Crowdbase (discontinued) vs. Flowdock

I wouldn't suggest Crowdbasefor smaller companies, even for bigger companies a more integrated solution would be desirable. It may suit companies that want their collaboration separate from project management and CRM, but at least for our organisation it seems to make more sense to have most of our work tools in one place

Flowdock is well suited for small teams and to environments that doesn't need too much reliability. I think it has some management problems that can make your life difficult if you have to manage a big amount of users. If you want just a tool communication with basic features (without using any integration or robust features) it can be suitable for you. You should try Flowdock using its free version for a small team and compare with others similar products. Flowdock delivers team chat and collaboration features, but is not necessarily the best product. Maybe some usability problems that disturb me won't be so relevant to you.

• Collaboration
• Interaction with staff
• Great way to engage staff and support each other

• Mobile app experience
• Software integrations
• Notifications

• It is very limited
• Although it has an API it doesn't link to the services we use.
• It isn't customisable like podio.

• One thing a little bit annoying is that a lot of links to others Flowdock sections (preferences, external services, etc) will open a new window/tab. Each click may take you to a new window and you can get lost easily.
• There isn't a quick access list to members of your organization to start a private chat. I took a while to find how to do that. The interface and usability could be better.
• There isn't an app for Windows Phone.
• Sometimes you try to load some conversation and it doesn't show anything. It is not frequently but happens sometimes.

I go with the flow because I'm a newer employee and Flowdock works as advertised. If it were my decision to choose a team communciator for the organization, I'd recommend we go with Slack for its robust features and ever-changing/evolving software integrations. Slack is the outright innovator in the space and will continue to hold that role for some time.

Crowdbase's strength may lie in its ability to do just one main thing well, but for us this was a massive limitation. I know that it is not trying to be Podio and it is therefore unfair to compare the two but there are features that overlap. for us Podio was better suited.

Slack is a similar software.

Private chat or channels are well implemented in both softwares and both are also very easy to setup.

Besides of some usability problemas I think Flowdock is still better than Slack in this user experience and design.

The second point is the price. Flowdock is half price of Slack ($3/month). If you are a student or a non-profit organization, you are able to get some special license.

• Encourages communication
• Easy to use
• Before crowdbase we never though of collaborating this way

• Our company uses it by default.
• I enjoy the ability to communicate outside of text messages...keeps the conversation on in it's own bucket.