Are you trying to decide between the Aprio board portal and Diligent One Platform for managing your board communications?
For boards seeking the right board portal solution to centralize document management, streamline meetings, and boost overall productivity, both Aprio and Diligent have best-in-class features.
However, there are some significant differences between the two, and your decision will depend on the capabilities you need. Here are some key differences to consider.
Software comparison overview: Aprio vs. Diligent
Aprio and Diligent both offer board portal software, helping boards with organizing board meetings, securely distributing board packages and engaging and keeping directors up to date, with a strong commitment to security. However, Aprio’s core focus is board portal software, while Diligent has many other products.
Diligent is a board management, governance, risk and compliance SaaS provider that offers several solutions that support governance, audit, risk management, information security, ethics and compliance. Its wide range of features comes with a premium price tag, but it may be a good fit for large organizations that eventually want to expand beyond its Board tool.
Aprio’s sole focus is supporting board management and good governance. Aprio’s board portal is the #1 choice of credit unions and banks, education and health organizations, with user friendly features that reduce implementation time. With Aprio, you get personalized support alongside features such as agenda builders, document management, expense reporting, and much more.
|
Benefits |
Aprio | Diligent |
| Affordable pricing
Aprio subscription offers all the premium features you need starting with 20 user licenses, with unlimited committees and unlimited training and support – all for one affordable price that’s far less than Diligent. Users report that Diligent’s average contract price is quite high. |
$$ | $$$$ |
| Industry-leading security
Like Diligent, Aprio offers the strongest encryption for complete network and data security, with backups and certifications from independent, third-party security auditors – only Aprio charges less. However, Diligent does offer more global data centers for businesses that need to comply with international location requirements. |
Yes | Yes |
| Seamless onboarding
From day one, Aprio helps every customer set up their board meeting software. You’ll work directly with experienced board portal administrators to help make setup a breeze. With Aprio, you can also hide features you don’t need to make onboarding new users easier – while Diligent’s complex features create a steep learning curve. |
Yes | No |
| Expert support & training for all
Both Aprio and Diligent have 24/7 customer support with positive reviews. However, Aprio’s team is unique in that you won’t find automated-chat answers or hard-to-reach call centers with Aprio. We offer responsive, expert help from former board administrators who know firsthand the stresses and urgencies of board meeting management and communication – at any time and included in your subscription. |
Yes – with experts | Yes |
| Sole Product Focus
Aprio is a specialist in board technology, whereas Diligent offers multiple products from risk management, IT compliance, carbon accounting, audit management and more. Aprio gives you all the tools to manage your board with a team 100% focused on supporting boards. |
Yes | No |
| AI-enabled features
In 2024, Diligent announced new AI-enabled features for mapping internal controls to regulatory requirements, identifying regulatory changes, and updating data integrations and analytics. Aprio is watching AI developments closely, but we’re prioritizing security and affordability for now. |
No | Yes |
| Seamless user experience
No matter what device or operating system you’re using, Aprio offers an intuitive and consistent user experience. While Diligent’s features are robust, many users report slow loading times for large documents. Due to Diligent’s complexity, many users find they need to click through multiple links to access the tools they need. |
Yes | No |
| Mobile and offline features
Both Aprio and Diligent offer apps that allow board members to access materials across devices, including offline capabilities. However, some users report difficulty accessing documents while offline in the mobile app. Some users also report inconsistencies between the web version and the one-click application that make navigation less intuitive, and that documents appear differently on its mobile and web app. |
Yes | Limited |
Comparing board management software solutions: Aprio vs. Diligent Features
Diligent One, contains a number of IT, data, and compliance products – along with its Diligent Boards product, which is similar to Aprio, with management features like:
- One central library to store board materials and documents
- Easy file sharing features
- Easy agenda creation and distribution
- Voting and survey tools to improve board engagement and decision making
- Task tracking tools to ensure action items are completed on time
- Meeting minute tool to draft minutes faster
- Annotations for board members to markup board documents and collaborate
- Video conferencing integration
- Mobile apps for any device
However, one important difference between the two is that Aprio is designed specifically to be intuitive. When you start with Aprio, you can hide any features you don’t need at first and then unhide them when you’re ready to use them.
Customer reviews of Diligent tell a different story: its lack of customization is an issue given its complexity. For example, users report needing to click through several menus to get to the tool they need. That makes ittime consuming for admins to upload board agendas with lots of documents and links, or link to other documents within another board book. Some users report that this complexity also makes it difficult to navigate between documents in meetings, which can slow them down.
Customer reviews of Aprio’s board portal indicate how easy it is for board members to log in and get started from day one. With Aprio’s intuitive navigation, board members can easily find files, links, and everything else they need.
Finally, Aprio offers some board management tools and tracking capabilities that Diligent does not. For example, Aprio offers meeting scheduling, attendance tracking, and user activity tracking, giving you a birds’ eye view of security, board member engagement, and audit trails.
