BoardBreeze vs Diligent: Affordable Board Minutes for Organizations That Don't Need Enterprise

Diligent is the largest board management software company in the world. They serve over 700,000 directors across some of the biggest organizations on the planet. Their platform handles everything from board portals and voting to ESG reporting and risk management.

If you're a Fortune 500 company with a corporate secretary team and a six-figure governance software budget, Diligent is probably the right choice.

But most organizations aren't Fortune 500 companies.

If you're a school district, nonprofit, hospital, community college, or small government agency that needs professional board meeting minutes — not a full enterprise governance suite — there's a 66x price difference worth understanding.

I'm Grace Esteban, founder of BoardBreeze®. Here's an honest look at how these two products compare.

Quick Comparison

Feature	BoardBreeze®	Diligent (Diligent Boards)
Starting Price	$29.99/month	$1,983/month ($23,800/year)
Annual Cost (Entry)	$359.88	~$23,800
Price Difference	—	66x more expensive
Free Trial	30 days, no credit card	No — requires sales process
Signup Process	Self-serve, 2 minutes	Sales calls, demos, contracts
Primary Function	Audio → formatted board minutes	Full board management & governance suite
Audio-to-Minutes	Yes — core feature	No
Live Recording	Yes — in-browser	No
AI Minutes Formatting	Yes — GPT-4 powered	No — minutes are manual
Minutes Assistant Chatbot	Yes	No
Parliamentary Tracking	Automatic (motions, seconds, votes)	Manual
Board Portal	No	Yes
D&O Questionnaires	No	Yes
ESG / GRC Reporting	No	Yes
Entity Management	No	Yes
Compliance Flagging	Yes (Pro plan)	Yes (governance-wide)
Target Organization	Small-to-mid boards	Enterprise / Fortune 500
Users	1 (Essential) to Unlimited (Enterprise)	Enterprise-wide

Two Very Different Products

This comparison deserves a caveat up front: BoardBreeze and Diligent solve different problems at different scales.

Diligent is a comprehensive board management platform. It includes:

• Board portals for document sharing and collaboration
• Meeting scheduling and agenda management
• Director onboarding and education
• Voting and resolution management
• Entity and subsidiary management
• ESG and risk reporting
• Compliance across multiple regulatory frameworks

BoardBreeze does one thing: converts board meeting audio into professionally formatted, compliance-ready minutes. That's it. We do it well, we do it affordably, and we do it in minutes — not months of implementation.

If you need all of what Diligent offers, BoardBreeze is not a replacement. But if what you actually need is a faster way to produce accurate board meeting minutes, you may be paying 66 times more than necessary.

The $23,441 Question

Let's talk numbers.

	BoardBreeze Essential	BoardBreeze Pro	Diligent
Monthly Cost	$29.99	$99	~$1,983
Annual Cost	$359.88	$1,188	~$23,800
What You Get	AI minutes from audio, chatbot, parliamentary tracking	+ compliance flagging, audit trail, 40hrs/mo, 5 users	Full governance suite

The gap between BoardBreeze Pro ($1,188/year) and Diligent (~$23,800/year) is $22,612 per year. Over five years, that's $113,060.

For a school district watching every line item in the budget, a nonprofit running on grants, or a hospital board that needs minutes — not entity management — that difference funds actual programs and services.

Audio-to-Minutes: The Core Difference

Here's something that surprises people: Diligent doesn't convert audio recordings into meeting minutes. Despite being a $23,800/year board management platform, if you want to turn your meeting recording into formatted minutes, you're still doing it manually — or hiring someone to do it.

BoardBreeze was built specifically for this workflow:

1. Upload your recording (MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, MP4, WebM, OGG) or record the meeting live in your browser
2. AI transcribes the audio using AWS Transcribe
3. GPT-4 formats the transcript into professional board minutes — with motions, seconds, votes, and action items labeled
4. Review and edit the AI-generated draft
5. Ask the Minutes Assistant questions about the meeting
6. Export the final minutes

A 4-hour board meeting processes in approximately 6 minutes. We've tested with meetings over 7 hours — no duration cap, no extra charges.

Diligent helps you manage the board. BoardBreeze helps you document what the board decided. They're complementary, not competitive — unless you're paying for Diligent primarily to solve the minutes problem, in which case there's a much more affordable option.

