Reference guide

Community platform glossary.

The terms you meet when choosing a platform to run a church, nonprofit, association or alumni network. Each one links to deeper reading where there is some.

Active Person

The measure Socio Connect prices its plans by. Anyone who signed in, gave, checked in or RSVP’d in the last 90 days. Children and people you imported who haven’t done anything don’t count. Free covers up to 50 active people, Community up to 750, and Complete up to 2,000.

AI Usage Cost

What it costs to run AI requests through an AI provider's models, usually billed by how much they are used. On Socio Connect: The Assistant is included in the Community plan and above, with no separate AI bill.

All-in-One Platform

One platform that does the jobs an organization would otherwise buy a separate app for: people and households, groups, giving, events and ticketing, check-in, volunteers, courses and messages, all writing to one record per person. Socio Connect is an all-in-one platform for churches, nonprofits, associations and alumni networks.

API Integration

A connection between two software systems that lets them share data automatically. Common examples for community organizations are payment processors, accounting tools and single sign-on. On Socio Connect, the API and webhooks come with the Complete plan ($599 a month).

Automated Group Formation

Suggesting or creating small groups of members from shared attributes such as location, life stage or interests, so new members are placed with peers instead of left to find a group on their own. Sometimes called squad formation. For large cohorts on Socio Connect, it's custom work, priced by scope.

Behavioral Nudge

An automated prompt, notification or interface cue that encourages a specific member action, such as completing a profile, joining a group, attending an event or coming back after a quiet spell. Nudges can be triggered by what a member does or doesn't do, or sent on a schedule.

Circle.so

A community platform, with courses included, used widely by creators, coaches and online education businesses. Publishes flat monthly plans ($89–$419/month) plus a transaction fee of up to 2% on paid membership revenue. A good fit for a creator-led community or course business.

Community Health Score

A composite measure of how a community is doing, based on engagement, retention, participation and attendance. Distinct from total member count: a healthy community has many members taking part, not just a growing list.

Community Platform

Software that lets the members of an organization connect, communicate and take part, with each other and with the organization. Some focus on an online community space; all-in-one platforms also run giving, events, check-in and volunteers.

Custom Community Platform

A platform designed and built for one organization, instead of configured from a shared product. Worth it when an organization needs something no plan does, such as its own app in the stores or a program nobody else runs. At Socio Connect, custom builds are the step up from the plans, priced by scope from $28,000: we build it and run it for you, or hand over the code and accounts if you'd rather.

Data Portability

The ability to export an organization's data from a platform in a standard, reusable format. High portability means full exports, such as CSV, at any time. Low portability means limited exports in formats that don't import cleanly elsewhere. On Socio Connect you can export your data any time.

Data Sovereignty

An organization's right and ability to control its data: who can see it, how it is used, and taking it elsewhere. On any hosted platform, that control comes from the vendor's terms and its export tools, so read both. On Socio Connect, you keep ownership of what you add, can export it any time, and we delete it when you leave if you ask. We don't sell personal information or use it for advertising.

Engagement Analytics

Measures of how members take part: sign-ins, group participation, event attendance, giving and messages. Used to judge community health and plan what to do next.

Engagement Engine

A general name for the automated parts of a community platform that prompt members to take part: onboarding flows, reminders, re-engagement messages and notifications. It describes a category of features, not a product; what a given platform includes varies.

Explainable Flag

An alert about a member or group that says in plain words what changed and why it matters, instead of showing a bare score. Staff can check it, act on it, or see that it doesn't apply. In the Assistant: Every name on the list comes with why it’s there: a first visit, three missed Sundays, a gift that stopped. No unexplained scores.

Group Health Indicators

Measures of how a small group, chapter or committee is doing within a larger organization: activity, growth, and how engaged its leaders are.

Hivebrite

A community platform used mainly by universities, alumni networks and nonprofits. Publishes Core at $895/month and Flex at $1,995/month, billed annually, with higher tiers quoted after a discovery call. A good fit for a large alumni or member network that wants an established community product.

Human Approval

The rule that a person reads and approves an AI-drafted message before it reaches a member. In the Assistant: The Assistant suggests who to reach and drafts the note. Nothing reaches a member until someone on your team sends it.

Member Briefing

A short list a staff member or leader sees at the start of each week: who arrived, who is drifting, which group went quiet, and which gifts or renewals stopped. Each item names a person or group, gives the reason it is there, and suggests one next step. Sometimes called the Monday briefing.

Member Database

The central record of an organization's people: contact details, households, roles and history. When each tool keeps its own copy, the copies drift apart; an all-in-one platform keeps one.

Member Health Score

An individual-level measure of how active and connected a member is, based on things like group participation, attendance and giving. A score alone doesn't say why; a reason a person can check is more useful to staff.

