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Upcoming Changes to Podio Free

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 

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

Pallabi Patnaik

Official comment

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Hi All,

Thanks for all your feedback and expressing your concerns. The fact that we have all of you posting your thoughts on this forum proves that you are active users of Podio and we are glad that we have been delivering value to you. We definitely do not want to lose our customer focus and lose you all, our valuable customers associated with us for years now. But at the same time, we believe if one is really deriving value out of a tool, they would not mind paying for it, and hence, this decision of ours. 

Please find below our response to the FAQs and concerns posted so far:

Is this too short a notice for pricing change?

30 days is our standard notice period for pricing changes for existing customers and that is what we have followed here. I acknowledge your concern regarding the holidays and that is the reason why we are planning to push this Live to existing customers (especially the ones with high item count) only in late January so that you all get enough time, close to a month post-Christmas to make the necessary arrangements.

In addition, even after the limit is Live, you get 30 more days in edit-only mode for you to view data, take data back-up or delete data to go below the 500 count in case you do not want to upgrade to a paid version. So in total we are providing a minimum of 60 days’ notice before you lose access to your data online.

What are we referring to as an item for the 500 limit?

As rightly pointed out by some of you, only an item entry into an app contributes to the 500 limit calculation. Tasks created or attachments added to an item do not count as separate item entries. Calendar entries on the other hand could contribute to the item count as they result because of items entries made in calendar/meeting apps. ‘Item’ is an intricate terminology for Podio and hence we did not elaborate on it earlier. Find out more about what is an item here.

How to get your org’s current item count?

We are working on a solution to help users easily check the app item count for their organisation in Podio. We expect this to be released before the item limit goes live for our existing customers. You can reach out to our sales team https://podio.com/webforms/22006262/1540226 - and we are able to help share your current item count, so as to help you plan your further course of action in the upgrade process.

Will the item limit be applicable on non-profit organisations?

No, all non-profit organisations that are grandfathered into a sponsored non-profit plan will not be affected by this change. Only people using the free version will be affected but we can offer non-profit discount for you to upgrade to a paid plan on a good discounted rate.

Please reach out to our sales team at https://podio.com/webforms/22006262/1540226 to have us check your account details and let you know if this change affects you in any way. 

Thank you for your feedback and support!

Pallabi Patnaik
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124 comments

29
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This is a big change and a short deadline.
I remember back then, when you started, when this free version was a help to the small teams cause Podio started as a small team.
Well now it should be called Trial version cause a small team of 3 or 4 members, working daily on Podio, can easily reach 500 items.
This seems an unplanned move, not considering old users. You could have gotten the same results with an inactivity rule.

In any case, congratulations for your product.

Theodore Caravellas 29 votes
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Thank you for the heads up, a few questions:

  1. how does this affect charity/non-profits accounts?
  2. where can we see ow many items we have created?

Thank you,

M

Mario 19 votes
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Hi there, is there a way for our customers and ourselves to see if they are above limits overall?

Spyros Tzortzis 7 votes
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30 days notice, just before Christmas vacations, for all organization to review existing solutions, alternatives, and maybe migrate... is this really the way you do business with your existing (or future) customers?

I would have gone for a paid plan if you at least gave us time to think about it. Now, as I know that you can put us in trouble in less than 15 days, I will seriously re-consider my opinion...

Benoit Le Callennec 46 votes
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Where can we find the exact pricing details?
So the free 5 users suddenly become 5 x 9 $ per month???
I hope you will soon work on the bulk editing mode if we need to pay for the service :-)

Michiel Haverlag 7 votes
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Hi, following your announcement, how could I see number of items my organisation (org) on a free plan has preferable across its workspaces and apps?

DPO SME 8 votes
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(I'm a very casual user) , aghh, now I have to pay money. :-). The horror... The horror. Love your app guys. Keep up the brilliant work! Yehaa!

James Trusler 0 votes
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Podio is a fantastic app and I'm happy to pay to use it, but 30 days to deal with this change is woefully inadequate notice (and over holiday period when people are away too).

 

Glenn Huther 12 votes
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I understand your reasoning behind that and appreciate very much the fact that I've been able to use this platform for free for my unfunded charitable mini-organisation. I have recommended Podio to a number of funded research-groups for their work, in appreciation. However, had I know that there was this possible decision, I might have chosen to find an alternative but my work is now completely dependent on Podio and 30 days is not enough time to find and shift to a possible alternative. 

A couple of questions:

1. What exactly constitutes an item? Is it an entry in an app or do attachments count too?

2. How does one find out how many 'items' one has on the platform as a whole (is there any easy way to do that)? I'm unsure if my work is above the limit. 

I've contacted the linked question-area but left this here as these are issues that I think should be addressed in the information to users. 

Rupert Whitaker 29 votes
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We are using paid org for Maskoid Technologies. I am happy to read this announcement. I hope this help you serve paid customer better. I also suggest some major UI changes to make is even more user friendly. 

Azad Shaikh 1 vote
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11
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Timing isn't really great. My office closes tomorrow until 2nd January. Kind of eats into the 30 days I have to find a solution for my organisation...

Rhys Bearder 11 votes
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1
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Hi - where do I check the current number of items in our Podio?

(Fair you will charge your product - very short notice up to New Year - not fair)

Karsten Solaas 1 vote
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To all users who want to know how many Items, Apps & Workspaces they currently have in their organisation:

We have recently released a Podio Extension which will tell you exactly that (and many more facts about your Podio and/or Globiflow account)

Screenshot:



The QuivvyTools Architecture tool is currently in beta phase and thus free of charge, and is accessible at https://quivvytools.com/


Mike Demunter
QuivvyTools

Mike Demunter 11 votes
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Do the elements created by users of a free organization in spaces and applications of a paid organization relate to them?

Dmitry Ostapenko 0 votes
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6
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I will say the people at Podio aren't the brightest tools in the shed.  Instead of deleting someones data that you encouraged them to enter into your system, why don't you focus on making better, easier forms...  Better layout and color coordination..  Better tools...  Performance??  Give me a break. 

Mark Gilbo 6 votes
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16
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Hi,

this is not good happy christmas news... Why don´t you change pricing only for future customers or add some awesome features (like gantt chart) to increase premium plans? 2.000 items instead of 500 would be much more realistic because limitations of 500 items is not a free plan but only a trial version.

With my internet compay we already use the premium plan for 35 people, but with my non-profit-organization I use the free plan of podio for years now with 5 friends. Now we would have to pay around 500,- per year for this? I decided to use podio, because it´s free in its basic version and up to 5 people. Therefore I´ll have to find a solution to migrate from podio to a free plan tool? ...

Lars Segelke 16 votes
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All in all it's 60 days to consider and decide whether to move or to stay with Podio.

Anyway, great app.

Robert Zaorski 2 votes
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How does this affect guest users? That is users in my workplaces that I have granted specific access to a particular item (as that item is a work order ticket for that user or something similar.)

I've noticed that each of my guest users get a trial workplace, but they never use it. (In fact, one of the guest users is a spare email account for me, so I can see what they see.)

Tim Parris 0 votes
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