Upcoming Changes to Podio Free - 2019
There have been further updates to Podio Free in 2022. Check out details here.
At the end of 2017 we stood at 750 million items created and today we have crossed a new big milestone to reach 1 billion items created - this is 1 billion projects, deliverables, clients, tickets and so much more. Thank you for your support in this amazing journey.
While we are glad to be creating value for customers, our product usage is scaling aggressively and it demands better performance optimization, which is a good problem to have.
In 2018 we focused on enhancing stability and scalability for Podio and we had to let go of many feature enhancements in lieu of that. On the same lines, we are now introducing a limit on the number of items that can be created in an organization on free plan. This way we would be able to create more value for our customers who are paying for their subscriptions.
New Item Limit Policy
An organization (org) on a free plan, can create up to 500 items in total, across its workspaces and apps. Once an organization reaches the 500 item limit, it will need to upgrade to any one of the paid plans or else it will enter the edit-only mode and eventually get locked. Please note here, if a user has both paid and free organizations and he crosses the 500 item limit for the free org, then his access will only be locked for the free org and there would be no impact on the paid org.
The existing free and paid features will remain the same.
What happens to the existing free organizations that already have more than 500 items?
We are providing all existing organizations a 30 days notice before we release the limit to them between mid-late January 2019. Organizations can use this 30 day notice period to either upgrade their plan for uninterrupted access or take backup and delete some items to come below the 500 limit. On rolling out this limit, all organizations that are above the 500 limit, will enter the edit-only mode where they can view, edit, export and delete their data but cannot create new items. They will have another 30 days in this edit-only mode to upgrade their plan before their account gets locked out.
What is the edit-only mode?
On reaching the 500 item limit for an organization, its users will have access to their data on an edit-only mode for 30 days where they can view, edit, export and delete their data but cannot create new items. It is possible to delete old items to get below the 500 item limit and thereby be able to create new items again.
What happens to the Data for a Locked Account
If an organization does not upgrade even after 30 days in the edit-only mode, then the organization account will get locked and users will lose access to their data on Podio for that organization. They will need to upgrade to paid to access data or reach out to Podio support for further assistance. As per Policy, Podio will store the data for an inactive free user account for 13 months, post which, all the data will be deleted.
Communication
We understand that right and timely communication is the key to such plan changes. So we are sending out this plan change details to all users now, giving a 30 days timeline to all organizations that are already above the 500 limit to make necessary changes to their plan before the limit gets applicable for them.
In addition to offline communication, there will also be in-app communication in the form of banners and paywall modals that would warn the user on exceeding 80% of the item limit and block creation of new item on reaching the 100% limit.
Release Plan
- New free sign-ups will get the new paywalls starting early January 2019 - Released
- Existing free organizations will get the new paywalls late January 2019 - Postponed to 4th Feb 2019
- New Item Limit further changes to 100 items for free organisations - Check details here. - Release starting 17th Oct 2022
If you have questions or concerns about the upcoming change, please reach out to our team here.
Stay tuned for more updates on when the feature goes live. We are looking forward to supporting your business in the future, and offering more value for our paid customers in 2019.
Thank you.
/Pallabi - Product Manager
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Even if it’s very sad for us to lose the free account status of PODIO, I understand your arguments.
You should anyhow change also the conditions on your website “Free version features “ (https://help.podio.com/hc/en-us/articles/201018918-Free-version-features) as soon as possible, in order to avoid that others enter a free account without knowing these new facts.
I take the opportunity to wish to the entire team of PODIO a merry Christmas and a happy new Year.
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Last words to Podio from our site:
Again we had no problem with paying for a good service (what we did for years!!!), but what you did to your paying and free clients during the last 12 month with all these restrictions is a shame and unprofessional.
My personal opinion? I give this platform another 5 years maximum. then they will announce that clients have 30 days to download date because Podio is down and out. all customers here should keep that in mind when new decisions need to be done about Podio.
It was a great time of more then 8 years here but it looks to me that the future will become a debacle. Good luck all!
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@Michiel Haverlag: Please refer to our pricing page https://podio.com/site/pricing for details on the various paid plans. We will be publishing the item limit details on the page before we release the limit out to users.
