Anthology Encompass vs Salesforce Education Cloud

Anthology Encompass is a browser-based platform for coordinating an institution’s giving, events, communications, and community engagement. It supports email campaigns with templates, audience selection, A/B tests, deliverability tools, and performance reporting. Giving features include donation campaigns, forms, recurring gifts, and transaction reports; event tools cover RSVPs, registration, fee-based activities, confirmations, reconciliation, and attendee check-in. Membership campaigns can manage dues, benefits, renewals, and scheduled payments. Its Engagement Dashboard tracks email, event, giving, membership, online usage, and volunteer activity, though only Super Admins and the Engagement Metrics Admin can access it. Institutions can also use branded crowdfunding templates and a Giving Microsite Builder; the builder was in an Early Access Beta program in the 2026.5 release. Anthology says more than 800 higher education institutions use Encompass. The service is paid, with pricing on request, and is available on Android, iOS, and the web. Constituent sites support recent mobile browsers, but administrative tools are not supported on mobile.

Salesforce Education Cloud supports institutional work across the student, campus, and staff journey, from recruitment through admissions and student services. Agentforce can answer prospective students’ questions at any time, capture interests, register campus tours, and start applications. Recruitment teams can use adaptive inquiry forms and coordinate communications across web, email, SMS, and social, with automated scoring and AI-powered applicant insights. Applicants can start, save, and complete dynamic applications, use autofill, and reuse components across programs. Admissions teams can review applications and supporting information, including third-party data, in one secure location and record reviewer recommendations with scoring. CRM dashboards and predictive AI alerts help teams follow enrollment goals, rates, and trends. The product also supports application management, admissions workflows, event management, SMS messaging, and a student portal. It runs on Android, iOS, and web, with an API. Enterprise Edition costs $87 USD per user per month, billed annually; the listed editions require annual contracts and reflect nonprofit pricing. A 30-day trial is available without a credit card or installation.