Basecamp vs. Podio

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Basecamp
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool. Basecamp offers features standard to project management platforms, as well as mobile accessibility, unlimited users, and 3rd party integrations. Basecamp is priced by space requirements and concurrent projects.
$15
per month per user
Podio
Score 7.1 out of 10
N/A
Podio is a cloud-based platform for organizing team communication, business processes, and reporting in project management workspaces; also it may be used as a light CRM platform. It enables workflow automation and integrations. It includes a free version and paid packages with additional features.
$9
per month
Pricing
BasecampPodio
Editions & Modules
Basecamp Business
$99
Per Month [Unlimited Users]
Basecamp Personal
Free
Limited Capabilities
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BasecampPodio
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA discount is available for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BasecampPodio
Considered Both Products
Basecamp
Chose Basecamp
Firstly, in my view the main difference among these project management softwares is designing. Basecamp has excellent design, it is very cost effective, trustworthy and the quickest way to work with your projects and events. If you are a beginner, almost 4-5 minutes is enough …
Podio
Chose Podio
Basecamp definitely is simpler but it's also far more restrictive. I felt like Basecamp wanted to force me to work a certain way and it also isn't as robust as Podio in that you can't build custom apps for it. Custom apps have been a life saver for me as I can structure them …
Chose Podio
Basecamp is as the product ironically states, much more basic. While Basecamp allows for form generation and tracking of projects and forms through workflows, Basecamp leaves a lot to be desired in the way of customization, historical tracking and workflows.
Chose Podio
Podio's easy app customization is the strongest asset of this software. It is user friendly; thus reducing training time for all employees.
Chose Podio
We felt that Podio was more customizable than Wrike and met more of our needs as a company since it was able to go even deeper into managing projects by automating workflows with the webforms.
Chose Podio
Unlike Trello, Podio allowed us to establish a structure for the data, to be used by all team members, and establishing a clear workflow. (Podio can mimic the Trello “card” look, and integrates with it).
Basecamp seemed too rigid, or complex to modify. It's a solid tool, but not …
Chose Podio
Asana, Basecamp and Trello are great for simple task management. Podio has more features than each of the other software and is a more comprehensive solution.
Chose Podio
We looked at Basecamp, Cage, Trello, LayerVault, TeamBox, TeamworkPM, Strikebase, and 10000ft, all of which are great at something, but Podio was the most flexible for our needs.
Chose Podio
Compared to Salesforce: Podio is not as robust as a tool for CRM tracking. It also doesn't have the in-email capabilities that SF offers.
Compared to Basecamp: Podio is somewhat similar to Basecamp but doesn't offer the same functionality with checking items off and archiving …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BasecampPodio
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
4.2
118 Ratings
57% below category average
Podio
5.2
26 Ratings
36% below category average
Task Management5.3117 Ratings3.124 Ratings
Resource Management4.198 Ratings8.620 Ratings
Gantt Charts3.040 Ratings8.48 Ratings
Scheduling4.193 Ratings1.121 Ratings
Workflow Automation3.168 Ratings1.225 Ratings
Team Collaboration4.7117 Ratings3.126 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology4.049 Ratings2.115 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology3.545 Ratings9.411 Ratings
Document Management4.2109 Ratings1.122 Ratings
Email integration4.396 Ratings8.821 Ratings
Mobile Access4.595 Ratings8.821 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking3.444 Ratings8.213 Ratings
Change request and Case Management3.655 Ratings8.418 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management7.139 Ratings1.116 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Basecamp
7.8
40 Ratings
5% above category average
Podio
6.7
13 Ratings
10% below category average
Quotes/estimates8.329 Ratings1.29 Ratings
Invoicing6.925 Ratings8.89 Ratings
Project & financial reporting8.034 Ratings8.09 Ratings
Integration with accounting software7.927 Ratings8.86 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BasecampPodio
Small Businesses
FunctionFox
FunctionFox
Score 8.3 out of 10
FunctionFox
FunctionFox
Score 8.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BasecampPodio
Likelihood to Recommend
6.5
(144 ratings)
3.1
(42 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(26 ratings)
9.1
(17 ratings)
Usability
7.8
(15 ratings)
6.0
(2 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(5 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(4 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(28 ratings)
7.2
(6 ratings)
Online Training
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.7
(4 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
BasecampPodio
Likelihood to Recommend
37 Signals
Basecamp is a wonderful tool for teams of varying degrees of technical knowledge, teams managing lots of different types of "agifall" and waterfall projects, and teams that are remotely distributed. It's probably less useful for more strictly agile-focused development teams, compared to other more flexible software applications like Jira and Asana.
Read full review
ShareFile
[Citrix Podios's] customer support is very quick and they provide you an option to convert your
project into small tasks so that you can better assist your team and extract
maximum work out of them hence I will totally recommend its usage. I could not think that keeping track of tasks could be this much easier and smart. It is a fully customizable tool that manages my tasks efficiently and deal with them effectively.
Read full review
Pros
37 Signals
  • Task management - It is very easy to add, organize and discuss tasks within Basecamp's interface.
  • The "Campfire" function is great for communicating when you just have a quick question for someone on the team.
  • Notifications - Basecamp lets you decide how often and about what you'd like to be notified. The ability to respond to messages in Basecamp directly via email saves a lot of time.
Read full review
ShareFile
  • Very easy for people without coding or technical skills to set up and maintain information in "Apps".
  • Platform is very easy to learn and adopt--it's intuitive.