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You cannot say "Free forever.." and then say "Hey.. the fact that you are posting your thoughts on this forum proves !! that we have been delivering value to you..gotcha !!! we are relevant to you.. you can't deny it ! .. so now we will have to BREAK our promise, simply because our promise was not sustentable..." That "value" you are talking about, was actually generated by OUR investment of time and our work, by investing time in using Podio as a tool. ( we could have been investing our time in other tools instead, but.. as you promised "free forever up to 5 users..." Guess what: Here we are ! So you are actually doing "negotiations" using OUR time investment in your tool ( because of the seduction of your promise ), as an advantage for your finances..
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So... let's resume this. You're mainly saying that you're limiting to 500 items per organisation on free plan because you've reached 1 billion milestone. And you're using Amazon Web Service for hosting data and managing scalability...
It feels to me like a fallacious technical argument for justifying a commercial strategy.
But it's ok, this is how this world works.
:'(
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It is totally an act of abuse of power. I feel cheated. I have brought many companies to use the service, because I dedicate myself to it, to teach. This should have been noticed at the beginning ... not at the end. The same will be his fall. The big ones go up like palm trees, but they fall like coconuts. I will look for a real open source to migrate and recommend it to the more than 35 client that I have brought to do so. I FEEL CHEATED! Google apps allowed you to create 50 accounts at the beginning ... they did not erase them ... after starting to charge ... You are going to erase our work for more than 3 years? They are geniuses. I hope many people read this message. FREE PODIUM IS DECEPTION.
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Saying you want to create more value by taking away value from other users is one of the most ill-conceived growth plans I’ve ever heard. Maybe you should try to create value and gain new paid customers by actually creating and adding valuable features that users have been requesting over and over for years, instead of by disabling your current platform and pushing away potential paid customers.
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Thanks for your follow up.
We really appreciate that it doesn't concern non-profit organisations that are grandfathered. Thanks for that.
Because we are a bit solidaire, I would just stress that the change you proceed now in users' conditions is not really a change of price (which can be done with one month notice in accordance with your policy and is fine) but a basic customer-provider relations conditions. Most of companies (at least in Europe) will give a notice of three months for this kind of change...
But again, thanks for keeping non-profit out of this jam.
Merry Christmas, if you celebrate a such, and happy celebration of the end of year to all of you!
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As much as I've loved, and recommended, Podio, I'm appalled by this approach and even more appalled by the timing. Seriously? Y'all have to have been working on this for quite some time. To launch it during the holiday season is ridiculous and leaves many who depend on this tool with our butts hanging out over a ledge.
I don't object to paying for services...I DO, strenuously, object to a broken promise of "Free Forever."
Not cool. Not professional. Not conducive to recommendations for users (paid or otherwise). Why? Well, let's see, if you handle things this way on a regular basis, there is no way I would recommend Podio to anyone.
Based on my read of the current comments, please reconsider your position and MAYBE you'll be able to redeem what was, at one time, a great word-of-mouth group of recommenders.
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Just WOW!
I will leave Podio for another system for sure! Seeing that you are able to put me at that much risk within one day, I just can't stay here.
People, I've seen this before as I work with startups a lot. A new investor comes in. His money, his rules. He probably doesn't give a crap about the existing users and the promises made. He willingly sacrifices the free users for the greater target of pushing turnover. That's business. Well. Don't understimate a shitstorm, Citrix.
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There could be better solutions.. if the problem is storage growing.. Just imagine this: Free account ? , 100Mb files limit per month. File storage Problem solved. That approach, could let the developer limit file storage grow, but also let free users "manage" their use of podio, maybe limiting the use/sharing of file "inside" Podio , etc. Maybe Podio could try that first ? ...
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One of the biggest issues that isn't being talked about is the pricing MODEL.
I have 10 users. 8 of which barely use the app. They just have access to the "Employee Network" posts, direct messages and tasks. They don't even use the apps so they don't count towards the 5 user max for the free model.
I've always been willing to pay a reasonable amount... but to move from free to (a minimum of) $90 per month is prohibitively expensive for us so we've just had to stick with free.
Podio need to give more thought to affordability... eg having a cheaper price for their "light" users... I could justify having my whole team paying $2 or $3 per month even if they barely use the app... plus a couple of power users a $9 or $14 or whatever. That would be more reasonable.
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I pay for Podio (since 2012-13 I think), so this change won affect me directly, but exactly because I am paying I think I should make some comments here:
No one should be surprised. Since Podio became part of Citrix focus moved from product/customer to shareholders. Before that, it was exciting to read the Podio Blog announcing all the new features and improvements. Since the takeover innovation and product, improvements have been on par with what you would expect from a government bureaucracy.
