When it comes to growing and succeeding in your professional life, any guidance or mentorship is always welcomed. Having the right mentor can go a long way in ensuring an individual’s career development. This demand for the right mentorship has resulted in the emergence of mentoring software.
Today, there are several free and open-source mentoring software available in the market that can help organizations improve their mentorship programs. In this post, find out how these software work and which are the six best mentoring software of 2021.
Table of Contents
What is a mentoring software?
A mentoring software is a platform through which organizations can effectively run their mentoring programs and perform other key functions, such as matching the mentees with their right mentors, scheduling sessions, monitoring the progress, providing the required metrics, etc. A mentoring software allows various teams, such as the Learning and Development, HR, talent teams, etc., to save a lot of time and effort in their mentoring activities.
When you run a mentoring program manually, there is scope for several challenges which include matching the wrong mentor and mentee, difficulties in tracking progress, miscommunication, etc. A mentoring software can help businesses overcome these challenges and ensure that the mentoring program goes off without any glitch.
With remote working becoming the norm, organizations can take complete benefits of a free online mentoring program to run their virtual mentoring. A mentoring software is suitable for all types of businesses and companies of different sizes. This is one of the reasons why more and more companies are investing in a mentoring platform to improve their mentoring programs and make them more efficient and effective.
How does mentoring software work?
Each mentoring software is different and serves different purposes. Some of these mentoring platforms will have in-house mentors, i.e., employees within the organization who have the required skills and knowledge while some of the mentoring software will have mentors from outside the organization. Irrespective of what type of free online mentoring program you choose, the key functionalities will include –
- A seamless sign-up process
- Right match between mentors and mentees
- Enhanced communication
- Easy booking of mentoring sessions
- Track and measure progress
- Measure impact and success
Investing in top free and open-source mentoring software offers several benefits, especially having a strong and knowledgeable mentoring team at your disposal to help you with your mentoring program.
Six top free and open-source mentoring software of 2021
With so many free mentoring software available in the market, it can be difficult for you to choose the right one for your business. Here is a brief list of the 6 top free and open-source mentoring software of 2021, their key benefits, technical details, pricing plans, and top alternatives.
1. MentorcliQ
MentorcliQ is a mentoring platform that offers services like mentoring software, MentorcliQ resource library, mentoring app, virtual mentoring, administrator training program, etc. The software provides training documents, videos, worksheets, etc. It also offers participant launch events through which users can design and launch events, mentoring strategy assessment that provides annual 2-hour meetings for goals review, etc. With all these and more features, MentorcliQ is one of the best mentoring software in 2021.
Key benefits
Some of the key benefits of MentorcliQ are –
- Mentoring program management through which businesses can invite employees, manage participation enrolment, match candidates with the right mentors, etc.
- MentorcliQ offers an automated SMART Match feature that seamlessly matches mentors and mentees.
- Easy participant enrolment through public/private portal.
- Resource library that contains worksheets, guides, videos.
- Measure effectiveness of the program.
- Easy monitoring through dashboards and printable reports.
Technical details
| API | No |
| Deployment | SaaS/Web/Cloud, Android, iOS |
| Business Size | Small, Medium, and Large enterprises |
| Support | 24/7 (Live rep), Online, Business hours, FAQs/Forum, Email, Knowledge Base |
Pricing
MentorcliQ offers a free trial and custom pricing.
Alternatives
Below are the top three free mentoring software alternatives for this software.
2. PushFar
If you are looking for one of the best mentoring software of 2021, PushFar is a great option. This EU-hosted and GDPR compliant software offers a wide range of functionalities that can help businesses run effective mentoring programs. Its in-built technology studies the data available, uses machine learning, and looks into the insights to recommend the best mentor matches. There are several other useful tools available such as automated and customizable email engagement, in-depth excel reporting exports, track engagement, event recommendations, conversation feeds, etc.
Key benefits
The key benefits of PushFar include –
- Easy setup of the mentoring software.
- Access to a wide range of reports that facilitate better mentoring.
- Integration with Google and Outlook calendars.
- Categorization and segmentation of data.
Technical details
| API | Yes |
| Deployment | SaaS/Web/Cloud, Android, iOS |
| Business Size | Freelancers, Small, Medium, and Large enterprises |
| Support | 24/7 (Live rep), Online, Chat, Knowledge Base, FAQs/Forums, Email |
Pricing
Individuals can use PushFar free of cost and organizations can purchase licenses that are custom priced.
Alternatives
The top three open-source mentoring software alternatives for PushFar are –
3. Qooper
Qooper is one of the top free and open-source mentoring software that includes a wide range of mentoring apps to make your mentoring programs more effective. Users can easily access these apps at any time. It eliminates the unnecessary back and forth of emails by providing a centralized location for all communication. This software also includes automation and smart tools that provide insights into the various profiles and smartly matches mentors with the right mentees.