Member Journey

The path people take from first contact with a community, at its edge, toward its center: joining, taking part, giving, serving and leading. Mapping it means naming the stages, the evidence that someone has reached each one, and where people stall, so leaders can act on who needs them each week.

Member Record

One entry per person that every part of a platform writes to: profile and household, groups, attendance, giving, events, serving and messages. With one record, questions that span two tools become reports, and each person's journey can be seen in order.

Mighty Networks

A community platform used mainly by course creators and brand communities. Publishes flat monthly plans ($79–$354/month) plus a transaction fee of up to 2% on paid membership revenue. A good fit for a creator or brand building a paid community.

Multi-Hub Architecture

A platform design that runs several distinct spaces in one system, such as a national organization and its regional chapters, or a church and its campuses, each with its own members and leaders but sharing one database. On Socio Connect, chapters and campuses under one roof come with the Complete plan.

Native Mobile App

A mobile app built for iOS or Android (or both, with a cross-platform framework such as React Native) and published in the App Store or Google Play. Distinct from a web app, which runs in the browser and can be added to a phone's home screen.

Planning Center

A family of separate church products (People, Groups, Check-Ins, Giving, Registrations, Services, Publishing), each with its own pricing. Many churches use several of them together, often alongside a separate app or community tool.

Platform Fee

A fee a platform charges on top of card processing, as a share of each gift, ticket or membership payment, or a fixed amount per item. Eventbrite, for example, publishes 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket, and Circle up to 2% on paid memberships. Socio Connect charges no platform fee on giving, dues or tickets. Card processing is separate and paid on any platform.

Platform Migration

Moving an organization from one platform to another: exporting people and records, rebuilding groups and structure, moving recurring gifts, and bringing members across. On Socio Connect today, you import your people from a spreadsheet, and givers set up their recurring gifts again on your giving page.

Push Notifications

Real-time alerts sent to a person's device. A native app delivers them once the member allows notifications. Web apps can send push too: on iOS (16.4 and later), only after the member adds the web app to their home screen.

React Native

A cross-platform framework for building iOS and Android apps from a single codebase, with near-native performance and lower cost than building two separate native apps.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

A system in which different roles (such as admin, leader, member and guest) can see and do different things. Essential for organizations with chapters, campuses, or several membership tiers. On Socio Connect, admin and leader roles start on Foundation.

SaaS (Software as a Service)

Software the provider hosts and runs, which customers use through a subscription. Updates, security and backups are the provider's job. Most community and church software is SaaS, including Socio Connect, Planning Center, Hivebrite, Mighty Networks and Circle.so.

Sector Pack

A ready-made setup for one kind of organization: the groups, events and language that fit it, so the platform starts in the right shape. Socio Connect has four: faith, nonprofit, association and education. Your sector pack comes with Foundation and above.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Sign-in technology that lets people log in once and use several connected systems without signing in again. Common in universities and large organizations with their own login system. On Socio Connect, single sign-on comes with Enterprise.

Smart Onboarding

An onboarding flow that adapts to what new members say when they join: pointing them to relevant groups, prompting them to finish their profile, and introducing them to leaders or other members.

Stripe Connect Payouts

How money moves on Socio Connect. Each organization connects its own Stripe account, and gifts, dues and tickets are paid to that account by Stripe. Socio Connect adds no platform fee. Stripe charges its usual card fee, and donors can choose to cover it.

Subsplash

A church technology provider offering a branded app platform, giving and media hosting. Subsplash doesn't publish its pricing; churches get a quote.

The Assistant

Socio Connect's built-in helper for staff and leaders, included in the Community plan and above. It lists who needs your team this week, with the reason for each name, and drafts the next step. The Assistant suggests who to reach and drafts the note. Nothing reaches a member until someone on your team sends it. What the Assistant reads is sent to our AI provider only to write the response, and is never used to train its models. Members get Ask, a separate place to ask questions.

Tool Stack

The set of separate tools an organization runs on: typically one each for member records, groups, giving, check-in, events, volunteers, email and a community space or app. Each is billed separately and keeps its own copy of every person, so staff spend time moving information between them. An all-in-one platform replaces most of them with one plan, on one record per person.

Vendor Lock-In

When leaving a vendor would cost too much or disrupt too much, because your data, workflows or integrations are tied to its system. Check before you sign: can you export everything, in a usable format, any time, and do recurring gifts move with you?

White-Label App

A mobile app built by a vendor and offered to many organizations under their own names. The organization shows its name and logo on the vendor's app. Common in church apps such as Subsplash, and in the branded apps community platforms such as Hivebrite and Circle (on Circle Plus) offer.

Missing a term? Email hello@socio-connect.com and we'll add it.

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