Gainsight launches Developer Studio & Skilljar tie-up

Gainsight has launched Developer Studio for its Customer Communities platform and introduced an integration between Gainsight Customer Communities and Skilljar.

The announcements come as Gainsight highlights broader adoption of its community software among customers including Zoom, Zendesk, ShipStation, Kaseya, PTC, Greenhouse and Cognite.

Developer Studio is intended to help developers and community managers create custom widgets, integrations and tailored community features with fewer technical handovers. The toolkit supports both code-based and no-code approaches, depending on who is building the experience.

Developers can build and version custom widgets in GitHub, while community managers can create reusable widgets without writing code. The related developer portal includes documentation and repository templates intended to support large language model workflows.

The additions target a common problem in large customer communities, where requests for new functions often sit in internal development queues. The toolkit is meant to reduce those dependencies and give community teams more direct control over how their sites look and function.

The Skilljar integration addresses another issue many software suppliers face when they run customer education and customer communities on separate systems. In practice, that can leave users moving between different logins, navigation structures and search tools to complete training, ask questions and share product knowledge.

The integration brings the two environments together through a single sign-on and profile, unified navigation, embedded education widgets and federated search across community and academy content. That should allow customers to surface training materials directly inside community spaces rather than sending users to a separate learning portal.

Customer adoption

Gainsight positioned the product update against growing use of online customer communities by large business software groups. These communities are increasingly used to reduce support workloads, encourage peer-to-peer help and gather feedback from users.

"The companies winning in customer retention today aren't treating community like a side project anymore - they're treating it as a strategic differentiator and a core driver of customer ROI," said Erica Kuhl, GM & EVP, Gainsight.

"With Developer Studio, community builders can vibe code the community of their dreams - custom widgets, integrations, personalized experiences - without waiting in a dev queue. The people closest to the customer can finally shape the experience in real time. And with our new Skilljar integration, learning and community come together in a single Digital Customer Hub, so every interaction compounds into retention," Kuhl said.

Zoom is among the companies using Gainsight Customer Communities. It said it rebuilt its community experience over three months with a focus on customer self-service and peer support.

"With this next phase of our community, we're focused on making it more intuitive for customers to connect, contribute and get value faster," said Alexis Brown, Senior Manager, Web Experience and Global Community, Zoom.

"In just three months, we launched a highly customized community experience and the feedback from our internal teams, customers, partners and champions has been overwhelmingly positive, especially around how seamless the transition has been. Our north star is customer support, positioning the community as a tier-zero destination where customers can quickly self-serve, find answers and collaborate with global Zoom users. By encouraging peer-to-peer expertise and maintaining high-quality interactions, we're strengthening the overall Zoom ecosystem," Brown said.

ShipStation, which is owned by Auctane, also uses the platform. Its community team describes the site as a place for logistics operators and eCommerce sellers to exchange advice and feedback.

"Shipping operators don't just come to ShipStation for answers; they come to improve how they run their business," said Melanie Vastine, Senior Manager, Community, Auctane.

"We built our community space to encourage collaboration between logistics operators and eCommerce sellers. This allows them to grow alongside and learn from each other. By engaging with our customers in this space, we get an honest look at what's working and what's not. Sharing this feedback to the business shapes who we are and who we will become," Vastine said.

Learning link

The Skilljar tie-up appears particularly relevant for software companies that want to connect training activity with wider customer engagement. By placing course recommendations, certifications and onboarding content inside the community, suppliers may be able to keep users in one environment as they seek help or learn new features.

Cognite, another Gainsight customer, said the setup changed how it presents training to customers and partners.

"Integrating Skilljar with Gainsight Customer Communities has transformed how Cognite's customers and partners learn about our platform and engage with our team," said Anita Hæhre, Head of Community, Cognite.

"Instead of a disconnected training portal, we now surface targeted courses, certifications and onboarding paths directly in the community, so customers discover the right content in the flow of asking questions, exploring product best practices and connecting with peers. Since launch, we've seen higher course enrollments, stronger community engagement and more self-service case deflection," Hæhre said.