Learn why GetApp is free

Planning Pod

Planning Pod

4.4 (35)
Write a Review!
Venue and event management solution
See alternatives

About Planning Pod

Planning Pod is an event management solution that helps businesses track event bookings, leads, clients, billings, communications, and other event details by automating everyday tasks and giving organizational insights in real-time.

The venue and catering management platform are designed for meeting and event centers, hotels, reception and wedding halls, restaurants, caterers, golf clubs, wineries, breweries, museums and any other venue that rents out event space or provides catering services. It includes integrated tools for managing food-&-beverage items/packages, menus, BEOs (FOH, kitchen, client, delivery), calendars, event CRM, leads, proposals, contracts, eSignatures, invoices, payments, email communications, forms and floor plans/room designs.

The event management solution is for event planners and firms, wedding planners, corporate event managers, non-profits and businesses that are looking for a better way to manage events. It includes integrated tools for managing timelines, budgets, task lists, attendee lists, registrations and ticketing, RSVPs, forms/questionnaires, leads, proposals, e-contracts, invoicing, payments, communications and floor plan designs.

Key benefits of Planning Pod

  • It helps clients to do business with team members while staying in the loop with a centralized email inbox, integrations with existing email addresses and providers, phone call logs, email and text reminders, and a full-featured client portal that streamlines client interactions.

  • Business management tools enable teams to grow revenues with functionality for lead webforms, lead management and sales CRM, appointment setting, proposals and contracts with eSignatures, invoicing with online payment processing, shared calendars and up-to-date reports.

  • Event management tools simplify managing event floor plans and designs, timelines, tasks, files, notes, forms, questionnaires, budgets, attendees, registration orders and ticketing, RSVPs, at-the-door check-in and more.

  • Catering and booking management tools consolidate how managers track food and beverage items and packages, equipment items and packages, catering menus, orders and billing, and banquet event orders (BEOs).

    • Images

    Planning Pod Software - Planning Pod event dashboard
    Planning Pod Software - Planning Pod proposals
    Planning Pod Software - Planning Pod leads
    Planning Pod Software - Planning Pod food items
    Planning Pod Software - Planning Pod payment reminders
    Planning Pod Software - Planning Pod custom BEO layouts
    Planning Pod Software - Planning Pod communications
    Planning Pod Software - Planning Pod floor plan
    Planning Pod Software - Planning Pod event timelines
    Planning Pod Software - Planning Pod registrations and RSVPs
    View 12 more

    Not sure about Planning Pod? Compare with a popular alternative

    Planning Pod

    4.4 (35)
    VS.
    Highly reviewed
    HoneyBook HoneyBook logo

    HoneyBook

    4.7 (654)
    Learn More

    Starting Price

    US$74.00
    month
    US$36.00
    month

    Pricing Options

    Free version
    Free trial
    Free version
    Free trial

    Features

    104
    142

    Integrations

    11
    80

    Ease of Use

    4.3 (35)
    4.6 (654)

    Value for Money

    4.4 (35)
    4.6 (654)

    Customer Service

    4.4 (35)
    4.7 (654)
    Green rating bars show the winning product based on the average rating and number of reviews.

    Alternatives

    HoneyBook

    4.7
    #1 Alternative to Planning Pod
    HoneyBook is a client management tool designed for small business owners and freelancers to help manage and process...
    Learn More Compare

    Dubsado

    4.2
    #2 Alternative to Planning Pod
    Dubsado is a platform that lets businesses customize reusable form templates for several contracts, lead capture forms,...
    Learn More Compare

    17hats

    4.4
    #3 Alternative to Planning Pod
    17hats helps freelancers and small businesses manage projects, marketing, contracts, accounting, online payments, and...
    Learn More Compare

    Gather

    4.9
    #4 Alternative to Planning Pod
    Gather is a project management software that enables interior designers to remotely access digital resources and...
    Learn More Compare

    Reviews

    Overall rating

    4.4 /5
    (35)
    Value for Money
    4.4/5
    Features
    4.1/5
    Ease of Use
    4.3/5
    Customer Support
    4.4/5

    Already have Planning Pod?

    Software buyers need your help! Product reviews help the rest of us make great decisions.

    Write a Review!
    Showing 5 reviews of 35 Read all reviews
    Showing 5 reviews of 35
    Heather
    Heather
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Events Services
    • Used Daily for 2+ years
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support

    Best value for the most features

    Reviewed on 2018/02/27

    Pros

    Clean layout, easy to navigate. My staff likes it, but my clients will not use the features available to them because it is too confusing/complicated. Compared to other similar programs, I feel it has the most to offer for my staff's needs.

    Cons

    Flexibility of PDF reports, on-screen reports, and customization. Also the calendar sync does not work properly, which makes it useless for scheduling appointments.

    Response from Planning Pod

    Thanks for your feedback, Heather. We do offer quite a few tools for all the aspects of managing events, but you can always limit the tools your clients see so that it's not so overwhelming for them. Also, we have recently enhanced all our PDF reports and dashboards. And I checked the electronic calendar syncing feature in your account and it is working fine now, so please let us know if you still have an issue with it.

    Shannon
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Food & Beverages
    • Company size: 51–200 Employees
    • Used Daily for 6-12 months
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

    THE solution for your FOOD TRUCK catering!

    Reviewed on 2022/10/20

    Pros

    The software is incredibly moldable to any caterers needs. As we are a wood fired pizza caterer, we bring our food truck on site to cook, but serve buffet style. Along with this, we have bartenders, servers, and other vendors to connect with on most any event. Being able to customize BEO's to each vendors needs is incredible. Being able to have everyone in one place is incredible. Being able to have all communications between multiple parties/family members/vendors all be linked to the one event they regard is timesaving! Being able to automate our reservation & final check in process is how we were able to DOUBLE OUR VOLUME this year. HANDS DOWN THE BEST!