We started with a free plan and ended up moving to a paid plan for user management and because back than Podio was actually a kind of unique product providing value. If this still was true, this announcement would not be necessary as people would eventually end up with paid plans.
Our organisation has already decided to move partly away from Podio by April, which brings me to the last point I would like to make: Timing. Again I am not affected, but the fact that we plan for a transition of 4 months tells you 30+30 days is too short.
I do not even want to mention the timing of the announcement. You would think that is just 101 PR.
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Hi @Glenn,
To answer your question related to pricing model - in Podio you only pay for members in workspaces, if you have team members only using the employee network, tasks and chat they will be free - even in the paid version.
Hope this helps! In this way, you only pay for members in workspaces using the app.
Hi @Albert,
Podio has been a part of Citrix since 2012. We launched from beta in 2011, became a part of Citrix in 2012 and therefore most of the new enhancements offered the last 7 years has been within the Citrix family. Last big block has been the acquisition of GlobiFlow in 2017 as an add-on to Podio: http://www.globiflow.com/
Thanks for your feedback.
//Sara - Podio
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Hi @David,
1. I am checking on the delay. We will have a Podio team member assist you at the earliest.
2. You are receiving the email notifications, because by commenting here, you have started following this post. This ensures you receive replies and stay updated with this news item. If you still want to opt out from email notifications for this news item, you can click the "Unfollow" button shown on the top right for this post.
//Pallabi - Podio
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If and when this "item limit" policy seeps into the paid plans, my company will be parting ways with Podio. While this particular move does not affect us directly, it does reveal a continuing corporate trend. This is another massively disappointing blow to the software that we have relied upon for the better part of a decade. We are now down to our final justification for continuing disbursements for Podio: Storage capacity. Even with the brilliant automation, if an "item limit" is implemented, Podio will fail to be a viable solution for our company's software needs.
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As I wanted to extract data before I clean up my Podio account, I ended up creating a tool and releasing it as open source.
If you have any need for it, you can find it here: https://podio-export.github.io
I did my best to make it useful to others and (time permitting) would be happy to support any users looking help or changes to the tool.
Happy Holidays to all!
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Hi there,
I would like to upgrade to BASIC plan.
There are 5 employees in in my organisation, but 3 of them are already not with the agency. Now if I want to upgrade to BASIC plan I am offered to pay for 5 employees, but I would only like to pay for 2 which are actively involved in my organisation.
What should I do? Should I delete those 3 employees? What will happen after I delete them? What will happen to all the information they added? Will the information stay in Podio?
Thanks for your help.
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I must agree with most comments here. the timing was the worst ever, free up to 500 items across all workspaces and apps?! where is the free forever part? this is a free trial not a free plan
i could understand if you chose to limit storage space and would pay for extra storage but the way you've annouce this major changes says a lot about company goals and conduct. i was a podio user before Citrix and as many others recommended podio to another companies but after all these years sadly i'll leave podio.
Has been a plesure Podio Team. Farewell.
Does anyone already found some similar app to podio where you can easily build your own apps and wont charge fortunes? Thanks for your help
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Guys I'm not gonna advocate leaving Podio foolishly. But if it hurts you and your people to not use this SaaS with the changes, then leave. You have Facebook for Workplace, Zoho, Quickbase and Appian amongst others. Push comes to shove use Appsheet. Podio isn't the only platform you can use. It's not the only free platform either.
The biggest issue I see amongst most posters is that utilization and possibly retention of Podio is already at a low. So why continue to invest money, time and energy if you don't reap a benefit?
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Hi @Jakub Ruzicka @Gabe Cinquepalmi,
You need not pay for all the users you have in Podio currently. Podio has a concept of internal employee users and external client users. A company domain can be attached to your organization to distinguish between employee and external members. Please reach out to our team at https://podio.com/webforms/22006262/1540226 They will help you transition to a paid plan in the best way so that you do not need to pay for users you created earlier, who do not use Podio now.
Thanks for sharing your concern.
//Pallabi - Podio
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Contact from you all in regards to my options has been very slow considering the deadline you all gave. I was contacted and then I emailed back and then its crickets. If you are going to give such a tight deadline for this, your sales team needs to return emails and phone calls asap!
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Hi Erin, I am very sorry for the delay. I have asked our sales team to follow up with you asap. If you have not heard back today, please let me know at sara@podio.com and I will assist you in person.
Cheers,
Sara - Head of Product
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