Podio Software

Pros

This product has the most minimalist and elegant display, it has so much feature which can be designed by ourselves to make our work space more efficient and simple. Other than that, Podio also helps our office to save the documents safely and make a better security system to our work space. I do love Podio since it also very useful to record and save our latest and newest documents. The security of Podio is a BIG YES.

Cons

It's a little bit difficult to add some friends. The profile page is also too short, so we can't improve our profile description in detail.

Pros

# very good to closely track & organize conversations in one place
# good workflows with the option for chat based conversations

Cons

# can improve a little bit on the reporting & visualization
# could made their design little more intuitive to make the learning curve easy

Pros

If you are in a dire need to customize apps in your project management system then Podio is the best answer to it. The app will help you to keep your project organized as well as doing customization based on your need. It is a mobile friendly application with analytic report feature.

Cons

Please take your time to understand how it works. Once you did it, you can do anything with podio. In addition, it would be better if we could print report in pdf instead of exporting XL files.

Pros

Easy to use and Fully Customized, So many features to makes you working effective. Best Place to collaboration in management the project

Cons

The server sometimes maintenance (rarely) also the security for free version is too risk. Recommended to buy Plus Version

Pros

Podio has been a huge help for the project management purposes as the platform offers highly customizable and flexible settings to adapt even the internal user interface to the requirements/characteristics of the project. What's more, the functionality and the adaption to the external apps as well as the useful add-ons give the platform more functionality that saves a lot of time and effort searching for those in another system.
For the smaller organizations, you can start with free plan/trial, however, if you want to take it seriously and benefit fully, I'd advise going for the paid versions.

Cons

There are few cons of the system. Sometimes it seems to be lagging and it's hard to determine whether it's due to the load it puts on the browser and the computer lags or the system as well as it's cloud-based.
What's more, for the new users, due to extended functionalities after some time of customization, it's hard to be easily acquired.

Pros

Very intuitive and easy to customize for any business. There is also a nice app market available for some good ideas.

Cons

The software is difficult to integrate using the api features. It’s also pretty locked down when it comes to other applications to integrate with.

Podio is powerful, indeed. I ranked it a bit lower than most as my focus has always been around small businesses. And Podio might simply be too much for that sector. But it does offer an impressive array of features that perhaps small businesses with lots of development background need. It seems to wrap too many features into one product and many organizations simply do not work this way. But the concept of keeping all this functionality in one single place does make it appealing. Yet, there is much to be desired for regarding features in each category. Project Management, for example. It has features that are very common among competitors, but lacks features like milestones, issue tracking, defects, testing, epic and story hierarchies, etc. It simply does not provide the power one would expect from a solid project management functionality. Instead of ramping up these features, others are added, such as a CRM and financial features, etc. I would not entirely dismiss Podio, as it might be exactly what your organization's structure needs. Perhaps a quick test drive would do. I found it cumbersome for my small business, especially since I was already managing my clients using another CRM and my financials were being managed by another online application... keeping them all isolated and visible only to the required personnel.

Pros

Podio is feature rich and more aligned with larger companies with design and development teams. It offers a wide range of views to fit any and all your needs. Create and manage workspaces with ease. Podio is much more than just a project management tool. It offers the ability to track leads and clients with default or customizeable templates to display their details. Manage projects, portfolios and much more. With a focus on the creative (design) and development, Podio offers much more than one can ask for. It even offers an impressive library of APIs for customization and integrations. Track tasks with incredible details including time. Podio even gives you a place to track expenses. If your organization is looking for a product that keeps everything in one place, Podio might provide this for you.

Cons

Despite the rave reviews on the Pros, I believe that Podio is just too much for the average project management role. It feels as though it is trying to combine the features of a CRM, Financial System and Project Management product all in one place. Most organizations are simply not structured in a way that all these features should reside in one system. Perhaps it will work for some, which is why Podio does have a strong hold in the industry.

I despite my less than stellar score, it really is a useful system as long as you can figure out how to use it and you can ignore the constant bugs and poor UI.

Pros

Lots of ways to organize a project and collaborate with different companies/people. Surprisingly deep as far as what you can contribute to the project.

Cons

It's very buggy and often difficult to manage all the information. There is also a pretty steep learning curve to take advantage of all the features and very little help along the way.

Podio is a great tool to collaborate with your team in almost everything. Is flexible, so you can build a platform for your need. Is easy to store data, follow up on activities or even create polls.

Pros

Great platform to organize information.
Flexible to create different process.
Facility to code and create automated actions.
Great mobile app.
Easy to tag and followup on activities.

Cons

Is difficult to understand.
Not really user-friendly.
A lot of spam in the mail inbox from notifications.
Expensive.

Pros

You can customize nearly everything if you know what you're doing! Realy can expedite your workflow and keep you organized.

Cons

The user interface is simple, not sleek or attractive. Gets the job done, but isn't an iPhone in terms of attractiveness.