Key benefits
Qooper provides the following key benefits –
- Effective mentoring apps suitable for universities, non-profits, and companies.
- Access to right mentors, right peers, right learning groups, and personalized development resources.
- Admin dashboard which includes automatic profile collection, mentor match-up, follow-ups, check-ins, etc.
- Visual representation of participant activity timelines and analytics.
Technical details
| API | No |
| Deployment | SaaS/Web/Cloud, Android, iOS |
| Business Size | Small, Medium, and Large enterprises |
| Support | 24/7 (Live rep), Business hours, Online, Chat, Knowledge Base, Email |
Pricing
Qooper offers a free trial as well as custom pricing option.
Alternatives
The top three Qooper alternatives are –
4. eMentorConnect
If you are searching for a cloud-based free mentoring software, you can check out eMentorConnect. This software can help businesses manage and scale their mentoring programs. This software uses machine learning, can translate dynamic texts, supports multi-language translation of global programs, offers collaboration tools so that there is effective and seamless communication between mentors and mentees, and many other functionalities.
Key benefits
The keys benefits of eMentorConnect include –
- A centralized platform through which users can manage their content, groups, participants, etc.
- Configure the software to suit your business preferences.
- Supports Knox which allows the users to access and manage the mentorship program at any time and from anywhere.
- Automatic matching of mentors and mentees using data, such as location, skill level, seniority, department, etc.
Technical details
| API | No |
| Deployment | SaaS/Web/Cloud |
| Business Size | Small, Medium, and Large enterprises |
| Support | Online, Chat, Knowledge Base, Email, FAQs/Forum, Phone |
Pricing
eMentorConnect offers the below three pricing plans –
- Pilot – $975 per month billed annually
- Growth – $1,950 per month billed annually
- Enterprise – $3,000 per month billed annually
Alternatives
The top three alternatives for eMentorConnect are –
5. Guider
Guider is a seamless open-source mentoring platform that can help organizations scale their mentoring programs. This software keeps your data securely protected under GDPR and Google Cloud Metrics and you can use it to carry out all the necessary mentoring platform functionalities, such as matching mentors and mentees, scheduling sessions, tracking progress, etc.
Guider can also be integrated with Outlook, MS Teams, Zoom, and Google. Organizations can also use this mentoring platform for bringing a change in areas like Women in Leadership, Diversity & Inclusion, Mental Health, etc.
Key benefits
Guider offers the following key benefits –
- Long-lasting relationships through ideal matching of mentors and mentees.
- Easy access of data and reports by program managers.
- Easy-to-use interface that allows the users to quickly sign up and schedule sessions.
- Outlook, MS Teams, and SSO integration.
Technical details
| API | No |
| Deployment | SaaS/Web/Cloud |
| Business Size | Medium and Large enterprises |
| Support | Online, Chat, Knowledge Base, Email, FAQs/Forum, Phone |
Pricing
Guider offers free trial plans as well as custom-priced plans.
Alternatives
The top three free online mentoring program alternatives for Guider are –
6. Mentoring Complete
Mentoring Complete is a free online mentoring program that is suitable for businesses of all types and sizes. This mentoring platform offers several features, such as four different types of mentoring programs, allowing a single user to have multiple roles simultaneously, etc. The four types of mentoring programs offered are managed, group, self-directed, and hybrid programs. Users can also access Anytime Mentoring, an add-on tool that lets users search for mentors with specific skills.
Key benefits
The key benefits of Mentoring Complete include –
- Access to four types of mentoring programs.
- Precision Matching tool that uses a proprietary algorithm to ensure a right match between mentors and mentees.
- Users have the ability to carry out several roles, such as mentor, mentee, program manager, etc., simultaneously.
- Accessible via mobile devices as well which makes it easier for the users to access the mentoring platform as and when required.
Technical details
| API | No |
| Deployment | SaaS/Web/Cloud, Android, iOS |
| Business Size | Small, Medium, and Large enterprises |
| Support | Business hours, Online, Chat, Knowledge Base, Email, FAQs/Forum |
Pricing
Mentoring Complete offers a free trial as well as custom pricing options.
Alternatives
The top three Mentoring Complete alternatives are –
Conclusion
The right mentoring platform can do wonders for your employees and overall business, which is why you need to ensure that you choose the best mentoring software that matches your business requirement. You can always try out the free trial plans of the mentoring software before opting for their paid plans.
Check out SaaSworthy to access more such useful software that can change the course of your business.
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