Mainstay
Mainstay is an engagement platform for colleges and businesses that uses behavioral intelligence to encourage conversations and action.
What Mainstay is
Mainstay is an engagement platform for colleges and businesses that uses behavioral intelligence to encourage conversations and action. Its components are Conversations, Nudges, Analytics, and Optimization, supporting recruiting, launching, retaining, growing, and thriving stages. Teams can reach people through SMS, live chat, web chat, and social media, then send campaigns, interactive nudges, and surveys. Mainstay says its chatbot answers 85% of messages in two seconds or less. AI features include Conversation Copilot, AI Insight Dashboards, hidden-barrier discovery, and sentiment analysis. Integrations include API, SFTP, Salesforce, Slate, Canvas, Blackboard, HubSpot, and other listed systems. The API can synchronize data files, map custom fields, and schedule multiple daily synchronizations. Mainstay says data is encrypted at rest with Advanced Encryption Standard and in transit with TLS 1.2, with penetration tests, vulnerability scans, and encrypted AWS backups using redundant multi-availability-zone storage. Pricing is on request for a customized plan. The company began in 2014 as AdmitHub and is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon.
Good
- SMS, chat, and social engagement channels
- Automated campaigns, nudges, and surveys
- Conversation and analytics components
- Many education and business integrations
- Encryption and security testing described
Watch out
- Pricing requires a consultation
- Paid platform with no listed free plan
- Chatbot response claim is vendor-stated
Who it suits
Mainstay suits colleges and businesses needing multichannel engagement, automated campaigns, analytics, and student or customer outreach. It is also aimed at teams using the listed education, CRM, and API integrations.
Verdict
Mainstay brings messaging, analytics, optimization, and AI features into an engagement platform for colleges and businesses. Its broad integrations and multichannel tools support outreach across several journey stages, while pricing requires a request.
Plans and prices
From Mainstay's own pricing page, checked 30 Sep 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Customized plan | Priced on request | personalized plan · everything you need and nothing you don’t · request a consultation |
The facts
Each one read from Mainstay's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- AI capabilities
- Platform features include Conversation Copilot, AI Insight Dashboards, hidden-barrier discovery, and sentiment analysis.checked 30 Sep 2026
- API
- Mainstay’s API can sync data files, map custom fields, and schedule multiple data synchronizations each day.checked 30 Sep 2026
- backups
- Mainstay backs up customer data on AWS with redundant multi-availability-zone storage and encryption in transit and at rest.checked 30 Sep 2026
- channels
- Mainstay supports SMS text messaging, live chat, web chat, and social media engagement.checked 30 Sep 2026
- core components
- The platform includes Conversations, Nudges, Analytics, and Optimization.checked 30 Sep 2026
- encryption
- Mainstay says customer data is encrypted at rest with Advanced Encryption Standard and in transit with TLS 1.2.checked 30 Sep 2026
- integrations
- Mainstay lists API, SFTP, Salesforce, Slate, Canvas, Blackboard, Campus Management, Ellucian, EAB, HubSpot, Jenzabar, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Radius, and Wiley integrations.checked 30 Sep 2026
- journey support
- Mainstay supports recruiting, launching, retaining, growing, and thriving stages of a person’s journey.checked 30 Sep 2026
- messaging providers
- Mainstay uses Twilio for SMS communications and Twilio SendGrid for email communications.checked 30 Sep 2026
- proactive messaging
- The platform can send messaging campaigns, interactive nudges, and surveys to encourage action.checked 30 Sep 2026
- purpose
- Mainstay provides an Engagement Platform for colleges and businesses that uses behavioral intelligence to drive conversations and action at scale.checked 30 Sep 2026
- response speed
- Mainstay says its chatbot answers 85% of messages in two seconds or less.checked 30 Sep 2026
- security testing
- Mainstay performs penetration tests and uses regular vulnerability scans for its cloud infrastructure and corporate systems.checked 30 Sep 2026
The company
- company history
- The company says Drew Magliozzi and Kirk Daulerio started AdmitHub in 2014, which later evolved into Mainstay.checked 30 Sep 2026
- Founded
- 2014checked 28 Sep 2026
- Headquarters
- Beaverton, Oregon, United Stateschecked 28 Sep 2026
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