# Mainstay Software Reviews, Demo & Pricing - 2026 > Review of Mainstay Software: system overview, features, price and cost information. Get free demos and compare to similar programs. Source: https://www.softwareadvice.com/admissions/admithub-profile --- [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Higher Education Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/category/4253-higher-education/) / Mainstay Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. Overview # Mainstay 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing On this page - Overview - User Interface - Popular Alternatives - Pricing and Plans - Features - Integrations - User Reviews ## Overview Mainstay 5.0 [(10)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/admissions/admithub-profile/#reviews) Pricing Pricing available upon request Top Alternatives ### About Mainstay Mainstay is the student engagement platform that is powered by behaviorally intelligent chatbots. It is purpose-built to positively influence students and guide them throughout their academic journeys. Higher education institutions and college access networks across the country have partnered with Mainstay to support 5 million students. With a research-backed approach to student engagement, Mainstay is proven to close equity gaps, boost enrollment, and improve retention. ## Mainstay User Interface ## Popular Mainstay Alternatives Main Product Mainstay 5.0 [(10)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/admissions/admithub-profile/#reviews) Ratings Breakdown - 4.90Ease of use - 4.86Value for money - 4.90Customer support - 4.90Functionality Pricing Available upon request Alternative Product [Birdeye](https://www.softwareadvice.com/online-payment/birdeye-profile/) 4.7 [(704)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/online-payment/birdeye-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.67Ease of use - 4.47Value for money - 4.62Customer support - 4.61Functionality Pricing Available upon request Alternative Product [Kahoot!](https://www.softwareadvice.com/lms/kahoot-profile/) 4.7 [(2891)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/lms/kahoot-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.74Ease of use - 4.64Value for money - 4.47Customer support - 4.61Functionality Pricing Starting at $17.00 per month Alternative Product [ClassPoint](https://www.softwareadvice.com/audience-response/classpoint-profile/) 4.8 [(266)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/audience-response/classpoint-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.82Ease of use - 4.56Value for money - 4.73Customer support - 4.69Functionality Pricing Starting at $96.00 per year Alternative Product [Vevox](https://www.softwareadvice.com/polling/vevox-profile/) 4.8 [(413)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/polling/vevox-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.72Ease of use - 4.66Value for money - 4.88Customer support - 4.57Functionality Pricing Starting at £5.00 per month Alternative Product [Wayground](https://www.softwareadvice.com/student-engagement/quizizz-profile/) 4.8 [(544)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/student-engagement/quizizz-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.74Ease of use - 4.60Value for money - 4.52Customer support - 4.64Functionality Pricing Starting at $59.00 per month ## Mainstay Pricing and Plans Starting price: Pricing available upon request Free Trial Free Version Basic Pricing available upon request No plan information available ## Mainstay Features - Popular features found in Higher Education Admissions Management Assessment Management Curriculum Management Financial Aid Management Learning Management Scheduling Self Service Portal Student Information/Records - More features of Mainstay Activity Dashboard Activity Tracking Alerts/Notifications API Chat/Messaging Communication Management Customizable Branding Customizable Reports Event Calendar For Higher Education Forms Management K-12 Monitoring Performance Metrics Polls/Voting Real-Time Analytics Real-Time Data Real-Time Notifications Reminders Reporting/Analytics Reporting & Statistics Search/Filter Student Management Surveys & Feedback Third-Party Integrations ## Mainstay Integrations WileyPLUS Integration rated undefined from -1 review Canvas Integration rated undefined from -1 review Blackboard Integration rated undefined from -1 review Ellucian Integration rated undefined from -1 review HubSpot CRM Integration rated undefined from -1 review Slate Integration rated undefined from -1 review See all 8 integrations ## Mainstay User Reviews Overall Rating 5.0 Ratings Breakdown 5 100% 4 0% 3 0% 2 0% 1 0% Secondary Ratings Ease of Use 4.9 Value for money 4.9 Customer support 4.9 Functionality 4.9 Have you used Mainstay and would like to share your experience with others? SH Sheenah H. Verified reviewer Higher Education 501-1000 employees Used daily for more than 2 years Review source Reviewed August 2022 Chatbot for Enrollment and Retention 5 Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 5 Value for money 4 Customer support 5 Functionality Pros: The customer service is stellar and the actual AI conversations are highly atuned to higher education. Our students enjoy interacting with the chatbot - both for enrollment and retention purposes. We are able to get valuable student insight in real time with Mainstay. Cons: During the implemention, it took a few weeks for us to really see automation start to work. The bot would often say "i'm not sure," which was annoying. It did get better, though - much better! Read More JA Jason A. Verified reviewer Higher Education 201-500 employees Used daily for more than 2 years Review source Reviewed April 2021 Allegheny loves our AdmitHub chatbot. 