Citrix Podio CRM Review 2023: Pricing, Features, Pros & Cons

This Citrix Podio review will once and for all settle the question “is Podio worth it?” 

Launched back in 2012, the modular, app-based CRM platform has a lot of built-in flexibility. It can do project, task, and contact management across a wide range of business use cases.

The following text will look at Podio pricing plans, free plans, tools and features, pros and cons, as well as review Podio’s customer support. 

Citrix Podio review 2023: Is Podio any good?

This Podio CRM review definitely answers the question with a strong answer in the affirmative. The platform is easy to use and tailor to different applications. Its unique app-based setup lets you drag and drop the features you need into your workspace, so you can quickly build bespoke workflows.

Podio ranks among the best project management tools out there. Relatedly, it’s also up there in the category of top collaboration software, so it’s certainly one SaaS tool to consider. 

To learn more, read on.

Podio pricing plans 

First of all, how much does Podio cost? Let’s first review Podio prices:

How much does Podio cost for nonprofits?

Podio offers a 10% discount to nonprofits and charitable organizations through what they call sponsorship plans. Startups can also get a 10% discount for their first year of app use. Students can apply to use Podio for free to run school clubs, associations, and/or manage their own personal work.

Are there any Podio software coupon codes or promo discount vouchers?

We went ahead and did all the research, and it seems there are no Podio coupon codes or discount vouchers at this time. 

That’s too bad, but what can you do? You might venture out to 3rd-party promotional coupon sites and find voucher codes for Podio. However, it is always one hundred percent advisable to check directly with Citrix or Podio if these are legitimate and still valid.
 

Podio free vs paid: what’s the difference?

Citrix Podio offers a free plan and that is never something to turn your nose up at, right? So what’s the deal here?

Unlike the paid plans which are based on the number of users, the Podio free plan is only good for up to 5 users max. The Podio free version gets you task management as well as a range of Podio apps to add to your Podio workspaces.

What you are lacking in the free plan of Podio are unlimited items and unlimited external users. You don’t get user management, nor automated workflows. Only the most expensive Podio plan offers visual reports, interactive dashboards, and advanced features for workflow automation. 

In the end, the free plan here is mostly good for really small teams or startups with really simple projects, or, as a way to test out the Podio platform before committing to a paid plan, especially as it appears that there are no free trials.

Podio overview: what is Podio & what is Podio used for?

Citrix Podio is a series of tools and features to plan projects, manage tasks, share files and documents, and to let teams big and small collaborate and communicate. The Podio system achieves this in several ways, with the most important and unique features being the Podio apps and Podio workspace tools.

With Podio, teams can work together in a more streamlined manner. It helps spot and avoid mistakes or oversights that could otherwise halt progress if not resolved. It’s ideal for planning costs, budgets, timeframes and deadlines, as well as assigning roles and permissions to everyone in a team involved in a project, or even for outside stakeholders as well.

Finally, Podio is perfect for automating away simple but common tasks with easy to set up workflows, thereby making work much less annoying for your team.

Podio features list 

The main features of Podio are:

• Podio apps

• Podio workspaces

• Team collaboration tools

• Task management

• File sharing

• Calendar tools

• Automated workflows 

• Podio webforms

• Analytics and reporting

• Podio mobile apps

• Integrations and API

1. Podio apps

Think of Podio like a project and team management buffet or app market where you can choose from a variety of Podio apps. The Podio apps have simple drag and drop functionality to make them easy to set up and use. The range of Podio apps for Podio users is quite large, and what’s more, many of these apps work seamlessly together.

Some examples in the Podio app market include the following: a text app for note making, a category app for labeling, sorting and filtering, and a relationship app for linking the data from other Podio apps together. 

There’s a money app to record transactions, a map app to embed Google Maps locations into your records, and a duration app which is great for time tracking, budget tracking and more calculations.
 

2. Podio workspaces

Podio workspaces is one of the many amazing ways Podio helps as a project management software using unified dashboards and project templates. One can consider that each project a team will undertake gets its own Podio workspace to run the project and all its tasks and assignments. 

Here, all team members can communicate and collaborate as well as link together all the individual and integrated Podio apps each team member is using.

There are three kinds of Podio workspaces: The first is an open workspace that is the most broad, letting employees, managers and even third party outside stakeholders to take part with various permission settings, though this is not fully public; the private workspaces are good for a small number of members and uses an ‘invite only’ system, where only invitees are even aware this project exists. 

Finally there is the employee workspace that is mostly used for bringing together all the employees within a single corporation or organization, and often works by collecting everyone using the same email domain. 
 

3. Team collaboration tools

Just as equally as Podio is a project management tool and task management solution, so too is it a team collaboration and communication system. One of the advantages is the way Podio lets teams reduce mixups when communicating via confusing email threads and other channels with the Podio social activity streams. 

Each Podio workspace comes with an activity stream which chronologically lists all member activities within a workspace or project. Some of the main tools within activity streams include: status posts and liked posts; member commenting with texts, images, files and links; Podio chat between individuals and groups as well as audio and video messaging.

Additionally, Podio teams can leverage Podio Meetings for more advanced group meeting functionality. This integrates with GoToMeetings where you can organize and launch GoToMeetings from inside the Podio platform. 
 

4. Task management

Project management can be said to be the culmination of task management, and Podio users can take advantage of a series of task tools. You can break down your tasks into more manageable to-do list items. You can use a personal task manager as a day planner and add labels and priority settings. 

Podio also lets team members or workspace collaborators arrange shared tasks.

Recurring tasks are another important tool with Podio. You can set up automated recurring tasks based on durations of time, or arrange to get follow-up reminders as notifications that a recurring task is coming up. 
 

