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If you are comparing Hives.co and Sideways 6, you are probably looking for a way to collect ideas from employees at scale and actually do something with them. Both platforms solve this problem, but they come at it from different angles. Sideways 6 is built around the idea of embedding into the tools your employees already use (primarily Microsoft Teams). Hives.co is built around structured idea challenges with transparent pricing and fast setup.
This comparison is honest. We will tell you where each platform is strong and help you figure out which one fits your situation.
Quick Summary
Sideways 6 is an idea management platform founded in the UK in 2014. Their core philosophy is "ideas from anywhere," meaning they embed idea collection into collaboration tools employees already use: Microsoft Teams, Viva Engage (formerly Yammer), Workplace from Meta, Slack, and Interact Intranet. The idea is that if you remove the friction of going to a separate platform, more people will participate. Sideways 6 targets large enterprises with 1,000+ employees and counts AstraZeneca, Nestle, British Airways, M&S, and Vodafone among their customers.
Hives.co is a Scandinavian idea management platform (Copenhagen, Denmark) that uses challenge-based collection to gather focused ideas from employees. Rather than embedding into every collaboration tool, Hives.co focuses on asking the right questions, structuring evaluation, and closing the feedback loop. The platform works with Volvo, Scania, Halfords, and VINCI Energies, with transparent pricing starting at EUR 699/month.
How Do They Compare on Core Capabilities?
- Idea collection approach: Sideways 6 embeds natively into Microsoft Teams and other collaboration tools so employees can submit ideas without leaving their daily workflow. Hives.co uses challenge-based collection with QR codes, Microsoft Teams integration (via SSO), and anonymous submission options. The philosophical difference: Sideways 6 wants ideas to flow in naturally from wherever employees already are. Hives.co wants to ask specific questions that produce focused, actionable responses.
- Idea evaluation: Sideways 6 combines crowd review (employees vote and comment on ideas) with expert review (designated reviewers evaluate shortlisted ideas). Hives.co uses structured evaluation with custom scoring parameters, allowing you to rate ideas against specific criteria like impact, feasibility, and strategic alignment.
- Workflow and pipeline: Both platforms offer customizable idea stages and statuses. Sideways 6 emphasizes automated workflows and campaign management. Hives.co provides configurable evaluation workflows with clear decision points.
- Analytics and reporting: Sideways 6 offers smart analytics with trend identification, sentiment analysis, and custom reporting. Hives.co provides idea pipeline analytics, engagement metrics, and AI-powered analysis of submission patterns.
- AI features: Sideways 6 recently added "Similar Ideas AI" (showing similar ideas at point of submission to reduce duplicates) and "Improve with AI" (suggestions to strengthen submissions). Hives.co includes AI-powered analysis for identifying patterns and themes across submissions.
- Engagement and feedback: Sideways 6 sends mass-personalized thank you notes, updates, and congratulations automatically. Hives.co structures feedback into the evaluation workflow, ensuring every submitter gets a response with reasoning.
Where Does Sideways 6 Have the Edge?
Credit where it is due. Sideways 6 does several things well:
- Native Microsoft Teams integration. This is Sideways 6's defining feature. Their Teams app is purpose-built, not bolted on. Employees submit ideas, vote, and receive updates without ever leaving Teams. For organizations where Teams is the primary communication platform and adoption of new tools is a constant battle, this is a genuine advantage. Sideways 6 recently added anonymous submissions within Teams, campaign-specific targeting by groups, and AI-powered duplicate detection at the point of submission.
- Multiple integration options. Beyond Teams, Sideways 6 integrates with Viva Engage, Workplace from Meta, Slack, and Interact Intranet. If your organization uses multiple collaboration platforms across departments or regions, Sideways 6 can collect ideas from all of them into a single management dashboard.
- Enterprise scale and track record. Sideways 6 works with very large organizations (1,000+ employees as their target). AstraZeneca, Nestle, British Airways, M&S, and Vodafone are significant references. Their platform is designed for the complexity of large, distributed enterprises with multiple departments and regions.
- Customer success reputation. Across multiple review sites, Sideways 6 consistently receives praise for their customer success team. Multiple reviewers specifically call out the attentiveness and helpfulness of their support, which matters for enterprise implementations where you need a vendor who will work alongside you.
Where Does Hives.co Have the Edge?
- Transparent pricing. Hives.co publishes pricing on its website: EUR 699/month for the Kick-Start plan (2 managers, unlimited participants) and EUR 1,499/month for Enterprise (10 managers). Sideways 6 uses custom enterprise pricing with no published rates. Their "Lite" Teams app is free for up to 10 users, but the full platform requires a custom quote. For organizations that need to evaluate costs and get budget approval before engaging a vendor, Hives.co makes this straightforward.
