Populi

RATING:

4.5

(60)

About Populi

Populi is a cloud-based school management solution that caters to small and midsize colleges and provides them the tools and functionalities to manage their administrative operations and routines. Key features include a learning management solution, auto calculates Pell Grants, an online donation module and more. Populi offers users the capability to store documents in various formats, such as spreadsheets, video, audio and pictures. It also features student information system, online admission system, streaming media server and more. Populi can be accessed only through SSL-encrypted connections. It also prevents different types of data loss with the help of backups in real-time that are stored in a centralized location. Additionally, Populi allows its users t...

Populi Pricing

$199 per month for unlimited faculty and staff + $7 per month per billable student

Starting price: 

$199.00 per month

Free trial: 

Available

Free version: 

Not Available

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Populi Reviews

Overall Rating

4.5

Ratings Breakdown

Secondary Ratings

Ease-of-use

4.5

Customer Support

4.5

Value for money

4.5

Functionality

4.5

Most Helpful Reviews for Populi

1 - 5 of 59 Reviews

User Profile

Kristen

Verified reviewer

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed May 2018

Great all-in-one SIS

PROS

This software is very intuitive, and staff, faculty and students have gotten completely up to speed in a very short period of time. Being hosted on the web means students and staff can log in from anywhere with any device and backups are taken care of automatically. The built in LMS features are really robust and have eliminated the need for google classroom, survey monkey, and other fixes we had been using. I am also very impressed with the built in reporting; there are preset reports for clearinghouse, IPEDS, retention etc.. and the ad-hoc reporting tool allows for almost unlimited custom reporting. The support staff team are very kind and responsive, and the data conversion from our old system was virtually painless. When searching for a new SIS we interviewed over 8 firms and are very glad we settled on Populi.

CONS

There are very few things we have found that we wanted that the system was not already set up to do, but for these you can always suggest product enhancements to the support team.

Anonymous

11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed August 2020

A solid, straightforward choice for higher-education relationship management

Populi is a terrific platform for integrating various data silos across your organization. We moved from a number of different databases into Populi recently, and the combination of all of our information in one place has streamlined our communication process with incoming students and allowed us to more easily collaborate in helping students through processes like enrollment and financial aid. We've struggled with finding some features at times, and in the case of marketing automation, we've discovered that Populi's system isn't quite fully-featured enough for our needs. The UI, also, has a dated feel. Nevertheless, it's a solid, stable platform that gives us integrated access to our contacts.

PROS

Populi is very straightforward, and makes it relatively easy to manage a high number of complex relationships with contacts Tracking a contact from first inquiry through to alumni donor is very simple Contacting contacts directly from within Populi works more smoothly than the communication platforms on some competitors Support is extremely useful and quick

CONS

The automation platform is time-based and lacks some of the triggers and sophistication available in competitors Some features are hidden inside of layers behind the straightforward UI, and it can be frustrating to track them down Sometimes, a seemingly simple feature will be missing, and require extensive conversations with support. Support is top-notch and very helpful, but it can be annoying if you prefer to do things yourself.

Reasons for switching to Populi

Largely for convenience. One department used Salesforce, others used a variety of solutions. Populi was something we could all agree on.

Ozlen

Used free trial

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

2

EASE OF USE

2

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

3

Reviewed January 2016

You get what you pay for and perhaps a little less!

Pros Easy to register, add students, course scheduling. Fast customer service however, not very satisfying responds. Cons It is not user friendly, very difficult to customize features. Even sending emails to selected students is a hassle. Adding meeting times to courses is awfully difficult and annoying. If you are a new, small institution and need statistics / have to be able to pull out a data any minute when requested I would not recommend this product. Our application information wasn't transferring to system and we found out after customer service that our application was not set right. The reason for that is Populi updated their admissions feature a while ago but our applications were not adopted to new system. So I had to enter age, gender, address, email etc manually for the each student in the system to be able to have an accurate data. No help offered for an error caused by their own management system! Again reporting features lack accuracy and not customizable. For accreditation purposes I found this system not reliable, I will start looking for alternatives.

Vendor Response

Hi Ozlen, I didn't realize how frustrated you were after our conversation yesterday! My apologies. I don't remember discussing your difficulties emailing students or adding meeting times. I'd be happy to hop back on the phone to go over that with you! Regarding applications, its true that we updated admissions a couple of years ago and released a bunch of new features. Applications that were set up before that time have to be tweaked to take advantage of the new features, but I'd be happy to schedule a time to work through that with you. I think there were only a few fields that needed to be tweaked, but lets set up a time and we can make sure its good to go! Again, I'm sorry that you've had a frustrating experience. We'll be in touch to see if we can win back your loyalty! Sincerely, Isaac Grauke, CEO Populi

Replied January 2016

Martin

Higher Education, 51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed April 2020

Best SIS system for smaller colleges that we have used

We couldn't be happier. Our sales contact gave us multiple demos of the different modules, trained us and was there for us during every step of the implementation. Everything was done remotely but it works well and there is no additional cost, which is extraordinary. I have helped implement three different SIS systems and the data transfer to Populi was the most efficient and painless I have experienced. The customer support is responsive and goes above and beyond what I expected. Overall they seem to really care about our success and we enjoy working with them.

PROS

It's designed by people who obviously understand the needs of a higher education institution. It is easy to use, intuitive, flexible and fast. You don't have to find ways to work-around problem areas, it just works amazingly well. The integrated LMS is smooth and very capable. The integration of the different modules e.g. student billing and financial aid, is seamless. The customer support is amazing. The implementation costs are next to zero.

CONS

It is designed to be simple to use so reporting and security permissions are not as flexible as our previous system. We have adapted to that though because the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. The customer support team also run customized reports for us when we need them and they are constantly making improvements to the system.

Reasons for switching to Populi

Our old system was end of life. We retained Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge for our fundraising but we wanted a system that was very strong on the academic management side (SIS), that was hosted in the cloud, that would work well with an LMS and was reasonably priced. Populi ticked all those boxes. After a very quick implementation, and using the system for two semesters now, we are very happy that we switched to Populi.

Amanda

Higher Education, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed September 2021

Great Customer Service and Product for Small Businesses

I have enjoyed Populi. Great team, great price, and a product that works great for our very small online higher education institution.

PROS

Populi's customer support is first class. They are always so friendly and willing to talk through any of my issues or road blocks. They teach me how to do it and why things are done that way so I can make the best decision for our school. The cost of Populi is also a great asset because we are a small online non profit institution and having a reasonably priced product really helps us with our small budget. Finally, we love the integration with Canvas. It helps our Registrar and Librarian with term set up and course enrollments.

CONS

At this time, I don't have too many cons. Most of the time when something isn't working, I just call into Customer Support and one of their representatives is able to work with me to find a solution to our problem.

Reason for choosing Populi

Not applicable.

Reasons for switching to Populi

Cost and available features.