Halda vs. EAB: A Platform Alternative to Legacy Enrollment Agencies
EAB is a higher-education consulting firm that pairs enrollment marketing campaigns with a dedicated team of consultants and its own CRM, Navigate360. Halda is a platform: AI working across your full enrollment funnel, day and night, without a consultant retainer. Schools looking for an EAB alternative usually want the same results at a lower cost and a faster start, and that's exactly where Halda fits.
EAB has built a real business on this problem, and it's worth being straight about what that gets you.
Their flagship product, Enroll360, combines marketing campaigns with a team of consultants that EAB positions as an extension of your enrollment office. EAB reports a 16% average first-year enrollment increase for new partners and a 95% partner retention rate. Alongside Enroll360, EAB sells Navigate360, a CRM built for higher ed, plus a separate program for adult-learner and graduate recruitment and virtual campus tours.
If what you need is expert guidance from people who already know the higher-ed enrollment world, EAB has real depth there.
Where a platform model wins
Everyone in this category claims better outcomes. The real difference is what's actually doing the work.
EAB's model keeps people at the center of execution. A team of consultants builds your campaigns, and a separate CRM houses your data. That's a proven approach, but it also means results move at the speed of a services contract, and Navigate360 is one more system to license, integrate and maintain alongside whatever you already run.
Halda works differently. It runs your enrollment funnel across four stages, inquiry capture, application generation, yield, and measurement, with AI working every stage and every channel feeding the same student record. Purchased name lists and anonymous website visitors both get individualized outreach automatically. Stalled applications get followed up before they go cold. Admitted students get outreach tailored to where they stand in the decision, not a generic yield campaign. None of it replaces your CRM. Halda plugs into the system you already run, Slate for most of our customers, and gets to work in 90 days instead of a multi-cycle engagement.
The practical difference comes down to this. EAB adds a consultant on top of your stack. Halda removes the labor instead.
Model
Time to value
Cost structure
Works with your CRM
Channels
Gets smarter over time
EAB
EAB
Consultant-led marketing services, plus a separate CRM
EAB
Multi-cycle engagement
EAB
Services retainer plus a CRM license
EAB
Comes with its own CRM (Navigate360)
EAB
Marketing campaigns, virtual tours, advising
EAB
Consultant expertise, refreshed each engagement
Halda
Halda
Software platform, three AI agents working your funnel directly
Halda
Live in 90 days
Halda
Platform fee, no consultant retainer
Halda
Plugs into your existing CRM, including Slate
Halda
Web, email, SMS and voice, all connected
Halda
Learns with every student interaction, automatically
Results
Numbers make the case better than adjectives.
Across Halda's customer base, leads we generate deposit at 36.8%, compared with 10.2% for traditional name buys. That's 3.6 times the yield, without adding headcount.
See how specific institutions used Halda in our customer stories.
FAQs
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Schedule a personalized strategy session with one of our education specialists.