Coral
Summary
Open source comments and Q&A tools built for news publishers, with moderation tools.
Parent organisation: Vox Media
Type of organisation: Privately-owned company (or group)
Market share: Up & coming challenger
Pricing: Cannot tell
Skills needed to set-up: Vendor support (paid)
Skills needed to use: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Requires audience sign-in to use: Yes, sign-in compulsory
Parent organisation: Vox Media
Type of organisation: Privately-owned company (or group)
Market share: Up & coming challenger
Pricing: Cannot tell
Skills needed to set-up: Vendor support (paid)
Skills needed to use: Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it)
Requires audience sign-in to use: Yes, sign-in compulsory
Pros
Open Source alternatives available
Clear data policies
Allows data export
Allows data deletion
Has accessibility statement
Shares diversity data
Cons
Lack pricing transparency
Full Product Data Collection
Data collected January-February 2020
| Product name | Coral |
| Product URL | https://coralproject.net/ |
| Parent organisation | Vox Media |
| Workflow category | Audience engagement & monetisation |
| Date product founded | 2015 |
| Product description | Open source comments and Q&A tools built for news publishers, with moderation tools. |
| What type of company or organisation is the product owned by? | Privately-owned company (or group) |
| Is the company profit-making? | Yes, profitable |
| How is this product funded? | Subscriptions, Investment by parent co. or group |
| What market share does the tool have? | Up & coming Challenger |
| Is there an Open Source alternative in this product space? | Yes. Commento, JustComments |
| When did the company last release new features? | Feb-20. Monthly releases – updated on their GitHub site. |
| Have they shared details of the product roadmap? | No |
| Is there talk of the product raising further investment? | No |
| Is there talk of the product being acquired? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy business issues or challenges in the last 12 months? | No |
| Is there a pricing model listed on the website? | No / cannot find |
| How clear & transparent is this pricing model? | Not clear; must speak to salesperson |
| What is the range of prices offered? | No details of the SaaS product’s pricing is available, but there is a free-to-use open source version, too. |
| What factors drive higher pricing? | Cannot tell |
| What skills are needed to get this tool set up & usable? | Vendor Support (paid) |
| What skills are needed to USE this tool day-to-day? | Plug & play (any non-technical user can do it) |
| Does this tool use proprietary file formats for saving documents & outputs? | Cannot tell |
| Is the product reliant on 3rd-party APIs or interoperability to function? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy technical issues in the last 3 years? | No |
| How clear is the Terms of Service for users (i.e. publishing customers)? | Technical, legalistic TOS |
| Does the product have a data collection & usage policy on its website? (Can be a GDPR statement)? | Yes, comprehensive. |
| Is their data policy “GDPR everywhere”? | No, different rules in different markets |
| Does the product require your audience to sign-in to use it? | Yes, sign-in compulsory. |
| IF SIGN IN REQUIRED: Does audience sign-in use 3rd party platforms? | Yes. Facebook authentication, Google authentication, User account also available |
| Does the public product website mention how to export or transfer your data to another service? | Yes: Audience can data export |
| Does the public product website mention how to delete your data? | Yes: for audience data only |
| Have there been any newsworthy security breaches with this product in the last 3 years? | No |
| Does the company have an accessibility statement on its website? | Yes |
| Does the company release information on the diversity of the workforce? | Yes |