“[Aprio’s] support team is friendly, knowledgeable, and ready to tackle any issues that come up at any hour of the day. The training offered to the directors is a nice added bonus. Having the app available across any device has also made the ease of integration much easier to access materials.” – G2 review
Approach to AI-enabled tools: Aprio vs. Diligent
Recently Diligent introduced its new Diligent AI product for risk management and data analytics. All AI-generated content is labelled for more control, and users have the choice to opt into the AI tools or to opt-out. They also assure users that while the AI is trained on their business data, it won’t be shared or mixed with other users’ data.
However, even well-contained AI tools can still pose risks, especially in tools used to manage compliance and regulatory developments. With generative AI, there’s the chance it could generate false information. This creates a significant risk for boards relying on generative AI to summarize minutes and produce reporting.
Additionally, even carefully implemented AI creates an additional security vulnerability. When considering AI, it’s important to ask questions like:
- What generative AI model do you use? Does it rely on third-party APIs?
- How do you ensure that training data stays contained?
- How frequently do you update and retest the models?
While Aprio is watching the space closely, we’ve decided to hold back on AI implementation to keep costs and risk low. For boards with sensitive data, using AI to speed up reporting may not be worth the additional risk of data breaches and misinformation.
AI has the potential to speed up communications and meeting minutes, but for boards with sensitive data considerations, it’s wise to weigh the risks and benefits of AI carefully. We understand the ethical considerations surrounding privacy that many boards are concerned about.
Choosing responsive customer support: Aprio vs. Diligent
Both board portals offer responsive service, but because a board portal is used by some of the most influential and time-starved people in your organization, it is paramount that product support is highly professional and useful.
Diligent offers 24/7 global customer service support for its full line of products as well as a status update page. Premium support for the Diligent board portal comes at an additional cost, according to customer reviews. Some customer reviews note that support drops after the sales process.
Aprio offers unmatched premium service for every customer. We’re proud of our continued track record of excellence in customer support and training, achieving a consistently excellent net promoters score
With Aprio, you won’t deal with hard-to-reach call centers that offer 8 different products or find automated-chat answers. When you call us, you’ll talk with a former board administrator who knows firsthand the stresses and urgencies of boards—24/7, 365 days a year. Supporting board administrators and board directors is 100% our focus.
Board management software pricing comparison: Aprio vs. Diligent
When comparing board portal pricing, it’s important to get customized quotes to truly compare. Be sure to consider your goals, all the features you may need, how many users and committees will need access, and the quality of support the platform offers.
Diligent pricing
The cost of Diligent boards consists of a platform fee, the number of appropriate users, and any additional add-on modules you need. Customers have indicated there may be add-on costs for offline use, committee members and additional users. Customer reviews on sites such as Capterra and Trust Radius indicate Diligent is the “most expensive” and “cost may be a factor” in renewal decisions.
Aprio Pricing
Aprio believes that good governance should be simple, with no surprises on pricing. Our subscription plans come with all of our premium features, 20 user licenses, unlimited committees, and customer support for onboarding and beyond.
When you choose Aprio, your board will be set up with a library of all your past and current board materials in one central location, with access to both desktop and all of our mobile applications. You’ll be able to access features like these from anywhere:
- An agenda builder to create meeting agendas from board materials in minutes
- A minutes builder that uses your agenda as a template for recording minutes
- Calendars to sync your entire board on meeting times
- Annotations that let board members collaborate
- Decision tracking, attendance reports, and 7 standard reports for a clear audit trail.
If you wish to simplify your portal experience, you can hide the features you won’t use right now. Unhide them and set up training so that you can scale at no extra cost when it works for you.
To learn more about evaluating software vendors, take a look at our board portal buying guide. If you’re curious to learn more about Aprio’s pricing, request a quote.
Aprio vs. Diligent: See the difference
For boards seeking an intuitive, user-friendly board portal that has all the tools you need, premium customer support, best-in-class security, and a fair price – consider Aprio.
We help many organizations, from banks to healthcare and more, make board meetings more efficient with all the tools you need to get the job done, and none you don’t. Many boards appreciate how easy Aprio is to use from day one – thanks in part to our top-tier customer support.
“The service is the best I have experienced in my 25+ year career. You receive responses quickly that are very helpful and informative. In addition, the software is very easy to use and to prepare and import commonly used agendas.” – G2 review
Evaluating board management software and making the switch in a few weeks is possible! We’re happy to help assess your needs and the fit with Aprio. Take the first step – talk to us about your needs.
See how Aprio compares to other board portals:
- Board portal comparison – Aprio vs. OnBoard
- Board portal comparison – Aprio vs. BoardEffect
- Board Portal Comparison – Aprio vs. Govenda
Disclaimer: The information presented in this blog is current as of February 22, 2025, and is accurate to the best of our knowledge. Our insights are derived from publicly available sources, such as product review websites and social media, as well as direct conversations with customers and prospects. This information is intended to provide a general comparison and may not reflect the most recent updates or changes in the products mentioned.