Pros

I like the ability to create your own widgets that fit your needs. I also like the ability to put project information all in one space and have custom fields to put information based on your needs.

Cons

It is not good for see all projects you have all at once. They are divided out by client/workspace. There is not way to have a master list of all projects across all workspaces.

Pros

It is web based, free for up to five users, and can be customized for any business case. The product is very easy to use once you get started.

Cons

Most everything needs to be customized to work for your business. There are modules/apps that can be integrated for free but even those will need some level of customization to work for you.

Pros

It's cheap, fairly easy to use, and customizable. It allows you to store a good amount of data discreetly into work space categories

Cons

Mass upload is a mess. Does not make relationships in the best way, and makes the data hard to pull. It also lacks good reporting.

Pros

From an organizational standpoint, Podio allows you to sort/filter many different fields and allows you to customize your fields.

Cons

Biggest complaint from our customers is the UI isn't very user friendly.
Should have a white label domain option.
Share feature - the way its programmed - is annoying.

Likes Best

The ease and ability to customize and develop this platform is what makes this product superior to all of the others that we've tried. We currently have 5-6 entirely different use cases for Podio in our company from tracking heavy equipment to talent development to the RSVP management system for our company parties and picnics.
It really is ridiculously simple to create a workspace with workflows and reporting views. It is also extremely helpful that the cost of the licensing is so low and the terms of the licensing are flexible. I can't say that I've had to deal with Podio as a vendor other than the initial set-up because the product has run so smoothly.

Likes Least

I wish that the reporting was a bit more robust. In the past, our team has wanted to do some projection reporting and Podio just doesn't seem equipped to do what we are looking for.

Recommendations

Keep in mind that the workspaces are what you make them. Workspaces can become disorganized quickly if you are merging custom created apps with apps that are available on the app market.
Make a plan of what you need out of the workspace before you go into it, and don't be afraid to edit and prune as you go along.

Likes Best

The level of customization is amazing, and really makes Podio an incredibly versatile tool. Even with the mid-level plus pricing plan, we've utilized custom workspaces for a large variety of use cases throughout our company. The team at Podio also releases updates fairly often, which is great to see. Almost every update has added value to how we use the application.

It's obvious that the Podio team has put a lot of work into what they have released thus far. The quality is great, and I can't think of anything that doesn't work properly or that feels messy. I'm confident that new features they release in the future will be just as well polished.

Likes Least

The number one limitation to Podio is the lackluster permission structure. On one hand, it has really forced us to create truly collaborative and transparent workspaces. However, it has also made it /impossible/ to use Podio for certain more sensitive applications. It is also incredibly annoying that there isn't an overall admin group for the total organization. We have multiple admins for our Podio organization (who help create and maintain workspaces), and each of us have to be added to every workspace as an admin in order to maintain the system. This means that our feeds get spammed with activity from every workspace, making it pretty useless for our own needs. It also bloats some of our workspaces, and makes it tricky to maintain stuff.

In the plus price level, reports are kind of a joke. I believe they get a lot better in the higher plans, but plus level reports are almost useless.

Recommendations

Try out the free version with limited users just to make sure that the application is something you will be able to work with. It also helps you practice making custom workspaces and learning how everything connects. Once you have the handle on it and are ready to make an investment, go for the plus plan at least. Workflows are a must if you want to get the full use out of Podio, and it's pretty critical to have them.

Likes Best

Podio, is quite user friendly. No matter you level of computer skills, this products is easily learnable. We have created multiple work spaces on this platform which have help drive many business functions and solutions for recruitment, sales, and other business needs.

Likes Least

The high and low of Podio is it truly is a blank canvas. At time this can get time consuming in the end you definitely have something that will make your business function more efficient.

Recommendations

I would recommend looking through some of the premade work spaces on the platform. Our company was built a custom work space but this may not be the approach your business needs to take. Podio offers a great amount of assistance either way.

Likes Best

I like the fact that it is easy to use - you can get a new team member started on Podio right away. Other software takes time to train someone, but Podio works well for new members of the team from the start.

Likes Least

Sometimes it can be a challenge to convince teams to use Podio for all Project Management needs. We still have a few team members using emails or trying to create an Excel sheet to track progress. Once we get them on Podio and they're comfortable with it, they will use it all the time.

Recommendations

Convince the team that they need the Podio software and don't allow them to use email or Excel to manage their projects. Tell them that they must use Podio.

Likes Best

Podio is a great asynchronous project and team management tool that is sure to keep your team focused, to improve transparency, and to accomplish much more that is anticipated. The support staff is eager to assist, and there are plenty of tutorials to help get you started.

Likes Least

The only negative component to Podio is how the workspaces and apps work with members. To be used as an effective CRM tool, the relationships need to work better.

Recommendations

If you are looking for an easy to modify project management tool, then Podio is definitely a great choice that can be set up quickly and embraced warmly by your team.