Self-Serve vs. Enterprise Sales

BoardBreeze signup:

1. Go to appboardbreeze.com
2. Enter your name and email
3. Verify with a 6-digit code
4. Start using the product immediately
5. Total time: about 2 minutes

Diligent signup:

1. Fill out a contact form
2. Wait for a sales representative to reach out
3. Schedule a discovery call
4. Attend a product demo
5. Receive a proposal
6. Negotiate contract terms
7. Go through legal review
8. Sign the contract
9. Begin implementation and onboarding
10. Total time: weeks to months

For enterprise organizations with procurement departments, this process makes sense. For a board clerk at a school district who needs minutes done before next week's deadline, it doesn't.

BoardBreeze's 30-day free trial requires no credit card, no sales call, and no contract. You can test it on your next meeting and decide for yourself.

When Diligent Is the Right Choice

I want to be straightforward: Diligent is an excellent platform for organizations that need it. Choose Diligent if:

• You're a Fortune 500 or large public company with complex governance requirements
• You need a full board portal for document sharing, collaboration, and voting
• Your board requires ESG reporting, risk management, or entity management
• You have a corporate secretary team that manages governance across multiple entities
• Your compliance requirements span multiple regulatory frameworks internationally
• You have the budget (~$23,800+/year) and the internal team to manage implementation
• You need D&O questionnaires and director onboarding tools

Diligent serves over 700,000 directors for a reason. At enterprise scale, their platform is comprehensive and well-regarded.

When BoardBreeze Is the Right Choice

Choose BoardBreeze if:

• Your primary need is turning meeting recordings into formatted minutes
• You're a school district, nonprofit, hospital, HOA, community college, or small government agency
• Your budget is measured in hundreds, not thousands per month
• You need to start using the tool today, not after a months-long procurement process
• You want AI-powered parliamentary tracking (motions, seconds, votes) without manual entry
• You want to ask questions about your meeting using the Minutes Assistant chatbot
• You need to handle long meetings (4-7+ hours) without hitting duration caps
• You're a solo board clerk or executive assistant who doesn't need a 15-person governance team to manage the software

Feature-by-Feature: What Matters for Minutes

Minutes-Specific Feature	BoardBreeze	Diligent
Upload audio → get minutes	✅ Yes	❌ No
Record meetings in browser	✅ Yes	❌ No
AI transcription	✅ AWS Transcribe	❌ Not available
AI minutes formatting	✅ GPT-4	❌ Not available
Motion/second/vote tracking	✅ Automatic	Manual entry
Action item extraction	✅ Automatic	Manual entry
Minutes Assistant chatbot	✅ Yes	❌ No
Compliance flagging	✅ Pro plan	✅ Yes (broader scope)
Brown Act support	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Robert's Rules awareness	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
7+ hour meeting support	✅ Yes	N/A
Processing time (4hr meeting)	~6 minutes	N/A (manual)

Can You Use Both?

Yes. Some organizations might benefit from Diligent for overall board governance and BoardBreeze specifically for minutes production. They aren't mutually exclusive.

If you're currently using Diligent but your team still spends hours producing minutes manually after each meeting, adding BoardBreeze at $29.99/month could save your clerk 4-6 hours per meeting — a meaningful quality-of-life improvement for a small additional cost.

What BoardBreeze Doesn't Do

In fairness:

• No board portal. BoardBreeze doesn't host documents, manage agendas, or facilitate board collaboration.
• No entity management. If you manage subsidiaries or multiple legal entities, that's not our scope.
• No ESG or risk reporting. BoardBreeze is focused on meeting documentation.
• Export is .txt only for now. PDF and Word are planned.
• English only currently.
• AI is ~90% accurate — you should always review the generated minutes. It's a first draft, not a final product.

We're intentionally focused. BoardBreeze does one thing — board meeting minutes from audio — and we do it at a price point that makes it accessible to every organization, not just enterprises.

The Bottom Line

Diligent is a governance platform for large enterprises. BoardBreeze is a minutes tool for everyone else.

If your organization spends $23,800 a year on governance software and still has clerks spending hours manually writing minutes, something is off. If your organization can't justify $23,800 a year but still needs professional, compliant board minutes, BoardBreeze is built for you.

Try BoardBreeze free for 30 days — no credit card required. Upload a recording from your last board meeting. If it doesn't save you hours, you've lost nothing.

---

Questions? Reach me at grace@appboardbreeze.com. I personally respond to every message.

Related comparisons:

• BoardBreeze vs ClerkMinutes
• BoardBreeze vs Otter.ai
• BoardBreeze vs Fireflies.ai
• BoardBreeze vs Manual Minutes
• Best Board Meeting Minutes Software (2026)
• Pricing details →