5. File sharing

A team collaboration system needs to have document management and file sharing to keep all users on the same page. With Podio, files can be shared via tasks, in status posts, in messages, or within other relevant Podio apps. 

For more advanced features related to file sharing, you can integrate your Podio account with other tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, ShareFile, Box, HighTail, and Microsoft OneDrive.
 

6. Calendar tools

Working with Podio to arrange calendar issues is great because there is quite a bit of customization allowed. One can set it up to view tasks, deadlines and events just for the individual, or to see an overview of all calendar data within a department or organization.

There are two calendar options: a personal calendar zeroes in on your tasks within a larger Podio workspace, and can highlight high priority things like meetings or coming deadlines; meanwhile the workspace calendar is for larger projects and workspaces. 

You can also integrate it with your own apps for calendar functionality like Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook Calendar, or iCal.
 

7. Automated workflows 

With Podio, you can set up automations and workflows without having to have much of a background in computer coding. Automated workflows then allow individuals and teams to find repeating administrative tasks and let Podio take care of them so the human employees don’t have to. 

Podio’s workflow builder functions using ‘if-this-then-that’ logic so you can set up automatons like, when a task is created or completed, send an automated follow-up notification to all team members tagged.
 

8. Podio webforms

Podio lets you create webforms and embed these directly onto your website. Webforms are powerful tools to attract new contacts and help capture their data. 

Webforms can be used to get people to register for a newsletter or other promotional material. They are also effective for CTAs, for example: ‘contact us’ or ‘find out more.’  
 

9. Analytics and reporting

Podio makes it easy to capture all your activity data and analyze it in real-time. This can include information on how long tasks take to complete, how many tasks are assigned to individuals or teams, whether your deliverables are meeting expectations, and how well a project is staying on budget.

By collecting this data from a range of Podio apps, Podio users can have a better idea of efficiency and costs to help plan future projects with fewer miscalculations regarding timing, workloads, and budgets.
 

10. Podio mobile apps

You can download a Podio mobile app for iOS and iPhone from the App Store or for Android from the Google Play store. These mobile apps are designed in such a way as to optimize the Podio workspace experience on the go.

With Podio mobile apps, you can track and manage your activity streams, get notifications and reminders, as well as get access to all your files, documents and media.  
 

11. Integrations and API

Podio makes its API public for developers to use and build more functions on top of their platform. You can see the wrappers for  PHP, NET, Ruby, Java, and Python, as well as all SDKs for mobile which include Objective-C (iOS and OSX) and Android.

When it comes to integrations, there are a good handful of native out-of-the-box integrations, some mentioned earlier like ShareFile, Dropbox and GoToMeeting, and others like Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Zendesk, and Microsoft Exchange. You can also use extensions, for example, SmartGantt is an extension for creating quick Gantt charts. 

Email integrations let you connect your email to any Podio app, task, or activity stream. Finally, with a connector tool like Zapier, you can integrate with other project management systems like Asana, and Basecamp, or to social media sites like LinkedIn.

Podio pros and cons

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of Podio:
 

Podio advantages

The first benefit of Podio is its ease of use. Many task and project management apps fail because they are not user friendly enough which means the people meant to use these platforms don’t fully buy in and take advantage of that. Podio’s ease of use solves this.

Another advantage is the free plan which lets freelancers and small businesses test out Podio before committing to buying anything. That’s always a pro, as is clearly laying out the pricing plans for the more premium packages.

Podio’s system of Podio apps and Podio workspaces, along with their activity stream tools, really give this solution an advantage over similar software.

Finally, Podio’s low-code workflow builder is pretty amazing to work with and is a clear Podio pro.
 

Podio disadvantages

The drawbacks of Podio are few and far between. One con of Podio is the lack of a robust template library, though you can get many templates to work with Podio via integrations.

Another Podio disadvantage regards automated workflows, which are an excellent tool, but the con here is that you need the Plus plan to get basic workflow functionality, and the most expensive Premium plan to get the advanced workflow features.

If this is a deal-breaker for you, we suggest exploring popular alternatives, such as ClickUp. In fact, you can read our Podio vs ClickUp comparison to make a well-informed decision.
 

Podio complaints & praise (from real Podio customer reviews)

There is not an overwhelming number of online reviews of Podio. The more positive Podio reviews often mention similar things to what we’ve noted in this text, the ease of use, the free plan and the Podio apps. 

Some online reviewers also praise the task management and to-do list features, as well as the team collaboration tools and communication tools.

Now for the negative Podio reviews. While we did mention Podio has good ease of use, that is mostly after you’ve climbed up that learning curve, which online reviewers sometimes say can be steep. 

What’s more, reviews of Podio that list drawbacks also frequently mention that it is not so simple to get good customer service when needed.

Review of Podio support

Podio tasks all of its employees with helping out with customer support, including support reps, sales staff and developers. The Podio help center includes a ‘getting started’ and a ‘using Podio’ list of articles, video tutorials, webinars, and a Podio user community.  

Is Podio worth it? Our conclusion

So let’s answer that burning question: Is Podio worth it? The answer is, it sure is. And why not? If you are still unsure, check out the free version for a bit maybe. You may consider some Podio alternatives as well to see what else is out there. 

The truth is, if you need some solid task and project management, as well as team collaboration tools, Podio has got you covered, throwing decent low-code workflows into the toolkit too.

Is Citrix Podio a great system for any industry? Is it equally as useful for a B2B software company as it is for the real estate or construction industries? Well, that all depends on the specific business in question, and nobody is better at knowing your business than you are, dear reader.