- Challenge-based collection. Hives.co's approach of asking specific questions ("How might we reduce changeover time on Line 2?") produces more focused, actionable ideas than an always-open suggestion channel. When you ask a vague question, you get vague answers. When you ask a specific question, you get ideas you can actually evaluate and act on. This is a philosophical difference that matters in practice.
- Structured evaluation and scoring. Hives.co's custom evaluation parameters give you a more systematic way to compare and prioritize ideas. Rather than relying primarily on crowd voting (which can favor popular over impactful ideas), Hives.co enables structured scoring against criteria that matter to your business.
- Speed to value. Hives.co is live in days with your first challenge running within a week. Enterprise platform implementations, by nature, take longer. If you need results quickly, whether to prove a concept to leadership or to address an urgent operational challenge, Hives.co gets you there faster.
- EU data hosting. Hives.co hosts all data on Google Cloud Platform in Frankfurt, Germany. For European organizations with data sovereignty requirements, this is built in rather than requested. Sideways 6 recently announced regional hosting starting with Australia, with plans to expand based on customer demand.
- Innovation intelligence. Through the merger with Findest, Hives.co connects internal idea management with external technology scouting. When employees identify problems, the system can surface relevant technologies, patents, and startups from outside the organization. Sideways 6 does not offer external technology scouting.
- Manufacturing and industrial focus. Hives.co's QR code submission, anonymous participation, and challenge-based approach are particularly well-suited for manufacturing and industrial environments where not every employee sits at a desk. Sideways 6's strength is in office-based environments where Teams or Slack are the primary communication tools.
How Does Pricing Compare?
- Hives.co Kick-Start: EUR 699/month (billed annually). 2 managers, unlimited participants, unlimited idea collections, AI-powered analysis, SSO.
- Hives.co Enterprise: EUR 1,499/month (billed annually). 10 managers, priority support, everything in Kick-Start.
- Sideways 6 Lite (Teams app): Free for up to 10 users. Limited functionality.
- Sideways 6 Enterprise: Custom pricing. Contact Sideways 6 for a quote.
Who Should Choose Hives.co?
- Organizations that want transparent, predictable pricing without a sales process to get a number
- Teams that need to launch quickly and show results within weeks, not months
- Manufacturing, retail, and industrial organizations with frontline workers who need QR code or low-friction submission options
- European organizations that need EU data hosting by default
- Teams that prefer structured, challenge-based idea collection over always-open channels
- R&D teams that need both internal idea management and external technology scouting (via Findest)
Who Should Choose Sideways 6?
- Large enterprises (1,000+ employees) where Microsoft Teams is the dominant communication platform and adoption of new tools is a significant challenge
- Organizations that use multiple collaboration platforms (Teams, Viva Engage, Workplace from Meta, Slack) and want to collect ideas from all of them
- Teams that value native embedding over standalone platforms, meaning no new tool to learn or log into
- Companies that want crowd-sourced voting and commenting as a primary evaluation method
- Organizations with strong internal communication cultures where always-on idea channels will sustain engagement
Common Questions
Does Hives.co integrate with Microsoft Teams? Yes, through SSO integration. Employees can access Hives.co through their existing Microsoft credentials. However, Hives.co does not have a native Teams app that embeds into the Teams interface the way Sideways 6 does. For organizations where "inside Teams" is a hard requirement, this is a meaningful difference.
Can Sideways 6 work for manufacturing environments? Sideways 6 is primarily designed for office and desk-based environments where Teams or other collaboration tools are the daily communication channel. For factory floor workers who do not use Teams regularly, Sideways 6's core advantage (native embedding in collaboration tools) becomes less relevant. The recently added anonymous submission feature is a step toward broader use cases, but the platform's DNA is in knowledge-worker environments.
What about the Sideways 6 free tier? The Lite Teams app (free for up to 10 users) is useful for testing the concept but is limited in functionality. It works for very small pilots but is not representative of the full platform experience. Hives.co does not offer a free tier but provides transparent pricing so you know exactly what the full platform costs before engaging.
How do the AI features compare? Both platforms are adding AI capabilities. Sideways 6's Similar Ideas AI and Improve with AI focus on the submission experience (reducing duplicates, improving idea quality). Hives.co's AI focuses on analysis (identifying patterns and themes across submissions). Both approaches are useful; they just serve different moments in the idea lifecycle.
The Bottom Line
Sideways 6 and Hives.co both help organizations collect and act on employee ideas, but they solve different versions of the adoption problem. Sideways 6 says: "meet people where they already are" and embeds into Teams and other tools. Hives.co says: "ask the right question and make it easy to answer" through structured challenges with QR codes and simple submission.
If your biggest challenge is getting people to use yet another tool, and your workforce lives in Microsoft Teams, Sideways 6's native embedding is a strong argument. If your biggest challenge is getting focused, actionable ideas (not just volume), and you want transparent pricing with fast setup, Hives.co is the more direct path.
Try Hives.co and see what structured idea management looks like.
