Karma Compass vs BoardEffect
BoardEffect, part of Diligent, is an established board portal for mission-driven organizations, with mobile apps that work offline, digital signatures, committee workrooms, a plan for organizations with many boards and a price quoted on request. Karma Compass is for nonprofit boards of any size: the people who run the board work in the workspace, directors act from their email, and agents draft the agenda, minutes and follow-ups for a person to approve.
At a glance
Compiled on 19 October 2026 from the pages linked below. Tell us at support@karmahq.org if something has changed.
| What | Karma Compass | BoardEffect |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free is $0. Pro: $99 a month. | Not published; quote on request. Two plans: Pro, for one board, and Plus, for unlimited boards. |
| Free plan | Yes. 5 meetings a year, unlimited board members and document uploads, voting, RSVPs and quorum tracking. | No free plan listed. |
| Who it is for | Nonprofit boards of any size. | Mission-driven organizations, from community-based foundations to multinational nonprofits. Pro covers one board; Plus covers unlimited boards and is described for large or complex volunteer boards. |
| Directors without accounts | Yes. Directors RSVP, vote and open the board packet from links in their email, with no account or password. | We did not find account-free voting by email link described. Directors use the portal or the mobile app. |
| AI-drafted minutes | Yes, on Pro, from your notes or a transcript. Free drafts minutes from the attendance, quorum and agenda when a meeting is marked held, without AI. The secretary, or another officer who can adopt minutes, edits and adopts them. | Yes. AI-enhanced minutes and action items. Minutes are listed on the Plus plan. |
| AI-drafted agendas | Yes, on Pro. Drafted from your board’s record: earlier published agendas, when there are any, and the action items still open; the chair, secretary or executive director edits and approves it before it goes to directors. | Yes. AI-powered agendas and meeting summaries; AI board book summarization is on Pro. |
| Votes by email under bylaws | Yes. It will not draft a vote until what your bylaws say about voting outside a meeting is recorded and cited. Each director’s link is theirs alone, works once and expires when voting closes, or after two weeks if voting runs longer. | BoardEffect describes collecting votes in the platform. We did not find a bylaws check or voting by email described. |
| Board packet | Yes. Once the chair, secretary or executive director approves the agenda, each director gets a link to the packet in their email. The PDF can be downloaded. | Yes. Digital board books, with annotations and offline reading. |
| Scheduled checks (playbooks) | Yes, on Pro. Checks you turn on can prepare an update for the chair or executive director to send, and remind owners before their action items are due. | Workflows assign actions and request approvals. BoardEffect says its workflows automate follow-ups. We did not find scheduled checks of the board’s record described. |
| Integrations | Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Zoom and Slack are included in the Pro plan. | Microsoft integration on every plan; Google Drive, Microsoft Azure and Salesforce are listed; data integrations are on Plus. |
| Mobile app | None. Directors act from their email on any device; anyone you invite can also sign in to the workspace in a browser. | Yes. BoardEffect has an iOS app, and its App Store listing describes reading meeting packets offline. |
| Trial | Two weeks of Pro for every new organization, then Free. Nothing is deleted and nothing is charged. | We did not find migration or onboarding described. A demo is available on request. |
Where BoardEffect is the better fit
Where Karma Compass is the better fit
Nothing becomes official until someone on your board with the authority to approve it does. The agents prepare the work; your board makes the decisions. See who approves what.
Price
Every new organization starts on Karma Compass Pro, free for two weeks. If you have not upgraded by the end of it you move to the Free plan. Nothing is deleted, and nothing is charged.
BoardEffect does not publish prices. Its pricing page names two plans, Pro for a single board and Plus for unlimited boards, each quoted on request. We did not find a free plan or trial described.
Questions boards ask
Can we move our board from BoardEffect to Karma Compass?
Moving from another board portal is included in the Karma Compass Pro plan. You can also start without a migration: Karma Compass finds your directors on your website and drafts the roster, and you add your bylaws, your last minutes and the date of your next meeting.
How much does BoardEffect cost compared with Karma Compass?
BoardEffect does not publish prices; when we read its pricing page on 19 October 2026 it offered two plans, Pro and Plus, each quoted on request. Karma Compass publishes both of its prices: Free is $0 with 5 meetings a year and unlimited board members, and Karma Compass Pro is $99 a month for the whole board, whatever its size.
Do our directors need to install anything?
No. Directors RSVP, vote and open the board packet from links in their email, without an account or a password, on whatever device they read email on. Anyone you invite can also sign in to the workspace in a browser.
Does Karma Compass have a mobile app?
No. There is no app to install. Directors act from their email on any device, and anyone you invite can also sign in to the workspace in a browser. If your board wants a native app, BoardEffect has one and Karma Compass does not.
Are votes by email valid under our bylaws?
Karma Compass will not draft a vote until someone records what your bylaws say about voting outside a meeting, the threshold to pass a motion and whether a vote can be changed, with the passage cited. If your bylaws do not allow voting outside a meeting, it will not draft one. Whether a particular vote meets your state’s rules is a question for your counsel.
What happens to our records if we stop paying?
You move to the Free plan. Nothing is deleted and nothing is charged; meetings you already have stay, and new ones are scheduled within Free’s 5 a year. Documents you uploaded can still be downloaded from your document library, unless downloads were turned off for one, and so can the board packet PDF.