  • Project management potential is awesome--instead of having to fit your projects into a structure that is industry specific, you can build an app that tracks what you want, in the order you want it.
  • Has a "relationship" field that allows you to relate an individual item or record to a record in another app. It effectively gives some of the functionality of a relational database.
  • Very useful for information sharing when staff members are in different regions or places.
Read full review
Cons
37 Signals
  • High Learning Curve. It's true that it can be easy to use, but to use well and effectively takes some time to learn. It's recommended to have an agreed-upon system in your team of what tools to use and when.
  • Notification Overload. If people aren't careful they could send a notification to everyone when only a couple people were meant to be prompted. And since emails are sent by default, you could have your mailbox overloaded with unnecessary updates. This is where it takes a bit of training in your team to have an agreed-upon system.
  • Lack of organization with Archived Projects. I will often need to reference an archived project to make a new one, but there is only a list of archived projects in alphabetical order, with no way to organize by archive date, or even search.
Read full review
ShareFile
  • More filter options for calendars.
  • Customizable views for Relation fields.
  • Full featured Podio mobile App for iPad.
  • A customizable profile status – would love to work with Podio in silent mode (logged in while working, but "not available" for requests when in heavy work mode)
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
37 Signals
When I bring new people onto a project, it's immediately obvious how to use Basecamp. I don't have to worry about teaching them the features or walking them through it, it's just incredibly user-friendly. For this reason, I'll continue to renew my subscription even as new people are brought onto production jobs or the client changes.
Read full review
ShareFile
Podio customer service is great. The cloud and mobile service is fast (almost instant, continuous syncing). With a solid user base, and backed by Citrix, this is a serious business solution. They're also constantly working on improving and making it more powerful. I anticipate it only getting better
Read full review
Usability
37 Signals
Basecamp is a little tricky to learn. I've used it for quite a while but I feel like there's still so much I don't know. It took me a while to learn but having used it in college definitely helped me integrate it into my work career.
Read full review
ShareFile
It is usable, for sure. Requires a bit of thinking to be really useful.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
37 Signals
I've never experienced downtime while using Basecamp, or been unable to access it when I needed it. That's not to say they've never had downtime, but I've been lucky enough not to encounter any, and I work odd hours, including late nights when maintenance is often undertaken.
Read full review
ShareFile
I have not experienced any down time
Read full review
Performance
37 Signals
No answers on this topic
ShareFile
It works all the time and if I have a question, support get back to me ASAP
Read full review
Support Rating
37 Signals
For the many reasons I've given, Basecamp is a very strong program. There are a few features I can imagine that might make it even better, but I don't have a basis for comparison to be able to say that there is definitely a better one out there. I've noticed that Basecamp has evolved a bit from the time I started using it until now, so that makes me think that the producer of this program values it and believes in continuous improvement. If you could use the features offered by Basecamp, I would think you could use it with confidence.
Read full review
ShareFile
Podio support was always responsive and very quick to provide answers and assistance during the history of using this product, their support team has always been top notch. There have been several cases where calling podio support a feature was not available and they provided either workaround solutions or added the features straight into their roadmap.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
37 Signals
Decide the process before implementation - i.e. when it's due 8/9 does that mean 8am, noon, 5pm, 11:59pm? Check your to-do list frequently Set-up templates - just not with the dates (they can be funky)
Read full review
ShareFile
Could of got more help sooner and mapped out structure after the 1st month. Future planning
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
37 Signals
Pretty good, but [Basecamp] has its drawbacks. Honestly I find the interface non-intuitive and sometimes have trouble figuring out how to change the status of a task. Perhaps it has something to do with the way it was originally set up by the admin, but I'm not sure. I liked Jira's drag and drop obvious functionality, but the project management side of the software was lacking. Smartsheet has excellent project management functionality, but the task management isn't as good.
Read full review
ShareFile
Compared to Salesforce: Podio is not as robust as a tool for CRM tracking. It also doesn't have the in-email capabilities that SF offers. Compared to Basecamp: Podio is somewhat similar to Basecamp but doesn't offer the same functionality with checking items off and archiving projects. Compared to Zoho Projects: Podio is vastly superior to Zoho Project's lack of flexibility (requiring a development team to build) and accessibility by all members (Zoho Projects requires a very limited number of "owners" of projects which makes it difficult if multiple owners need to assign one or more people to a project).
Read full review
Scalability
37 Signals
No answers on this topic
ShareFile
As you business grows, so does Podio. There seems to be no limit to the workspace and apps you can create on the platform
Read full review
Return on Investment
37 Signals
  • It has saved me time when having to get the same message out to multiple restaurants
  • It has helped us make smarter operational decisions because we can all collaborate on an answer in a shorter amount of time (instead of calling a meeting!!!)
  • The calendar function allows us to plot out our marketing agenda for the month and add/change it together as needed. The chef will post his recipe, the managers will cost it out, the social media manager will post pictures on it, and ultimately we will get that information out on an info sheet to the staff by printing the page.
Read full review
ShareFile
  • Podio is great for task assignment and tracking. The ability to enter and assign tasks from mobile and track their completion saves me several phone calls a day.
  • Podio outdoes email as my go to place to search for information. The ability to forward emails into the system, organize by projects and contacts, and search it all saves considerable time and confusion.
  • Podio has considerable potential to reduce overall admin time spent organizing information (filing, tracking, etc) The ability to keep a single record of a given piece of information without being tied to email vs file structure works very well.
Read full review
ScreenShots