Plus — are not published. Aprio's March 2026 competitive analysis reports approximately $9,000 per year for Pro and $12,300 per year for Plus, plus a one-time setup fee of about $1,500 in year one. For most nonprofits the math is not subtle.
Every Boardwise account is secured with a passkey (WebAuthn): biometrics (Face ID, Touch ID) or a hardware security key. No password to phish or leak.
BoardEffect's published authentication options are password plus MFA, with SAML SSO via Azure AD, Okta, Google Workspace, or Salesforce. Both are reasonable; passkeys are categorically stronger and remove the password entirely.
Written consents, secure messaging, COI declarations, retention policies, audit logs, surveys, multi-board login — all included on Boardwise's single $200/month plan.
BoardEffect's Plus tier gates Secure Messaging, AI Smart Minutes, AI Smart Summary, AI Smart Prep, AI Smart Search, and Board Engagement Reporting behind a roughly 37% upcharge over Pro. If you want the modern features, you pay for the upper tier.
Boardwise is built and supported by the people you talk to. There are no account tiers, no offshore queues, no CSM rotation. The person who answers the question is the person who knows the answer.
Multiple post-acquisition BoardEffect reviews on Capterra describe support changes: lost US-based customer success managers, slower responses, and routed tickets. (See sources below.) That experience is not universal, but it is on the public record.
If any of these describe your evaluation, BoardEffect is a credible answer.
We handle the migration end-to-end. You do not need to export anything, map anything, or reconstruct your board structure. We do it with you — and you do not pay us until your BoardEffect contract ends.
We understand your current BoardEffect setup: boards, committees, document organization, access controls.
Boards, committees, members, roles, and folder hierarchy replicated exactly.
Historical board books, meeting materials, minutes, and resolutions — exported from BoardEffect, transferred, and organized in Boardwise.
Keep BoardEffect live until your contract expires. No forced cutover.
We align launch to your meeting cycle.
You are paying BoardEffect until your contract ends. We are not going to charge you on top of that. Boardwise billing starts when your BoardEffect contract expires — or whenever you cut over, whichever comes first.
For most nonprofits, that means running both in parallel until renewal, then switching cleanly on a board-meeting boundary.
Start the conversationBoardEffect does not publish prices. Ranges cited reflect third-party reports as of March 2026. Boardwise pricing is published at boardwise.co/#pricing.
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