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Hives.co and Wazoku solve related but different problems. Hives.co is built for internal idea management: collecting, evaluating, and acting on ideas from your own employees. Wazoku is an open innovation platform that combines internal idea management with access to a global solver network (acquired through their purchase of InnoCentive). If your decision comes down to "do we need open innovation or internal idea management?" this comparison will help you figure it out.
Quick Summary
Wazoku is a London-based innovation platform positioned as "Where Innovation Works." They have grown aggressively through acquisition, buying InnoCentive (a pioneer in open innovation with a 500,000+ solver network), Mindpool, Idea Drop, and Posterlab. The combined platform offers internal idea management, open innovation challenges, and innovation consulting. Key customers include the University of Oxford, NASA, NATO, and Roche.
Hives.co is a Copenhagen-based idea management platform focused on helping organizations systematically collect and act on employee ideas. The platform uses challenge-based collection, structured evaluation, and feedback loops. Key customers include Volvo, Scania, Halfords, and VINCI Energies. Pricing starts at EUR 699/month.
How Do They Compare?
- Internal idea management: Both platforms collect and manage internal ideas. Hives.co's challenge-based approach focuses on asking specific questions and structuring evaluation. Wazoku offers idea collection with voting, commenting, and workflow management. Both can handle the core use case of gathering employee ideas.
- Open innovation: This is where Wazoku differentiates. Through the InnoCentive acquisition, Wazoku offers access to a network of 500,000+ external solvers (scientists, engineers, experts worldwide) who can work on your innovation challenges. Hives.co does not offer open innovation challenges to external solvers. However, through the merger with Findest, Hives.co connects internal ideas with external technology scouting (patents, startups, research), which is a different but complementary form of external intelligence.
- Platform complexity: Wazoku's multiple acquisitions mean the platform combines several formerly separate products. This gives breadth but can also mean complexity. Hives.co is a single, focused product with a simpler learning curve.
- Pricing: Hives.co publishes pricing transparently (EUR 699/month Kick-Start, EUR 1,499/month Enterprise). Wazoku uses custom enterprise pricing. No pricing is published on their website.
- Data hosting: Hives.co hosts all data in the EU (Google Cloud Platform, Frankfurt). Wazoku is UK-based; hosting details are less prominently documented.
Where Does Wazoku Have the Edge?
- Open innovation and the solver network. If your organization needs to solve complex technical or scientific challenges that your internal team cannot solve alone, Wazoku's InnoCentive network is a powerful resource. NASA and NATO use this capability for good reason. No other idea management platform offers access to half a million external experts.
- Breadth of innovation services. Wazoku offers innovation consulting alongside the platform. For organizations that need help designing their innovation program, not just a tool to run it, Wazoku provides strategy and facilitation support.
- Prestigious customer references. University of Oxford, NASA, NATO, and Roche carry significant weight in enterprise procurement conversations.
Where Does Hives.co Have the Edge?
- Focus and simplicity. Hives.co does one thing well: helping organizations collect and act on internal ideas. The platform is simple enough that a frontline factory worker can submit an idea via QR code without training. Wazoku's broader scope comes with more complexity. If your primary need is internal idea management, Hives.co gets you there with less overhead.
- Speed to launch. Hives.co is live in days. Multi-product platforms built through acquisitions typically require longer implementation timelines to configure and integrate the various components.
- Transparent pricing. EUR 699/month or EUR 1,499/month, published on the website. No sales call required to get a number. Wazoku's custom pricing requires engagement with their sales team.
- EU data hosting by default. All data stored in Frankfurt, Germany. GDPR compliant by design.
- Challenge-based structure. Hives.co's focused challenges produce more actionable ideas than always-open channels. Asking "how might we reduce waste on Line 4?" gets better results than "share your ideas."
- Innovation intelligence (Findest merger). While Wazoku offers open innovation (external people solving your challenges), Hives.co and Findest offer innovation intelligence (connecting internal ideas with external technology landscapes). These are different approaches to the "inside-out" problem: Wazoku crowdsources solutions from external experts. Hives.co + Findest connects internal problems with external technologies, patents, and startups through AI-powered scouting and expert analysis.
- Manufacturing and industrial strength. Volvo, Scania, Halfords, and VINCI Energies demonstrate Hives.co's fit for manufacturing, retail, and industrial environments. Wazoku's customer base skews more toward research institutions and large R&D organizations.
Who Should Choose Hives.co?
- Organizations focused on internal idea management from employees
- Manufacturing, retail, and industrial companies that need frontline participation
- Teams that want fast setup, transparent pricing, and a simple user experience
- European organizations requiring EU data hosting
- Companies that want to connect internal ideas with external technology scouting (via Findest) rather than open innovation challenges
Who Should Choose Wazoku?
- Organizations that need to solve complex challenges beyond their internal team's capabilities
- R&D-heavy companies that want access to a global network of external solvers
- Companies that need innovation consulting alongside their platform
- Organizations where open innovation (external problem-solving) is a strategic priority
Common Questions
Is open innovation the same as innovation intelligence? No. Open innovation (Wazoku's model) posts challenges to external solvers and crowdsources solutions. Innovation intelligence (Hives.co + Findest model) connects internal ideas with external technology landscapes through AI-powered scouting and expert analysis. Open innovation asks: "who out there can solve this?" Innovation intelligence asks: "what solutions already exist that match what our people are telling us they need?" Both are valuable. They serve different strategic objectives.
Can I use Hives.co if I also want open innovation later? Yes. Hives.co handles your internal idea management. If you later decide you need open innovation capabilities, you could add a separate open innovation platform. Starting with strong internal idea management is often the right first step, because it ensures you understand your own organization's needs before seeking external solutions.
Has Wazoku fully integrated its acquisitions? Wazoku has acquired multiple companies (InnoCentive, Mindpool, Idea Drop, Posterlab) over recent years. Integration of acquired products is always an ongoing process. If you are evaluating Wazoku, ask specifically about which features come from which acquired products and how tightly they are integrated in the current platform.
The Bottom Line
If you need internal idea management with fast setup, transparent pricing, and a platform designed for frontline participation, Hives.co is the simpler, faster path. If you need access to a global solver network for complex R&D challenges, Wazoku's InnoCentive acquisition gives them a capability nobody else offers in the idea management space.
For most organizations starting an idea management program, the internal challenge is the right place to begin. External innovation becomes relevant once you understand what your own people know and where the gaps are.
Try Hives.co and start with what your people already know.
