Free or Verified: The Questions Every Admin Asks

When a school, PTA, or club gets ready to start on OurHive, the same questions come up. Here are the answers we usually send by email, so everyone can work from the same page.

Should we start free or verified?

Every community has the same rooms, directory, messaging, and asks. The difference is how people get in.

A free community runs on an invite link and a code. Anyone with either joins right away. People without one can ask to join, and an admin approves or declines.

A verified community checks people against a member list the organization uploads. People on the list get their own invitation and join without waiting.

Start free if you want something running today. Verify later if the organization wants every member checked against its list.

Who can verify a community?

There are two jobs, and they belong to different people.

The organization's staff hold the member list. Only they can verify a community: upload the list, send invitations, and see who from the list has joined. That job stays with them.

Admins run the community day to day. Staff can make PTA or board members admins. Admins manage rooms and reports, and they never see the member list.

Who can add Hive Assistant?

Any admin, in any community. It doesn't need verification. A PTA board can turn it on and pay for it without the school.

Does an admin have to approve every person?

No. Anyone with the invite link or code joins right away, and people on a verified list are matched automatically. Approval is only for people who ask to join without an invite.

An admin can also remove anyone who joined and shouldn't have, at any time.

What does it cost?

A free community is free permanently, not a trial. Verification is $400 a year and Hive Assistant is $600 a year. Hive Assistant is free to try for 30 days. See pricing →

Do members pay anything?

No. Members never pay, in any community.

What do you collect about children?

A parent adds their children's names and, if they choose, their grades. That is enough for other members to recognize them. We never pull anything from a member list into a profile, and we never sell or share it.

If someone on an uploaded list never joins, their contact information isn't kept.

Our PTA board changes every year. What happens?

Nothing is lost. Admins can hand the community to the next board, and a community can have several admins at once. In a verified community, the list stays with the organization's staff, so a board change doesn't touch it.

People come and go all year. How do we keep the list current?

Staff can upload a new list at any time from the admin portal.

How do we get the word out?

Use the launch kit: an email, a newsletter blurb, a group chat message, a social post, a flyer, and a yard sign, each with a QR code. By default they use your request-to-join link, so they're safe to post anywhere. The launch kit →

Can we switch from free to verified later?

Yes, without starting over. Staff upload the member list, and everyone already in the community is checked against it. Anyone who isn't on it goes to the staff to keep or remove.

Still deciding? Write to us at support@ourhive.ai.