    Cons

    I have zero complaints. This product is fantastic. Even their customer support rocks!

    Alternatives Considered

    Flex Catering, Aisle Planner and Prismm

    Reasons for Switching to Planning Pod

    Much more customizable. Being a food truck and mobile, it is hard to find a good product that can either be adaptable or easy to use for food truck catering.
    Jennifer
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Entertainment
    • Company size: Self Employed
    • Used Daily for 1-5 months
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 1.0 /10

    The struggle is real!

    Reviewed on 2023/01/09

    Negative. The customer service reps seem to not know the platform very well, or will answer...

    Negative. The customer service reps seem to not know the platform very well, or will answer questions and tell you that you can or can not do something but forget to tell you what steps to take to do it, lastly the chat customer service reps will not provide any help to get you through the modules and tell you that you need to watch the videos and take the test or that you should email with any questions that you have.

    Pros

    I like the ability to be able to have a platform to work from for each individual event and connect templates and forms to individual events.

    Cons

    There are sooo many glitches that I couldn't actually get much work done because of the huge learning curve. There are pre-made templates that I was told would be able to be erased after I signed up and then after signing up for a paid membership was told that I would not be able to delete these pre-made templates. Under the invoices section, there is no clear way to delete an amount or invoice. Every time I send an email from the system it populates in my main planning pod "inbox" as a new email. I would love to be able to watch a module on this and the other issues that I'm dealing with but in order to learn anything through the academy videos you must watch the videos in the order they have set up and answer test with a score of 100% before you can move to the next module. This means if you don't need one of the features of the system and don't need to learn about it, you will still have to watch the video and take a test in order to get to the information that you do need to learn about.

    Response from Planning Pod

    We're sorry to hear your experience did not meet your expectations. Below we address your concerns:

    -We have not experienced any system issues/glitches
    -The email templates allow you to customize automated communications; they are required for notifications to work
    -The CRM tool will not replace your external email inbox.
    -Planning Pod Academy lays the groundwork for successful use of our platform; you were enrolled at your request, and the answers needed to pass knowledge checks are in the videos/text of each module and our Help Center. Chatting and insisting that our agents answer each question in the Academy course so you can bypass the learning modules defeats the very purpose of the learning process.
    -All of your support inquiries were answered promptly/accurately, including links to resources.
    -Our staff is knowledgeable about all functionality; you can always expect to competently assisted by an expert.

    We recognize we are not a fit for everyone and wish you the best!

    Andrea
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Events Services
    • Company size: 2–10 Employees
    • Used Daily for 1+ year
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

    The Lifeline of Our Business

    Reviewed on 2022/07/26

    We are so glad we stumbled upon this software when we did. I have used Dubsado, Honeybook,...

    We are so glad we stumbled upon this software when we did. I have used Dubsado, Honeybook, TripleSeat and done demos with a few others and none compare to Planning Pod. It had everything our organization was looking for- integrated invoices, proposals, calendar (syncs with Google), lead forms (integrates to our website), questionnaires and floor plans. We eliminated 3 other softwares we were using and streamlined it all into one. Our team uses it everyday and it is the lifeline of our business. The aesthetically pleasing BEO's, floor plans and timelines are printed and hung up on our bulletin board for every event! We are so glad this product exists!

    Pros

    It is very user friendly and the onboarding was quick and easy. The support team at Planning Pod is quick to respond and friendly. We loved the communications feature that wasn't available on other platforms as well as the ability to use with multiple team members. The invoice feature is great as well as proposals. The floor plan feature is a game changer!

    Cons

    I wish I would've found it sooner and didn't have to switch from my other software.

    Alternatives Considered

    Dubsado, 17hats, Tripleseat and Caterease

    Reasons for Choosing Planning Pod

    Our original booking software Gather was bought out by Tripleseat. It did not have the functionality we were looking for. Lacking the communications aspect which is critical in our business. We also tried Honeybook for several months along with Aisle Planner for timelines and All Seated for floor plans.

    Switched From

    HoneyBook, Aisle Planner, Gather and Tripleseat

    Reasons for Switching to Planning Pod

    None have the functionality of an all-in-one booking software. It is meant specifically for venues with multiple users. We considered others like Honeybook, Dubsado and 17 Hats but none were robust enough for our team.
    Josh
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Events Services
    • Company size: 2–10 Employees
    • Used Daily for 1+ year
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

    Planning Pod Review

    Reviewed on 2024/07/07

    Pros

    I like the proposal and invoice features the best.

    Cons

    Planning pod doesn’t have a great floor building element.

    Showing 5 reviews of 35 Read all reviews

    Planning Pod FAQs

    Below are some frequently asked questions for Planning Pod.

    Planning Pod offers the following pricing plans:

    • Starting from: US$74.00/month
    • Pricing model: Subscription
    • Free Trial: Not Available

    Pricing depends on the type of product (event management vs. venue management).

    Planning Pod has the following typical customers:

    Self Employed, 2–10, 11–50, 51–200, 201–500, 501–1,000, 1,001–5,000

    Planning Pod supports the following languages:

    English

    Planning Pod supports the following devices:

    Planning Pod integrates with the following applications:

    Constant Contact, Dropbox Business, Gmail, Google Docs, Mailchimp, QuickBooks Online Advanced, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Slack, VerticalResponse, Xero, Zapier

    Planning Pod offers the following support options:

    Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support, Chat

    Related categories

    See all software categories found for Planning Pod.

    Folder icon Venue Management Software
    Folder icon Event Booking Software
    Folder icon Catering Software
    Folder icon Event Management Software