5 AdmitHub offers us a way to connect with students that is both high tech yet also very personalized and highly personal. Our students develop a rapport with the bot and become quite attached. We get responses via AdmitHub campaigns quicker and with response rate compared to email or print. It's a vital part of our communication stream to students. Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 5 Value for money 5 Customer support 5 Functionality Pros: The ease of developing message campaigns, some with complex decision trees, is one of the best features of AdmitHub, but it's hard to overlook the artificial intelligence knowledge base as the key feature. It handles the bulk of student questions and allows for a lot of customization. AdmitHub is easy to use, didn't require laborious set-up and constantly offers improvements and new features. Customer service is beyond compare. Cons: It's hard, nearly impossible, to say what I like least. Viewing replies used to be slightly more time consuming but improvements have been made in that area already. It's really as close to perfect for software as you can get. Reasons for choosing Mainstay AdmitHub's customer service and innovative artificial intelligence were huge factors in our choice. We knew we could find ways to send SMS messages but it didn't solve the problem of staff time needed to answer replies from this new communication stream. Our bots AI's handles the overwhelming majority of questions so it's like having an additional staff member or two on the team. Read More KH Kylie H. Verified reviewer Higher Education 1001-5000 employees Used daily for more than 2 years Review source Reviewed April 2021 The Best Addition to Our Enrollment Communication Strategy 5 Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 5 Customer support 4 Functionality Pros: Not only does AdmitHub offer SMS texting, but it also has sophisticated surveying technology, web chat, and Facebook Messenger options. Although we originally purchased the product specifically for texting and AI capabilities, we continue to find new ways to utilize the product - including managing Facebook Messenger and adding the Web Chat to our website. The AdmitHub team is constantly looking for ways to improve the product, and they actively solicit user feedback to ensure updates and features are what the user community needs. Before AdmitHub, we knew that email wasn't always the best way to reach students, but it was our only option. Adding AdmitHub to our multi-modal communication strategy helped us communicate with students more effectively and see more engagement than before. Other departments at the University send us updates and deadline reminders to share via AdmitHub because they know students will take action after receiving a text. Many students come back to the bot with questions (even when they have not received a nudge) because they know they will receive a quick response. Cons: As the AdmitHub team frequently adds more features, it has become much easier to integrate with our other communication software - previously it required a ticket, but now you can do it yourself. Reasons for choosing Mainstay The AdmitHub team is easy to work with - they keep us updated on important analytics, new features, and best practices. They offer "Office Hours" webinars to demonstrate their new features and share success stories from partners. These webinars have given us some great ideas to implement in our communications (even things as simple as last-minute reminder invitations to virtual events, which have gotten us big gains in attendee numbers). Read More SH Sheenah H. Verified reviewer Higher Education 501-1000 employees Used daily for more than 2 years Review source Reviewed April 2021 Reggie to the Rescue! 5 Working with Admithub has been much more like building a friendship than a client/vendor relationship. They truly believe in helping us engage with our students in a meaningful way and are passionate about bettering their products to assist us. Admithub is extremely sensitive to our needs and responsive in any support issues that may come up. They listen to our feedback, which creates an organic two-way street which has strengthened the relationship. Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 5 Value for money 5 Customer support 5 Functionality Pros: Working with the system has been really easy, from implementation to maintenance. Using conversational AI to engage students and retain relationships has been instrumental for our institution. The ability to send surveys has been extremely helpful in making data-driven decisions, especially throughout the global pandemic. The system itself is easy to train end-users on. The company is always working towards continuous improvement and really values client relationships. Cons: Sometimes getting the information off of a survey requires a little bit of finagling; it isn't initially intuitive. Reasons for choosing Mainstay Cost-effective, friendly and not pushy sales reps, higher-education focused only, demonstration was very effective and strong. Read More dh dr raveenia h. Verified reviewer Higher Education 51-200 employees Used daily for less than 12 months Review source Reviewed December 2021 Highly Recommend Mainstay 5 Thus far we have had an overall wonderful experience. Mainstay has helped Admissions with attracting students and with retaining them too while enrolled. The mms features have kept our students updated and not missing critical deadlines. Further, the reporting tools have helped us quantify and analyze such impacts. Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 5 Value for money 5 Customer support 5 Functionality Pros: It was easy to use, great onboarding and training sessions, and the price was unbeatable for what you get, the flexibility of the product is awesome and covers beyond our scope of use, the backend is easy to use and update information as necessary. Our students love it! Cons: Not really. We are still maximizing the full potential of the system for our purposes Reasons for choosing Mainstay price, flexibility, features Read More Cara D. Verified reviewer Higher Education 501-1000 employees Used daily for less than 2 years Review source Reviewed July 2021 AdmitHub (Mainstay) has changed the way we communicate with students! 5 AdmitHub helped us increase retention by 3% for our first to second year students DURING a Pandemic. Not only that, but it was a great resource for us to have when the Pandemic struck so we could keep in contact with our students. It was a very difficult time, but I feel that Coop (our Chatbot) was able to be there for our students. Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 5 Value for money 5 Customer support 5 Functionality Pros: I like that we can personalize the chatbot to fit our mascot's personality. This really helps the students be able to connect and identify with our school and mascot. Cons: AdmitHub is fast changing! As a startup, the software is always developing and changing which is great! However, as someone who has been with them since their older software, it is difficult to get caught up with the new features. Thankfully, AdmitHub has done a great job keeping me up to date with these changes and helping me get caught up. Read More SM Sue M. Verified reviewer Education Management 5001-10000 employees Used daily for less than 2 years Review source Reviewed April 2021 The Best Bot for Student Success and Retention! 5 Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 5 Customer support 5 Functionality Pros: AdmitHub (soon to be Mainstay) is, by far, the best student success and retention tool I have used in my 30+ years in higher education! The quality, ease of use, features and functionality of the bot make it all highly effective. The bot answers our students’ seemingly countless questions in a matter of seconds, 24-7; allows us to send nudges about important matters; engages students in creative ways that enable us to understand their needs; and enables our staff to spend more time having meaningful interactions with students. As if that weren’t enough, Admithub's (soon to be Mainstay's) customer support is highly personalized and beyond exceptional! Cons: I honestly can't think of any downsides or features I like the least! Read More JH Jandro H. Verified reviewer Higher Education 1001-5000 employees Used weekly for less than 2 years Review source Reviewed April 2021 Game Changer 5 The team at Admithub from the top to our consultant have been great, real people who understand the every hustle and grind of Higher Education, they hear are our issues and work with us on developing new campaigns that we may not have considered. Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 5 Value for money 5 Customer support 5 Functionality Pros: The best part about the software is how easy it was to implement and start using, every week we get more comfortable with the software and are able to deploy more elaborate campaigns. The response rate from a text campaign compared to an email campaign is unbelievable. Cons: All of the features are great and easy to use, we have no found any issues that we do not enjoy. Read More JC Jared C. Verified reviewer Higher Education 1001-5000 employees Used weekly for more than 2 years Review source Reviewed April 2021 Game Changer 5 Strong experience, the founders I respect immensely: \[SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN\] Ratings Breakdown 5 Ease of use 4 Value for money 5 Customer support 5 Functionality Pros: Being able to engineer digestible student-focused communication journeys via live responsive texts has changed they way we can implement the right conversations at the right time. Cons: I wish they would treat all size universities the same with pricing. Reasons for choosing Mainstay Excellence and focus on higher education AI specialization. Read More ES Emily S. Verified reviewer Higher Education 11-50 employees Used weekly for less than 2 years Review source Reviewed June 2021 AdmitHub Review 5 Ratings Breakdown 4 Ease of use 5 Customer support 5 Functionality Pros: The best part about AdmitHub is the ability to connect with students without the loss of valuable employee time. Our office sends out mass messages to thousands of students and the chatbot can respond to questions quickly and efficiently. Cons: The only improvement for my office would be easier integration with our CRM (Recruit - but we are transitioning to Target X). It would streamline the process so we could contact the list of students quicker and more effectively. Read More Showing 1 - 10 of 10 Reviews ## See what companies are saying about Software Advice