Pricing
Three of the four best-known vendors publish no price at all. Here are ours in full, a sourced comparison of the market, and the honest math on whether “free” is really cheaper. No per-seat charge, no per-committee charge — the same price whether your board has 9 members or 24.
Prices verified 12 September 2026 · re-checked quarterly
Essential
The full board portal + Board Pulse
$99/mo
billed annually by ACH · $125 month-to-month · $997 one-time setup
Core
Risk Pulse + choose 3 more
$499/mo
billed annually by ACH · $599 month-to-month · $4,997 one-time setup
Full
All Pulses + Operations Portal
$999/mo
billed annually by ACH · $1,099 month-to-month · $6,997 one-time setup
Individual add-on Pulses and the à la carte details are on the main pricing section.
Short answer: not in any form that will still be there in three years. A shared Drive, a Slack channel and a spreadsheet are genuinely free, and plenty of small boards run on them. A few vendors offer stripped free tiers that drop the features you’re actually buying — minutes, permissions, audit trail, retention.
So the real question isn’t “is there a free one,” it’s at what point free stops being cheaper — because the staff hours to assemble packets and draft minutes by hand are a cost you’re already paying. Below roughly 8–9 members with no committees, a well-organized Drive is defensible. Above about a dozen members, or once you have committees, the math has usually already flipped. Run your own numbers:
What the “email + shared drive” approach costs in staff time a year, next to Essential at $1,188.
An estimate, not a quote — the point is the order of magnitude. Staff time doesn’t vanish with software, but halving it typically saves more than the annual cost of the cheapest paid plan.
Estimated staff time you spend now
$3,780/yr
18 meetings · 108 staff hours a year
Nonprofit Liaison, Essential
$1,188/yr
flat · no per-seat charge · + one-time setup
You’re spending about 3.2× the cost of Essential in staff time alone — before counting the missing audit trail, version control and searchable record.
The healthy thing you’re trying to do — recruit more community leaders onto your board — raises a per-seat bill and leaves a flat one untouched. Annual cost as a board grows:
| Plan | 9-member board | 15-member board | 24-member board |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nonprofit Liaisonflat, no per-seat | $1,188 | $1,188 | $1,188 |
| Boardable Essentials$20.99 per user/mo | $2,267 | $3,778 | $6,045 |
| BoardPro Essentials$165/mo per board | $1,980+$990/yr per committee | $1,980+$990/yr per committee | $1,980+$990/yr per committee |
Boardable terms: “Everyone who has access is considered a User.” BoardPro is per-board but bills $82.50/mo for each sub-committee. Verified 12 September 2026.
Annual cost for a 15-person board, annual billing, no negotiated discount, setup fees excluded. A hidden price is usually a high price: the vendors that publish sit between $1,188 and $6,478; the ones that make you book a call sit between roughly $4,500 and $12,800.
| Vendor & plan | List price | Annual, 15-person board | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nonprofit Liaison | $99/mo flat, no per-seat | $1,188 | Published |
| BoardPro Essentials | $165/mo per board | $1,980 | Published · +$990/yr per sub-committee |
| BoardPro Premium | $275/mo per board | $3,300 | Published |
| Boardable Essentials | $20.99 per user/mo | $3,778 | Published · per seat |
| Convene | Not published | $4,500Est. | Reported · after 50% nonprofit discount |
| BoardPro Ultimate | $440/mo per board | $5,280 | Published |
| Boardable Professional | $29.99 per user/mo | $5,398 | Published · per seat |
| Boardable Professional+ | $35.99 per user/mo | $6,478 | Published · per seat |
| OnBoard | Not published | $7,800Est. | Reported · requires a 3-year term |
| Board Intelligence | Not published | $12,800Est. | Reported · after 30% nonprofit discount |
| BoardEffect | Not published | Quote only | Quote only — no figure verifiable |
Est. figures are reported by a third-party analysis, not the vendor — treat as indicative. Fairness notes: BoardPro offers nonprofits and schools up to 40% off list; Boardable offers unpublished volume discounts, and its meeting guests and survey respondents don’t consume seats.
Sources: vendor pricing pages (boardable.com/plans, boardpro.com/pricing, onboardmeetings.com), Aprio nonprofit board portal pricing analysis. Verified 12 September 2026; re-checked quarterly.
Because a comparison that hides the caveats isn’t worth reading — here are ours:
See it on your own board’s numbers.
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